It wasn’t supposed to end this way

Or was it?

I’ve been down this road before, and I didn’t like it. I was spoiled as a child, which spilled over into my impressionable teenage years. A big stain on my high school years came from my beloved Miami Hurricanes drudging through losing seasons under ramifications of NCCA sanctions. It sucked.

All of those Notre Dame fans, Penn State fans … and of course Florida State fans … I went to school with got their revenge. They reminded me every Monday during the fall. I didn’t get my own rebuttal until college.

Yes, I’m still sore at Butch Davis for chasing the big NFL contract. Oddly enough, I didn’t blame Davis. I know Miami doesn’t pay coaches and isn’t a destination job. I can accept that.

Why?

Well since I could remember, Miami made coaches and not the other way around. I loved that. It was an odd sense of pride. The program was bigger than the coach.

It was in direct opposition to my childhood rivals, those who always rubbed Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno in my face. So what … my team won championships while theirs celebrated landmark coaching victories over Wake Forrest and Purdue. I was more focused on titles and had no reason to sweat now that Miami was done with sanctions.

Thank you Davis for setting the table and navigating Miami through scholarship reductions and negative recruiting. Now any moron can guide this freight train to another dynasty run. Sure enough, Larry Coker proved my hunch right and fed my arrogance. I earned it, right? I was patient for the six years it took. I didn’t jump ship. I stayed loyal. I dealt the finger pointing, the gag gifts and repetitive “criminal” jokes.

“You live in Pennsylvania. Why don’t you support your home team and root for a program that does it the right way?” Yea, the right way I always smirked. I guess I was 10 to 15 years ahead of the storm. It didn’t matter. I was hooked as a child. I was enamored. I became branded. In an immature way, I was proud.

Then something happened

The 2005 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which pitted No 9 Miami against No. 10 LSU. In hindsight, it was the last time Miami was truly a Top 10 team. Since then, the Hurricanes have crept into the Top 10, twice if my memory serves me, but has never been the same since that 40-3 whitewashing by LSU.

A year later Miami ditched Coker, a championship winning coach who actually viewed Miami as a destination and not an internship, for Randy Shannon. The move clearly signaled the university’s weak attempt to tap into its glory days by hiring a “Miami” guy.

It failed.

Eight years later, another new coach and yet the same result with Louisville recently out-swaggering Miami 36-9 in last month’s Russell Athletic Bowl. Commentators played on the theme that Louisville was embarrassing Miami with not only its own style … swagger … but its own players, a collection of recruits from South Florida.

Some of that is true. Talent is important. Attitude is also key. However, the commentators nor the media zeroed in on the real reason … coaching. Louisville’s offense was more dynamic. It had more energy. It was more efficient. Louisville’s defense was more aggressive. It was more disciplined. It was more efficient.

Lousiville, much like Florida State, Virginia Tech and Duke this season were simply more efficient than Miami. Yes, there was a time when the Hurricanes could simply run out of the tunnel against Boston College, Pitt and Syracuse and simply win by lining up and then get hyped up, increase the swagger, for Florida State, Florida and Notre Dame.

Yes, those days are gone. However, I don’t believe it’s due to recruiting being more on a level playing field, all teams on TV, etc. I’d say coaching has gotten better, much better … including at the high school level.

Vanderbilt is playing a game in 2013 that it wasn’t playing in 1997, not even close. Yet, the type of players on its roster are basically the same type of recruits. Same with Duke … Boise State … Utah. Sure a few four-star recruits may end up on those non-traditional power teams, but not enough to simply man-up against Oklahoma, Alabama or Ohio State. It’s just not going to happen, nor ever happen. However, those players are more skilled than they were 10 years ago.

How does this relate to Miami?

It’s time to turn off ESPN, put down Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, log off rivals.com and ignore Lou Holtz. Stop listening to the commentating, the overblown analysis and non-creditable projections. It’s time to focus on the field and start developing players, a lost art in Coral Gables.

It can be done without Top 10 recruiting classes. Look no further than your own conference, where Virginia Tech has forged quite an ACC legacy with decent, not great, recruiting classes.

And the quick turnaround can happen. Missouri, not only joins the toughest conference and goes 2-6 in its first year, it plays for the conference championship and goes 7-1 a year later. Then there’s Auburn, going from a 0-8 conference record last year to 7-1 and playing for a National Championship this season. The common thread? Coaching.

Is the right coaching in place at Miami for this happen? I hope so. This current darkness of Miami football has been tougher to take. The last stretch lasted six years. This one is going on a decade.

Maybe this season, which started out with such promise and inspiration, was supposed to end this way? One way or another, with a renewed focus or a new coaching staff, this program needed a kick in the nuts.

— Jaime North