Kirk Herbstreit offered a fairly thorough takedown of Miami’s football program, and particularly the school’s handling of it, on Saturday’s edition of “College GameDay.”
Herbstreit discussed the state of the Miami program and the Hurricanes’ inability to win consistently despite lofty expectations. The ESPN analyst blamed a lack of cohesion and vision between the school’s administration and athletic department, and questioned whether the administration even cares about the football program.
“You have an athletic department that clearly is not really showing that this is something that they are willing to try to make changes. ... You look at the powerhouse programs — Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State — president, AD, head coach. Same vision,” Herbstreit said. “They’re aligned in their vision for what needs to happen. Recruiting, budget, staff, whatever it needs, that’s what it takes. Miami doesn’t have that.
“I don’t think it matters who the head coach is. Until you get a president, an AD and a coach together on the same page, I guess football doesn’t matter. It matters to the alums, to the brotherhood at the U, but I don’t know if it matters to the people making decisions at Miami.”
Most Miami fans will be fine with Herbstreit’s comments, as they’re even more frustrated than he is. The Hurricanes are still a big program, and they recruit well. On paper, they should be annual ACC contenders, but it never seems to work out that way. They’re 15-12 in two-plus seasons under Manny Diaz, and some of the reports about the team have not been flattering. Herbstreit may well have a point about the rot starting from the top.
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