IT'S A 'U' THING

Three decades covering the #MiamiHurricanes—@BleacherReport, #CanesTime, #allCanesBlog. Rise up #UFAMILY —Mario Cristobal is back in the 305! 🙌🏼 🇺🇸🙌🏼

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Yeah, although it's not Miami's fault that Clemson and Florida State are a little down right now as both are national championship caliber programs—the two have combined for three titles the past dozen years.

Miami also plays at Notre Dame; played the Irish last year, as well as Florida—another traditional power who happened to be a little down.

Texas has some tough sledding but Miami always beefs up the out-of-conference; was supposed to play at South Carolina this year, too—game mutually canceled because of the SEC and ACC both moving to nine-game schedules.

And let's not act like Miami didn't just run a gauntlet to end last season, on the road with No. 7 Texas A&M, the Cotton Bowl against No. 2 Ohio State, the Fiesta Bowl with No. 6 Ole Miss and the national title game against No. 1 Indiana.

The regular season is simply just an appetizer for a main course College Football Playoff run these days.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Such is the case for most of the country; same way all play that "Miami lost Bain and Mesidor to their line is in trouble in 2026!"

Is it?

Moten returns, pulled in Wilson from Missou and Miami has three junior defensive linemen who are 5-Stars in the system the past two year, learning under Bain and Mesidor and getting coached up by Jason Taylor and Damione Lewis—Lightfoot, J. Scott and Blount about to blow up on the scene this year—has should true sophomore 5-Star freak of nature Lowe.

Miami is back in reload-mode with too many people are sleeping on.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

I mean that's an indictment on you and your ball knowledge if you're not well-versed on the team who finished No. 2 in the country last year—you had a lot of time to watch Miami in the postseason last winter while Texas was home sitting on their asses after playing a watered down Michigan in the lowly Cirtus Bowl.

And yeah, when Miami fielded Malachi Toney as a true freshman last year and when Bryce Fitzgerald picked off Texas A&M twice in a play-in CFP game as a true freshman—and both are already All-ACC as true sophomores this year—we're gonna hype them.

Not talking about "potential" with highly-touted recruits—talking about kids that hit the ground running and became year-one superstars ... night and day from Texas with high-ranked kids yet to prove anything.

Somourian Wingo and other freshmen like Jackson Cantwell went through bowl practices with Miami all December and January; Cantwell the No. 1 overall offensive lineman for 2025 and set to start at right guard, while expectations are for Wingo to have a Toney-like breakout this fall ... so yeah, Miami will hype right-fit true freshman that you've "never heard of".

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

C-R-I-S-T-O-B-A-L

Wild how anyone can write out "Christobal" and that doesn't hurt your eyes and brain ... and yes, deeper wide receivers room in the country—don't sleep on Josh Moore and Daylyn Upshaw who are returning for their sophomore seasons; two traditionally-recruited ballers.

Somourian Wingo, Milan Parris and Vance Stafford are also going to ball-out.

This room is deeeeeeepp ... and Elijah Lofton has some help at tight end this year with Gavin Mueller, Luka Gilbert and Izzy Briggs are traditional tight ends to the Swiss Army Knife that is Lofton.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Miami returns Mark Fletcher, Marty Brown, Jordan Lyle and Gerald Pringle at running back, as well as bringing in 4-Star freshman phenom Javion Mallory.

Notre Dame lost Jereymiah Love & Jadarian Price.

There is no metric where any logical football fan can argue the Irish's running back room over the Canes.

Stop it.

Fletcher's run in the College Football Playoffs against No 7 Texas A&M, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 1 Indiana was another level; 507 yards on 75 carries, three touchdown and a 6.8 yards-per-carry average against three top seven teams in the postseason.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Miami has Darian Mensah at quarterback.

Mark Fletcher, Marty Brown, Jordan Lyle, Gerald Pringle and Javion Mallory at running back.

Malachi Toney, Cooper Barkate, Josh Moore, Cam Vaughn, Van Jacobs, Daylyn Upshaw, Samourian Wingo, Milan Parris and Vance Spafford at wide receiver.

Elijah Lofton, Gavin Mueller, Luka Gilbert and Izzy Briggs at tight end.

Mensah has shown more than Manning on the field the past two years.

Fletcher's CFP performance was other-worldly while Brown and Pringle were fantastic last year; Lyle hit a sophomore slump after game one injury—looks 'back' from all the spring film.

Toney is 1a or 1b as the best receiver in the game depending on the versatility debate with J-Smith—and Barkate is a WR1 at a slew of schools in the country—not to mention Moore / Upshaw back to build on freshman years, Wingo / Spafford as year one freshmen expected to make a dent and Vaughn / Jacobs as huge transfer pulls.

Lofton your starting Swiss Army Knie hybrid tight end, with some monster traditional guys in that group as well.

Texas is always big talk on paper; Miami has a slew of guys who did it for the Canes last year, as well as transfers who shone big elsewhere.

There is no deeper running backs or wide receivers room in the country than Miami this fall.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Miami.

Need to reload the o-line a smidge, but no reason to not trust Cristobal and The Wall Of Mirabal over there; McCoy, Meriweather, Rodriguez, Okumola and Cantwell have time early to gel—real season picks up in October with Clemson and Florida State and then Notre Dame in November—there's time to find their way.

Darian Mensah at quarterback.

Mark Fletcher, Marty Brown, Jordan Lyle, Gerald Pringle and Javion Mallory at running back.

Malachi Toney, Cooper Barkate, Josh Moore, Cam Vaughn, Van Jacobs, Daylyn Upshaw, Samourian Wingo, Milan Parris, Vance Spafford, etc. at wide receiver.

Elijah Lofton, Gavin Mueller, Luka Gilbert and Izzy Briggs at tight end.

Seriously, on paper who has a better offensive roster?

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

HardRock is as much of an advantage as any of these stadiums when Miami is playing a Notre Dame, a Florida State, a Florida, or a big time conference game with a lot on the line—65,000+ cranked up or a night game like psycho pro sports fans, not rah-rah college nerds.

Go ask the Irish about 2017 and 2025; Ian Book (Notre Dame quarterback) said last year that HardRock (in 2017) was the loudest stadium he's been in—in college and the pros.

The Canes' venue gets devalued because it's a shared pro stadium with the Dolphins and because there were clips for years showing a lot of blue seats against the likes of a Florida A&M the media piles on.

HardRock has been cranked up the past few seasons since @Coach_Cristobal brought this program back from the dead; "The Asylum" in full force every home game weekend.

Literally 200 less fans last year or South Florida as Miami had for Notre Dame—and about 80 less to watch a 1-3 Gators team than the 66,793 there for the Irish.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

This game was rock bottom for me; worse that 58-0 to Clemson in 2015 or 48-0 in the Orange Bowl finale against Virginia in 2007—this was even worse than 47-0 at Florida State in 1997 when down 31 scholarships in year three under Butch Davis.

The culture was never more broken than this 2021 game against Alabama.

Manny Diaz rolling out his fifth version of that played-out chain, and year three of his stupid-ass rings—to see a great player like Kam Kinchens taking out the chain when down 27-0 (and having to give it back when the fumble was overturned—or future freshman star Xavier Restrepo busting out those moronic rings late third quarter when down 41-3 and finally finding the end zone.

Mother of God; never been more embarrassed—as it was now the fourth year in a row the chain and rings were played-the-fuck out.

Cool prop for the 10-3 start in 2017; went 0-3 down the stretch and Pittsburgh, Clemson and Wisconsin all mocked Miami and the chain in post-game celebrations.

That should've been in ... but no; back in 2018 for a 7-6 campaign that sent Mark Richt to early retirement.

Great time to retire the prop with Diaz taking over. Instead, he has A.J. Machado making dumb-ass rings to celebrate doing what the offense is supposed to do; scoring touchdowns.

This game is the epitome of why Mario Cristobal hated the chain and rings and runs the complete opposite style of program these days.

Next game after Alabama shellacked Miami; the Canes barely hung on to be Appalachian State at home—and then a week after that, glitched out against Michigan State—outscored 21-3 in the four-fingers fourth quarter and curb-stomped, 38-17.

The week after that? Kirk Herbstreit went scorched-earth on ESPN College GameDay that Miami's top brass didn't give two shits about football (hours before the Canes stomped Central Connecticut, 69-0 and had photo shoots on the sideline with those idiotic props after ever score.)

Lost to Virginia days later when a field goal doinked off the post on a Thursday night and the Tyler Van Yips did his thing in a road loss at North Carolina to drop to 2-4.

7-5 after that embarrassing loss to a 3-6 Florida State team late ... exit Diaz, enter Cristobal by early December and the rest has been history.

But yeah, fuck them rings and chains. Footage of this Alabama game is as cringeworthy as watching an old highlight reel of your more-embarrassing moments in high school on a loop.

https://t.co/9Y8fwtlLJ4

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

@CollegeFBonX Nothing weirder than these kiddie-fiddlers out in College Station.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

@On3 I mean I'm not saying Miami is necessarily "the best" but the Canes absolutely belong in this top four over scrubs like Mississippi State and Kentucky for the sake of the conversation.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Ahh, come on Alan—you interviewed the Perez tribe back in 2017 and you know what was under the hood there with the missus.

Trying to prop her up now as some philanthropic, credible witness-type is wild.

(I mean this was literally in your old article; and we all know it was "blow job" and not "hand job"—that was some editorial discretion to get the story in SI as the x-rated version wouldn't fly.)

https://t.co/Urp2TY6Aek

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Again, I rattled off every college and professional sporting option we have in America—why are you nitpicking the NBA when I literally also mentioned the PGA Tour and WWE in the argument I was making.

Soccer will never be popular here and it goes beyond "flopping"—if we want something soccer-esque we'll watch hockey, which is basically soccer on skates—where bad-asses fight each other, speed of game is better, more shots on goal, more enjoyable to follow, etc.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

@OleTimeHardball

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

Yeah, not saying I'm some massive NBA fan, but that's a weird thing to nitpick for the sake of the argument I was making against soccer; pointing out all pro sports to case-build as to all that we have in America as sports fans.

All that to say the NBA, while peak-era in the '90s', is way up from where it was two decades ago (post-MJ) thanks to social media and streaming.

25-million watched the 1996 NBA Finals. 13-million in 2006 ... and then 20-million in 2016 and 2026, as well.

In 2016, the NBA had 60.7 million social media followers—by 2026, that number climbed to over 225-million followers, with the 2026 Finals generating a record 15-bilion views on social media platforms.

Again, not a huge fan of the NBA anymore, but it's demised gets blown out of proportion.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

@billboyd1967 @TJ_Pittinger ... or he knows what's coming and he's trying to get in front of it.

If there's enough backlash he was let go for football, that groundswell could put pressure on Florida State to bring him back—or at minimum, keep him for basketball.

Seems like a logical, calculated risk.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

No, we don't care about soccer because we have the NFL, NCAA Football, NBA, NCAA Basketball, MLB, NCAA Baseball, NHL, PGA Tour, UFC ... and WWE.

Not to mention being the entertainment producers of the planet regarding movies, television and music.

All these other countries have is soccer, so it's the "world's sport" while America has all that and more. We don't need soccer. We have a zillion other sports and pastimes here.

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

I feel your pain. Reminds me of Miami in 2015; suffered through four useless years of Randy Shannon, only to land that Denny's manager-looking Al Golden—year five with the guy, the defense was putrid and fans just wanted out of our misery.

We got it that October when Clemson came down and laid a 58-0 beating on Miami; Fat Albert gone the next day.

Miami's administration didn't care about football back then—namely president Donna Shalala, who only cared about her medical department.

It took six more years before anybody decided enough was enough; the 2021 bottom-out and three trash years with Manny Diaz, before money was allocated to bring Mario Cristobal home (giving him money, resources and everything he needed to leave that blank check and Phil Knight money back in Eugene.)

Helmet nostalgia aside, Florida State's top-brass as proven they don't care about football—or equally as bad, they care but don't have the funds to solve the problem.

Mike Alford should be fired for getting duped by Jimmy Sexton and extending Mike Norvell's contract after that fluke 2023 season (where it all came together via the portal and JT over-exceeding expectations.)

To be in such dire financial straits where they can't afford to fire Norvell—nor can they fund this 2026 season as everyone knows it's lame-duck (hence why Tim Harris was promoted to offensive coordinator after Gus Malzahn was out; no real coach was coming in to take a one-year gig.)

It's a drag for Florida State fans ... yet ones Miami fans have no empathy for, as the Canes have been there—and Noles fans took a lot of joy in seeing 'The U' down—especially 2013 and 2023, the last two good FSU teams were riding high.

Good luck, but it feels like it's gonna be a minute...

[IT'S A 'U' THING @ItsAUThingBlog]

10-2 floor, 12-0 regular season ceiling and 11-1 if a Notre Dame or a Clemson has a game.

ACC Championship over SMU or Louisville; fitting after last year.

CFP first round bye; from there it's all about match-ups and who is on the other side; an Ohio State, an Oregon, a Texas, a Georgia, an Indiana, a rematch with the Irish.

There are a half dozen teams who can win it all depending on the way the ball bounces and how the match-up plays out.

That said, I think Miami is overall better in 2026 than they were roster-wise in 2025—I think outsiders sleep on what happens when you recruit 5-Stars like Marquise Lightfoot, Justin Scott and Armondo Blount; guys who are juniors this year after playing behind or alongside Reuben Bain and Ahkeem Mesidor (and getting coached-up by Jason Taylor and Damione Lewis)—not to mention the emergence of 5-Star Hayden Lowe over there.

The college football world hasn't seen Miami reload two decades; been an era since Miami could lose an Ed Reed, Philip Buchanon, Mike Rumph and James Lewis in the secondary, only to replace them with Sean Taylor, Antrel Rolle, Maurice Sikes and Kelly Jennings in 2002.

Miami has done more than portal work; recruiting has been fantastic the past few years and there are guys who are more than ready to step in big time.

The world knew Bain by is junior year in 2025 as he started playing as a freshman; Miami hasn't let Scott, Blount, Lightfoot of Lowe off the leash yet—and those guys are gonna be f**king dogs for the Canes this year.

Running back room now five-deep; receivers room with about seven guys who can go—a few bonafide stars and other guys (Vaughn, Wingo, Jacobs) who have more upside than last year's crew that was behind Toney (Marion, Daniels, Johnson).

... and Darian Mensah will be more Cam Ward-like than Carson Beck—not the same type of magician, but a next-level guy—this offense is going to put up points and this defense will take a step forward year two under that viking maniac Heatherman.