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Miami Hurricanes fans Showed Up Big in Atlanta, Even if the Team Did Not

UM fans are still seething on Sunday Night following a bad loss to Georgia Tech.

By Jerry Steinberg
Scott Cunningham

It's Sunday evening, and unlike most times where a day of NFL Football and reflection typically calm down Miami's fiery fan base the day after a loss, the anger is still burning bright all over South Florida and of course on the Social Media Circuit......

But before I get to that, I want to take a second to give credit where credit is due.

The Miami fan base has long been ridiculed for the lack of attendance at Sun Life Stadium.

And let's be honest, there is something to it.

But this weekend the Hurricanes were represented very strongly in Atlanta.

Friday Night's turn out at the Pep Rally at Dantana's Sports Bar was very impressive.

By my estimation somewhere in the range of 700-1,000 UM faithful were at the event that featured appearances by University President Donna Shalala, former 'Canes legend Melvin Bratton, Sebastian the Ibis, and the cheerleaders among others.

On game day at the parking decks surrounding Bobby Dodd Stadium, thousands upon thousands of 'Canes fans tailgated hard.

And by the time the game started, there were waves of orange and green clad that put a major blemish in GT's designed "white out" for the game.

There was a unified, family feel (at times quite literally) anywhere you went where people were throwing up U's.

Again estimating, but of the announced 52K + fans at the game, I'd guess a good 10,000 plus were Miami fans.

Bravo Hurricanes fans. Not too shabby at all.

Back to the outage.

Last night's performance spoke for itself.  Losing a game 28-17 is not always the end of the world.

But it was HOW Miami lost that was so disappointing.

I won't get too far into the nuts and bolts of it all as its' been done to death this afternoon/evening.   But in a nutshell the 'Canes coaching staff did not have the defense prepared anywhere near well enough, did not align the players in the right spots, nor make any adjustments when what they were trying wasn't working.

And today there was not the type of accountability fans wanted/needed.

To anyone with eyes, it would be hard to say that this game wasn't eerily similar to the Nebraska, minus an All-American tailback as part of the equation (making it worse).

Additionally, Miami's offense, which has been a positive for the most part this season,  managed just 17 points against a Tech defense that surrendered 38 to Georgia Southern.

And they had distinct advantages that were clear to see, particularly team speed and the offensive line.

The 'Canes play calling did not expose these resources nearly enough.

Money downs have been a complete and total nightmare.   And this little nugget is as ironic as it is disturbing:

If Miami wants its' fan base to continue to showing up at road games in full force like this past weekend, and/or wants to eventually fill it's own spacious stadium, things are going to have to change.

It is getting harder and harder to ignore the obvious. Even Al Golden will have to acknowledge it eventually.