Don’t Be a Fan Later? Have The Canes Done Enough?

Don’t be a fan later?

It’s a moniker that’s been placed on T-Shirts and used by players to call out a beleaguered Miami fan base who haven’t been happy with the on field product for the better part of 15 years.

Miami once again has had a great month of January, seemingly fixing all of the problems that plagued the team one season ago. Dan Enos, FIRED. Butch Barry, thank you for one season, but you can leave as well. Taylor Stubblefield, enjoy Penn St.

Those guys were all shown the door and their replacements seem to be more of a fit culturally and schematically for Miami, who as a program had been stuck in neutral or reverse since 2005 when Larry Coker fired a bunch of assistants after a “bad” 9-3 season. Manny Diaz has restored faith by making moves that his predecessors were too stubborn to make. Now comes the hard part, and that is winning between September and January.

Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

New players have arrived as well, in the form of the 12^th ranked recruiting class, and a few high profile transfers, D’Eriq King, Quincy Roche and Jose Borregales, who all should help Miami immensely. The next step now becomes the work in the off-season, and building a chemistry that has avoided the Canes for the better part of a decade plus.

Criticism is sometimes unfair, but other times 100% deserved. I have been very critical of Manny Diaz, either on social media or on weekly interview’s with Hochman & Crowder on 790 the Ticket. So much so, that some people have questioned my fandom. I’ve seriously considered cancelling my season tickets for the 1^st time since 2003. Mind you, I live in Atlanta and getting to Miami for games is not always easy, but after the month that the Canes have had, coming to my senses was easy and once again I will have 2 tickets in section 150 of Hard Rock Stadium.

Players need to realize our only method of complaining is to vent on twitter, or message boards, or by not attending games. Their recourse needs to be putting a better product on the field and avoid interaction with fans in general. Most of us love the University of Miami, and our biggest connection is the success of the football program. We have been called bandwagon fans by outsiders, but it is clear as day that anyone who is still attending games and buying gear is anything but a bandwagon fan. Miami fans though, are some of the most passionate and sometimes irrational people on the planet, but our connection with the program is what makes the Canes different from any other program in the country. We live and breathe Orange and Green!

From now until the opener against Temple, there will be a lot more positivity coming from everyone associated with the program. Manny made changes, Ed Reed is now on staff, and we will have a modern up-tempo offense like everyone has been begging for. 2020 football season can’t get here fast enough. I think most of us have bought back in, hook, line and sinker.

Have they done enough in the off-season to restore your faith in the direction of the program? Are you taking the wait and see approach with Manny and his staff? It’s a precarious position that the Canes are in. Win like they are supposed to and all will be well, but have another bad season, and Miami will be spinning the wheels of change again very soon.

Don’t be a fan later? It was never an option.