By Brett Daniels
The Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, and Miami Hurricanes in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s were synonymous with championship football. Over the course of the last 10-15 years, none of the three have had any level of sustained success despite being in one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the country. What changed to cause these once dominant programs to underperform and is there a way back to sustained success for any or all three teams?
Keep Talent at Home
Florida is consistently in the Top 3 talent-producing states and has averaged 7.4 five-star recruits per year and 43 four-star recruits per year since 2020. The “Big 3” have had a problem keeping most of these talented players home.
Considering in the 2020-2024 recruiting classes, the University of Florida has signed 31 Top 50 rated players from the state of Florida with only five of those being Top 10 players. Florida State and Miami haven’t fared much better signing 18 Top 50 and three Top 10 (Florida State) and 40 Top 50 and four Top 10 players (Miami) respectively.
In contrast, over the same period Alabama has signed 11 Top 10 players and 21 Top 50 players while Georgia has raided Florida for nine Top 10 players and 23 Top 50 players overall. Ohio State, Texas A&M, and Clemson have also signed several of the top players from Florida over the last five recruiting cycles.
Overall recruiting hasn’t been much better with Florida ranking 8th (2020), 12th (2021), 18th (2022), 13th (2023) and 13th (2024), Florida State ranked 22nd (2020), 23rd (11th), 20th (2022), 19th (2023), and 12th (2024), and Miami ranked 16th (2020), 11th (2021), 16th (2022), 7th (2023), and 4th (2024). Not surprisingly, Miami is the most competitive out of the three with two solid recruiting classes already on campus.
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Hire the “Right” Coach
Bear Bryant was quoted as saying about Florida “If they ever get their act together down there, they will be dangerous.” It took until 1990 and the hiring of former player and Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier for Florida to finally get its act together. From 1990 to 2001 the Gators won six SEC Championships and one National Championship. Spurrier was succeeded by Ron Zook. Zook, while not the best on field coach (23-14 in three seasons) was an outstanding recruiter and left the cupboard stocked for Urban Meyer who took over in 2005 and led the Gators to 3 SEC Championships and two National Championships.
Following Meyers resignation after the 2010 season, the Gators have had a mixed bag of coaching hires. Will Muschamp (2011-2014) had one 11-win season but was fired after a 4-8 season in 2013 followed by a 6-5 season in 2014. Jim McElwain managed to take the Gators to two consecutive SEC Championship games and had a 10-win season in 2015. McElwain resigned following a bizarre “death threat” story in 2017 and was replaced by Dan Mullen. Mullen was competitive in his first two seasons logging 11-2 and 10-3 seasons before slipping to 8-4 in 2020. Mullen was fired in 2021 after starting the season 5-6 and making remarks about recruiting not being important. Billy Napier has not had any level of success since his hire in 2022 with consecutive losing seasons and beginning the 2024 season 1-2. Who Florida hires next will be a large part of the Gators future success.
Florida State was one of the most consistent teams in the 80’s and 90’s under legendary coach Bobby Bowden, finishing ranked in the Top four of the AP Poll for 14 straight seasons (1987-2000) while winning 16 ACC conference championships and two national championships (1993, 1999). The Seminoles would add another National Championship under Jimbo Fisher in 2013. Things started to go downhill at the end of Fisher’s tenure and continued to spiral with the hiring of Willie Taggert.
Current Head Coach Mike Norvell started slowly but had great success in the last two seasons finishing the 2023 season 13-1. The downfall of the Florida State program is a propensity to rely more on the Transfer Portal and not concentrate on recruiting and developing high school talent. Norvell will have to regroup and focus on building a program and not the quick fix of bringing in transfers.
Miami was the juggernaut of the 80’s and 90’s, winning five National Championships (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, and 2001) and producing a multitude of NFL players and coaches. Coach Howard Schnellenberger put the school on the map winning the National Championship over Nebraska in 1983, Jimmy Johnson was 52-9 as the Hurricanes coach winning a National Championship in 1987 and parlaying his success into the Head Coach of the Dallas Cowboys where he won 2 Super Bowls.
Dennis Erickson won two more national championships in 1989 and 1991, compiling a 63-9 overall record before leaving to coach the Seattle Seahawks in 1995. Butch Davis succeeded Erickson and was tasked with rebuilding the program after sanctions for recruiting under the Jimmy Johnson staff were enforced. Davis had one losing season in 1998 due to the sanctions but was able to take the Hurricanes back to the top of the sport finishing 11-1 in 2001 with a Sugar Bowl win over Florida and ranked #2 in the final polls. Davis would leave after the season for a Head Coaching job with the Cleveland Browns.
Longtime assistant Larry Coker took over after Davis’s departure and won the National Championship with what many consider to be the greatest college football team of all time. Coker would lead the Hurricanes back to the National Championship game the following season and lose on a controversial pass interference call against Ohio State. After that game the slide would begin and see Coker fired after the 2006 season replaced by Randy Shannon.
Al Golden, Mark Richt, and Manny Diaz would follow but fail to return Miami to its previous glory. Current Head Coach Mario Cristobal has improved each year and has strengthened the roster through recruiting and transfers. The Hurricanes are currently 3-0 and have an opportunity to make the College Football Playoff this season.
Administrative Support
As a Head Coach you can recruit well, have a great scheme and a strong staff and still not reach the top echelon of the sport. To be a successful program in any sport it takes everyone moving in the same direction from the fans to the coach and the school’s administration. All three of these schools have had some sort of administrative handicap over the last decade.
At Miami, President Donna Shalala was not a fan of the Miami football culture and wanted to distance the school from that. During her tenure, the athletics program as a whole and football specifically were not supported at the level of other elite programs. A measure for an on-campus football stadium was defeated and the Hurricanes continue to play home games at Hard Rock Stadium which is 45 minutes to 1 hour away from campus.
Florida has had a similar lack of administrative support as the focus has turned to the academic reputation of the school. Florida is ranked among the top public universities and is second in the SEC to Vanderbilt in academic standing as well as being a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU).
Florida State has had similar challenges in keeping up with the facilities arms race. Jimbo Fisher left FSU partially due to the administrations unwillingness to upgrade the football facilities and Doak Campbell Stadium. Those upgrades are either currently in progress or are on the drawing board for near-term completion.
The NIL component
The final piece of the program building puzzle in the modern college football environment is the availability of NIL funds to pay recruits to come to your school. Both Florida and Florida State are in the Top 10 for estimated NIL collective pay outs (Florida 4th, Florida State 10th). Miami as a private school does not have any monetary figures available but it is believed that the Hurricanes are in the same neighborhood as Florida and Florida State.
— Cameron Ward (@Cameron7Ward) January 1, 2024
