"Back"

It is 4:30 in the morning and I cannot sleep in London…I think it is mostly jet lag, but if we are being completely honest the Miami Hurricanes have more to do with it than they should.

It’s been a long road friends.

Al Golden. Randy Shannon.

Kirby Freeman. Jacory Harris.

Nevis Shapiro. Mark Emmert.

I spent a lot of it writing in this space. I wrote about moral victories. I wrote about the promise of next year. I bought in to every shitty slogan, every false positive.

The ‘Canes would start 3-0, including a win over a bad Nebraska team (or something) and the announcers would inevitably ask “is The U back?”

And every single time I convinced myself the answer was “yes,” blinded by the sort of optimism that can only be born into someone as a 13 year old ‘Canes fan in 2001.

I watched a pretty terrible set of Miami teams in the late 90s, and then one day, we were the best team the world had ever seen. It happened almost overnight.

And if it happened then, why couldn’t it happen now?

It turns out, there are a lot of reasons.

Bad coaching. Lazy administrators. NCAA malice.

And after however many Novembers in a row of watching crappy games between Georgia Tech and  Duke and PRAYING that the outcomes bounced the exact right way for whatever ridiculous scenario Miami needed to get into a winnable tie break for the right to go and get slaughtered by FSU or Clemson in the ACC Championship game, and hearing that same damn “is Miami back” conversation, I just ran out of gas.

Once you’ve written every angle there is for every possible version of the same mediocrity over ten years, what else is there to say?

I was optimistic about Richt, but I had been optimistic about Shannon and Golden too. Might as well wait and see.

Well I waited, and I saw, and I am here this morning because for the first time since before I went off to college, the ‘Canes are back. Truly, legitimately “Back.” So why shouldn’t I be?

What they did the last two weekends to the 2 toughest opponents on the schedule was reminiscent of the good old days, when Syracuse and Washington came down to Miami for back to back revenge games in primetime and took hellacious beatings for their efforts.

And it feels fucking GREAT.

I watched ESPN’s Gameday in Coral Gables (!) on Saturday morning and teared up half a dozen times…not because of the images (although they were great) but because of the meaning behind this spectacle.

After 10 years of shit, we mattered again, and everyone had to recognize it.

And yet, the disrespect.

Undefeated and atop the best conference in college football, yet ranked 7th. Close wins written off as ‘lucky’ rather than ‘earned’, as they are for the Old Money.

Picked to lose by every single pundit (except my boy Des).

There is one inescapable fact about this team, though; they don’t rattle easy. The longer the odds, the better they play. There is no occasion they cannot rise to.

A real, actual hurricane shut down campus and their season for 2 weeks. They spent one of those weeks huddled in Orlando. They won 4 straight games against ACC teams by a total of 18 points, including a walk off win on the road against FSU just when they thought they had beaten us for an eighth straight year.

Those struggles paved the way for a team which is now, it can truly be said, perhaps the best in the country, with a resume second to none and truly EXCITING PLAYERS, that have been in close games and learned how to win, with new heroes emerging every week.

Braxton Berrios. JaQuan Johnson. Chad Thomas. Malik Rosier. RJ McIntosh and Kendrick Norton. Chris Herndon. Trent Harris. Mark Walton. McDermott and Darling. Those guys were all here for the bad years with Golden. They know what that looked like, and it has molded them. In many ways, there are the fans facsimile on the field…they made it through, and now they are basking in the glory of playing up to their abilities.

Ahmmon Richards. Joe Jackson. Trajan Bandy. Jon Garvin. Shaq Quarterman. Mike Pinckney. Jeff Thomas. Deejay Dallas. Travis Homer. Malek Young. Zach McCloud.Those guys came in expecting to win, without the baggage of the Golden Era, and they are already setting the tone for the next era of dominance upon which we are embarking.

Darrell Langham. Michael Jackson. Hayden Mahoney. Malik Rosier. These guys were all transfer candidates, written off as dead weight. Each has come through with legendary moments this season, to the point that we can’t imagine this team without them.

This is quickly becoming my favorite ‘Canes team of all time. They are good, and they know it, and they aren’t afraid to clap back at their critics in this age of social media.

They are sick of old, dumb stereotypes being applied…but if you insist, they will play into them on the field, where it matters.

And the fans are more than happy to reward excellence, making a stadium an hour from campus feel almost as electric as the Orange Bowl at its peak.

Most of the students there don’t get it. But there are a ton of people from that Saturday night crowd that remember the Orange Bowl. They were there for every minute of the 58-0 loss to Clemson two years ago.

And I guarantee you they feel exactly the same way I do…cathartic. There have almost certainly been a lot of grown man ugly tears shed the past few days. And who can blame them?

One final thing: I was afraid writing this would be a jinx, but my friend said it best: “I think we’re beyond that at this point.”

He's right.

We're BACK.