As optimism in Dolphins and Hurricanes spikes, Miami flexing new muscle as a football town | Opinion
Let me set it right for anybody who might still doubt it: Miami is, at heart and to the bone, a football town. Some of that is plain longevity. The Miami Hurricanes set out on their 87th season this week and the Dolphins prepare for their 57th, so these are the teams, the sport, that helped raise us and generations before.
Cheering for the Fins and Canes as they lifted us or groaning as they let us down have been as integral as family in our lives, and to our parents and grandparents. And, hey, if we aren’t around for the next Super Bowl win or national championship parade, surely our children will be! (Right?)
As UM begins a new era with champion ex-Cane Mario Cristobal at the helm and the Fins mark the 50th anniversary of the Perfect Season, the history of each team unlimbers and flexes anew, their grip on us only strengthening.
Old ghosts stir the memory, George Mira to Ted Hendricks, Larry Csonka to Don Shula, the men who set the bricks, the foundation.
I know. Yes. It seemed like were a basketball town or close enough for an argument for a minute there, four years being about a minute in the overall. LeBron James came and brought the bombast and national spotlight. Him promising “not one, not two, not three...” NBA titles made the Heat public enemies. It was delicious!
It was as if the Dolphins and Hurricanes politely stepped aside for a bit, saying, “We’ll wait.”
Don’t get it wrong. The expertly-run Heat competes relentlessly, keep winning into the post-Dwyane Wade era and enjoy a tremendously loyal and passionate following in South Florida, one the baseball Marlins, hockey Panthers, soccer’s Inter Miami and the rest should all envy.
Football, though.
This is the week King Sport unfurls, the Canes and Fins both looking ahead and for the first time and seeing only the start of the regular season. And twenty-some years since one Miami team’s last national title and the other’s last playoff win have not dampened enthusiasm for either, only underlining football’s grip.
UM begins its season at home this coming Saturday with a tune-up softie against Bethune-Cookman.
The Dolphins launch at home the following Sunday September 11 with a fastball against rival New England — because there are no soft openings in the NFL.
We are in the waiting room, anxious as first-time expectant fathers.
This is the great unknown.
Will the Dolphins and/or Canes be great?
Unknown.
Say this, though: Hope and optimism for both teams are unusually high. These are feelings that defy measurement, but you feel it, too, right?
It isn’t that UM and the Dolphins both have new head coaches in Cristobal and Mike McDaniel. Heck, that’s happened twice just recently with Mark Richt and Adam Gase taking over together in 2016 and Manny Diaz and Brian Flores doing so in 2019. Before that Randy Shannon and Cam Cameron came aboard together in 2007.
No, it is that Cristobal, whose Canes are ranked No. 16 in the Associated Press preseason poll, is proven and at the top of his game off a nice run at Oregon. UM paid big to get him, and for him to assemble one of the nation’s best coaching staffs. With Tyler Van Dyke back at quarterback, a run at the ACC title does not seem far-fetched.
And it is that McDaniel, taking over a team with consecutive winning seasons, arrives from San Francisco with a bit of next-big-thing buzz as a run-game guru, which showed in Saturday’s 48-10 win over Philadelphia that ended the preseason. Mostly, it is that Tyreek Hill came in a mega-trade with Kansas City -- all of that potential displayed in a 52-yard completion from Tua Tagovailoa on the first play Saturday.
ESPN’s 2022 list of top 100 NFL players included four Dolphins, Hill the highest at 24th followed by cornerback Xavien Howard 29th, new tackle Terron Armstead 69th and receiver Jaylen Waddle 74th. The addition of Hill is described by ESPN as sending “expectations for this once-fledgling offense into the stratosphere.”
Yet overall expectations for the Dolphins and Canes, outside of South Florida, are mixed.
Buffalo, the Fins’ new AFC East roadblock, is Super Bowl betting favorite at 6-1 odds. Miami is a mid-pack tied for 16th at 40-1. What Tom Brady was seemingly forever, Josh Allen now is: the guy in the way of Dolfan dreams.
UM’s national-title odds, per DrafKings Sportsbook, are tied for 13th at a long shot +9000, with Alabama (of course) favored at +125 and ACC rivals Clemson fourth-favorite and thus on College Football Playoff track. Besides Clemson, North Carolina State (No. 13) also is ahead of Miami in the AP poll and Pitt is right with The U at No. 17 among ACC teams.
Both Miami teams’ potential will show fast because the Dolphins have a tough first four games in Patriots-Ravens-Bills-Bengals and UM is at No. 6 Texas A&M in its third game.
Meantime enjoy the anticipation because King Sport is back as surely as Miami is a football town feeling new muscle, and flexing.
