New Canes Coach Miami AF

I've said this for years about myself, as a somewhat educated guy: I really wished my passions ran towards opera, and theater, and maybe literary lectures...But the really true passion I have about any avocation is my beloved Miami Hurricanes.

I fell in love in 1979. My new college buddies and I took a provided bus to the creaky Orange Bowl. We drank beer. We cheered. The Canes went 5-6 under new coach Schnellenberger.

I used to look to teams like Penn State, and Alabama, and wonder what it was like to cheer for a team that was the best. And then Howard delivered on his absurd promise: we had a champion within 5 years -- crowned at the Orange Bowl game in January of '84, against an overwhelming favorite, Nebraska. The narrative was set in my heart.

Well, life happened, and as it turned out, it involved my Canes. My closest friends were all alums or fans, and Wifey joined, and we created sacred memories on game trips and at tailgate parties.

We won FOUR more championships, under three different coaches, and after the team slumped in the mid 90s, we came back as the best ever -- a 2001 Championship team that many experts say may be the best college team of all time.

We were robbed of a 6th ring by an Ohio State ref, and then the team started to falter again. They knocked down the Orange Bowl, and we moved to the more plush but far less soulful Joe Robbie Stadium.

The tailgates got better, and I learned to drink even more prodigious amounts (now vodka instead of beer) to lose myself in the exquisiteness of being surrounded by my closest people in an afternoon or night of total escape.

Wifey admitted she was over going so often. My sister of another mister, Mirta, became my game wife -- enjoying the bonhomie, and making her own friends.

And the games, with rare exceptions, like beating Oklahoma, and the Gators, were never as good as they were in the old days. Until...

We hired a fellow alum, Mark Richt, who had been fired after a solid but unspectacular career at Georgia. I was happy. But deep down, I had my doubts. Although he had grown up in Boca, and attended UM, he wasn't a Miami guy. He was a southern buy -- taught by Bobby Bowden to be nice, and pray a lot. His accent reduced over his three years, but so did his passion -- by the last game, he looked, though he's only 58, very old.

But -- he gave us glimpses of glory. Last season, we beat FSU, and Va Tech, and most importantly, Notre Dame. Joe Robbie was electric -- as loud as the Orange Bowl. My friends and I cried at the end of the game -- and we had sobered up by then.

Well, in a move more shocking than any I've seen in my nearly 4 decades as a fan -- yesterday Richt quit. He has plenty of money, and realized he was going to have to do a total rebuild. He needed to fire his son, an assistant, whose ineptitude as the core of the team's problems. The game had left him, as the sportswriters say.

But Richt had done one excellent hire: Manny Diaz. He was born and raised here, and is a true Miami guy -- Miami AF, as I love to say, and my favorite hat says. Manny invented the takeover chain -- given to a player who makes a pick or recovers a fumble. It brought national attention and copycats everywhere.

He accepted the head coach job at Temple on 12/12. But when Richt quit, he left Philly as quickly as anyone who has been there in February, as I have been, would leave. He said sorry, Owls, but my dream job awaits. He was announced last night as the new Coach. I'm thrilled.

Manny reminds me of my dear friend Alex, who is 40 and born and raised here, and despite going to college and grad school at Michigan and Northwestern, bleeds orange and green. It is in his DNA to love Miami football. Manny Diaz is the same.

His father was the Miami mayor, and the true father of modern Miami -- seeing the need to change zoning to make it a huger, and yet walkable city. I met Manny one night -- we talked Canes football. I can't imagine any Dad is prouder today than he is -- his prodigal son has his dream job.

So --- passion for my passion is renewed. I had said I was going to skip next year's opener --in Orlando, against the hated Gators. Nah -- I'm going. We may lose, but my team is coming back -- hard and flashier this time.

We have a real Miami guy back in Miami. I'm thrilled.