What happens when a team that's been allergic to bowl success suddenly finds itself in the biggest bowl of them all?
It’s official: Miami is in the College Football Playoff. It still feels great, especially sneaking in past Notre Dame by outlasting the “eye-test” cynics as they advance to the sport’s biggest stage to face-off against Texas A&M at Kyle Field. For the first time in a long time, the Canes are sitting at the grown-ups’ table as they try to reclaim the national prominence that is the standard in Miami.
But let’s not pretend there isn’t an elephant in the room. Actually, not an elephant but more like a Pop-Tart. Or a Cheez-It. Or a dust-covered MPC Computers Box. Because even though Miami is preparing to play for a “big boy” Playoff game as they are one of only twelve teams with a chance at a natty, their postseason resume of the last 18 years has been ugly. That is, Miami is 2-13 in their last 15 bowl games and it’s not like its been a glamorous list of games:
- Pop-Tarts Bowl: 2024, 42-41 loss to Iowa State
- Pinstripe Bowl: 2023, 31-24 loss to Rutgers; 2018, 35-3 loss to Wisconsin
- Cheez-It Bowl: 2020, 37-34 loss to Oklahoma State
- Independence Bowl: 2019, 14-0 loss to Louisiana Tech; 2014, 24-21 loss to South Carolina
- Orange Bowl: 2017, 34-24 loss to Wisconsin (yes, even the lone New Year’s Six didn’t go well)
- Russell Athletic Bowl: 2016, 31-14 win over West Virginia; 2013, 36-9 loss to Louisville
- Sun Bowl: 2010, 33-17 loss to Notre Dame
- Champs Sports Bowl: 2009, 20-14 loss to Wisconsin
- MPC Computers Bowl: 2006, 21-20 win over Nevada (the corporate sponsor is now defunct)
- Emerald Bowl: 2008, 24-17 loss to California
The bowl games that preceded the above abhorrent list was a lot more positive and filled with wins in Orange, Peach, Rose, Fiesta, and Sugar Bowls. In some instances competing for (and claiming) a natty. And while there is some prestige in making it back into the glory land this year, they need to show up this year. And set the tone for years to come.
The Canes have not won a bowl game in eight years… That’s not just bad, it’s historically bad to the point you’d think a program with five national championships would occasionally luck their way into some bowl win games.
Miami is no longer being graded on style points – they’re being graded on survival. On proving that this year’s rise wasn’t luck or scheduling or analytics magic. They’re being graded on whether they can win a game that matters again for the first time in nearly a decade. And against opponents who don’t answer to the corporate overlords of toasted pastries or discount electronics (I guess there’s some consolation for actually showing up and playing unlike some sore losers out of South Bend).
This year, somehow, some way, the Hurricanes have snuck into college football’s most exclusive club. Twelve teams. The playoff. The big boy table where championships are actually won and legacies are cemented. They squeezed past Notre Dame, caught the right breaks, and landed themselves in a position programs dream about.
But here’s the uncomfortable question hovering over Miami like a storm cloud: What happens when a team that’s been allergic to bowl success suddenly finds itself in the biggest bowl of them all?
The Hurricanes have the talent – they always seem to have the talent. The “U” still commands respect, still attracts elite recruits, still has enough NFL-caliber players to make any coordinator salivate. On paper, they belong in this playoff conversation. But paper doesn’t play the game. And the recent track record suggests that when Miami gets to December and January, when the stakes are highest and the preparation time is longest, something goes sideways. Whether it’s coaching, execution, motivation, or just a curse from some ancient Seminole or Gator hex, the Canes have turned postseason football into an exercise in disappointment.
So yes, congratulations to Miami, but can this year’s Canes program avenge two decades of abysmal bowl game performance by rising to the occasion on the biggest stage? Miami has consistently played poorly in the likes of Pop-Tarts, Cheez-It, Russell Athletic, and Emerald Bowls. But this isn’t the Sun Bowl vs. Washington State anymore. This is real playoff football where the Canes have an opportunity to bring the program back to and prove the recent years have been a mere slump (Shout-out to Justin Dottavio on his article this month on being sick of Pop-Tarts).
The pressure is now real for Miami as the debates have swarmed message boards related to whether the Canes even belong in the playoffs to begin with. They cannot just stroll into the playoffs like this is just another December exhibition game. They are playing up and positioned with the actual national powers where their peer programs haven’t spent the last decade losing to mediocre teams in pre-New Year’s Bowls.
The pressure is immense not just because they’re facing elite competition, but because they’re carrying nearly two decades of bowl game baggage with them. Every snap will be viewed through the lens of whether “Miami is back” or if this is just another false alarm in a generation of false alarms.
Maybe the struggles are finally over. Maybe this team is different. Maybe the coaching staff has figured out the magic formula. Maybe the players are built for this moment.
Or maybe we’ve heard this story before, just with a shinier trophy at stake.
The Hurricanes made the playoffs – congratulations are genuinely in order for getting this far. But now comes the hard part. Now they have to prove they belong. Now they have to show that their recent bowl history was an aberration, not a pattern. Now they have to win when it actually counts.
Because if they don’t? If they stumble on this stage and get blown out at College Station? Then all those Pop-Tarts and Cheez-Its and vanished computer companies will look like warm-ups for the biggest disappointment of them all.
The real question is: Can the real Miami finally show up when the lights are brightest and do they belong at the big boy table?
We’re about to find out.
GO CANES!
Category: General Sports
