ACCOMPANYING FEATURE: ANALYSIS: WHAT IS THE REAL STATE OF THE U?

The moment the University of Miami football program and as an extension the Canes Athletic Department changed forever, Athletic Director Blake James was sitting at church on Sunday morning the 29th of November in 2015.

James' son Ryan was getting antsy during mass. He grabbed dad's cell phone to see what time it was to try to figure out how much longer the service would continue. Blake grabbed the phone back, prompting his son to stay focused on the teachings and worship from the pulpit.

It was at that very second that a news alert flashed across the phone's screen. James instinctively took a glance at the blinking lights. The news was stunning. Mark Richt had been fired as Georgia's Head Football Coach.

It had been a month or so since James had called Richt's agent, Mark Carmony, to inquire about Richt's potential availability at the end of the season to move to Miami. James had already fired Al Golden and received a green light from the Miami administration and trustees to expand Miami's financial commitment to football after a decade of disaster on and off the field. No budgets had been defined, but James was basically in "whatever it takes" mode to find the right fit to take The U into the future and arm that man with a sufficient budget. James was told that Richt, a perfect candidate that checked all his boxes, planned to stay at Georgia. He proceeded to take his search in other directions.

But in that holy flash, James went from a dad trying to snap his son back to attention in church to an athletic director suddenly himself counting down the seconds until when the church service would end.

"That's one mass that couldn't end soon enough," James jokes now.

James knew Georgia's move was a potential game changer for Miami. There were other candidates out there under consideration for the Miami job, but none with the sizzle of Richt. This would be like finding the final piece to a puzzle for the University and sliding it into place.

James walked out of the church and immediately speed dialed Carmony. The two knew each other well since Carmony also represents basketball coach Jim Larranaga. The moment Carmony answered the phone, the wheels were put in motion that landed Richt in Miami and changed Hurricane athletics forever. By 2 p.m. that day, CaneSport was hearing from various sources and reporting that Richt was the likely next coach at Miami even though the deal wouldn't be finalized for three more days.

The lone variable from the first second was James' success in convincing Richt to continue coaching. It turned out to be a relatively easy process. Richt laid out his needs and Miami nodded in approval. Neither coach nor institution has turned back for one moment since.

We are here today to evaluate the State of the U's program infrastructure and can report that no matter the category things are going unquestionably well with the qualifier that there still is so much upside.

The State of the U is prosperous and full of hope 30 months later thanks to that unexpected turn of events that brought Richt to Coral Gables. Fact is The U has never had so much going for it as it does right now.

Never.

The football program is coming off a 10-win season where so much forward progress was accomplished despite three losses soured the mood at the end of the year.

A new Indoor Practice Facility that will cost upwards of $34 million is under construction.

Boosters are donating more money to the program than ever before.

Ticket sales for the 2018 season are going so well that there is talk that Miami might sell out Hard Rock Stadium with season tickets, an unheard of accomplishment for a program that has always been ridiculed for its lack of support.

"That investment that we made in football," James told CaneSport the other day in reference to the blank check from the University that he cashed to make everything happen. "It has paid back two-fold."

But James, who recently received a contract extension himself, hasn't paused to take a deep breath.

"Every morning you wake up and if you aren't doing something to improve the program you are getting passed by," James said.

That's the reality of modern day college sports, of a college football world spiraling out of control as it drives up its own cost of doing business in a gridiron arms race with buildings and coaches as pawns.

James spent a week with Richt recently going to ACC meetings and staging booster events. Much of their off time was spent discussing what needs to be done, what can be done moving forward to keep the Cane train moving in this current upward direction.

Before he took the Miami job, there was talk that Richt was worn out and might retire from coaching. Miami has reinvigorated him and he is fully engaged. He just signed a contract extension to remain as coach for at least six more seasons.

Needless to say, he has found Paradise.

It was an unprecedented move by James and the University to make a commitment of more than $25 million to the head football coach and millions more to his program. But if the next 144 months go like the first 30 have, James and President Julio Frenk and the board will look like geniuses once again.

They are unquestionably all in, tossing every chip to the middle of the table. You see that in every area of the program.

Facilities. The Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility will eliminate Miami's greatest infrastructure deficiency. Next, Richt wants to redo the team locker room inside the Schwartz Center that now will connect to the practice facility.

Coaching Salaries. At approximately $4.1 million per year and rising, Richt is still a bargain in relation to many top coaches around the country. The significant news here is that Richt has the budget he needs to keep the staff he wants. When FSU tried to steal receivers coach Ron Dugans this past off-season, for example, Richt got the green light to add a co-coordinator label to Dugans title and give him a raise. When Richt has had to step up for other members of his staff, James has been there to make it happen for him.

Infrastructure. Miami continues to make a big investment in what players eat and drink every day. It is difficult to measure the impact of this, but it certainly is not hurting anything. The back-office elements of the program appear to be adequately staffed and funded along with the strength and conditioning program. For example, the recruiting office has expanded from four full-time staffers to eight.

Fundraising. In 2017, including the donation from the Soffer Family for the Indoor Practice Facility, the athletic department raised an all-time high of about $48 million. The previous high was $25 million in 2010. Even if you separate the $14 million Soffer donation, the largest by far in UM athletics history, that's still $9 million more than the department has raised in any single calendar year. There were seven gifts of $1 million or more in 2017. The Hurricane Club has grown from 5,140 members in 2010 to more than 11,500 today.

Scheduling. Miami has stepped up its game, taking on the challenge of meeting LSU in Dallas to kick off the 2018 season. The Hurricanes will play Florida in Orlando in 2019 and meet Alabama in 2021 in Atlanta. In between, they will play Michigan State in 2020 and 2021 and Texas A&M in 2022 and 2023. James has already begun working to set up a marquee season opening game in 2024.

Almost all of it is a direct result of the expanded commitment that was made after Golden was fired midway through the 2015 season.

"I hesitate to say that you get what you pay for which would mean that if you pay for it, you get the best," James said. "Mark is not the highest paid coach in the country. We don't spend the most money in the country on our program. But if we are going to compete at the highest level, we would not be able to do it without the investment that we have made.

"There will probably always be programs spending more than we are spending. But that doesn't mean we can't be the best. We are now at the level to compete with anyone nationally."

There is one person to credit for so much of what is going on.

Carol Soffer.

Richt would be at Miami anyway even if Soffer had not stepped up with her $14 million donation to kick start the Indoor Practice Facility. But that building would not be going up in rapid-fire fashion. And so many other elements that find the Miami athletic department thriving today like never before would not be in place.

For starters, so many other donors who followed Soffer's lead and contributed to the program would not have stepped forward.

The excitement that has been generated would likely not be at today's levels, which means fewer ticket sales. You can go on and on.

"The gift that the Soffers made was transformational," James said. "Sure it was the largest gift in the history of the program. But in a lot of ways, it has transformed who we are as a program and how we fund raised.

"When you see a gift of that size made, you see someone stepping up and making a difference. The response from our donors since that has been amazing. Whether that meant a two-figure gift or a seven-figure gift, we saw people stepping up who bleed orange and green and want to see the program do well.

"It creates so much excitement. People wanted to be part of something so special. If it wasn't for that gift, this project would not have happened as quickly as it did. The Soffers generosity made this project a reality. We would not have gotten to the point we have without that gift."

The U today is markedly different than The U that most people around the country got to know through all of those championship years and the 30 for 30 documentaries. Things changed as the nation ushered in a new century and Miami was slow to change with them. Randy Shannon might have succeeded after Larry Coker was fired if he had the budget to hire better coordinators and today's infrastructure. With a better budget, maybe the Hurricanes could have reached higher than Al Golden, who didn't have adequate experience on this kind of stage.

During that absolutely disgusting 58-0 loss to Clemson at home that resulted in Golden's immediate firing in the middle of the 2015 season, it was kind of like everyone associated with the University from the trustees down to the last fan in the upper deck of the end zone knew something had to change fast. The U was no longer green and orange. It was black and blue.

"When we made the change that we did, it was in the middle of the season," James said. "One of the benefits was that it gave us time to think about what we wanted to be, what kind of coach we wanted to go after and what that meant financially. President Frenk and the Board made the decision to increase the resources and it gave me a chance to really educate them on where things were at.

"As great as the University of Miami is, as great of a city as Miami is, we knew we had to up our game if we wanted to be competitive not just nationally but even in the ACC. Having not made the ACC championship game one time since we joined the Conference in 2004 pretty much told the story of where we were."

Miami would have stepped up financially even if Richt had not become available. And there still are no guarantees that Richt will win championships, no matter how upbeat things are right now.

But let's be honest. James could have hired Greg Schiano or Butch Davis or Dan Mullen or Lincoln Riley or any of the other guys who were out there on the market back then and that risk would probably have been higher than it was with Richt and his proven track record.

"Mark becoming available to us was a huge win," James said. "He's a proven winner. He's a great coach and a great leader and a great person. Just the vision and commitment he has brought to the job has really elevated the program. And the other things we are doing to capitalize on that excitement has allowed us to take things to an even higher level.

"The possibility of selling out the stadium. The response from our fan base has been incredible. It all fed off the excitement that was generated when we hired Mark. A lot of different conversations have been had and a lot of people have stepped up. But credit Mark for the vision he had for this program to be at the top and for me to be able to work with the leadership of the university and our supporters to give him what he needs to try to make it happen. For the first time in a long time, we have everyone going in the same direction."

Ironically, this is what James envisioned when he did the deal in 2014 to open the 2018 season against LSU in Dallas. At that time, he was just hoping Golden was going to take the program back to national relevance.

"My thought was that it was something that our fans would want, that our players and recruits would want, that our program would be ready for," James said. "It was a great opportunity to be on that national stage and show that the University of Miami is playing at an elite level. LSU has a great football program and we are now in a good position to go to Dallas and play a great game.”

The amazing part is that while Miami should indeed be ready to compete on the field in Dallas on September 2, the road it has traveled to get to that point is nothing like what James anticipated when he scheduled the game.

"It has surprised me as quick as it has happened (after the way 2015 went)," James said. "I believed in three to five years we would be at this point. To be where we are going into season 3 under Mark and recognizing the revenue being generated in just two years is beyond what I anticipated.

"Now we have to continue to invest. The minute you stand still, someone is going to pass you by. What do we have to invest in? What do we need to get better? I talk with Mark probably every week and usually multiple times in a week about that subject. We have good open dialog. We are always thinking big picture. How do we better position our program?"

The practice facility continues to expand as construction continues. A video board for the inside is being purchased to serve a wide variety of needs. Attention is going into the branding that will be featured on the interior fields and walls. Cutting edge technologies are being implemented. Office spaces are being enhanced.

"The student athlete experience and what it means to be a student athlete compared to what it was when I started in athletics in the 1990s has changed dramatically," James said. "You see it across the country in college athletics. Schools have to provide what the athletes need to be the very best. I recognize that we are playing at a much higher level."

The mindset carries over to other sports even if the budgets are more restrained. “Football is the leader, but everyone is operating at a higher level," James said. "We want to win in every one of our sports."

For basketball, that has meant fresh coats of paint in the underbelly of the arena, improvements to locker rooms and more private charters to away games.

Up next has to be baseball, coming off two straight years out of the postseason and now ushering in a new era under rookie coach Gino Dimare. Baseball's needs are a hot topic of debate among Miami diehards, but James is not panicking as he focuses more attention on those riddles.

"We were in Omaha two years ago," James said. "I don't want to talk about not being competitive. With that said, it is something we need to continue to look at. How do we best position our baseball program to be successful?"

Miami has upped its ante. Now it has to figure out how to sustain its momentum and build upon it.

"All of these (athletic director) jobs are pressure jobs," James said. "Every AD has pressure to achieve at the highest level.

"As much as we are doing here, so is everybody else. The pressure is great. It is great on our coaches, great on our staff. Everyone has a scoreboard. And everyone has to make sure they are winning."