Is TCU the new Miami?

[SeattleUte]

Before Howard Schnellenberger Miami had not much of a football program OR tradition. It was an independent and couldn't have begged its way into a BCS conference. Schnellenberger wound up winning the national title, stunning a hugely favored Nebraska team in the Orange Bowl after a crazy day of upsets in the New Years day bowls put it into a position to win the NC that they never expected in the first place. Schnellenberger left soon thereafter and faded into the sunset. But Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson, etc. kept it going. Miami was the dominent team of the 1980's, much like Florida of this decade.

I look at TCU, like Miami a small private school in a hugely populous, sunny football crazy state. A school finally finding itself, realizing its potential. It reminds me of Miami. Scary. But maybe the Utes have found their Pac 10 migration partner.

[MarkGrace]

Why can't TCU get any support? Seems so puzzling.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Perhaps TCU can just lift the MWC to being a BCS league like Miami did. It is obvious none of the current MWC teams are capable of that.

[SeattleUte]

Per Wikipedia:

Schnellenberger arrived to a Miami program that was on its last legs, with the program having almost been dropped by the university just a few years prior. Drawing from the boot camp methodology learned from mentors Bryant and Shula and a pro-style pass-oriented playbook not yet the norm in Division 1 college football, Miami developed a passing game that allowed them to have advantage over teams not equipped to defend such an attack. By his third season at Miami, the team had finished the season in the AP Poll top 25 twice—something that had not happened there since 1966.

Schnellenberger revolutionized recruiting South Florida high school talent by building a metaphorical "fence around Miami" and recruiting only the "State of South Florida." His eye for talent in this area led to many programs around the nation paying greater attention to south Florida high school prospects. Under his "State of Miami" plan, Schnellenberger's teams took the best from the three-county area around the city, went after the state's best, then aimed at targets among the nation's elite recruits; it became a model of how to recruit in college football.[2][3][4]

He coached Miami to a National Championship in 1983, defeating Nebraska in the 50th Orange Bowl.

Reminds me of TCU's situation and ascent, only TCU hasn't had as far to come.