Paul Finebaum has often picked on the Michigan fan base in the past. However, it looks like the ESPN host has now found a new target.
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On ESPN on Wednesday, Finebaum took aim at Miami fans, who have obviously been jubilant about their team's 8-0 start to the season. Finebaum apparently has issue with the whole "The U is back" mindset, pointing out that this is not the same Miami team from the 1980s or 1990s, and that Miami fans have become "delusional" over their newfound success this season.
Finebaum's full comments from the attached video:
I did say after Al Golden was fired that it was a dumpster fire. And guess what? It was. I did wonder if anyone in their right mind would take this job, but I didn't know that Mark Richt would, because at the time Mark Richt was the head coach at Georgia.
But if this is because of Mark Richt, it isn't because of Miami who live in the past, who continue to hang on all things that made The U what it was in the 80s, and yes, you won five national championships under Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erikson, and Butch Davis was a phenomenal coach and Larry Coker inherited a team that won a national championship, and maybe should have won another one.
But the lack of identity of this program, the fact that fans still think it's 1987 and still think that — and I left how Howard Schnellenberger, who build this program and never gets enough credit — I just don't know what the problem with Miami fans, what their problem is, I really don't. They should be grateful that they have a program. They should be grateful that the NCAA did not put this program out of business, which by the way it probably should have, and that's the era that Miami fans want to wrap their arms around and hug as opposed to what Mark [Richt] is doing right now, which is a different Miami program, a classier Miami program than the garbage and the vile that infested college football in the late 80s and the 90s with Nevin Shapiro and all the other people that were literally just out there buying and trading players.
Finebaum does have a bit of a point here, in that it seems like a lot of Miami fans are celebrating the concept of "The U" being back more than the Miami Hurricanes having a good football team. That said, this does seem like a harsh response to many fans who are probably just excited to see a winning team with some swagger for the first time in at least a decade.
[H/T CFB Reddit]
