There is a reason, and that reason is that the only reason why their athletic program is releveant is that they deliberately and unapologetically were the antithesis of those two things you mentioned. It's the U. Kanye West has more chance of winning Country Music singer of the year over Taylor Swift than Miami developing a "Mike Kryzyzewski of the Gridiron" reputation built around academic all-americans with limted 40 times but 1000 SAT scores and "coach on the field!" mentalities.
Randy Shannon Top 3 graduation rate during his tenure (behind army and navy). Only 1 arrest during his tenure.
His firing shows how quickly the worm can turn. A couple seasons back, it really looked like Shannon had the program headed in the right direction. He won 8 or 9 games right off the bat, but he never got over that hump to the next level. Their records suggest that they were close to competing for conference championships, but they didn't really. They never won their division of the ACC and more often than not, the ACC is very mediocre.
Don't agree with your view. Obviously Miami was built on the "thug" image (though even at their worst int he early 90s, did they every have the string of arrests occurring up in Gainesville?). Miami's current president has improved the school's image, but also cares for the success of athletics. From what has been reported, she was still a Shannon supporter, but understood a decision to switch coaches was necessary (winning is the most important thing for a football coach, and being mediocre in the ACC is not getting the job done). But what's to say the next coach will suddenly lead to declining graduation rates or a return to the thug image? If Stanford can be a winning football team, there's no reason to think Miami can't win big on the field in the weak ACC and in the classroom. On another note, do Texas fans care about the low graduation rates? Has it ever mattered? Does it mean anything more now with the disaster 2010 season?
There's a lot of distance between saying "Hey if stanford can win with 1000 SAT students, we can win without recruiting felons!" to saying "we're going to copy and do what they do with , which happens to be the polar opposite of what we have previoulsy done." The first one I accept, the second I find unlikely.
Interestingly, Leach at Tech consistently had one of the best graduation rates in the country. I think he could immediately turn Miami into the best school in the conference on the field, and over time could make it work off the field as well.
Leach is a change of culture anywhere we goes. But he's apparently very interested (not surprising), and he was seriously considered when they hired Randy Shannon. Plus, he lives out on an island out there somewhere right now and has always wanted to be there, I think. Basically, if Miami wants him, he's theirs. Whether they want him given the outstanding legal stuff, not really sure. But if the goal is to win on the field and graduate people, they'd be hard pressed to find a better fit - if they can deal with all the quirks. But a Pirate along the ocean in Miami? That sounds like a perfect fit!
Randy Shannon's name is being tossed around a bit by the fans over at Orangebloods as a possible replacement for Muschamp as DC for the Longhorns.
