ESPN College GameDay crew examines Miami's potential entering Mario Cristobal's second season

ESPN’s College GameDay is back for Week 0, and they carved out some time in their show to speak on the Miami Hurricanes.

First, Kirk Herbstreit started by harkening back to this time last season, when everyone thought Mario Cristobal would have the Hurricanes humming in Year 1, but it didn’t work out that way for Miami.

“Raise your hand when you heard that Mario was going back that you thought, ‘Okay, it’s going to take a little bit of time, but they’re going to get back to being Miami again eventually, because this guy knows it better than anybody.’ I just thought, not that they’d win the ACC last year, but you just thought you’d see them heading in a better direction. We didn’t see it,” explained Herbstreit. “Now, Rece [Davis] just talked about a lot of changes. I feel like you’ve got to see it, to be able to believe it.

“They’ve been so bad for so long, it’s just hard to imagine. I hope — it’s a program I love. I just want to see it, before I can actually believe that they’re going to improve and be different.”

Desmond Howard was in agreement with his colleague, but he’s willing to give the Hurricanes some more time to figure things out under Cristobal.

“Because Mario Cristobal was coming back home, the expectations were just through the roof,” started Howard. “They expected instantaneous change. I think they should’ve tempered their expectations. I can’t blame the fanbase. He brought in an all-star coaching staff. But things didn’t work out. I still think they have some talent there. I think they’re going to be much better this year. But it’s going to take some time.

“For a new coach to get his players into the program to change the culture, it takes at least two or three, four recruiting cycles. Mario has not had that yet. He’s getting there. So I think it’s going to take time. Just temper your expectations.”

Meanwhile, Pat McAfee also believes a bounce-back is in store for Miami, whether that’s just wishful thinking or not remains to be seen.

“At the beginning of the season, we were talking about Tyler Van Dyke being a Heisman guy, this guy is going to change it all. Didn’t have that year, obviously. He’s going to have to bounce back big,” stated McAfee. “But with Shannon Dawson, the new offensive coordinator from the Air Raid attack. … You would think it’ll be a more exciting brand of football. And then with Miami, with the people that you can recruit down there, if you can sling it, you’re going to find weapons in South Florida.

“So I guess the hope is always going to be there for that reason. But with that being said, they were tough to talk about last year. Remember, it was like, really. We felt bad. They were terrible.”

Alas, time will tell if Mario Cristobal’s second season with Miami is better than the first, but the Hurricanes are certainly hoping it is.