A mere two years ago, Miami seemed well positioned to give the ACC a second high-profile team and join Clemson.

We believed at the time that it was too fanciful to think the Hurricanes would threaten the Tigers' stranglehold on the ACC. But a Top 10-quality program seemed reasonable after Mark Richt and Co. reached the ACC title game in 2017 and followed that with a No. 6-ranked recruiting class in 2018.

Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!

The Hurricanes are 13-13 since. Richt is gone, and Manny Diaz is trying to show he's a competent head coach after last season ended in truly embarrassing fashion with losses to Florida International, Duke and Louisiana Tech.

Just goes to show that recruiting alone isn't going to get it done; the galling pattern for Miami since it joined the ACC has been vast underachievement compared to its recruiting rankings.