Dan Wolken

USA TODAY Sports

What is Miami football? Not the idea of it, not the history of it. What is it now?

Here's what it is: It's a private, academically elite school that plays football in a way-too-big stadium almost an hour from campus that has grown tired of having its national reputation sullied by scandal. It has a solid, unspectacular program that operates with fewer resources than its rivals in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a coach who cares about playing by the rules and making sure his players act like they're part of a college campus, not the South Beach nightclub circuit. Every so often, because of its location and its brand name, Miami has a chance to win something significant.

But that's all it is.

It's not Alabama. It's not Florida State. And it's most definitely not the Miami of old.

And if Miami keeps Al Golden after a 6-6 season, it will be a message to all the whiny NFL alums and Internet fans who don't bother to show up at the games: Deal with it or do something to change it.

No, there's no excuse for Miami collapsing at the end of this season with ugly losses to Virginia and Pittsburgh after a tremendous effort on Nov. 15 that came up just short against Florida State. Even at its worst, Miami is better than a 6-6 program, and if you want to argue that Golden has done nothing in four seasons to indicate he's an elite coach, have at it.

But it's also true that nobody has been more handicapped by his circumstances than Golden, who spent his first three years on the job trying to manage a massive cloud of NCAA sanctions hanging overhead that killed Miami's ability to recruit on anything close to a level playing field.

Despite the chaos of an NCAA investigation and administrative turmoil in the athletic department, Golden was a stabilizing force. He kept recruiting, kept selling and convinced players who had other options to stick with the program even though nobody could say for certain when the Hurricanes would be eligible for a bowl game again. That was no easy task.

Meanwhile, Miami's facilities have just now been improved to the point where people in the athletic department aren't embarrassed to show them to people from the outside. And the only time Miami can legitimately brag to recruits about its home game atmosphere at Sun Life Stadium is when there are enough fans of visiting teams to fill it up.

But all Miami fans see are the 1980s and the Butch Davis/Larry Coker era, even though the climate that produced those championships has now been turned on its head.

What is the reality of Miami football? Not anything close to what its fans think it is, a notion that will be confirmed if Golden returns next year.

(Disclaimer: This isn't a ranking of worst teams, worst losses or coaches whose jobs are in the most jeopardy. This is simply a measurement of a fan base's knee-jerk reaction to what they last saw. The way in which a team won or lost, expectations vis-à-vis program trajectory and traditional inferiority complex of fan base all factor into this ranking.)

(Disclaimer No. 2: By virtue of their decision to make coaching changes, Nebraska, Florida, SMU, Kansas, Troy and Buffalo are hereby excluded from this and future editions of the Misery Index, as fans can look forward to a new regime taking hold in 2015.)

1.Miami: There's enough tension here that Golden, even if he isn't fired, could end up looking to bounce elsewhere for a fresh start. If he stays, though, he should legitimately look at some staff changes — particularly on the defensive side of the ball. Coordinator Mark D'Onofrio has been a punching bag for the fan base, and looking for a new direction there would certainly go a long way toward building some credibility. Golden has some pieces to work with next season, and in theory the seasoning quarterback Brad Kaaya got should help him improve as a sophomore. But the big unknown is whether the negativity around the program will simply swallow it whole, particularly in recruiting. Miami fans, and particularly its former players in the NFL, are ticked. That's one thing. But disgruntled alums willing to foot the bill for Golden's buyout and a big-name replacement are something totally different — and Miami doesn't seem to have too many of those. Either way, 2015 will be a big one in a lot of ways toward defining what this program is and whether it really wants to be a player on the national scale.

2. Notre Dame: How was this a 7-5 football team? That's the question everyone around Notre Dame needs to be asking as the pressure builds for Brian Kelly to build a national title contender. Just six weeks ago, the Fighting Irish were trying to argue their way into the playoff picture, pointing toward a controversial last-play penalty that wiped out a win at Florida State. Now they're trying to figure out why the season imploded with five losses in their last six games (and the only victory during that stretch, against Navy, was hardly a good performance). Did they run out of gas? Did the team mentally check out? Was there internal strife? Does it all trace back to quarterback Everett Golson's struggles holding onto the football? Was it simply youth and inexperience showing up when the stakes got too big? Is Kelly recruiting well enough? It's all up for discussion right now because if you take away the magical 2012 run to the national championship game he's sitting on seasons of 8-5, 8-5, 9-4 and 7-5 (pending the result of a minor bowl game). That's the kind of record that turns a fan base against you. That's the kind of record that prompts questions about what's happening under the surface at a place like Notre Dame. That's the kind of record that puts your career in jeopardy.

3. Georgia: Even by Georgia standards, this was a dumb Georgia football season. The Bulldogs weren't just the best team in the SEC East, they were the best team in the SEC East by a mile. Heck, they even beat the team that won the SEC East, Missouri, 34-0 in Columbia. And yet, they sit here unfulfilled again at 9-3 with losses to their two biggest traditional rivals (Florida and Georgia Tech) and their recent regional rival (South Carolina). From a talent standpoint, Georgia should not have lost to any of those teams. To take it a step further, the Bulldogs should not only be getting ready for Alabama in this week's SEC championship game, they should have been thinking about how much damage they could do in the College Football Playoff. Georgia could have been that good — if only Georgia had that extra gear championship programs have to steal a game or two per year when the circumstances work against you. It's something Alabama, for instance, has perfected. Even if the opponent has a great day and you don't — something that happens to everyone a couple times a year — you have to find a way to win. Year after year, Georgia doesn't do that. Mark Richt is one of the best, most consistent coaches of his generation but after losing at least one game he shouldn't every year, the underachiever label is starting to stick. And Georgia's act of teasing its fans into believing a national title lurks just around the corner is getting tiresome.

4. Texas A&M: At some point, a program morphs from actually being cool to trying too hard to convince everyone how cool it is. Maybe Texas A&M has reached that point. Because what's cool about finishing sixth in the SEC West? What's cool about losing all three SEC home games at Kyle Field this season? What's cool about a clueless defense and an offense that probably should get more blame given that it scored 17 against LSU, none against Alabama and could only score against Ole Miss in garbage time? One thing we know: Texas A&M will have a new defensive coordinator next year after Mark Snyder was scapegoated out of town. That could certainly solve some problems. The Aggies haven't been very stout defensively since joining the SEC, and maybe a fresh set of ideas will help spark something in the talented players Kevin Sumlin has been recruiting. But the whole momentum narrative that has been attached to Texas A&M the last two years is over. It's time to prove you can consistently compete with the big boys in the West, that you're serious about the work on the football field and not just showing off shiny facilities. While it's true 7-5 wasn't necessarily a disappointment relative to preseason expectations, Texas A&M didn't really build any more credibility as a program this season. And if the defensive coordinator change doesn't make the enterprise look any better next season, there could be bigger questions coming up about whether the fans who were once all-in with Sumlin will begin to jump ship.

5. Northwestern: Lose your chance at a bowl game while losing to your downtrodden in-state rival all in one weekend? That's not how Pat Fitzgerald and the Northwestern fan base saw this season playing out, but it's reality following Saturday's 47-33 home loss to Illinois. While there was one huge bright spot to this season on Nov. 15 when the Wildcats won at Notre Dame, this was a second consecutive disappointment for a program that had big-time momentum just a couple of years ago after beating Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl. Fitzgerald is still one of the brightest young coaches in the game, but this is the kind of stretch that can take some tread off the tires. Last season, the Wildcats were legitimately unlucky with injuries and wacky finishes that always seemed to go against them. This year, they just weren't particularly good. During a four-game stretch against Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan, Northwestern scored a combined 50 points. That's not going to get it done in this era of college football. Fitzgerald isn't on the hot seat or anything of the sort, but Northwestern is one of those schools where there's a fine line between excitement and apathy and fans are definitely trending toward the latter.

6. Mississippi State: It's quite possible there's never been a season in the history of Mississippi State football that would be considered successful without winning the Egg Bowl. This might be the exception. At 10-2 and very likely headed to a New Year's Six bowl game, the Bulldogs have every reason to be proud of what they accomplished. Still, it doesn't get any more bitter than a 31-17 loss to Ole Miss with everything on the line. One minute, Mississippi State is No. 4 in the College Football Playoff chase, hoping to get to 11-1 and possibly be included in the final four. The next, Dan Mullen is lamenting how much it stinks to lose the state championship and any shot at the national title. And then the morning after that, Mississippi State fans have to hear rumors about how their coach is going to be a hot name in coaching searches at Nebraska and potentially Michigan. Moreover, the Bulldogs just didn't play very well against Ole Miss and frankly didn't look like the better team at any point. Even without top receivers Laquon Treadwell and Vince Sanders, who was injured early in the game, Ole Miss hit big play after big play in the passing game and ensured that State fans will play the what-if game for years to come (just like they will about the Rebels' loss to Auburn).

7. Maryland: Randy Edsall is 20-29 as Maryland's coach, and a fan base that has never been particularly enthralled with him will go into next season demanding better results. This wasn't a disastrous year for the Terrapins at 7-5, but there were certainly missed opportunities. Beat Michigan and Penn State on the road but lose to Rutgers and West Virginia at home? Yep, it was that kind of season, and Saturday was one the anti-Edsall crowd will hold onto for a long time. Late in the second quarter, Maryland led 35-10. By the start of the fourth quarter, the game was tied 38-38 before Rutgers ultimately won on a field goal with 6:14 left. And the fact that it happened against Rutgers, whose offensive coordinator is former Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, was not something that will sit well anyone in College Park. Edsall is opinionated and often abrasive, so it's not like he has charisma points in the bank. But it's also true that Maryland didn't necessarily have some things in place from a facility or financial commitment standpoint to compete at the highest level of college football when he got the job. That is changing, so now the pressure will be ratcheted up to put a better product on the field — and soon.

8. Marshall: It's really hard to go undefeated in college football even when you have the better team every time out. The latest example of that is Marshall, which lost its dream of an undefeated season Friday with a 67-66 overtime loss to Western Kentucky on a bold and beautifully executed two-point conversion. To go 11-1 with the Conference USA championship game pending is still a great season for Marshall but not a great feeling for its fans. Why? All year, people were pointing at the Thundering Herd and shouting about strength of schedule. Marshall fans were shouting back that it was all about wins. If that's the tactic to defend one of the worst schedules in college football, you have to win them all. Marshall didn't, and now it is out of the race for the New Year's Six bowl game slot that will go to the highest-ranked champion of the American, Mountain West, Conference USA, Mid-American and Sun Belt. For a program like Marshall, that's a once-in-a-generation opportunity missed.

9. Syracuse: Perhaps the biggest indictment of Syracuse football is the fact that Scott Shafer went 3-9 this year with wins against Villanova (in overtime), Central Michigan and Wake Forest and nobody even cared enough to make fun of them. Seriously, when is the last time you heard anything or even thought about Syracuse football? It's an invisible program on the national level right now, and there was nothing redeeming about this season. The Orange supposedly has some young talent in the pipeline, but it didn't manifest itself in the mediocre ACC, and that's not a real good sign moving forward. Meanwhile, former offensive coordinator George McDonald (who was responsible for much of that recruiting) was demoted in the middle of the season, then went public with his frustration, then apologized. Syracuse's offense, by the way, scored a grand total of 47 points in its final five games. Let's just say Syracuse doesn't go into the 2014 offseason as a model of functionality.

10. South Florida: There was tangible, incremental progress in Willie Taggart's second season but only because it wasn't a complete debacle like 2013. The Bulls won four games (as opposed to two last year) and had a better conference record. On the other hand, you could argue they only won any games at all against FBS opponents because UConn, Tulsa and SMU were even more woeful. Is there hope for 2015? Maybe, but Taggart better find some more talent on offense and improve at the same pace as other programs in the league, which won't be easy since several of the bottom-feeders have upgraded or are about to upgrade their coaching situations. In the bigger picture, this was the fourth consecutive losing season in Tampa, which hasn't happened since the program was conceived in 1997. There isn't a lot of enthusiasm or fan support at the moment (the Bulls play at the NFL stadium in town and haven't drawn big crowds in recent years), and Taggart — who was considered a "can't miss" hire coming out of Western Kentucky — has struggled to build an identity for the program. Maybe the talent he inherited was really that bad or maybe he's made some early missteps. We'll see next year when good coaches typically make a big leap forward at rebuilding programs.

Honorable mention (miserable, but not miserable enough): Arizona State, Kentucky, UConn, Vanderbilt ​

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