The three buses begin their slow shuffle up to Kent a few minutes past noon on Tuesday. It's a particularly cold day, one that chills to the bone and keeps the players bundled up even after they've entered the warm interior of the vehicle. Each player sits quietly in their team-issued sweats with the same calm, calculated demeanor that would be worn equally well on an executive flying first class to an important business proposal. The fact of the matter is this is a business trip for the RedHawks. That's how this team approaches every week. It's what interim head coach Mike Bath calls an "attack mentality."
It's the kind of preparation you would expect from the Alabamas and Ohio States of college football, those elite programs that command respect with the mere mention of their names. For the RedHawks, it's a club they won't be in any time soon.
0-9 - That's the record Miami holds heading into its Nov. 13 matchup against Kent State.
If you're Bath, how can you and the other coaches look your players in the eyes and tell them that you're proud of them, that there's a lot left to play for, that the next game is the most important one of the season?
You can because all of these things are true. Because you believe that this program is poised to do great things. Because you believe in each player in that locker room.
Changing of the Guard
It was after Miami's fifth loss, a 21-9 outing versus Central Michigan, that Bath got the call. Head coach Don Treadwell had been fired, out after two and a half years of service. As of Oct. 6, the former quarterback's coach and Miami grad was now at the helm of what some writers and analysts around the country were calling the worst team in the FBS.
"Initially when it happened, it was a conflict of emotions," Bath admits. "The reality was the guy that brought you in was getting fired. But it's a conflict because it was also an opportunity to be the head football coach here. It's a unique situation because ... I've got to start the rebuilding process, and I've taken pride in that."
For Mike Bath, his days as a Miami quarterback don't seem that far off. The 36-year old from Celina, Ohio posted a 21-10 record in his four years in Oxford, which spanned from 1997-2000. Two of those seasons were played under Randy Walker, a man whose beliefs and attitude stuck with the budding student of the game.
"Be about the right things," Walker would say.
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The phrase is simple enough, but it covers more ground than one would imagine. At the end of every practice, on the sidelines of every game, you can hear Bath utter his predecessor's call to action. It's the mantra that he's instilling in the men of this program, something that extends and seeps into everything you do as a player, a friend and a man.
"You can't just be about the right things on the football field," Bath explains. "It's a lifestyle. It's about being about the right things in every facet of your life. If you're a slacker in the classroom ... you're not going to do all your work in the weight room. You're going to let relationships go by the wayside because you're not going to put the effort into them.
"It's something that takes time to overhaul and make a habit on a day-to-day basis. We're going to try to educate these young men that if you're about the right things, good things are going to happen to you and people are going to believe in you."
But the 0-4 interim head coach also knows that it's easier to preach this kind of homily when your team hasn't won a game. At the end of the day, winning is still vital. It's what sustains your program, and makes your school money. It's the primary reason for your team's existence, and no one can argue against that. A 8-26 record in the past three seasons doesn't cut it for the Mid-American Conference's winningest program.
On the Road Again
The caravan careens up I-71, making surprisingly good time as the afternoon sun fades over the right shoulders of its occupants.
The RedHawks take little notice of the outside world. By now, the players have fallen into various stages of emotional preparation, while some have even fallen into various stages of consciousness. A few listen to music in an attempt to drown out the drone of the bus's motor, and the occasional honk of a less-than-pleased driver several cars ahead.
Co-special teams coordinator Andrew Marlatt and graduate assistant Casey "Smitty" Smith sit up front, discussing politics, social issues and academics. They discuss local tax levies, and upcoming NFL games; the usual banter between friends that ensues on long drives. The conversation transitions into MAC football, and Northern Illinois' stud quarterback, Jordan Lynch. The two even briefly touch on Miami and where the program is headed.
Marlatt has a true Ohio football pedigree. The 1988 Miami graduate coached just about every team you can think of in the Cincinnati area for the past 20 years, and has been on Miami's staff since the beginning of 2013. He is pried away from his conversation with Smitty and asked a few questions about what the program means to him. The Miami merger and father of three is full of ideas for football growth, student relations, and ways to bring his team back to prominence, but he hones in on the present moment, speaking openly about the current situation of his 0-9 squad.
"It's not a downtrodden team," Marlatt says, motioning back at his players. "They're not just waiting for the season to get over with. They're hungry for a win, passionate about the game of football, and excited to become better football players, become masters of their craft. I'm very proud of them.
"We're obviously very disappointed in our record, and some of the games that we could have won, we didn't win because of the self-inflicted wounds - turnovers, missed tackles, blocked punts. But overall, the team is very positive and fun to be around on a daily basis. I don't drag myself into work, I'm excited to come to work because I enjoy it."
At some point in the trip, Smitty wrestles with the DVD player for a few minutes, fiddling with knobs and trying not to get in the driver's way.
"What's sounds good, boys?" A string of incomprehensible responses and random suggestions comes from some of the players a few rows back, so Smitty just pops in the first disc he comes across. "Coach Carter" soon flashes up on the interval of monitors that jut down from overhead every couple of rows. Several of the players watch intently as Samuel L. Jackson spends a few hours of screen time molding a rag-tag group of basketball underdogs into respectable student athletes and championship contenders. He gets them to believe, to understand that they are capable of more than anyone gave them credit for before.
"What is your deepest fear?" Jackson repeatedly asks his players. One young man eventually stands up with a line that's oddly applicable to the RedHawks themselves. Many of the bus passengers are now paying attention to the movie, and a few even know the quote by heart.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate," he tells his coach. "Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."
Fueling the Fire
The 3x2 itinerary printed out on lanyards for every player breaks down the team's actions hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute. It's going to be a highly-structured stay at the Cuyahoga Falls Sheraton Inn for the RedHawks, one that provides an opportunity for the players to ready themselves through a combination of eating right, resting up and reviewing game tape and strategy.
Back at the hotel, each player is paired off and checks into their respective rooms. The suite-style atmosphere is comfortable, and after the guys have a few minutes to settle in, they head down to the event room for a team dinner at 6:30 p.m.
Calling the buffet a feast would be a severe understatement. Chicken, pasta, steaks and potatoes are on display as the servers come from the kitchen in waves to keep up with the voracious appetite that some of these players possess. Even the graduate assistants go back for seconds, though it's nothing compared to what the linemen can put away. Coach Marlatt warns that for coaches, GA's, and traveling journalists, it's far too easy to gain five pounds while on a trip like this. He's right.
Their hunger temporarily abated, willing players are ushered into a makeshift chapel down the hall by defensive coordinator Jay Peterson. A few minutes after 7 p.m. he introduces friend and pastor Robert Brooks, who serves as the Cleveland Browns' chaplain. For 30 minutes, Mr. Brooks gives an eloquent and impassioned sermon that calls the team to action for Christ. He focuses not only on the RedHawks' on field play, but on how to grow and become men of action, a discourse that compliments what the RedHawk staff has stressed all year. The coaches sit in the back and listen intently. Bath's head is bowed, his hands are tightly clasped.
"Amen," they all conclude, together.
Ghosts of Football Past
It's not easy to live up to tradition, and Miami University is in no short supply. It might surprise some current students that as of the beginning of the 2013 season, Miami is 24th all-time in FBS program wins with 668. That's more than Wisconsin. That's more than California. It's 64 more than Oregon.
Tradition is just one of the reasons this 0-9 season has been so hard on the current program, as well as the university. But if you were to attend just one practice, you would know it's not for lack of effort - far from it, in fact. Practices are brutal, tiring affairs that drag on in the eyes of anyone not in top physical shape. The up-tempo sessions are spelled by few breaks, and each repetition is scrutinized by coaches and GA's. "Pick up that block! Square up your shoulders!" You hear phrases of the like belted out on every play, and the intensity is palpable.
"I've taken pride in the fact that these young men have been working hard," Bath says. "We've got great young men on this football team and it's unfortunate that we're overall where we're at from a record standpoint. But from a man-to-man, within this program [standpoint], these young men have stepped up. They've rededicated themselves. They've practiced hard."
It's difficult not to consider 0-9 a lost cause. Anyone who has competed in some form of athletics can recall the tribulation that a losing record embeds in the locker room. How do you rise above it, overcome it? For Coach Bath and the RedHawks, you do that by taking things one day at a time.
"This senior class has a lot to play for because they really do believe they're setting the foundation for the next decade," Bath explains. "And they're doing a great job of it. The results aren't on the scoreboard right now, but anyone that's been at practice knows that these guys are busting their rear ends. They lead by example. It's something I hope will get acknowledged over the next 10 years when this program gets back where it will go."
The "carpe diem" mentality wouldn't gain any traction if the seniors didn't commit to the cause. Thanks in large part to the four redshirt senior co-captains, that's the reality of things around the RedHawk locker room.
"Anybody can lead when things are going well," tight end and captain Steve Marck explains. "Everybody wants to be a part of the team, everybody wants to come watch. When you're a winless team, it's tough. Just being positive and realizing what position you're in, guys are looking up to you. What you do as a fifth-year captain is a large part of what ... freshmen are going to do."
Being positive is essential to the RedHawks' growth as a program, but it can only go so far, and their situation is admittedly dire. Miami is lucky to fill one-tenth of Yager Stadium's 24,286-person capacity at home games. It's a disconnect that players and coaches alike point to as the most tragic thing about this recent spiral: students just don't care about Miami football anymore. When asked why that is, Coach Bath thinks to himself for a while before answering.
"This program needs to be more visible," Bath says. "Whoever is the next head coach, or the administration, needs to make the program more approachable, more engaged, more visible on campus, just getting out there more. My hope for this program is that it does that, because that's been lost a little bit here lately, and when it was lost I don't know."
Bath ponders for a moment more. "And that's on us."
There are a lot of variables that factor into the chasm between students and their athletic peers, and fault lies on both sides, as well as with the university. But one of the reasons is glaringly apparent, and both Bath and Marlatt have referenced it on the trip.
"We need to win."
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