There’s no better time to be Hurricanes fans than heading into 2026. After beating Ohio State, the Texas A&M Aggies, and Ole Miss, Mario Cristobal has lifted Miami to its best season since 2001 by breaking 23 years of tribulations and false hopes. Suddenly, Hurricanes fans forgot how to act. They were seen all across the United States flexing their dubs and calling “The U” the place to be after their 2025 success. A college football insider had enough and called out Hurricanes fans’ hypocrisy.

On January 16, Bobby Carpenter joined SiriusXM and went straight at Hurricanes fans for talking reckless. As if the last 20 years didn’t exist.

“My deal is Miami fans pretend like the last 20 years didn’t occur. Like, guys, this is 2025—it’s 26 now, Bobby said.

And by the way, even when they were good, nobody went to their games. It wasn’t full. When you have one of the top-ranked teams in the country, every other place would be full.”

According to Bobby Carpenter, the Hurricanes’ stadium was not even close to full, even when they were ranked No. 1 in the country back in the 2000s era. His point is that Miami fans talk like their program has always been the standard, but in reality, that doesn’t go hand in hand.

For years, the Miami Hurricanes were the subject of endless internet memes due to their “historic low-seats” problem. Even when they were ranked in the Top 25, it wasn’t uncommon to see TV broadcasts showing massive patches of empty orange and red seats at Hard Rock Stadium. Opposing fans loved to joke that the Hurricanes had “more scholarship players than fans in the stands,” creating a reputation that Miami only cared about football when a trophy was already in sight.

The lowest point for many was the 2022 season, where the program’s misery was on full display. During a shocking 45–31 home loss to Middle Tennessee, the official attendance got listed at 46,713. But judging solely from photos, it was basically half of that figure. If you look at their last five to six seasons, the numbers somewhat speak for themselves. The Hurricanes were barely at 43,00-ish in 2021 and jumped to around 66,000 in 2025–26.

For many. It’s also pretty ironic that Miami gets to play the biggest game of the decade in their own backyard at Hard Rock Stadium. The rest of the college football world finds it a bit rich that a team famous for having “home games” that looked like ghost towns now gets the ultimate home-field advantage for a title. Even though he beat everyone fair and square.

Even the way head coach Mario Cristobal is treated feels like a double standard. When he was losing games he shouldn’t have in 2022, everyone called him overrated and said he couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag. Now that the team is winning, he’s being hailed as the only man in America who can beat Curt Cignetti.

Now that the team is 13-2 and playing for the 2026 National Championship, the transformation is almost hard to believe. The same stadium that couldn’t give away tickets for a few bucks in 2022 is now the site of a ticket-buying frenzy. Getting a seat for the title game on Monday, January 19, has become a “once-in-a-lifetime” expense. With even the “cheap seats” in the upper deck being listed for no less $3,000 or more on resale sites.

What really bothers Bobby is the behavior of some Miami fans online:

The reality of the situation about 2026 natty for U fans

“I can give credit where credit is due. But I don’t need fans getting in my mentions just yelling at me about this and that, crying about Ohio State. Buddy.
It’s not a sensitivity issue… it’s an annoyance issue…It’s an inferiority complex.. It is what it is. So it’s time to get over it.”

His message is simple: enjoy your team, accept the past honestly, and stop attacking others to feel relevant. End of the day, the Indiana Hoosiers are 8.5 favourite before heading this game. If Miami beats No. 1 Indiana, the narrative of empty seats will officially be buried. At least for now.

They’ve successfully turned a stadium that was once a symbol of their “misery” into a sold-out home-field advantage for the biggest game in college football. While the “historic lows” will always be a part of their history books. The Hurricanes have managed to trade in those empty rows for a shot at a sixth national championship.

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