The Dominance of Miami-Dade

[OldSchoolLion]

Unless one has followed an entire season of Miami-Dade football, it's difficult to fully appreciate its teams.  In any one year, there are normally about 8-10 teams in MIami-Dade county who could beat, or at least give fits to, most teams in the state.  Dade kids have an "edge" and their teams have a "nastiness" factor that is hard to quantify. 

From a polling perspective...I routinely see teams placed above certain Miami-Dade teams...teams that have little to no experience playing anywhere near the competition of the Dade schools, nor historical experience beating Dade schools in the regular season or playoffs.  If currently ranked teams from north and central FL came to Dade County and played a series of games there, even against the B+ schools of Dade, I think they would have all they can handle.  

Northwestern is not ranked in the top 25 now.  On any one night, am confident the Bulls could go to the wire with many of the north and central FL teams ranked above them in our site's current Top 25 poll. A "B+" (by Miami-Dade standards) Southridge team just took out Rockledge at home.  A team like Coral Gables gets no love in the polls, but I would not bet against them in a game versus Vero, especially in Miami.  

Dade's neighbors to the north in Broward are often given the benefit of the doubt in the polls, in a manner of speaking...even St Thomas.  At the end of the day, we'll never know how St Thomas stacked up against Dade County schools over the past 25 years because they have played so few of Dade's better teams, relatively speaking.  Back in the early 2000's, a nasty Edison team took out highly touted Aquinas and Chaminade squads.  Broward''s teams, as a whole, have never come close to Dade's.  From a program perspective, St Thomas is far above the rest in Broward, and I question how St Thomas would have fared over the years playing a tough Dade schedule....always have.  

 

 

[Cjm04]

I was in Ft Myers in the early 2000s, every year if we made the playoffs, we matched up with Edison.  Riverdale, the school just west of us would match up with Glades Central.  Needless to say, that is where our playoff runs would end.  Dade is different and anyone that says different hasn't had to routinely play those schools.  They are not usually going to wow you with a bunch of colorful stuff, they are going to be disciplined, physical, athletic, and coached up to their schemes.  Central, Northwestern, Carol City, Southridge, South Dade, Coral Gables, ETC do not have to run super exotic stuff to beat you.  They physically destroy their opponents every rep.