University of Miami parts ways with athletic director Blake James

The University of Miami has fired longtime-but-embattled athletic director Blake James. James had served as the AD for “The U” since 2013.

The Hurricanes are 5-5 this year in football, and will again fail to win the ACC. They have reached on ACC Championship Game under James’ tenure. Miami is 68-44 under James, including 43-28 in the conference. Piling onto football, UM’s men’s basketball and baseball programs have declined in recent years under his watch, amping up the number of UM fans who wanted to see a change at the top of the entire department.

This is the culmination of a fall full of frustration around south Florida as the football program has sputtered in a year where there were high expectations. Head coach Manny Diaz has drawn his fair share of criticism with several people in the UM community calling for his firing. However, the targets of criticism have extended beyond just Diaz as higher ups like James, school president Julio Frenk, and the University of Miami Board of Trustees have been taken to task for their lack of care and funding in regards to UM athletics.

ESPN College Gameday co-host Kirk Herbstreit now famously ripped into the Hurricanes’ administration on an episode in late September, comments that ended up reverberating through the Miami community.

There is no indication of when the school plans on filling the vacancy and who they will fill it way. Whenever it does happens, the new AD will be immediately faced with a decision on what to do with Manny Diaz.

Update 5:59 p.m. UMiami makes it official: