Justin Dottavio

Raleigh

Owner, Cheat Code Athletic Performance and Assistant Site Editor at State of the U

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Articles

Summer Scheming ‘25: Florida Gators

1 day ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Florida Gators finished the 2024 season on a four game heater that included wins over ranked teams in LSU and Ole Miss as well as a rivalry week victory over Florida State. The Gators wrapped up the year with a record of 8-5 and a win in the Gasparilla Bowl. Over three seasons in Gainesville, FL, Billy Napier has a record of 19-19 and an SEC record of 10-14.
Don't Skip Conditioning, Redefine It

3 days ago | blog.teambuildr.com | Justin Dottavio

As coaches, we have an endless supply of information at our fingertips. You can find drills, practice plans, clinics, strength programs, and X’s and O’s from thousands of sources instantly. Well… if you're on a school campus, it's a little slower than instantly—but still a whole lot faster than it was in 2003 (my rookie year). With this amount of information available sometimes it gets hard to figure out what’s the truth and what’s fiction.
Storm Chasers ‘25: The ‘Canes fan travel guide to Pittsburgh, PA

3 days ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images Welcome back to a one-off edition of the Storm Chasers, this time covering the travel guide for Pittsburgh, PA. The Miami Hurricanes will face the Pitt Panthers on Thanksgiving Weekend, Saturday, November 29th. Storm Chasers has covered Miami Hurricanes football road trips to Atlanta, Charlottesville, Blacksburg, Clemson, College Station, Tallahassee, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill.
Summer Scheming ‘25: South Florida Bulls

1 week ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images The South Florida Bulls finished the 2024 season 7-6 (4-4 in conference) with one of those losses coming at home to the Miami Hurricanes. The Bulls didn’t just manage to get back to a bowl game, they won the Hawaii Bowl over a plucky San Jose State team. USF head coach Alex Golesh has coached the Bulls to a 14-12 record including consecutive 4-4 seasons in the American. Under Golesh the Bulls have played in and won their bowl twice in two seasons.
Summer Scheming ‘25: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

2 weeks ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Edward Diller/Getty Images The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes open the 2025 season in a Week One showdown at Hard Rock Stadium. Notre Dame finished the 2024 season in 2025, as in they played in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against eventual champion Ohio State. The Buckeyes took care of business against ND, but the Irish certainly put up a fight at times in a 34-23 final.
Summer Scheming ‘25: Miami Hurricanes Self-Scout

3 weeks ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Miami Hurricanes finished the 2024 season with a record of 10-3 and missed out on the ACC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff. Head coach Mario Cristobal now has a 22-16 overall record but a 12-12 record in the lowly ACC. Under Cristobal, Miami has improved in their high school recruiting and they’ve hit on big transfer portal targets while not improving the quality of product on the field.
The Business of Winning College Football Games

4 weeks ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Allsport/Getty Images College athletics are a business and that’s never been more evident than in the current state of the FBS. GM’s, NIL deals, million dollar assistant coaches... college football is a business. In the world of startup businesses, many entrepreneurs use the Lean Canvas Business Model. The LCBM has nine segments but we’re going to combine a few and eliminate some more to get down to a five-segment Lean ‘Canes Business Model.
The Canyonero Keys to Victory for every Miami Hurricanes game in 2025

1 month ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images The 2024 Canyonero Keys to Victory turned out to be nearly as prophetic as if I had Biff Tannen’s Gray’s Sports Almanac in my hands while writing the post. In the post I predicted a 10-2 regular season record, called the Cal trip a trap game, said Miami would have to out bully ball Georgia Tech, out gun Syracuse, and had too much talent for FSU and Louisville.
Which teams in the ACC were lucky, good or both in 2024?

1 month ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Samuel Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Clemson Tigers won the 2024 ACC Championship Game over the SMU Mustangs 34-31 in Charlotte, NC this past December. The Tigers required Miami’s self-implosion in order to backdoor into the ACCCG where they edged SMU on a late game 56-yard field goal. After their big win over the ‘Stangs, the Tigers immediately dropped their playoff game to the Texas Longhorns by a double-digit margin.
The ACC 2025 Preseason Hype Train

1 month ago | stateoftheu.com | Justin Dottavio

Photo by Peyton Williams/Getty Images The ACC hasn’t had a ton of hype behind it since Trevor Lawrence headed to the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL. Even with a Heisman Trophy candidate in Cam Ward, the league faced being third fiddle to the SEC and Big Ten while battling with the Big 12 for middle brother status. It’s my mission to get the ACC hype machine going, even if on a small stage.