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You might not know that two of the best current NFL coaches also played for the RedHawks. And they’re still contributing to the program.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay are Miami alums. Both have been inducted into the school’s . Both have in Oxford, Ohio, alongside a who’s who of coaching legends that includes Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank, Ara Parseghian and Bo Schembechler.

The RedHawks will hold their team banquet Friday night before the Arizona Bowl against Colorado State on Saturday afternoon. As they do every year, Harbaugh and McVay will pick up the bill.

“Which is pretty special,� Miami coach Chuck Martin said.

Martin is about to complete his 11th season at Miami. He spent the first half of his coaching career at lower-level schools such as Grand Valley State, where he was part of four Division II national-championship teams, including two as the Lakers’ head coach.

Martin appreciates everything he has at Miami, even if it doesn’t compare to the resources at, say, Notre Dame, where he spent four seasons as an assistant before taking over the RedHawks’ program in December 2013. Whether that’s Harbaugh and McVay paying for the team banquet, Harbaugh being available to talk ball or at Miami’s indoor facility, Martin feels the love.

“They’ve all gone above and beyond,� he said.

The RedHawks have reached new heights on Martin’s watch. They’re competing in a bowl game for the fourth straight year — fifth if you exclude the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. They’re coming off back-to-back 7-1 regular-season records in the Mid-American Conference.

Before taking off for Tucson, Martin spoke to the Star by phone Monday afternoon. Topics included the RedHawks’ 2024 season; their tough, loyal quarterback, Brett Gabbert; the transfer portal; and how Martin rebuilt the program. The conversation has been lightly edited.

You guys started 1-4, then won seven straight before the MAC Championship Game. Was that start a product of the schedule, or had the pieces not quite come together yet?

A: “We went Big Ten (Northwestern), Big 12 (Cincinnati), Notre Dame the first three weeks. I think we were the only team in the country that started the season with three power (opponents). We had a win over UMass and then we were at Toledo. Toledo was the only team that beat us a year ago and then we beat them in the MAC Championship Game. So yeah, the schedule was very difficult.

“The other piece was our quarterback, who’s had an amazing career here. Last year, the first time we played Toledo, he snapped a bone in his leg. We ended up winning the MAC championship with our backup. He (Gabbert) had a successful surgery and a long, long, long road back.

“At the start of the year, he got cleared, but he hadn’t practiced in spring. He practiced very little in the fall. So he was not in midseason form. And we had bunch of new wideouts that he hadn’t worked with a ton. So early in the year, we were just off a little bit.�

Gabbert is a sixth-year player, and he’s spent all six at Miami. That’s almost unprecedented nowadays. What does that say about him?

A: “At the end of the ’22 season, he actually got in the portal for maybe a week to 10 days — and then called me and said it was the dumbest thing he ever thought about doing. He said it was the most miserable 10 days of his life. He was being recruited by people. It wasn’t like, ‘Get in and see what happens.’ He had Power Five people calling him.

“I’ve never really taken anybody back out of the portal. But there were different circumstances surrounding him. He broke his collarbone that year. He’s had an amazing run, but … he’d been through a lot. At the time, what was going on with him and us, we ended up taking him back. But it’s still amazing that we had the same kid for six years, particularly at that position.�

You’ve lost some starters to this year’s portal cycle. It’s par for the course these days. How do you deal with that as a coach and as a program?

A: “Minute by minute. We lost our two best wideouts, we lost our starting left tackle and we lost our best corner. They all had major offers before they got in the portal. … It’s just the way it is.

“I tell my other kids, ‘If you haven’t had contact from schools, and they haven’t told you what they’re giving you, don’t get in. That means there’s no interest. You don’t get in and gauge interest. If you do that, you’ll be one of the 2,000 kids that don’t find a home.’

“I’ve got Power (Four) coaches that I know, and I know who they’re going (after). Some of my friends are like, ‘We’re trying to get him, him and him and him.’ It’s just so open. It’s not like, ‘Hey, I don’t want to steal my buddy’s guy.’ They know who’s good and who’s not.

“Things really changed this year. I always try to tell my kids, ‘Make sure you’re gonna be a starter. I know the money’s good, but if you’re gonna be a backup, you’re probably ruining your career.’ I had four kids get in a year ago and it was a disaster for all of them. None of them played very much.

“The difference between this year and last year, they’re just paying so much this year it doesn’t matter if you’re a starter or a backup — you gotta go. Last year, I talked a bunch of kids out of going. They were getting paid backup money. … A lot of kids stayed, which was great for me. It’s why we had another great year.

“But this year, what they’re paying the backups at that level, there’s no conversation. … If you don’t play, they’re still paying you half a million dollars, they’re still paying you $400,000. And the starters are getting paid more than that. We had four kids get in. They probably cleared $2.5 million between the four of them.

“As much as I’d like them to stay, I understand totally why they’re going. We gotta try to find guys to reload and replace them.�

Miami has a storied history. But you took over a team that had gone 0-12. How did you change the culture and build this thing up?

A: “Our facilities were the worst in the country and we raised a bunch of money. We have a beautiful football facility that has everything you need. We’re not to the scale of the big boys, but we have everything the big boys have. And then we have a beautiful indoor (facility), which is as nice as any indoor in the country. So right away, within three years, we got our facilities to where you could actually recruit kids.

“We think we do a good job coaching, like anyone else does. Coaching is important. But coaching isn’t important if you don’t have good kids that are good players.

“Culture is a funny term. Coaches use it when they’re winning; they brag about their culture. But you never hear any of us talk about our culture when we lose.

“To me, you recruit your culture. If we recruit kids that are like-minded and believe in the same stuff we do, then we’ll have a great culture.

“Can you help a kid improve? Yes. Can you change 18 years of parenting? No. When I got here, I couldn’t change the culture till I got those kids out of here. They weren’t bad kids. They just they didn’t love the game. They didn’t love to compete. They didn’t work as hard as I believed they had to. But they weren’t recruited under that. They were recruited under a different set of guidelines.

“We ask them: ‘Are you willing to do extra?’ I know we got these eight-hour and 20-hour rules. I don’t know any world, any profession, where the most successful people don’t do extra. That’s life, you know? So we always ask, ‘Hey, are you a kid that likes to do extra? Are you going to let somebody outwork you? Is somebody going to outprepare you? How hard are you going to work to achieve your goals and dreams?’

“We’ve recruited kids that have talent; if they don’t have talent, we don’t start. But then through the talent, we try to find kids that think like we do. And then if you do, guess what? It’s not hard to have a great culture.�