Something’ is happening in Coral Gables, the extent of which at this moment is not entirely clear.

But from this semi-expert’s eyes, it would appear that the Miami Hurricanes are once again very, very good at football.

More proof of said phenomenon surfaced just this last weekend, as the Hurricanes flexed their bona fides against the Louisville Cardinals — outlasting their ACC foe 5245. That moved Miami to 7-0, and most certainly kept it securely in the Top 10 rankings for yet another week.

The reason we talk about the Canes in such a way is that, well, this is a bit of a renaissance for the team after recent efforts. Once the big, bad bully on the block, Miami had spent the better part of the last couple of decades largely languishing in the second tier of college football’s consciousness.

No more, though. The U is back doing The U things, though maybe not at the semi-felonious level that Miami enjoyed back in the pre-ACC halcyon days — when Larry Coker, Dennis Erickson, Jimmy Johnson and Howard Schnellenberger were defending the wall around Dade County.

It took bringing back a favorite son, former Canes player Mario Cristobal, to finally re-ignite the torch that is now burning brightly for Hurricane Nation to see coast to coast. Said torch was routinely getting snuffed out by the mediocre coaching efforts of Randy Shannon, A1 Golden, Mark Richt and Manny Diaz. With the exception of Richt’s 10-3 effort in 2017, there wasn’t a single 10-win effort in there since Coker went 11-2 in Miami’s final season in the Big East back in 2002.

That’s 22 years, by my math, which means the vast majority of current Hurricanes players haven’t even drawn a breath in a world that included Miami football relevance. Even ninth-year tight end Cam Mc-Cormick was just 4 years old during Richt and Miami’s last 10-win season, which is alarming stretch of irrelevance by any standard.

Make no mistake; any stretch of irrelevance is not the kind of standard Miami established in the previous era. Starting with Schnellenberger, Miami systemically recruited and cultivated South Florida athletes around the promise of swagger and victories.

The Canes delivered in both aspects, branding themselves as the bad boys of college football with both on- and off-field antics while simultaneously beating the brakes off of any team that lined up against them. The result? Five national titles from 1983 through 2001, a near program-killing Pell Grant scandal and enough hijinks to fill not one “30 For 30” episode but two.

Flash forward 20-plus years, and Miami — at least on the gridiron — is Miami once again. Cristobal shrewdly navigated the transfer portal during this most recent offseason, the crown jewel being snagging quarterback Cam Ward after two seasons of semi-anonymity at Washington State.

Ward toyed with entering the NFL Draft before choosing to roll the dice with Cristobal and the Canes. That calculated gamble has paid off like a slot machine through seven games, as Ward’s passing attack leads the nation in yards per game (over 400 entering the Louisville matchup) and points per outing (47.7 every time Miami tees it up).

That has drawn not only considerable Heisman Trophy attention Ward’s way, but also increasing belief that Cristobal is the man that Miami truly needed to dig out of the Quicksand of Irrelevance and walk among the titans of the sport.

Miami has needed a fair amount of luck so far this season to remain perfect, including consecutive come-from-behind survivals against Virginia Tech and Cal — the latter a 25-point climb in the middle of the night in Berkeley to keep the dream alive.

Miami is back, truly back; The U of old in so many ways. College football is better for it, too, as a healthy Miami sends the message to those kids in South Florida that they don’t need to chase NIL cash elsewhere when they can thrive right there at home.

Can the Canes continue this magical 2024 run alive and bring home a sixth national championship trophy? Time will tell… but it certainly should be a fun journey to witness.

Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson airs weekdays from 3-5 p.m. on Southwest Florida’s Fox Sports Radio (105.9 FM in Collier County), and streaming on FoxSportsFM.com. EES