I’ve written many times here that I’m a fan of the Sun Sentinel’s Dave Hyde. I’ve always dug his writing style and his ability to drive his point home. I also think the timeliness of his work is spot on and he’s done it again with his latest piece regarding the University of Miami lowballing Randy Shannon, stalling contract talks.
Whether you’re pro or anti-Randy, this one is on the University of Miami and the lack of cooperation in getting this deal inked is 100% on the notoriously cheap program.
UM top brass, you brought in Randy at bottom dollar and he’s currently the lowest paid coach in the ACC – despite showing improvement each year and having his team in the conference title hunt two of the past three seasons. True, he hasn’t gotten the Canes to the ACC title game, but he’s getting closer and if you want to get over the hump, you have a decision to make.
Coaches are already recruiting for the 2011 class and current recruits want to know if they can count on Shannon being at the helm next season. Are you really willing to lose top-flight recruits over a couple hundred thousand dollars? What kind of message are you sending?
Get the deal done already. Don’t penalize Shannon over blunders Paul Dee made with Larry Coker, Ferne Labati and Perry Clark. Shannon is a long-time Cane that has given heart and soul to this program for decades. If he was asking for stupid money, sure, negotiate away… but we know that’s not the case. UM is simply being penny safe and pound foolish and in the end, the football program will pay in one way or the other.
Get the deal done… and read Dave Hyde’s piece if you need the point driven home even further.
Hyde: University of Miami low-balling Randy Shannon on contract deal
Lack of extension is a thundercloud over next season
Let’s say you’re a young lawyer. You’re given a bad caseload. You win more than most. You don’t color outside any ethical lines. But when it’s time to talk money, you’re offered less than your peers.
How would you feel?
Or let’s say you’re a young salesperson. You inherit an underachieving territory. You do a good job rebuilding it. But when it’s contract time, your boss gives you a low-ball offer.
How would you feel?
You’re Randy Shannon. You inherited an empty cupboard at Miami football and have improved each year. You cleaned up the off-field issues. You put the graduation rate among the nation’s best programs.
Yet when he’s talked money with Miami over the past several months, four formal proposals have gone back and forth, according to a source. It has become the strangest of stories.
The latest offer remains less than new Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher’s $1.8 million a year. It’s less than new South Florida coach Skip Holtz’s $1.7 million a year.
It’s less than Duke’s David Cutcliffe, who is the 10th highest paid coach in the ACC at a reported $1.5 million a year.
It’s on par with the $1.3 million George O’Leary makes at Central Florida, the source said. This isn’t to question that’s a lot of money. It’s to put that money in context of his peers.
How would you feel?
Shannon stays silent a moment. He looks across the practice field. He finally says in a measured tone, “I have faith in the university and hopefully, someday soon, it’ll get done.”
Money evidently is the only holdup to Shannon and Miami’s administration. But it impacts more than that. It impacts the future. It involves Shannon entering the final year of his current contract, which is something coaches never do for obvious reasons.
Take this past year’s recruiting class.
“It had an effect,” Shannon said. “I was asked point-blank by recruits, ‘Are you going to be there next year?’ Some of the universities we were going against were saying, ‘Why go to Miami when my coach has a new contract?’ ‘’
Shannon has taken Miami from five to seven to nine wins. He’s building something. But he isn’t perfect. When you hire a first-time head coach, there’s a learning curve involved and he’s lived it these past three seasons.
He’s made mistakes. Clock management. Media. Boosters. He can do better. He needs to win bigger. He says so himself.
But if this was about performance, why not build a bonus into the contract? A real bonus, like Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who had a clause jumping him from $800,000 last year to the ACC median salary of $1.75 million next season for making the conference championship game.
Shannon is asked if he’d accept a clause like that and nods his head. “Yes,” he says.
Everyone knows Miami athletics run on a shoestring. Shannon raised much of the money to improve the facilities from the Stone Age.
Shannon made less than $1 million the past few years. That’s understandable for a first-time coach who had done nothing. But basketball coach Frank Haith is in the same neighborhood. He’s made the NCAA tourney one time in six years.
Miami has the richest football recruiting pool in the country, and so the job always has attracted young, hungry coaches who make a name here and money elsewhere.
Jimmy Johnson. Dennis Erickson. Butch Davis now is the third-highest-paid coach in the ACC at $2.2 million despite having won less than Shannon with more drafted NFL talent the past few years.
No one is suggesting Shannon should be the highest paid coach in his conference (Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson is at $2.3 million a year). But should it be just above Boston College’s Frank Spaziani for the worst?
These things usually are worked out behind closed doors. This one isn’t yet. It’s gone on and on and on. It wasn’t just a recruiting story against Miami. It’s a storm cloud on the coming season, too. A college coach and his staff entering its final year?
“It’ll get done,” Shannon says.
That it hasn’t by now is weird enough.
I don't know how much you guys think a "fair" offer would be. But randy shannon on the open market probably wouldn't command much more than 1.2 maybe 1.3 mil a year..
not to mention we haven't even won our division yet, so i don't understand the rush to pay this guy anything close to what the best coaches in the conference are getting.
The issue is when you hear about Derek Dooley getting $2M at Tennessee or Jimbo Fisher (FSU) and Mike London (UVA) getting just shy of the $2M mark, none of the three having coached one game as a head coach.
That's two ACC coaches making more than Shannon and they're 0-0 at the helm.
Randy hasn't won the division, but he took the UM job when no one else wanted it and he's improved each of the past three seasons.
Furthermore, we're talking about a few hundred thousand dollars here and if UM cares about this football program, the fact that recruits are now getting cold feet regarding Randy's future – their bluff has been called.
Also, make the contract incentive-based, like Hyde mentions Clemson did with Sweeney.
Offer x-amount up front and the load the back end for an ACC title game berth, more for an ACC title, more for a BCS game, more for a BCS title game, etc.
If UM structured it that way and Shannon didn't take it, then the onus would be on him… but when he's being low-balled and is making less than 11 other ACC head coaches – including two guys who have never coached a game – I'd stand my ground if I were in his shoes, too.
You need to do better detective work.
Derek Dooley was the Head Coach at La. Tech for 3 years, did he have great success? no.. but it's La Tech.
Mike London's record as a head coach is 24-5, and he's won a national championship (and he's also won his conference).
Jimbo fishers is the only one that hasn't been the head coach anywhere, but jimbo fisher is also a commodity. If FSU didn't pay him his money there were PLENTY of schools that would have paid him that or more.
Randy shannon falls into 0 of those three categories. Dude hasn't even won the coastal for god's sake.. so what if we lose a few recruits? The U was The U before randy shannon, if a few recruits really want to hitch their wagon to the randy shannon train, fine.. "if they don't want to be at the U then we don't want them" isn't that what we here every time a top flight recruit spurns us for another program? or does it not apply now because it's attached to randy shannon's job?
Miami got burned with Coker and Perry Clarke; it may not be fair to Randy but that is certainly affecting his salary negotiations. Of course there is also the home team discount that Miami is paying and let's be honest here, do you think Miami would pay Mike London or Derek Dooley more than they are offering Randy?
You need to do better detective work.
Derek Dooley was the Head Coach at La. Tech for 3 years, did he have great success? no.. but it's La Tech.
Mike London's record as a head coach is 24-5, and he's won a national championship (and he's also won his conference).
Correct.
I lost my train of thought when I was responding last night. Thanks for pointing that out. I knew that London had some success at Richmond, albeit a much smaller program. He still needs to prove what he can do at UVA and an almost $2M payday is a pretty penny for a guy who hasn't coached in the big leagues.
Also, Richmond was 11-3 in 2007 and was a program on the rise when London took over. His two-year stint didn't necessarily prove his mettle as a head coach.
As for Dooley, a pretty big reward for a guy who went 4-8 last year at Louisiana Tech. He may have been a head coach, but he hasn't proven much.
Fisher is the only one I understand getting that money – the one with NO experience – as he's been a coach in waiting for a few years and has to fill Bowden's shoes, which means he'll earn his money if/when the FSU fan base turns on him should he lose some ballgames.
If the U is committed to keeping Randy, then by all means pay him. Instead of being cheap do something to generate more revenue for the program. Have budget parking in the outer lot. $25 bucks is way to high for out there. Have contests for cheap seats to get an upgrade like in the Heineken Light commercial. Lower some of the food and drink prices. Better deals and more fans will not only show up but keep coming back. I love this team and I will pay whatever it takes to go all the home games and hopefully at least one road game but, I am in the minority in this town. South Florida only supports a winner and unless Randy gets PAID his fair share the U will be looking for a new Head Coach and will be dealing with further set backs.
REASONS WHY SHANNON NEEDS AN EXTENTION AND A BONUS: 1. He stepped into his first head coaching position ever and inherited a train wreck. He took over a lackluster roster littered with players with little to no play making ability and produced two winning seasons working with Coker's recruits. 2. He's instilled discipline to what was considered an "out of control program" under coker. Only two arrests in the last 3 years and produced one of the highest graduation rates in the nation. 3. He improved the team every year as far as overall record, landed two top 15 recruiting classes in two years. 4. He's had miami competing every year for an ACC championship appearance comming within two games of it. 5. He rebuilt miami's roster with much needed talent and depth 6. He helped miami enter the top 10 for the first time since 2003 and finish in the top 25 or even be in it since 2005 after starting the season unranked. ARE U KIDDING, PAY THIS MAN HIS MONEY MAN.
I don't know how much you guys think a "fair" offer would be. Randy hasn't won the division, but he took the UM job when no one else wanted it and he's improved each of the past three seasons. The U was The U before randy shannon, if a few recruits really want to hitch their wagon to the randy shannon train, fine.. Of course there is also the home team discount that Miami is paying and let's be honest here, do you think Miami would pay Mike London or Derek Dooley more than they are offering Randy? If the U is committed to keeping Randy, then by all means pay him. South Florida only supports a winner and unless Randy gets PAID his fair share the U will be looking for a new Head Coach and will be dealing with further set backs. ARE U KIDDING, PAY THIS MAN HIS MONEY MAN.