Over the course of the summer, Canes305 and The Beast will be answering your questions regarding some of the hottest topics surrounding Hurricane Nation. The latest question comes from Ray in Los Angeles:
“Guys, after a few down years and a recent coaching change, what ONE thing are you most looking forward to this upcoming season when the Al Golden era gets underway?”
Canes305 : I’m ready to see a coaching staff that is a top its game. So tired of looking elsewhere and seeing good coaching, chemistry and teams that were doing their job. You think of the run that Urban Meyer had at Florida between 2006 and 2009, what Pete Carroll did at USC the better part of last decade, the stability and consistency Bob Stoops has had at Oklahoma and the immediate impact Nick Saban had out the gate at Alabama.
It feels like forever since Miami had quality coaching and when you talk about recruiting issues, the lack of player development, poor game planning, a lack of motivation and conditioning reaching a new low, it all comes back to the guy(s) in charge.
Randy Shannon never put together a quality staff in his four-year run, with tremendous turnover regarding assistants. Tim Walton. Bill Young. Patrick Nix. John Lovett. Mark Whipple.
The Larry Coker era wasn’t much better. While Shannon was the long-time defensive coordinator, Coker never settled on someone to run the offense after Rob Chudzinski bolted for the NFL. Promoting from within and giving the job to Dan Werner, only to then bring on retread Rich Olson and sticking him with Todd Berry, who the Coker wanted when the administration pushed for Olson.
With that kind of coaching turnover, look at the trickle down effect when talking about a player like Kyle Wright. Compare Wright’s Miami tenure to that of Ken Dorsey, Gino Torretta or some other past quarterback great.
Wright was recruited when Chudzinski was OC, redshirted and then played one year under Werner, dealt with the Olson/Berry combo as a junior and his senior year played under Shannon’s guy, Nix. Four offense coordinators and two head coaches probably wasn’t the way the four-star prospect out of California drew it up when heading south to follow in Dorsey’s footsteps.
When you look at yet another new staff at Miami, the first thing you pray for is stability. You hope that head coach Al Golden has brought on some quality guys that will grow and flourish. Last thing you want over the next few years is more turnover. Let’s see what happens when Jedd Fisch implements a new offense that has three or four years to grow. Same with Mark D’Onofrio and his defensive scheming.
For me, I’m most excited to see what this new staff can do to rejuvenate the careers of those guys who haven’t yet reached their potentials. Players from that highly-touted class of 2008 who never went next-level and now have a year (or two, if they redshirted) to right the ship.
Can this staff resurrect the career of Jacory Harris with some good coaching? Can a guy like Travis Benjamin turn it around after a down 2010? What about guys like LaRon Byrd and Aldarius Johnson – two more who shone as freshmen but have since somewhat disappeared? Guys like Sean Spence and last year, Brandon Harris, were able to rise above sub par coaching, but other players needed more development and haven’t yet received it. I want to see how this coaching staff motivates those guys, gets them in shape and turns them into the players they were destined to be.
We love a true feel-good, comeback story and that’s what I’m anxious to see. Any coaching staff can get it done with “their” guys, but how does Golden’s crew make something out of what they were left?
If Golden, Fisch and D’Onofrio (as well as the other assistants) can salvage the careers of yesterday’s top recruits, I think it will go a long way in telling us if this staff can hit the ground running, or if things will take longer to gel.
The Beast : It would be to easy to say #WINNING. allCanes could find some of those left over Charlie Sheen-craze t-shirts and we’d all be going on three week benders.
Last season, the Canes had thirty-six turnovers, ranking them second-to-last out of all FBS teams. Only Middle Tennessee had more turnovers than Miami with thirty-eight.
You can put some blame on Jacory, who has thirty-nine turnovers over his career, but the issue hasn’t just been with the quarterback. How many times have we seen receivers running wrong routes, false starts or holds by the offensive line and other generally dumb penalties at crucial moments? Miami was fourth-to-last nationwide in penalties last season, averaging more than eight yellow flags per game.
I’m going to guess Coach Golden and staff have watched last year’s film, coming to the simple conclusion that a cutdown in unacceptable turnovers and penalties would pay dividends.
If I could add a 1-B to my wish list, I’d like to see the overall program more fan friendly. The last few years were rough both on and off the field and when you just ended an era where your last head coach wouldn’t show up to CanesFest, you had a real problem on your hands.
This year’s CanesFest was just announced and it should be a great on-campus event. The lone negative; the fact that only season ticket holders will be able to get autographs and pictures with players.
While I can understand the idea behind that concept – wanting to get more fans to commit to the program through the purchasing of season tickets – that doesn’t fly for a team with a .560 winning percentage the past four seasons. Save the exclusive access events for down the road when you’re cranking out wins again.
Right now you’re trying to bring a lot of fans back; people who are pissed off they’ve bought season tickets for years and finally threw in the towel, disgusted with the product on the field.
Open up practices to ALL fans. Open autograph sessions and photo opps to ALL fans. Make players and coaches accessible to EVERYONE. After the pat half decade, staffers at ‘The U’ should be ELATED that fans want to attend these events.
As a fan and alum, I might be the minority, ready to cheer my team on whether they’re 11-1 or 1-11, but you can’t expect most South Floridians and casual fans to have that same allegiance.