allCanesBlog.com’s Brian ‘The Beast’ London sat down with Miami Hurricanes head coach Al Golden for a one-on-one last week. Many of you asked for the transcripts for the interview so we’re posting here for the diehards who couldn’t get enough. Also, for those who missed the sit-down, click here for a listen.
Beast : What was your mindset as you attacked recruiting this year, taking into account all of the adversity you guys went through this year?
Golden : We were just going to be who we have been and who we are. I can’t really speak to the obstacles, as far as what transpired. I know we endured we a lot as a football program and as a football team this year, stemming from August 14th. We faced suspensions all year long. We just never seemed to have continuity or consistency. We just never seemed to be the same team, week in and week out. That was disappointing because we always try to have a process. From a recruiting standpoint, this is a great place to recruit to. You’re selling an opportunity, not only to go to a great school, but to be a part of a program like Miami and make a difference and I think a lot of these kids fashion themselves as guys that can make a difference.
Beast : You spent a lot of time on the road. Did not going to a bowl game help you from the standpoint that you had more time to spend on the road and recruit?
Golden : You can sit around and sulk, or you can take advantage of it. We chose to take advantage of it. Obviously we were behind other schools in this state and in this region, because we were not only new to this region but new to the University of Miami. It really gave us a chance to catch up. I wouldn’t say we got ahead, but I would say we’re caught now in terms of knowing who’s coming down the pike, with the juniors and sophomores and knowing the high school coaches.
Beast : You’ve been labeled as a great recruiter. How do you attack it differently than other coaches?
Golden : I try to be honest and I try to listen. I try to see what the needs are of the family and the young man and obviously try to fulfill those needs. It’s flattering but, I don’t know, we just move forward. We have a great staff. Obviously we have a great product here, great tradition, great weather, and obviously from a diversity standpoint and cultural standpoint, we’re second to none. It’s kind of second to none. We’re exposed to a lot of kids in camp, that it didn’t matter to us how many stars they had, that if they could do it (we’d recruit them). We battled down the stretch with some big guys and won, which was good.
Beast : You got Tracy Howard from Miramar. In the past that may not have been a kid that you got, from that high school, but you stayed with him. He was a Gator lean, but you got him. Talk about Tracy’s recruitment. (Note : Al then goes on to talk about Antonio Crawford instead.)
Golden : I’m too dumb to know what schools we’re supposed to be doing good at or not good at. I’m almost naive to it. We went into (Tampa) Plant High School, and the last time we got a kid from Plant (Robert Marve) it didn’t have a good ending, but I was naive to it. To some extent I can’t do anything about that, but here’s what we are offering, for Antonio Crawford in that case. Here’s why we want him…Here’s the opportunity that he has. From that standpoint we just sold who we are, and what our program is all about.
Beast : You did well recruiting South Florida. How important is it to put that “fence” up around this area?
Golden : I don’t like the fence phrase, or mantra. I think you can get to a spot as a coach where you can get A too political, and B, you’re just recruiting kids to just make sure other teams don’t recruit them. I don’t want to do that. This was a unique year where we ended up signing thirty-three kids, but for the most part you’re looking at eighteen to twenty-two kids a year. We’re not going to get every kid from down here. We’re not. Let’s just make sure the twenty that we do get, are the right twenty, that can do the things that we can ask them to do, that want to get a degree, that want to go to a great school, that want to win a championship, that understand our core values. There are some guys that got away this year that a lot of the fans will say ‘why did we lose that guy?’ At the end of the day, would you have traded these guys we got down the stretch? Would you have traded (Robert) Lockhart, Tracy Howard, Deon Bush, Tyriq McCord, for some of those guys that supposedly got away?
Beast : Quarterback was an important position for you in recruiting because of a lack of numbers there. You had Ryan Williams transfer in from Memphis and you recruited three in this class, two are on campus. How important was it to fill out that spot?
Golden : It’s going to be great for competition. Just to go out there every day during the Spring and see four guys throwing. I’m used to seeing that at every program I’ve been at, and we haven’t had that here. To have four guys throwing, and four guys competing…to see that dynamic and to know that they’re talented and that they’ll all get a shot with the first team, or first and second team this spring. I think it’s great.
Beast : So you don’t just hand the keys to Stephen Morris and just go with it?
Golden : We don’t hand the keys to anybody. I’m not very political. I don’t do what’s popular. I don’t think Jacory would have gotten a chance last year if I was. There was a lot of people that were saying this is really easy, you should pick Stephen, you’re a new coach etc. At the end of the day I let them compete and other than the last game, Jacory had a good year.
Beast : You installed the U-Tough off-season program last year. The guys are back at it again now. How has this year’s offseason program changed since last year’s?
Golden : It’s weird. Down here things take on a persona of their own some times and I don’t get it. I know a lot of coaches don’t get it either. Big deal. Just because they weren’t doing it here before we got here doesn’t mean that it’s punishment, or punitive, or that we’re doing something special. Every team in America is going to do something like that in the off-season. That’s not really the challenge. When I hear guys say, “nobody is working like this,” that’s not true. That’s not true. Everybody is out there. It’s just a function of who can get their eighty or ninety players to have the best off-season program, the best stations, the best work out, that’s who is going to rise to the top. We all have the same work outs. We all have the same weights. We all have the same computers. That’s what the culture is all about. It’s who can create more value from their opportunity then the other eleven guys and opponents.
Beast : Something other schools don’t have though is a fleet of Pro Bowlers parading around in the off-season. How does that help?
Golden : I’m good with it. I’m walking on campus the other day and a guy with a hat on stops by me in his car and says, “Hey coach, how’s it going?” He said, “Hey Coach, great recruiting class.” I looked and, “Oh man I’m sorry.” It’s Jimmy Graham. So that’s a little bit weird. There’s two things going on. The kids are obviously screaming about the life they had here in Coral Gables and at the University of Miami because they are always coming back. What’s that phrase? “What you do speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.” That’s a great example. Guys can say I love this school or that school, but the reality is, how many of them go back to that school. These guys all come back to this school, so there’s something special about the University of Miami and Coral Gables. Clearly players want to come back to Miami to year-round temperature that’s about 82 degrees.
Beast : We heard the rumors about Penn State and UCLA. You had other opportunities, but you chose to stay here. Why?
Golden : I think you can do great things here. I said it on Signing Day, but this is just the beginning. We don’t want it to be like every one takes a deep breath and we had success with a recruiting class. You have to get to the point where you’re consistently expecting that, and not only with recruiting but in every aspect. You talked about U Tough. We have to get to the point where we are consistently beating those drills, and we’re not yet. We have a long way to go. We have to have symmetry with our depth. From that standpoint we have a long way to go. Eventually, we’re going to develop that symmetry, and build classes and vertical depth, so that when someone does go down we have someone to move up or have competition constantly at every position. We were too comfortable at too many positions a year ago for my liking. We didn’t have enough guys challenging or enough competition. We just have to keep moving the program forward and eventually it’s going to pay dividends.
Beast : What went through your mind when Joe Paterno passed away?
Golden : It was tough. It was tough. The night before he passed, I started getting requests, and I thought that was distasteful. I said I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I woke up the next morning and he was gone. It was hard, because he was always there. I don’t want to equate it to anything, but if you grew up in New York or New Jersey or on Long Island..the World Trade Center was always there. When you were driving around….a lot of people can feel the impact of the lost lives, and the tragedy, and the terrorism and everything but it was like you always had that beacon. If you were driving around, you always knew what direction you were going in based on those buildings, when you grew up there. For us that played for him, we could always measure ourselves by him, or his affirmation or his approval. IT was tough when that was gone. At the same time you feel like there was a lot he left with us. I struggled. I struggled that whole Sunday. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. Everyone wanted me to go on TV and I didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t feel I could do it.
Beast : You had a chance to visit with him just before he died on December 29th. Could you get a sense that all of the events of the last few months were taking a drastic toll on him?
Golden : Two things. He was was probably grief stricken, number one. And number two, he always, and I don’t know the psychological aspects of it, but certainly there was a self-fulfilling prophecy there, and he always said it about Coach (Bear) Bryant, I think he always knew in his mind that when football was over, he wasn’t going to make it too long. I think he was afraid of that and I think it motivated him. To see it end that way was horrific. Again it’s hard for the players or the Penn Staters, because there’s someone on the outside world that as soon as you say something like, “Hey Joe meant a lot to me and I don’t want that legacy to be destroyed”, they’ll say “what about the kids?” Don’t think for a second that I’m not saying “what about the kids?” I wanna make sure we get that right. As someone that played there and worked there, and knew Joe well, we’re not saying that’s excused. It’s hard to in one sentence to make peace with the whole way that Joe passed. As I said, I’m proud of what he taught me and what he and Sue meant to us and I’m proud of that. That’s not something I’m ashamed of.
Beast : You lost a lot of leadership and talent. Is it possible for the incoming freshmen to replace that?
Golden : They have to. We played the most freshmen in America in 2007 and 2008 at Temple and it ended up being these guys that won the most game in the history of that program. There’s going to be a lot of young guys that have to play. We recruited forty-eight guys in the last thirteen months, which was exhausting. I think the stat of the year, that goes unnoticed, is that we signed thirty-three guys on forty-eight visits. That’s hard to do.
Beast : Are we sticking with the tie?
Golden : I’m sticking with the tie. I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal, but yeah, I believe in it. I’m going to stay with it till we get it right.