Golden Makes Mark On Program With ’14 Class

Brace yourself as it’s coming. This year? Simply the tip of the iceberg for Al Golden and the Miami Hurricanes. Starting nest season, the gloves are off and the floodgates will open.

A quality bunch was reeled in on National Signing Day, but due to a few late decommits and overblown expectations in Coral Gables, some focus remains on the ones who wound up elsewhere, instead of on those who signed on.

While the sentiment is that Miami should be “back”, truth be told, based on what Golden inherited and spent two years dealing with, the fact the Hurricanes are even relevant is a bit of a miracle in itself. Same to be said for a consensus Top 10 class mostly put together last season when the talk of NCAA sanctions still hovered.

When judging this recent Miami haul-in, the past half decade-plus must be factored into the equation.

The 28-23 record Randy Shannon amassed over four seasons. The broken culture, sense of entitlement and lack of conditioning. Golden walked into a hot mess—and that was six months before Nevin Shapiro even became a household name.

There weren’t any signing day surprises for Miami this year, which tends to happen when all heavy lifting on the recruiting front is taken care of by Thanksgiving. Golden and staff had upwards up 30 verbal commitments weeks before bowl season, while other major programs posessed half that.

The Hurricanes lost a few late and hoped for some last-minute pick-ups, but in reality, anything else would’ve been gravy based on what had already been accomplished.

Miami notched a top-ranked class in 2008, which sits as a benchmark to the anti-Golden contingent.

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