Miami hires Al Golden as head coach

Al Golden was named the twenty-second coach of the University of Miami football program on Sunday December 12th, 2010.

Time will tell what to make of the hire, but after a roller coaster two-week search, any fan who can take a step back will see that the Canes might’ve just landed a very good one when it’s all said and done.

Is this the ‘sexy’ hire and big name most were expecting as Kirby Hocutt delivered his State of The U address the morning after Randy Shannon was fired? In a word, no. Especially when the first name on Miami’s wish list was Jon Gruden.

If a Gruden politely declined, the surely Plan B had to be a high-flying, big time collegiate guy. Chris Petersen, Jim Harbaugh, Gary Patterson or some other BCS-bound, face of a successful program, no?

Not this off-season, at least.

Look no further than Gainesville for further proof that big name college coaches were choosing to stay put, for now. The University of Florida has one of the largest athletic budgets in the game, top-notch facilities two national championships in the latter half of the past decade and a talent-filled roster. It’s arguably one of the top jobs in the college game and when athletic director Jeremy Foley came calling days after Urban Meyer stepped down, few listened.

Instead, the Gators went after Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp – an up and comer, but an unproven entity as the 39-year old has zero head coaching experience to date.

Not only did Petersen, Harbaugh and Patterson show zero interest; Florida couldn’t even lure back two of their own. Former defensive coordinator and current Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops is staying put in Norman, while Meyer protege Dan Mullen will continue building the Mississippi State program he took over a few years back.

When news of Meyer’s retirement hit, Miami faithful immediately panicked, feeling that Florida’s search would complicate the Canes’ process. Instead, a blessing in disguise as the UF hire confirmed that big name coaches with very good jobs weren’t necessarily going to make the leap to what might even be deemed a great one.

Hard as it is to swallow, take it for what it’s worth; if Florida couldn’t get Petersen out of Boise or Harbaugh out of Stanford, Miami wasn’t getting either to Coral Gables.

Trace it back to the ‘Decade of Dominance’ era, right up through today. Miami is a place where big time coaches are made. No one has ever come to ‘The U’ with an overly impressive resume, but if you can endure all this city throws at you and you leave Coral Gables a winner, you can write your ticket anywhere – and that being the case, it takes a special and different type of personality and character to sign up for the gig.

Howard Schnellenberger fell from the Bear Bryant coaching tree, but was a perennial NFL assistant when heading to Coral Gables in 1979 and five years later had built the Canes into a national champion. Prior to that, his only head coaching experience was a one-year stint in the early 1970s where he led the Baltimore Colts to a 4-10 record.

Jimmy Johnson is still revered to this day, but before replacing Schnellenberger he was a Big 8 guy that couldn’t get his Oklahoma State squad over the hump, going 29-25-3 over five seasons, often smacked around by conference powerhouses.

Dennis Erickson trekked east from Washington State, where he went 12-10-1 in two years. Before heading to Pullman, Erickson went 6-6 at Wyoming, coming off a four-year run at Idaho, where his head coaching career kicked off.

With probation looming, Butch Davis took over a proud, yet about to fall Miami program – a job few wanted at the time. Davis spent the majority of his career shadowing JJ, winning ring as UM’s defensive coordinator in 1987 and two Super Bowls holding down the same title with the Dallas Cowboys a few years later.

Still, zero head coaching experience for Davis when re-arriving in the Gables fifteen years ago and like both Johnson and Erickson, wasn’t the first choice, sexy choice or big name fans were clamoring for.

Every coach Miami landed in its hey day was on the rise, but hadn’t reached their potential yet. Will the same be said for Golden when it’s all said and done?

Forty-one years old, a proven track record – albeit at a lesser program – and a hunger and passion this program hasn’t seen since Davis stepped on campus fifteen years ago. Life-wise, Golden is at that point where he’s primed to go next level. He cut his teeth at Temple and is primed for the next great career-defining challenge.

Many had Golden penciled in for the Penn State job when Joe Paterno finally stepped down. In the past he’s also taken his name out of the running when there were vacancies at both UCLA and Cincinnati, which are pluses.

This isn’t a guy that was just looking to make little moves here or there. This is someone who’s been biding his time, waiting to make that next-level leap and as mentioned in this blog before, timing again is everything.

Golden and ‘The U’ simply happened to cross paths at the right place and right time. It’s serendipitous and in time could go down at a defining moment for a program struggling to put recent failures in the rear view.

The new Miami leader has a lot to prove and absolutely deserves the benefit of the doubt with this oft quick to judge, hard to please fan base. He spent five years at Temple creating something out of nothing, taking over a program that was a disastrous 3-31 over three seasons prior to his arrival.

Golden’s squad went 1-11 his inaugural season (2006) but improved to 4-8 and 5-7 the next two years. By year four, a 9-3 regular season and bowl berth – which by Miami standards is meaningless, but for a program that hadn’t gone bowling in three decades and had only seen two post-seasons in their history, it was a monumental feat.

An 8-4 campaign in 2010 didn’t yield a bowl berth, but the Owls scored wins over Div-I FCS Semifinalist Villanova, Fiesta Bowl-bound Big East champs Connecticut and gave Penn State a run for it’s money in Happy Valley, leading at the half.

Again, moral victories don’t count in South Florida, but when talking about a void of talent Temple squad and where the program was before Golden’s arrival, you’re talking about a real-life underdog and success story.

For those Canes not quite over the moon with the hire, maybe you’ll be sold when you read what others are saying about Miami’s new guy.

CBS recruiting analyst Tom Lemming praised the hire saying, “The pressure was enormous for [Kirby Hocutt] to come up with a good guy … Miami needed a good recruiter and could have really suffered, but they hit a home run. Al Golden, he’s as good as Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Mack Brown and Jim Tressel, who I consider the top five recruiters in the country. He just never had the platform like he will at Miami.”

ESPN recruiting guru Tom Luginbill calls Golden a “safe and strong pick” and went on to say, “The bottom line is while Golden, a defensive-minded guy, might not be the flashy pick, he has a strong coaching foundation and a keen understanding of what it takes to win and run a strong program, both on and off the field. He is an excellent recruiter, and this was a safe pick who can build Miami the right way” while Ed Cunningham used ESPN’s College Football Live platform to call Golden-to-Miami an “A+ hire”.

On paper it might not be the ‘rock star’ hire you were expecting, but what it lacks in sizzle will be made up for in substance. Everything about Golden appears to be what UM needs and in many ways he is the antithesis of Shannon. The Canes just picked up a winner in life, which will translate to wins on the field. An up and comer who appears to ready to bloom and one with head coaching experience, meaning this won’t be another ‘learning while on the job’ situation that Miami endured with it’s last three hires.

Golden will be announced as Miami’s new head coach on Monday afternoon. Check back at allCanesBlog.com as we’ll have press conference video and more commentary on the Golden era of Hurricanes football.

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