Al Golden is still the head coach of the University of Miami’s football program, though based on events that have occurred the past few weeks, that might not necessarily feel like the case.
While Golden has been prepping for a bowl game, pounding the recruiting pavement and going ghost with the media since the Hurricanes’ season-ending three-game skid, former head coach Butch Davis has been all the rage.
Miami’s fan base has been waxing nostalgic and partying like it’s 1999, while Davis has been walking the red carpet and doing press like he’s rolling out a hot new release at Sundance.
The resurgence began weeks back when Billy Corben and Rakontur premiered “The U Part 2” at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach. Davis and a handful of former players were in attendance, while frustrated fans reminisced with a walk down memory lane, followed by an expected, “We Want Butch!” groundswell.
Since then, Davis showed up in print, via the Miami Herald after giving an arsenal of soundbites to Barry Jackson, while his latest appearance came on Monday’s Joe Rose Show, in the slot usually reserved for the conspicuously absent Golden.
While some will point to Davis’ tactics as below-the-belt—making it clear he’s interested in the Miami job, should it become available, while critiquing the current staff—his capitalizing on the recent exposure is somewhat understood.
Playing the role of talking head the past few years after things unraveled at North Carolina, Davis is ready to get back into coaching and simply needs to remind folks what his resume boasts. Corben’s recent film painted him in a positive light and the former Miami coach is making the most of his resurgence.
Still, it’s easy to acknowledge that Davis is somewhat crossing a line—propping up what made him successful, while taking backhanded shots Golden’s current process.
When asked by Jackson why the Hurricanes program has declined, Davis didn’t miss a beat.
“It’s got to be the talent level,” the coach-turned-analyst explained. “Somebody is not evaluating the talent. Name the time they weren’t ranked in the top 13 or 14 in recruiting classes. And 29 of these guys are gone in the last four years [some of those still at UM] are not good players.
“You can’t recruit enough kids just living in Miami to win a national championship. Howard Schnellenberger had it right when he talked about recruiting from Tampa to Orlando to the Space Coast south. You can get 10, 14 players everyone would love to have from South Florida and then cherry-pick other players.”
“Somebody” isn’t evaluating the talent properly? “Somebody” isn’t recruiting well enough if Miami’s backyard, or nabbing top-flight players from across the nation?
May as well do a find-and-replace within the transcript, changing “somebody” to “Golden”.
HOW DAVIS BUILT THE BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM EVER
Davis also had some choice words regarding talent amongst assistant coaches, as well as the development of players—both of which are proving to be an issue four years under Golden, as well as the Randy Shannon era that preceded.
Per Davis, “Look at the staff I had: Chuck Pagano is coaching the Indianapolis Colts. Greg Schiano coached Tampa Bay. Larry Coker (U-T San Antonio) and Curtis Johnson (Tulane) became head coaches. Rob Chudzinski became a head coach (Cleveland Browns). Our kids got the shit coached out of them.
“I didn’t do it all myself. I don’t see anyone on their staff being promoted to coordinators or jumping ship for coordinator jobs. I know that goes hand in hand with winning. That is an outside perspective,” explained Davis, in regards to Golden’s staff, which has only seen departures of Jedd Fisch and Terry Richardson over the past four seasons.
Was that it? Hardly. Davis rolled on as long and Jackson reported away.
Regarding the Hurricanes’ program, “I don’t see why they can’t dominate. Eighty-five percent of the programs in America would kill to change the location [to Miami] and have the weather they have in Miami. And there are more players in Florida now than when I was there, more schools on the West Coast [of the state].
“If you don’t have access to players and talent, it doesn’t matter what staff you have because you’re probably not going to win. Miami has that ginormous built-in advantage of all that talent. They have a 30-year history of winning and great players. A lot of those kids lived through those generations. The realist is somebody has to recruit and have an eye for talent and somebody has to coach the shit out of them.”
In other words, “The guy currently in charge isn’t doing any of the things I was able to do when facing similar setbacks and limitations. In case you just missed what took place in the two-hour documentary y’all just watched, I’m the perfect fit to resurrect this thing.”
Davis repeated pretty much the same speech verbatim for Rose last Monday and made it clear that he’d love to coach again if the “right opportunity presented itself”—after laying out that Miami is his dream gig and that he is a perfect fit, minus the fact that someone else currently has the gig.
While Davis and Golden both dealt with an NCAA investigation and sanctions that were the result of issues that happened prior to their arrivals, fact is they’re proving different in their methodology and rebuilding process.
In Golden’s defense, Davis was lambasted thorough the early part of his sixth season, losing on the road at Washington with a team that had national championship dreams and the personnel to achieve that goal. It wasn’t until Davis’ Canes knocked off the top-ranked Seminoles weeks later that folks finally started to come around.
Still, Davis was able to right the ship due to a true understanding for how the University of Miami achieves success.
Prior to that six-year stint as head coach, Davis was the defensive coordinator under Jimmy Johnson from 1984 through 1988, where he also headed up recruiting and was responsible for the type of player the Hurricanes were reeling in.
While that in itself is partly instinct, give credit to a true understanding of one’s surroundings—taking note of what has worked in the past and following the blueprint and roads paved by others who have successful gotten from Point A to Point B.
There was also a reason Johnson tapped Davis to head up recruiting, subsequently took him to Dallas and the fact success was found when given the keys to the Hurricanes program—hardly a surprise, despite many not buying in early on.
Schnellenberger first acknowledged ‘The State of Miami’ and the Hurricanes earned that inaugural, elusive national championship in 1983 by way of local players cut from a different cloth. Johnson and Davis kept that ball rolling in the mid-eighties and when the one-time defensive coordinator was finally at the helm a decade later—it defined his “process” in returning “The U” to the elite.
Beyond that, Davis was also a hard-ass that recruited no-nonsense, hard-ass kids—the biggest x-factor between yesterday and today. Whereby Golden rolled south armed with a 300-page binder and a methodology rooted in motivational tactics and coaching-up underachiever-types, Davis proved to be a mix of iron fist, football smart, an eye for talent and some full-blown forward thinking.
NCAA INVESTIGATIONS, SANCTIONS & HOW EACH COACH DEALT
In Golden’s defense, his story is still being written and there’s still an opportunity to turn things around. That said, a bunker mentality isn’t winning over his critics—but if it gets him out of the muck and elevates this program to where it should be, then good on him.
Still, if he does find success, it will be in a different manner in which Miami is used to. Whereas Davis picked up where Johnson left off, Golden is sticking to his style core values—some of which don’t appear at all in line with the Hurricanes’ road map for success.
While much of Davis’ folklore was known, “The U Part 2” certainly shed some new light; especially in regards to a focus on identifying team leaders and utilizing his resources to seek out these guys; a true key to the rebuilding process proving successful.
Early on, Davis reached out to then-Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Tom Donahoe, wanting to how the franchise was succeeding and doing so with guys staying out of trouble. Donahoe turned Davis onto sports psychologist Kevin Elko, who had a sciences for determining who had the DNA to truly lead, which Miami needed to know as it attempted to rebuild in an unorthodox, crippling manner.
Guys like Ed Reed, Jon Vilma, Santana Moss and Al Blades didn’t wind up at “The U” by accident, nor was their leadership ability considered a surprise. Reed, Vilma and Moss all displayed that enough-is-enough attitude in regards to losing. (Almost two decades after that 47-0 loss at Tallahassee, Reed gets visibly frustrated on camera thinking back to that era of Hurricanes football.)
As for Blades, as vocal of a leader as Miami had seen since the ‘Decade of Dominance’ and a true link back to an era where his older brothers helped laid a foundation and took UM to another level.
While Golden will remain the whipping post for the foreseeable future, with Davis playing the role of savior, fact remains coaching is only one aspect of the Hurricanes’ issues.
COACHING ISSUES ONLY TIP OF THE ICEBERG AT THE U
The Miami Herald’s Manny Navarro went all-in weeks back in regards to the administrative issues, building a case that that the higher-ups at “The U” are content with a good image and guaranteed ACC television revenue.
That desire to win, to dominate and have swag—it needs to trickle down from the top, as much as it has to be embedded in coaches and players and fact remains the University of Miami hasn’t displayed any cojones since the late Paul Dee was roaming the halls at athletic director.
As far as what comes next, barring a miracle or huge unforeseen shift, the following:
— Golden will press forward, head down and ignoring the outside noise. In regards to any coaching changes, at most a few coordinators could play the role of sacrificial lamb, but nothing major. That said, zero changes wouldn’t be a shock either, as Golden is the type to stick to his guns and press on his way.
— Should Golden see a step forward player-wise year five, Corben might deserve an assist for his sequel to “The U” as Part 2 seemed to strike a nerve with some current kids who took it in, despite Golden acknowledging that he hadn’t seen it as of a week ago.
“For me, it was big motivation,” said freshman quarterback Brad Kaaya. “… Guys are walking around saying ‘We need to be Part 3.’ ”
“I think it will help recruiting a lot. Look at what guys of the past did – the first one and part 2,” Kaaya continued. “It’s good motivation for everyone.”
When discussing if this current group could lead the Hurricanes to a sixth national title, Kaaya responded, “That’s why I came here. That’s why I came to Florida, to Miami. I didn’t come to Miami to go to Club LIV or Live or however you say it. I came here to win a championship. They said Florida has the best football.”
In regards to the leadership on those old Miami teams—right down to player-led practices—Kaaya had a take on that as well:
“What’s big is developing that trust. Their coaches had trust,” Kaaya said. “They were running half the practices on their own. So I say it’s big for a lot of the young guys to see that. If you see all the young talent we have and all the guys that are here to win I think we can get back to that. You see guys like Chad [Thomas], me and Joe [Yearby] and even some of the sophomore guys [doing that].”
For Miami’s sake, better home that Kaaya and his highly-touted underclassmen are ready to go next-level leadership-wise as that’s what it’s going to take to make a mark and build a legacy.
— Davis’ media tour will soon grind to a halt and time will tell if any other universities will take a chance on the veteran coach, or if he’ll continue to lurk another year as Golden’s fate remains up in the air.
THE ANSWER FOR THE U IS BLOWING IN THE WIND
Fact remains that the University of Miami will welcome a new president next summer and it’s not far fetched to believe that Golden will be on the clock, needing a step-foward fifth year to ensure a future with this program.
Of course an obvious caveat; UM’s next president being passionate about the football program, opposed to reactive and solely focused on other matters. Donna Shalala built a hell of a legacy for the University of Miami in regards to the medical school and fundraising for that project, but when it came to football, the school’s fifth president proved passive and content.
Guaranteed ACC television revenue dollars, coupled with a cleaned-up off-the-field image—it proved to be enough for Shalala, as she drowned out cries of fed-up fans tired of six-loss seasons; sticking to the convenient “rebuilding” narrative that resulted from Shannon cleaning up Coker’s mess and now Golden trying to make things right in the wake of the NCAA investigation.
With a football-minded president in charge, another year like 2014 and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see some major changes. Whether Davis would factor in remains to be seen based on the way he left and the issues that emerged at North Carolina—but Golden will be in bottom-out mode should he tank year five.
A bowl game remains days away and while the focus should be on South Carolina and the final showdown of this season, fact remains that things are more exciting off-the-field these days—with the successful past and unknown future bringing more consolation than anything in the present.