APNewsBreak: Miami fires offensive coordinator
By TIM REYNOLDS
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Patrick Nix was fired Monday after two seasons as Miami’s offensive coordinator, the first significant shakeup to the Hurricanes this offseason.
Nix packed up his office Monday evening after a brief meeting with Miami coach Randy Shannon.
“It’s time to part ways, but I really enjoyed my time here,” Nix told The Associated Press as he and his family prepared to leave the football complex for the final time. “I loved these players to death. I loved these coaches to death. But in the long run, it’s probably better that we make this change.”
Miami was 7-6 this season and sputtered at times offensively, yet showed improvement in some areas during the second half of the year. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to keep Nix in place.
Just read this on FoxSports.com. I checked here and you already had it! Damn, thought I’d had some breaking news!
Not sad to see him go, that is for sure. I am nervous, however, certainly don’t want these kids to go through the inconsistency with numerous offensive coaches the previous ones did. Still better to cut your losses now than wish later that you’d done it. Wonder who we’ll end up with…
Jamie – FL Panhandle Cane
I have mixed feelings about this. Yes, I was part of the many who questioned his play calls throughout the season, but after reading his quote on Manny’s Blog – how he wanted to run a no huddle, spread offense while Shannon wanted to run a 2 back, more conservative offense – I question the firing. I personally hate the conservative offense. I thought the conservative offense was all Nix. How much did Shannon get involve with the offense?
We need stability on our staff. Will we lose any significant recruits because of this firing? Only time will tell.
Ok, I admit this is a very gay letter to send to Donna Shalala. Probably could be improved grammatically, but I am an engineer, not an english major. Plus, I am a foreigner. You bastards try writing in Arabic. I don’t know as much about football as I let on, but I know liberals love affirmative action and Obama. With this in-mind, I tried to tug at the liberal strings of Donna Shalala with this:
Dr. Shalala,
I am a Miami Hurricane fan and I am concerned about the lack of African-American coaches in college football. Many college football programs have hired black coaches, but most have ended in an undignified firing or resignation. Willingham was fired twice at Notre Dame and Washington respectively; Croom at Mississippi State; Dorrell at UCLA; and Prince at Kansas State. Obviously, the profession of coaching is very competitive, but there appears to be a pattern and I feel I understand this pattern.
In all of the above cases, these coaches were not able to build a talented staff of coaches and assistants, were not able to recruit top talent, or were not given enough time by the college administration. This being said, I believe Randy Shannon is in a strong position in Miami. He does recruit well and he will be given the necessary time by your administration. However, he does not have elite assistants or position coaches. I can tell you this by the pay scale.
I know that I am just another person concerned with the University sending you a letter, and football is not the most important thing in the world, but there is a social significance to the country that there be a African American coach that succeeds in college football. For the University of Miami, this would be of great significance and it would put Miami into a new level of significance in the eyes of the nation. I implore you to research what Miami provides Shannon to hire assistants and make hard decisions to increase the wages. Ask Shannon himself, what he needs to offer to attract the best assistants. Ask your colleagues at elite football-playing colleges.
The beautiful thing for Miami is that the talent is already on the roster, the support is abundant with the administration, so with the right level of remuneration at the assistant coaching level, you will have success. Please contact your colleagues at Florida State, Texas, USC, and Oklahoma and be sure that Mr. Shannon is not completely disadvantaged relative other programs. It would be sad for college football if a talented young coach like Shannon failed to succeed at Miami because he could never properly prepare against competitive staffs.
Thanks,
Abdullah Najibullah
Yes, I was part of the many who questioned his play calls throughout the season, but after reading his quote on Manny’s Blog – how he wanted to run a no huddle, spread offense while Shannon wanted to run a 2 back, more conservative offense – I question the firing. I personally hate the conservative offense. I thought the conservative offense was all Nix. How much did Shannon get involve with the offense?
Jonathan… A few things:
Just because Nix makes that parting shot on his way out the door, what does that really mean? A two-back offense isn’t “conservative”. It certainly wasn’t when Jimmy or Butch ran it and the Canes had success.
Miami’s 2000-2002 teams were ABSOLUTELY dictated by the ground game and rushing attack – not some gimmicky, wide open spread. The Canes certainly weren’t “conservative” while pounding the rock with Portis, McGahee and Gore.
Nix may have WANTED to run some spread offense and no huddle, but that doesn’t mean he knew how to implement it. If he could implement a more basic running-based offense, how is he going to master a more complicated one?
From everything I heard from my people all year, Nix was the one who didn’t want to open it up. This sounds to me like some parting shot he’s taking with one foot out the door, in an effort to help himself land his next gig.
A two-back offense isn’t “conservative”. It certainly wasn’t when Jimmy or Butch ran it and the Canes had success.
And it certainly works for USC!
looks like the Marve era is over as well!