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Al Golden - What Went Wrong?

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Earnest T. Bass said:
MIAMI HERALD

With a capable athletic director (Blake James) who has excelled at fundraising and negotiated a lucrative deal with Adidas, a Board of Trustees that authorized a 25 to 30 percent pay hike for assistant football coaches and a football coach (Mark Richt) who has been given most everything he requested.

The upshot is that the UM players are benefitting from this, too, with the hope that it will boost performance.

“Everything coach Richt has said he's going to get for us, he's gotten for us,” offensive lineman Kc McDermott said. “And the list keeps getting bigger.”

The boost in pay for assistant coaches helped UM land defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, offensive line coach Stacy Searels and defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski at competitive rates, with UM outbidding Georgia Tech for Searels.

“We got all the guys coach Richt wanted based on the pool we established,” James said last week.

One NFL executive said the quality of the UM coaching staff has been significantly upgraded with UM willing to pay more.

Several players said new machinery has been added in the weight room, at Richt’s request. Also, Richt was given authority to hire more staffers.

“The major difference is we have tons and tons of graduate assistants and coaches now,” McDermott said, while still in accordance with NCAA rules that limit the number of designated coaches. “More people around making sure everyone is doing their own thing.”

Richt received the go-ahead to hire a football-only nutritionist.

Richt also got the green light to expand the breakfast and lunch options, putting UM on par with FSU’s diet-conscious approach under Jimbo Fisher. Odogwu said players are now greeted with healthy shakes, and more, after practice.

“We needed a nutritionist really bad and we got that,” McDermott said. “The quality of food we're eating is much better. It has taken care of our bodies. Pretty much anything we've ever thought of, coach Richt, he does everything. He donated $1 million of his own money to the indoor facility! He really cares about us.”

What’s more, Richt was given increased use of a private plane for recruiting, which could help UM land more top players from rural areas.
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This article says Blake and the BOT decided to increase their financial support of the program, not that richt engineered it.

Here’s the bottom line. Richt was offered luxuries no other UM coach ever was... he had an AD and BOT who had finally decided to spend money.... and he still was unable to get it done.

Props to richt for his $1 mill tax deductible donation, but that’s hardly reason to excuse his failings... which were many.
 
What went wrong was we didn’t hire Butch, for the second time in a row. Now we are in the third aftermath of same mistake. Let’s hope this time the result of not hiring him is different.
 
GojiraCane said:
Now that's the stuff I'm interested in. Players really couldn't talk to him without any conversation being twisted and turned back on them?!
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No. From the captains/best players to walk ons, no one felt comfortable talking to him cause everything was used against them. When the captains don't feel comfortable with a coach that spreads like wildfire. He thought he was the smartest guy in every room.
 
1mg of Epi said:
This

This article says Blake and the BOT decided to increase their financial support of the program, not that richt engineered it.

Here’s the bottom line. Richt was offered luxuries no other UM coach ever was... he had an AD and BOT who had finally decided to spend money.... and he still was unable to get it done.

Props to richt for his $1 mill tax deductible donation, but that’s hardly reason to excuse his failings... which were many.
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C'mon!!! So, you think James went before the BOT with a list of things he thought the program could use? Again, C'mon!!!

Coach Richt sat with Blake before signing a contract and outlined what he would need to have the best chance at finding success.

Don't forget that Richt went through years of the Georgia administration trying to get by on the cheap as the rest of the SEC was shoveling gold into their football programs. Unfortunately for Richt, the Bulldogs finally got religion and began to fund their football operations like the other SEC big dog's, but it was too late for Richt. The above is well documented.

Look, you don't like Richt, which is your prerogative, but your thesis for not liking him is made up of unprocessed cow dung. UM's BOT knew **** well that the story Blake was relating to them was a list of Richt's demands, and those demands included additional funding to allow for the hiring of high quality assistant coaches, amongst numerous other things.

AGAIN, C'MON!!!
 
There is no question, Richt and Golden are a different league of coach. One was past his prime, the other was a complete nincompoop and peaked at Temple.

Unfortunately, they made fatal mistakes on one side of the ball that ultimately defined their entire tenures. The former at least had the self-respect and dignity to step aside when he realized that this program was a gut job. That alone means that Richt left this program in better shape than he found it.

And why the **** are we still talking about Golden?
 
simplycanes said:
There is no question, Richt and Golden are a different league of coach. One was past his prime, the other was a complete nincompoop and peaked at Temple.

Unfortunately, they made fatal mistakes on one side of the ball that ultimately defined their entire tenures. The former at least had the self-respect and dignity to step aside when he realized that this program was a gut job. That alone means that Richt left this program in better shape than he found it.

And why the **** are we still talking about Golden?
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Curiosity spawned by a recent Canesinisght podcast.
 
Ethnicsands said:
You cannot answer this question in a vacuum. You have to understand what happened to the program structurally and culturally under Coker and Shannon also, what happened in CFB during that time, and what happened at UM outside of the program at that time (administration). Golden improved some things, dealt with sanctions, but also botched scheme and staff and recruiting, and didn’t get culture right (but nor did coker or shannon). It wasn’t just one thing. The result is what it was.
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Golden didn't do anything good he sucked and should have never been here.
 
Liberty City El said:
What happened is he should've NEVER been hired here in the first place.

Folden was a sh*t corch at Temple & showed in year 2 after getting shellacked by K State & losing to a 4-8 UVA squad that he had no business being here at all.

Al Folden completely sunk this program to the absolute bottom of the pit of ****, Richt tried hard to bring us back above sea level, but we're still to this very day feeling the impact on the recruiting trail of just how awful Folden was.

Some people say Coker, some people Shannon, but to me Folden hands down no question was the worst Coach we've had in the modern era.
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Golden is the worst coach in hurricane history by a wide margin.
 
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Liberty City El said:
Folden & Rhule aren't the same person, so that has absolutely nothing to do with my point. And the reason why it matters what he did at Temple because the same issues that plagued him at Temple followed him to Miami.

His team's routinely lost games they shouldn't have, he lost to Buffalo, Bowling Green, Ohio, Western Mich, Kent St, Villanova, UCLA & a bunch others at Temple. It showed his track record was of an average coach that NEVER got his team's to play all out for him, his team's always FOLDED up when it mattered most.

The same sh*t happened at Miami, starting off with a loss vs a Maryland team that finished the season at 2-10, losing to K-State, UVA, BC, then in 2012 K State, UNC, UVA & I wanted him gone after that season. Then in his "best" season, lost to Va Tech & Duke & got steamrolled by FSU & Teddy Bridgwater's Louisville. Then the following year got smacked around by Louisville again, he should've been fired after that game, I never wanted him in the 1st place but BOTH LVille games were the perfect opportunity to get rid of him, instead that kept him on longer & he did more damage to the program with his incompetence.

We finished 2014 with a 4 game losing streak, should've been fired again, but nope let'em hang around for another season & after losing to Cincinnati should've been fired, but nope took another L to FSU & then the worst loss in school history in the disaster vs Clemson before the adminstration decided to step up & get rid of that fckin bum.

He did near irrevocable damage to the program & it's going to take winning the ACC & making it to the playoffs in the near future to truly reverse & repair what he did to Miami. He was complete fckin joke & should've never been hired in the first place.
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Golden should have been fired after game 4 of his first year. After the Virginia game at the latest.
 
HawaiiAndTheOver said:
golden wasn't a fraud he was a good coach. he was given a team with no talent, no depth, and abunch of cry baby south florida kids/fans.
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Yes of course you are right! Golden was a very good coach and it was the university, the South Florida players and the fans that were the problem. In fact, Golden was such a good coach that when he was fired by UM his agents phone blew up with all kinds of HC offers like...... oh wait! .......Does the Detroit Lions TE coach count for anything?

That fat stooge bilked our beloved program out of millions of dollars. The worst thing about it was watching our worthless and weak administration get cucked by that buffoon then open their mouths and beg for seconds. That was a dark time my friends. A very dark time indeed. I thank Dabo everyday for putting that clown out of his misery.
 
Empirical Cane said:
D'No, and the D philosophy he represents, almost 100%.

Manolo as DC w/ Al Golden as HC...several ACCCG appearances.

I'm not saying natty, but I'd wager he is still HC today w/ Diaz and his D philosophy.
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I respectfully disagree. Golden was in over his head defense or no defense. That and Manny would have knocked him on his fat *** eventually.
 
Richt had an anemic offense, couldn't develop a QB, and still got 10 wins with Al Golden's recruits. Same Al Golden went 9-4 with a team that had tons of current NFL players on it...yea...he got held back in scholarships but he ultimately under performed. There are coaches much worse than Golden, and he might have done better if he fired the same coach that just got Applewhite booted...but he didn't, which makes him a failure.
 
HawaiiAndTheOver said:
nah he came here with sanctions and zero talent/depth. period. it's hard to recruit like that. along with a fanbase that thinks every SFL kid belongs in the HOF ad we should blow everyone out by 4 TD's because "we miami". sad.
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You, Golden and duh inferno all stank g. Who was golden scouting prior to the Maryland? WHO WAS GODLEN SCOUTING PORIOR TO THE MARYLAND GAME? ?????????? and DONT LIE AND TELL ME AMRYLAND CAUDE PRIOR HE WAS IN PENNSLVANIA, TEMP IN THE TEENS AND HE AND THAT dc WAS LISTEN ING TO R KELLY.
 
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There are literally dozens of Al Golden era memes on this site that would answer your question quite nicely.
 
AlphaMarshan said:
You wanna know what happened? I'll show you what happened.

It's October 14th, 2014. I look down at the field and every time we're on defense this is what I see:

View attachment 77686

GT was 4/7 passing the entire game. And every time I looked down at the field I nearly had an aneurysm. Why is everyone so far off the ball? We look like we're playing cover 4. Our safeties are 12 ******* yards off the ball against a team that throws 7 times a game.

Golden's hiring and continued loyalty to his BFF DC is what went wrong.
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Now I can actually laugh at this but at the time I was so ****ed lol
 
Astcloud11 said:
Richt had an anemic offense, couldn't develop a QB, and still got 10 wins with Al Golden's recruits. Same Al Golden went 9-4 with a team that had tons of current NFL players on it...yea...he got held back in scholarships but he ultimately under performed. There are coaches much worse than Golden, and he might have done better if he fired the same coach that just got Applewhite booted...but he didn't, which makes him a failure.
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Agree on same themes.

Think about the 2017 UVA game: without the D, that game is a loss, plain and simple. There were several others in the 10 game streak as well.

IF the D bailed out (its unrealistical to count on) Richt's O the same way in 2018 as in 2107, guess what?

Richt is HC of Miami today, the structure of the program is balsa wood, and Diaz is getting ready to start practice at Temple.

Same things can be said for Golden.

D actually shows up for K St, bails out Cincy and several other losses, Big Al is probably still HC at Miami.

Interesting question: Is D'No the only DC who presided over two different teams giving up the most yardage to an opponent in school.history?
 
GojiraCane said:
I'm posting this as a thought occurred to me while listening to the Insights podcast where they discussed Manny's hiring; during the podcast they said that Richt had left the program in much better shape and that under Golden so much was going wrong. So my thought - my question - was simply this...has anyone ever posted a detailed insider account of what went awry during the Golden tenure?

Obviously the defensive scheme was a liability, and served to negate the traditional advantages that Miami has enjoyed. Golden's stubborness in sticking with this scheme ultimately proved his downfall, and this is well known. But aside from this, what were the other underlying problems mentioned in the podcast?

Outside of the defense criticisms, these are the only other details that I've ever heard:
- Duke Johnson's mother saying on 12/29/2014 that the majority of the team would transfer if there was no penalty
- Jonathan Feliciano stating in 2016 that Golden made Stephen Morris play with an injured ankle in the 2013 season (even though 5 star transfer Heaps was available). Also that Golden had a degree in psychology and used it on the players, making Chickillo put on 60 lbs, and that the only reason that he played Kayaa in 2014 as a true freshman was that he was concerned with keeping his job

For those more in the know, what other core issues were there that made the Golden regime so wrong (as mentioned in the podcast)?
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What went wrong was when the handwriting was on the wall that Golden and his crew were terrible we kept him as our head coach because we have a BOT and an AD that are clueless about how to succeed as a program.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the BOT at this school knows how to take care of themselves, bending and breaking rules to enrich their own businesses, but when it comes to delivering results for the program, well, they really don't even care. The folks on the BOT always look for angles to enrich themselves, not the school, UM is just a vehicle for the BOT mafia to use to enrich themselves, how else can you explain the hiring of Manny Diaz Jr in 7 hours? There is more there but you can bet that a decision was made for more than just "he is the best guy for the job" reasons. The BOT at UM is in it solely for their own desires and dreams, never confuse UM athletics as one of their true concerns.
 
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