- Joined
- Sep 19, 2013
- Messages
- 3,701
Like he is for everything that he does these days, Al Golden is under the microscope yet again, being bisected and dissected, cut up, sliced and diced.
Coach Can't Seem To Do Right has executed some of those coaching moves you have been craving for.
One by one, some of the names you have been putting on the chopping block have started to fall. Receivers coach Brennan Carroll to the Seattle Seahawks. Defensive line coach Jethro Franklin to the Oakland Raiders. Good for them. They got out. You don't get labeled underachievers in recruiting in the National Football League.
Now there are only a couple guys left on your hit list and no, it is pretty obvious now that Mark D'Onofrio is not being fired, that he will be back in 2015 as your defensive coordinator in an apparent Charlotte-or-else season of intense pressure.
I say that only because from what we have been hearing it looks like Miami will have to shut down the football program if anything less than an ACC title game appearance is deemed acceptable. I don't say it because business is being conducted in Coral Gables as if there is any worry in the world.
Golden is getting demerits from all over now for the pedestrian way he has gone about filling those vacant coaching positions in the past week.
He gave former Cane Kevin Beard the opportunity of a lifetime, the career break you or your brother or best friend would kill for. He named Beard as Miami's receivers coach even though Beard's coaching experience consisted of a couple years as a high school assistant and some flag football camps. Score one for the little guy. Beard is an awesome guy with a magnetic smile, the kind of guy you pull for, a guy Golden hopes will solve his recruiting problems in Broward County. They make reality shows about guys like Kevin Beard getting their "Big Break."
And then Golden looked across town at Florida International University where journeyman line coach Randy Melvin, who spent a year on his Temple staff, was residing after being jettisoned by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Golden brought him in to be defensive line coach.
Let's talk first about what I know you wanted to see. You wanted to see what could be packaged as major staff upgrades. After four years of mediocrity, you felt Miami needed a coaching and recruiting elevation and Golden was now being given opportunities to improve his staff without having to fire anybody.
You wanted to see him be Urban Meyer and Ohio State. The Buckeyes lost their running backs coach last week. Stan Drayton went to the Chicago Bears. So Meyer looked over at Notre Dame and poached one of Brian Kelly's top assistants and recruiters, Tony Alford, rattling the Golden Dome.
You wanted to see Golden be like Kelly, who is using that opening and two others to remake his offensive staff around Boise State's Mike Sanford, considered one of the rising young coaches in college football. You wanted to see Golden do the same thing with his defense.
You wanted Golden to be like Jimbo Fisher was when he lost one of his defensive line coaches, Sal Sunseri, in January. Fisher keeps top coaching targets on speed dial in his phone. He rang up Brad Lawing, one of the most highly regarded defensive line coaches and recruiters of the position in the country. Lawing has developed 11 NFL defensive linemen in the last five years at South Carolina and Florida. Fisher lured him to FSU in five minutes and they set off on a mission to improve the Seminole pass rush that will come after Brad Kaaya in October. The best made itself better.
You wanted to see Golden be like Charlie Strong or Bob Stoops and slug it out for former LSU defensive line coach Brick Haley, who was available because LSU hired an even more valued assistant, Ed Orgeron.
You wanted to see him be like Nick Saban, who fills his assistant spots with former head coaches and then goes out and competes for the national title and the recruiting national title every single season. Saban was the one who poached high octane recruiter and coach Mario Cristobal from Miami. Cristobal was just named National Recruiter of the Year.
You wanted to see Golden be like Gus Malzahn, who loaded up his coaching staff with elite and experienced guys this off-season to make sure he is able to compete against Alabama and others in the always competitive SEC. Auburn was a huge factor in recruiting this year because of those moves. For example, the Tigers landed the nation's top recruit, defensive lineman Byron Cowart from the Tampa area. Miami was the only school of the Big 3 in Florida that Cowart did not visit. Instead it was Auburn that got Cowart away from FSU and Florida.
You wanted to see Golden deem that horrible level of recruiting unacceptable and go out there and identify the top five receivers coaches/recruiters in college football and the five best defensive line coaches and go out and land one or two of them. You wanted to see Blake James give him the money needed to be successful, grant the multi-year contracts that it would have taken. You wanted to see some sign of urgency at Miami to get out of this quicksand that is 11 straight years of mediocrity and failure.
There was nothing wrong with what you wanted to see, absolutely nothing at all. Those are the guys at the top of Al Golden's profession conducting business in that way. They hire the best people with the prettiest of resumes, compete in recruiting for the elite recruits, take their boosters and fans to the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. They do it because it works, it undeniably works.
I am not saying it is right, I am not saying it is wrong. Results will speak for themselves. But Golden just doesn't seem to have any interest in being that, in doing business that way. Not that he is easy to figure out, because he is not, but Golden seems to choose comfort over sizzle.
Maybe he is the accountant who still does tax returns by hand rather than on a computer. The returns still get done, right? The IRS still gets its paperwork, just like Miami will still put a football team out there on the field this fall, regardless of who is coaching the defensive line or how many people choose to still be in the stands.
Maybe Golden is the butcher who still molds his hamburger patties by hand rather than by machine. When that burger shows up on your plate at the restaurant, do you know the difference?
Take the guy running the corner drug store for 50 years in Small Town USA. Everybody shops there, pops in for an ice cream soda in the afternoon. Does he have to want to be Walgreens? No he does not - until Walgreens opens up across the street and drives him out of business, the fate many are now forecasting for Golden.
But the business world is full of corporate CEO's who go to work every day and make an honest living running the thousands of companies throughout America. They are good businessmen and provide well for their families. Their company stocks hang in there. Do they have to want to be Donald Trump any more than Golden wants to be Nick Saban?
Maybe Golden doesn't want to be like Nick and Urban and Gus. Maybe he doesn't care about sure-thing success, the conflict it creates with this small, but passionate fan base that just wants its elite football program back.
Golden doesn't run in those kinds of circles. He had Kareem Brown over here and Randy Melvin over there. That was the apparent extent of the search for the defensive line spot. There was no receiver search. Beard was already on the football operations staff, the way that Golden hired Hurlie Brown two years ago. Brown, who played defensive back, has now bounced between the running back and linebacker spots.
Is the Golden way of running a program going to work?
I don't think so. It has not worked so far.
But that doesn't mean his right to run it his way has to be disrespected. Same thing for his right to be who he is and what he wants to be.
He didn't make Miami hire him. He didn't make the school pay him $2.5 million when he had no leverage to demand that kind of money or to give him a nine-year deal. What do you expect Golden to do now? Say `No thanks, keep the change'?"
Nope. Golden is going to ride this thing out and he is going to do it his way. He is going to hire whom he wants to hire and he is going to make sure his family is financially secure along the way, like any good man strives to do.
Golden is going to win, one way or the other.
It might not take you to Pasadena or to New Orleans. It might mean Christmas in Shreveport one more time.
But that small town businessman running that corner drugstore probably won't make the front page of the Wall Street Journal either. And his life will go on too.
Coach Can't Seem To Do Right has executed some of those coaching moves you have been craving for.
One by one, some of the names you have been putting on the chopping block have started to fall. Receivers coach Brennan Carroll to the Seattle Seahawks. Defensive line coach Jethro Franklin to the Oakland Raiders. Good for them. They got out. You don't get labeled underachievers in recruiting in the National Football League.
Now there are only a couple guys left on your hit list and no, it is pretty obvious now that Mark D'Onofrio is not being fired, that he will be back in 2015 as your defensive coordinator in an apparent Charlotte-or-else season of intense pressure.
I say that only because from what we have been hearing it looks like Miami will have to shut down the football program if anything less than an ACC title game appearance is deemed acceptable. I don't say it because business is being conducted in Coral Gables as if there is any worry in the world.
Golden is getting demerits from all over now for the pedestrian way he has gone about filling those vacant coaching positions in the past week.
He gave former Cane Kevin Beard the opportunity of a lifetime, the career break you or your brother or best friend would kill for. He named Beard as Miami's receivers coach even though Beard's coaching experience consisted of a couple years as a high school assistant and some flag football camps. Score one for the little guy. Beard is an awesome guy with a magnetic smile, the kind of guy you pull for, a guy Golden hopes will solve his recruiting problems in Broward County. They make reality shows about guys like Kevin Beard getting their "Big Break."
And then Golden looked across town at Florida International University where journeyman line coach Randy Melvin, who spent a year on his Temple staff, was residing after being jettisoned by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Golden brought him in to be defensive line coach.
Let's talk first about what I know you wanted to see. You wanted to see what could be packaged as major staff upgrades. After four years of mediocrity, you felt Miami needed a coaching and recruiting elevation and Golden was now being given opportunities to improve his staff without having to fire anybody.
You wanted to see him be Urban Meyer and Ohio State. The Buckeyes lost their running backs coach last week. Stan Drayton went to the Chicago Bears. So Meyer looked over at Notre Dame and poached one of Brian Kelly's top assistants and recruiters, Tony Alford, rattling the Golden Dome.
You wanted to see Golden be like Kelly, who is using that opening and two others to remake his offensive staff around Boise State's Mike Sanford, considered one of the rising young coaches in college football. You wanted to see Golden do the same thing with his defense.
You wanted Golden to be like Jimbo Fisher was when he lost one of his defensive line coaches, Sal Sunseri, in January. Fisher keeps top coaching targets on speed dial in his phone. He rang up Brad Lawing, one of the most highly regarded defensive line coaches and recruiters of the position in the country. Lawing has developed 11 NFL defensive linemen in the last five years at South Carolina and Florida. Fisher lured him to FSU in five minutes and they set off on a mission to improve the Seminole pass rush that will come after Brad Kaaya in October. The best made itself better.
You wanted to see Golden be like Charlie Strong or Bob Stoops and slug it out for former LSU defensive line coach Brick Haley, who was available because LSU hired an even more valued assistant, Ed Orgeron.
You wanted to see him be like Nick Saban, who fills his assistant spots with former head coaches and then goes out and competes for the national title and the recruiting national title every single season. Saban was the one who poached high octane recruiter and coach Mario Cristobal from Miami. Cristobal was just named National Recruiter of the Year.
You wanted to see Golden be like Gus Malzahn, who loaded up his coaching staff with elite and experienced guys this off-season to make sure he is able to compete against Alabama and others in the always competitive SEC. Auburn was a huge factor in recruiting this year because of those moves. For example, the Tigers landed the nation's top recruit, defensive lineman Byron Cowart from the Tampa area. Miami was the only school of the Big 3 in Florida that Cowart did not visit. Instead it was Auburn that got Cowart away from FSU and Florida.
You wanted to see Golden deem that horrible level of recruiting unacceptable and go out there and identify the top five receivers coaches/recruiters in college football and the five best defensive line coaches and go out and land one or two of them. You wanted to see Blake James give him the money needed to be successful, grant the multi-year contracts that it would have taken. You wanted to see some sign of urgency at Miami to get out of this quicksand that is 11 straight years of mediocrity and failure.
There was nothing wrong with what you wanted to see, absolutely nothing at all. Those are the guys at the top of Al Golden's profession conducting business in that way. They hire the best people with the prettiest of resumes, compete in recruiting for the elite recruits, take their boosters and fans to the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. They do it because it works, it undeniably works.
I am not saying it is right, I am not saying it is wrong. Results will speak for themselves. But Golden just doesn't seem to have any interest in being that, in doing business that way. Not that he is easy to figure out, because he is not, but Golden seems to choose comfort over sizzle.
Maybe he is the accountant who still does tax returns by hand rather than on a computer. The returns still get done, right? The IRS still gets its paperwork, just like Miami will still put a football team out there on the field this fall, regardless of who is coaching the defensive line or how many people choose to still be in the stands.
Maybe Golden is the butcher who still molds his hamburger patties by hand rather than by machine. When that burger shows up on your plate at the restaurant, do you know the difference?
Take the guy running the corner drug store for 50 years in Small Town USA. Everybody shops there, pops in for an ice cream soda in the afternoon. Does he have to want to be Walgreens? No he does not - until Walgreens opens up across the street and drives him out of business, the fate many are now forecasting for Golden.
But the business world is full of corporate CEO's who go to work every day and make an honest living running the thousands of companies throughout America. They are good businessmen and provide well for their families. Their company stocks hang in there. Do they have to want to be Donald Trump any more than Golden wants to be Nick Saban?
Maybe Golden doesn't want to be like Nick and Urban and Gus. Maybe he doesn't care about sure-thing success, the conflict it creates with this small, but passionate fan base that just wants its elite football program back.
Golden doesn't run in those kinds of circles. He had Kareem Brown over here and Randy Melvin over there. That was the apparent extent of the search for the defensive line spot. There was no receiver search. Beard was already on the football operations staff, the way that Golden hired Hurlie Brown two years ago. Brown, who played defensive back, has now bounced between the running back and linebacker spots.
Is the Golden way of running a program going to work?
I don't think so. It has not worked so far.
But that doesn't mean his right to run it his way has to be disrespected. Same thing for his right to be who he is and what he wants to be.
He didn't make Miami hire him. He didn't make the school pay him $2.5 million when he had no leverage to demand that kind of money or to give him a nine-year deal. What do you expect Golden to do now? Say `No thanks, keep the change'?"
Nope. Golden is going to ride this thing out and he is going to do it his way. He is going to hire whom he wants to hire and he is going to make sure his family is financially secure along the way, like any good man strives to do.
Golden is going to win, one way or the other.
It might not take you to Pasadena or to New Orleans. It might mean Christmas in Shreveport one more time.
But that small town businessman running that corner drugstore probably won't make the front page of the Wall Street Journal either. And his life will go on too.
