I’d call Richt a hire that didn’t work. He had a generally solid stint at UGA. He was a bit on a downswing, but there was reason to think a stint at his alma mater might revive him.
Shannon was flat out a bad hire. He was DC under a fired HC. No other FBS program wanted Shannon as head coach. The admin thought he would bring back discipline and good behavior that had been lacking in Coker’s last year. Somehow they failed to realize that Shannon had been the DC during the FIU and LSU brawls and the Cardinal Stomping.
Golden was somewhere in between the Richt and Shannon hirings. He had gotten interviews at UCLA and Tennessee. He definitely would have gotten a Power 5 job if we hadn’t hired him. However, he topped out at 8-4 at Temple. And even at the time I was wondering if Temple’s move from the Big East to the MAC helped improve their win total.
Diaz was a bad hire. Similar to Shannon, he was DC under a head coach who we got rid of. Temple barely wanted him as head coach (he was their 3rd choice) and no other program ever considered him.
Your points about Richt not being a bad hire, Shannon being a bad hire and Golden being somewhere in between are spot on.
Your comment about Diaz being a bad hire—you went off the rails trying to prove your point.
By definition you said Richt was a hire that didn't work, but that he had the resume and ran out of gas late in his career. If he had the time and energy, it wasn't a stretch to think he'd revive Miami—as we saw a glimpse of what could be in 2017.
Miami generally made low-rent hires in the past; promoting Coker, hiring Shannon (when only Schiano was offered the job), choosing Golden from a list that included Randy Edsall and Marc Trestman.
Mark Richt was a quality head coaching hire and due to his push for more money for assistants, he hired better quality when building his stuff than UM had seen in the past (re: Shannon bringing on Patrick Nix, Mark Whipple, John Lovett, et al.)
Diaz hit the ground running and turned the defense around immediately at Miami—and Temple came calling at the end of his third season at UM. There is little doubt he would have future offers based on his defensive success.
Comparing Shannon and Diaz makes zero sense. You're knocking Manny for being Temple's third choice after three years—of success with less talent than Shannon ever had; who the f**k ever wanted Randy Shannon for anything? After his time was up at Miami, forget another head coaching job; dude kicked around as a linebackers coach—not even a defensive coordinator—one season at TCU and two years at Arkansas, before Florida brought him on in the same role, but gave him some hybrid, trumped up co-defensive coordinator / assistant head coach title because they wanted him to help with recruiting South Florida—which he's since parlayed into a defensive coordinator job at Central Florida.
Weak argument in comparing Shannon and Diaz ... two close games into Diaz's tenure, no less.
I'll give you a comparison:
Both took over for 7-6 teams.
Diaz brought Miami to play No. 8 Florida in his first game, where the Canes made a few too many mistakes, gave up a late lead and loose.
Shannon brought Miami to play No. 6 Oklahoma in his second game and was run out of the stadium, 51-13. Went on to lose at home to No. 21 Virginia, 48-0 in the Orange Bowl finale and went 5-7 that year—UM's worst record since 1979.
Let's have this Shannon versus Diaz year one argument in December, not early September.
