When we fired Golden I wasn't on any train till I started hearing the names that were surfing (Schiano, Mullens, Cristobal). I was like naahhh, I didn't like any of those candidates with Schiano being the worse one. If Richt underacheived for 15 year then Schiano would be worse because he hasn't done sh*t in 11 years at Rutgers IN THE BIG EAST. Remember Miami, VT left the BigE in 2003 and Schiano got there in 2000. So that means Schiano in a conference with just WVu, BC, Cinncy, USF, Cuse, Pitt, Uconn and Louisville for 8/11 years he was there he did do JACK SHT.
My thinking for Schiano being worse then Cristobal is because with Cristobal at least he would be young, motivated, great recruiter, coming from a championship program at Alabama. He would also emphasize being physical because all former OL coach turned HC emphasizes that.
With Mullen I didn't think he would recruit well enough to win. Also the 2-15 vs AP record in 8 years had me like nah. Also his attitude was corny to me. Also the reports of some of his interview like saying "Hire me, I'm smart at Football." It was a no for me dawg.
I wanted Davis, and no not because I have this fantasy that goes around the board that he could recreate a once and a life time roster but because it he knew what Miami Hurricane football is suppose to look like. He was good at finding a 3 star player who had All ACC potential and it was proven evident at UNC. We're just to down in a hole to far to get 5 and highly touted 4 stars so I wanted a coach who could locate 3 star player not just in florida but nationally. Add that to the fact I can't trust this school to go to a lower level and hire someone who wouldn't be a carbon copy of Al Golden. I mean, really, all Golden did was bring in a f*cking binder with pages he wrote himself and got the job.
When Richt became available I was 65-70% sure we should hire him. Unlike Davis, he was still in coaching and like everyone else I thought 9-10 wins in the SEC would translate to 10-11 wins at Miami in this division by year 3. I also based my assumption that if we could get just a solid coach in here, recruited florida well, that we would be competing at a high level. I just felt like Richt would be to good of a coach and recruiter to underachieve in this division. Boy was I wrong. It like Richt's changed his coaching algorithm so he could coach down to his competition in the ACC so he can continue to be an underachieving 9-3 coach even in the ACC coastal. All common sense and logic says Richt should be dominating this division at Miami but now that I think about "Richt" and "Dominant" doesn't belong in the same sentence because Richt is to much of a nice guy (see '17 FSU post game reaction to players who had been mocked by FSU for 7 years get shutdown). I started to have doubt about Richt after 2016 ND. Many here started to doubt Richt after Pitt but losing to a 4-8 ND and VT was the moment for me. Completely out coached for majority of those games and lost to an AWFUL ND team.
I'm sure your thinking "why I would start having doubt about Richt in his 1st season." 1: Manny fixed the defense really over night. 2: At the time we all thought Kaaya had first round potential so with Richt being a "offensive/QB guru" even with a below average OL our offense should have still been much, MUCH better then '15. You can't have a VASTLY improved defense with a QB you think could be a 1st round prospect and lose to UNC at home (putting up just 16 points) and 4-8 ND. 3: This was Richt's 16th year as a HC playing lesser competition with a vastly improved defense, a talented RB in Walton, and a guy everyone felt was a 1st round prospect at QB and all he could mustard was 8-4? Larry Scott led us to a 8-4 finish the year before. Red flag. 4: Losing to Jimbo and FSU in year 1 sucks, but understandable. Getting out coached as badly as Richt did to VT under their new HC first rodeo in a big P5 game, inexcusable.
Before you say that's unfair Jim Harbaugh took a 5-7 Michigan team to 10-2 in a harder division with basically no QB play.