The seat is neither hot nor cold right now. It is a weird in between state of flux. In the opinion of the admin, if he loses to Louisville in a respectable showing (10 points or less) his seat will barely start to warm up. If he gets his brain bashed in like the Russell Athletic Bowl, the seat will officially be classified as warm. The Board of Trustees in particular wants to win immediately. Getting embarrassed on national TV again will melt away their already waning faith. While I hope/expect a 34-31 Miami win, if we assume the team loses, margin of defeat and quality of play will be the most closely analyzed factor rather than just the score alone.
President Shalala was ****ed about Penn State. It made her look incompetent. Her employee was MIA and not responding to the school. I've said it before and I'll say it again but her quote of, "We don't know anything yet." to the media about 5 hours after Blake James said he was chit chatting with Al regularly should tell you all you need to know.
The admin loved Golden. LOVED him. They gave him the world while here, by their standards, and he dealt with the NCAA during that saga. Penn State was viewed as a betrayal by them. The unity that they thought they had developed was tarnished. The office, both the athletic office and academic office, was flooded with bashing Al Golden emails when he came back. In Miami history, coaches that have left since we've been The U have either been pro football bound or fired. For Golden to look at another college job, alma mater or not, after getting the sweetest, highest paying contract for a football coach in school history, and getting placed on a pedestal after winning nothing was infuriating to many.
The admin knows the team is good enough to win 11 games with relative ease. Golden has personally pumped up how great the team is to them with quality, highly sought after players at every position. Questions at various positions including OL and QB mean nothing to the admin. Every team has questions and they know he was supposed to, by his own analysis, have above average talent at both positions. The man in charge told them how good the team is going to be this year. Therefore, the admin expects to win this year and win big. He talked a big game. They think it's time for him to deliver. Many people on here are pretty split on whether he will or wont.
Assuming the season does tank, fan response would be a major contributor as to whether Golden was retained. A lot of boosters were enraged about Penn State. These boosters are fans of the University of Miami first and foremost and it appeared to them that Golden made the school look bad in favor of an inferior institution in Penn State. Golden still has some important, high profile people on his side, but they want wins now. Season ticket sales be damned. If people stop going if the season tanks, which I hope it doesn't, and there is a USF like showing for the Pittsburgh game, the fanbase is clearly unhappy and the sports admin will have to act. The fans have dictated team direction. Coker was fired when we wanted him fired. Shannon was fired when we wanted him fired. Golden will go the same route when he loses the fans completely. And so far, the fans have been right in these scenarios.
Whoever said that finding another coach would be difficult is full of it and should go root for another team. This is and should be a destination job, not a stepping stone. When Golden was missing, multiple coaches and outstanding coaches at that were inquiring about the position. This is very different from past coaching changes. Nobody wanted to replace Shannon because talent was thin and expectations unfair. If anything would scare coaches away, it would be the firing of Coker with his 59-15 record, national championship, and high graduation rates. From the admin's perspective, they are dedicated to winning, a point many people here debate. They just pumped in $40,000,000 to upgrade the facilities and make us competitive recruiting wise. The buyout would not stunt that amount of money. Do you think a school with limited financial resources is going to invest that much while having a coach that isn't winning and fans have lost faith in? If so, then I guess the admin isn't dedicated to winning, which I can tell you is an outright falsehood. Furthermore, the admin doesn't feel we would be starting over. This isn't Shannon taking over for Coker where talent was thin or Golden taking over for Shannon where talent was even thinner. The roster is stacked, almost top to bottom, with an enormous amount of talent. 2015 is satisfactory to most and 2016 is ridiculously good. While early, many in the admin believe the class could be maintained enough with certain delicate changes.
People making the Butch comparisons with banners and records need to stop. The situations aren't even close to similar.
So I'll say it again. Golden is on a neutral, room temperature seat right now. Losing to Louisville wont heat it up anymore than a rough loss would. Getting blown out, again, would be giving it some noticeable warmth. But the admin is cautiously optimistic that this season will be an overwhelming success, as they should be. They expect wins this year and they think that Al Golden will deliver them this year.
