It's kinda eerie how similar Golden and Richt's tenures were at Miami. Richt gets credit for getting Miami to #2, then the team falling apart. He won 10 games so he gets praised. Golden got Miami to #7, then the team fell apart but "only" won 9 games. I think the team collapsing after losing Duke Johnson in the FSU game was more understandable than Richt blowing the undefeated season to a terrible Pitt team, when he had a chance to go into the ACC championship game undefeated.
Richt beat FSU and Notre Dame, Golden beat UF and Oklahoma (and I personally hate UF the most). Rick had a WOAT offense, Golden had a WOAT defense. Rick won the ACC coastal, Golden would have won the ACC coastal if Miami hadn't self imposed (since UNC was ineligible). Golden wouldn't fire DNo, Rick wouldn't fire his son. Golden spent nearly his entire tenure dealing with the Shapiro cloud ( but I think his recruiting was at least on par with Richt's who was supposed to be an elite recruiter...turns out UGA bags were behind most of the legend).
Rick won a bowl game, Golden didn't get a chance to play in 2 bowl games since Miami self imposed (maybe he would have won the Micron PC Bowl or something).
The biggest difference between the two was salary- Rick got paid 2x as much as Golden. Was he worth 2 more million per year given nearly identical results?
Moral of the story- Miami has been truly horrendous at picking coaches since Davis left.