CaneGang440
Redshirt Freshman
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2013
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- 205
While the hot-seat watch is largely focused on Brady Hoke at Michigan and Will Muschamp at Florida, there's another endangered coach at a high-profile program who has surprisingly managed to remain under the radar.
Like Hoke and Muschamp, Miami Hurricanes coach Al Golden has had only three full seasons to prove he can turn around a team. Which just goes to show how short the evaluation period has become, doesn't it? The window of success opens, or begins to open -- and then it slams shut on your pinkie finger.
Take Golden. If he wins a few more games a little bit sooner in Coral Gables, he's a prime candidate for Texas when it's done with Mack Brown.
And now? Well, Golden's .500 team is favored at home this week against Duke, and that's somehow newsworthy. Win or lose, the Hurricanes, in Golden's fourth season, are in a glut of mediocrity that defines the ACC's Coastal Division.
They could win, they could lose -- this week and every week. But so could the other six teams in the division. Miami is no better or worse than anyone else, and that’s damning because Miami has the wealth of the state’s recruiting base. Remember, that’s why it was such a coup that the ACC got "the U" from the now-defunct Big East in the first place.
So where is that Miami payoff? Tick, tick, tick. Tick. And if Golden doesn’t produce, and soon-ish, it'll be someone else's opportunity (or burden). Coming from Temple, Golden was more than willing to blame the lingering NCAA cloud for a few years. He said he was undermined by the threat of further punishment.
And, yes, two years of keeping themselves out of the postseason and significant scholarship reductions have hurt the Hurricanes' efforts on the trail. But this is the second recruiting cycle since the cloud blew over, and the climate shouldn't preclude a program such as Miami from competing with Duke. (Penn State seems to be managing.)
The sun is out again in South Florida. And yet, here we are; a win against Duke is considered a moment worth ... heralding. Jimmy Johnson and his beautiful hair aren't dead, but he's finding a coffin in which to roll over.
Oh, and would you really be shocked Saturday if David Cutcliffe outcoached Golden and the Blue Devils pulled the "upset?" Rival coaches said that Cutcliffe-Golden is a complete mismatch -- someone doing the least with the most, and the most with the least. You can figure out which is which, surely.
I get it. The Hurricanes are playing a freshman quarterback, Brad Kaaya. But they also have one of the country’s top runners, Duke Johnson, and they’re returning double-digit contributors on defense for the second consecutive season.
They are as equipped as anyone in a wide, wide-open division.
“They have really, really good players,” an ACC coach said. “[It’s a] great-looking team.”
So, why the gap between “great-looking” and great?
Why would Miami, considering where it is located with respects to talent-building, be housed by Louisville in consecutive games by two different coaches? Why would it be a clear underdog against a Nebraska squad that had to miraculously defeat McNeese State in Lincoln?
Ready? As much as it’s on Golden, I’m told it’s more the company he keeps.
One ACC coach said he sees the staff as “iffy.” Someone close to the program said that before things improve, if they improve, Golden has to re-evaluate the coaches around him.
“FSU wasn’t crying because [James Coley] went to Miami,” one coach said, referring to Miami’s second-year OC, who is known as more of a recruiter than a coordinator. “They’re doing OK [at FSU], aren’t they?”
Another ACC coach said the defense is a mess.
“He brought too many people with him from Temple,” he said.
You know where this story is going. The head coach, in an effort to save himself, is asked to make moves with his staff.
Win or lose against Duke, Miami will be hard-pressed to be any better than a seven- or eight-win team. If that’s the case, Golden will have to retool his staff for 2015.
And if the Canes are in the four-to-six-win window? It could be Golden himself on the line.
Sure, there are other factors that are beyond Golden's purview. While every ACC staff would maim for the chance to recruit and stock their rosters with South Florida talent, a coach did make a good counterpoint about where the Hurricanes are playing. Sun Life Stadium is devoid of life. A refurbishment there will help, surely, but how much? Probably not as much as a 10- or 11-win season would help bring life back to the fan base.
“The atmosphere is a joke,” the coach said. “That hurts them. [The] old Orange Bowl was awesome.”
If only the spirit of the teams that played there could be found. Is Golden the one to conjure that energy? Tick, tick, tick. Tick.
http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/travis-haney/post?id=3570
Like Hoke and Muschamp, Miami Hurricanes coach Al Golden has had only three full seasons to prove he can turn around a team. Which just goes to show how short the evaluation period has become, doesn't it? The window of success opens, or begins to open -- and then it slams shut on your pinkie finger.
Take Golden. If he wins a few more games a little bit sooner in Coral Gables, he's a prime candidate for Texas when it's done with Mack Brown.
And now? Well, Golden's .500 team is favored at home this week against Duke, and that's somehow newsworthy. Win or lose, the Hurricanes, in Golden's fourth season, are in a glut of mediocrity that defines the ACC's Coastal Division.
They could win, they could lose -- this week and every week. But so could the other six teams in the division. Miami is no better or worse than anyone else, and that’s damning because Miami has the wealth of the state’s recruiting base. Remember, that’s why it was such a coup that the ACC got "the U" from the now-defunct Big East in the first place.
So where is that Miami payoff? Tick, tick, tick. Tick. And if Golden doesn’t produce, and soon-ish, it'll be someone else's opportunity (or burden). Coming from Temple, Golden was more than willing to blame the lingering NCAA cloud for a few years. He said he was undermined by the threat of further punishment.
And, yes, two years of keeping themselves out of the postseason and significant scholarship reductions have hurt the Hurricanes' efforts on the trail. But this is the second recruiting cycle since the cloud blew over, and the climate shouldn't preclude a program such as Miami from competing with Duke. (Penn State seems to be managing.)
The sun is out again in South Florida. And yet, here we are; a win against Duke is considered a moment worth ... heralding. Jimmy Johnson and his beautiful hair aren't dead, but he's finding a coffin in which to roll over.
Oh, and would you really be shocked Saturday if David Cutcliffe outcoached Golden and the Blue Devils pulled the "upset?" Rival coaches said that Cutcliffe-Golden is a complete mismatch -- someone doing the least with the most, and the most with the least. You can figure out which is which, surely.
I get it. The Hurricanes are playing a freshman quarterback, Brad Kaaya. But they also have one of the country’s top runners, Duke Johnson, and they’re returning double-digit contributors on defense for the second consecutive season.
They are as equipped as anyone in a wide, wide-open division.
“They have really, really good players,” an ACC coach said. “[It’s a] great-looking team.”
So, why the gap between “great-looking” and great?
Why would Miami, considering where it is located with respects to talent-building, be housed by Louisville in consecutive games by two different coaches? Why would it be a clear underdog against a Nebraska squad that had to miraculously defeat McNeese State in Lincoln?
Ready? As much as it’s on Golden, I’m told it’s more the company he keeps.
One ACC coach said he sees the staff as “iffy.” Someone close to the program said that before things improve, if they improve, Golden has to re-evaluate the coaches around him.
“FSU wasn’t crying because [James Coley] went to Miami,” one coach said, referring to Miami’s second-year OC, who is known as more of a recruiter than a coordinator. “They’re doing OK [at FSU], aren’t they?”
Another ACC coach said the defense is a mess.
“He brought too many people with him from Temple,” he said.
You know where this story is going. The head coach, in an effort to save himself, is asked to make moves with his staff.
Win or lose against Duke, Miami will be hard-pressed to be any better than a seven- or eight-win team. If that’s the case, Golden will have to retool his staff for 2015.
And if the Canes are in the four-to-six-win window? It could be Golden himself on the line.
Sure, there are other factors that are beyond Golden's purview. While every ACC staff would maim for the chance to recruit and stock their rosters with South Florida talent, a coach did make a good counterpoint about where the Hurricanes are playing. Sun Life Stadium is devoid of life. A refurbishment there will help, surely, but how much? Probably not as much as a 10- or 11-win season would help bring life back to the fan base.
“The atmosphere is a joke,” the coach said. “That hurts them. [The] old Orange Bowl was awesome.”
If only the spirit of the teams that played there could be found. Is Golden the one to conjure that energy? Tick, tick, tick. Tick.
http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/travis-haney/post?id=3570
