CanesAreAble
All-ACC
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Messages
- 9,194
In retrospect, it's no surprise at all Golden has failed at Miami. There were several clues that I ignored or rationalized, but there are three that have come to signify Al Golden football.
1. He never beat a winning team in the MAC. He never won the MAC. He never even PLAYED FOR the MAC championship. It's pretty remarkable in five years he never even fluked his way into a win against a winning MAC team. That trend has essentially continued at Miami. He's never won the Coastal, he's never beaten a 10-win team, and he's never beaten a team that's finished in the top 25. When Golden faces a coach with comparable talent, it's almost a guaranteed loss.
2. His philosophy is counter-intuitive to south Florida's fertile recruiting base. Early on Golden said, "It is no longer okay to be a 208-pound linebacker at the University of Miami." The area is littered with lightning-fast guys who are a bit undersized. A smart coach would make the adjustment and build a system around that. But Golden is too stubborn. I believe DMoney mentioned that Golden is fully steeped in the Bill Parcells model of big, powerful players. That's all well and good when you're in the NFL or you recruit in an area that produces a lot of beefy linebackers and nose tackles, but Miami isn't the place for it. We have guys bulking up too quickly and carrying too much weight. Anthony Chickillo put on 30 lbs in one off-season and was essentially done as a playmaker. A lot of our guys look slow and stiff. The inability to alter the original plan is a huge issue. I remember reading an article where Pete Carroll said he tried to implement a two-gap system at SC, but quickly scrapped it because it was unnecessarily difficult to put in place at the college level. Instead he wanted guys to play with speed and aggressiveness. He had that undersized white dude Matt Grootegoed in the running for the Butkus, and he was like 210 lbs. Apparently you have to be a scholar to play in Golden's/D'Onofrio's defense. That's the only explanation for untalented players having strangleholds on starting positions (e.g. Safety every single year under Golden).
3. He's obsessed with coal-shovelers. This ties into #2 re philosophy. Golden believes you build a championship team with a lot of B and B+ guys, and a few A guys sprinkled in. That's not how Miami was built. Bring in as many studs as possible, have them compete like **** against each another, and then unleash them on Saturdays. Again, Pete Carroll told his coaches he wanted guys that could play in the NFL in 3-4 years. Nick Saban said he preferred college because he could recruit as many first-round draft picks as he wanted. Instead Golden focuses on over-achievers at camps, which have been almost exclusively busts. "The Cloud" may have negatively impacted recruiting to a certain extent, but Golden's own philosophy/evaluation process is an even bigger problem.
Golden has a laundry list of flaws, but these three issues speak to his stubbornness, lack of awareness, and inability to get the most out of his players.
1. He never beat a winning team in the MAC. He never won the MAC. He never even PLAYED FOR the MAC championship. It's pretty remarkable in five years he never even fluked his way into a win against a winning MAC team. That trend has essentially continued at Miami. He's never won the Coastal, he's never beaten a 10-win team, and he's never beaten a team that's finished in the top 25. When Golden faces a coach with comparable talent, it's almost a guaranteed loss.
2. His philosophy is counter-intuitive to south Florida's fertile recruiting base. Early on Golden said, "It is no longer okay to be a 208-pound linebacker at the University of Miami." The area is littered with lightning-fast guys who are a bit undersized. A smart coach would make the adjustment and build a system around that. But Golden is too stubborn. I believe DMoney mentioned that Golden is fully steeped in the Bill Parcells model of big, powerful players. That's all well and good when you're in the NFL or you recruit in an area that produces a lot of beefy linebackers and nose tackles, but Miami isn't the place for it. We have guys bulking up too quickly and carrying too much weight. Anthony Chickillo put on 30 lbs in one off-season and was essentially done as a playmaker. A lot of our guys look slow and stiff. The inability to alter the original plan is a huge issue. I remember reading an article where Pete Carroll said he tried to implement a two-gap system at SC, but quickly scrapped it because it was unnecessarily difficult to put in place at the college level. Instead he wanted guys to play with speed and aggressiveness. He had that undersized white dude Matt Grootegoed in the running for the Butkus, and he was like 210 lbs. Apparently you have to be a scholar to play in Golden's/D'Onofrio's defense. That's the only explanation for untalented players having strangleholds on starting positions (e.g. Safety every single year under Golden).
3. He's obsessed with coal-shovelers. This ties into #2 re philosophy. Golden believes you build a championship team with a lot of B and B+ guys, and a few A guys sprinkled in. That's not how Miami was built. Bring in as many studs as possible, have them compete like **** against each another, and then unleash them on Saturdays. Again, Pete Carroll told his coaches he wanted guys that could play in the NFL in 3-4 years. Nick Saban said he preferred college because he could recruit as many first-round draft picks as he wanted. Instead Golden focuses on over-achievers at camps, which have been almost exclusively busts. "The Cloud" may have negatively impacted recruiting to a certain extent, but Golden's own philosophy/evaluation process is an even bigger problem.
Golden has a laundry list of flaws, but these three issues speak to his stubbornness, lack of awareness, and inability to get the most out of his players.
