Jesus this thread is ****ed.
"Why Golden should be here after this?"
Okay, I got the best answer for you: Just who the **** else would want this job?
On the eve of possible major sanctions. After the third fired coach in 6 years (great job security). An oblivious, ineffective, and often poorly run athletic department and at a school that's benefited greatly off the football program but never gone to any lengths to give back to it. One of the few schools in major FBS football without it's 'own' stadium, even worse, that home stadium is basically a neutral field. A program reviled by the major media, who will use every chance, every small window of opportunity to take a shot in your direction. Bad facilities (yes I know we're getting an upgrade soon, but even then they will pale in comparison to some of the other major FBS schools). And yeah, you'll get a good but not great salary (in a place with a high cost of living, but I digress), and your assistants will get middle of the road ACC money...now go build yourself a dream staff!
But the history, you say!
History only goes so far, and with every passing year, that storied history fades, and all those superstars we put in the NFL get a little older. At one time, schools like Pitt, Colorado, Washington, etc. (yes, they didn't have the run of success we did, but the point stands) had proud histories and MNC under their belt, now they are also-rans stuck in the doldrums of mediocrity.
But the recruiting base!
Yes, the recruiting base: some of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the nation...and some of the worse high schools educationally. Even if you find studs like a Grooms, a Leggett, and sell them to the point where they commit, can you get them qualified and accepted into Donna Shalala's University of Miami? And talk about competition, as fertile as it is, your recruiting base will be thoroughly mined, not only by the two other major state schools (both with easier admittance, better facilities, more boosters=$, etc, than you do) but by just about every other FBS program with a pulse.
But surely, local pride will keep those kids home?
Sure. A few. But South Florida seems to have some of the scuzziest figures, spineless fans, snarkiest media, and selfish families around. In states like Texas, Alabama, etc, the pressure on a kid to stay in the region is tremendous, in South Florida, it seems everyone thinks it's a great idea for the kid to 'get away'. And even if he doesn't, his head coach will want him to (and if he sleeps on that head coaches' couch, watch out), or his mother, or his 'boys' he went to school with, etc.. And, if you do manage to build a sort of wall, keeping kids at home, the media will be after it like Mongolians, nowhere else does so much 'outside' media have so much influence.
So, regardless of if you have belief in Golden, you better cross your fingers and prey to your god that he's the one, because Jimmy Johnson (or Jon Gruden) ain't walking through that door. The only thing that is is the monster called Mediocrity, and if Golden isn't the one that can fight it, we are all in for it my friends. So put the whiny threads away and grin and bear it like the rest of us. And hope.
