D$:
How much of the "coal shovel" guys and lack of South Florida savages has to do with Miami's unwillingness to adhere to the sliding scale? How much of it has to do with Shalala's desire to have the top APR in the country, which is hard to do with an entire team of South Florida public school kids?
I don't think it has anything to do with it. Shannon had a ton of Dade kids and we had a better APR than we do now. Gray basically did four years of work in one summer and got in. Admissions does some weird stuff sometimes but it's a talent evaluation issue.
The Shalala criticism is overstated in my opinion. She personally called in favors to get Joe Yearby in. He may have ended up in USF if she didn't intervene.
My Shalala criticism is that we've now hired three consecutive coaches, 14 years, of guys who don't lead in the aggressive, cutting edge way that made this program great. If you're worried about the school's brand, and you happen to be trying to build a Health District associated with the cutting edge, wouldn't you try to build the football program - essentially your organization's biggest marketing/branding tool - in a way that coincides? It's almost too easy. The school benefits and the football program benefits.