I continue to be amazed that so many Canes fans still consider the Larry Coker hire to be a bad move by the university. Hiring Larry Coker was absolutely the right thing to do at the time. The man won a national title and for all intents and purposes, won a second consecutive national title. What else could anyone have hoped for at that time?
Where UM failed in this regard was two-fold:
1) Giving him a contract extension after the 2004 season that extremely favorable to coach Coker w/r/t the early termination buyout. Coker's market value did not command that kind of contract, but as we went on to learn about donna, she cared not about on-field results; Only about the team's PR image.
2) Not terminating Larry Coker after the 2005 season. It was evident to even the least knowledge Canes football follower that Coker was not the right man to continue to run this program going forward. But yet again, donna chose to give him another year because she felt he was a good PR steward of the program. I truly believe if the FIU brawl incident not occurred, Coker would have also been given the 2007 season as well.
