Technically.... Shannon was his coach for 2 years prior to moving him to CB. Shields was recruited by Coker as a WR and played there in 2006 under Coker. When Shannon took over, Shields was coming off a FR season where he was a Freshman All American. Why move him to Def at this point? So, his Sophomore year he struggled under a new OC (Patrick Nix was pretty awful).
I'm not the biggest fan of Randy Shannon, but to say that Shields lack of development was on him is not fair. At least Shannon saw his potential at CB and moved him there. This ultimately made Shields a lot of $$ in the NFL.
To be fair.. Shields converted to CB and only played there 1 season.
Sean spence stated as a freshmen, ray ray armstrong did too... Oliver Vernon... Marcus fortson..
and they all regressed(outside of Spence) under Shannon too. His inability to develop talent is his biggest problem, and Sam Shields is his biggest example. Had no clue how to play corner, read offenses or even watch film. That kid shoulda been a top 10 pick.
Thats not even a bigger inditement of Shannon? He was his head coach for 3 years.....