Written by Yesh Ginsburg at The Comeback
Miami has had two head football coaches since Larry Coker was fired in 2006. Both of them represent fascinating stories that are worth their own separate chapters in the history of the program, but they have something very important in common: neither Randy Shannon nor Al Golden were established top-level coaches before coming to Miami.
Does that matter? Absolutely.
Miami has a long and storied history, but the Hurricanes’ most prosperous era began when Howard Schnellengerber turned the program around in the early 1980s. Miami won four national championships in 12 seasons. From 1981-1992, the Hurricanes finished in the AP Top 10 nine times, eight of them in the top three. Miami was a national powerhouse and a decade-long dynasty. This was followed by a few down years, as the Hurricanes had to overcome NCAA penalties during Butch Davis’ coaching tenure, flowing from the mess Dennis Erickson left behind in the first half of the 1990s. The Hurricanes indeed overcame them, though, and the 2001 team is still highly regarded as being (along with the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers) one of the two best college football teams ever.
Why the brief review of Miami’s 20 years of dominance? This period has, in its own way, led to the current state of Miami football. There are many theories as to why the Hurricanes have struggled for over a decade now. We don’t need to get into all of them. Some people have pointed to coaching; others have pointed to recruiting; still others have pointed to the lack of that swagger that made Miami into “The U.” This last point is the one that sticks the most; not only is Miami not winning championships anymore, but the entire atmosphere is now different.
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