Randy Shannon won’t have much to be thankful about during Thanksgiving dinner, despite what he said about him “receiving support” from the university he has to be worried about his job.  From Shannon’s history though he is not worried about himself as much as he will be about his players, who have staunchly supported their coach several times.

Football at the University of Miami is at a cross roads, going into the final game against USF the Hurricanes have turmoil swirling around the entire program.  The Virginia Tech game seems to be the straw that broke the Camel’s back even though the Canes played well for most of the game, the fourth quarter left a bad taste in the mouth of a large number of fans.  Long time Shannon supporters are starting to jump ship, and former players are coming out in droves and firing pot shots and the head coach.

It's Cold In Coral Gables For Randy Shannon Right Now.

You can tell Shannon is feeling the heat because he has named Stephen Morris the starter for the game against South Florida even though Jacory Harris is healthy enough to play.  Morris has looked good in the games he has played save one quarter against Virginia Tech, and Shannon has decided that he needs to move some of his investments to the Stephen Morris portfolio.   Shannon seems to imply it will be good to have a true quarterback competition going into the spring, and Jacory Harris will have to earn the starting job back.

Shannon has already started locking up recruits for the 2012 class, and commenting on the difficulty of the schedule being the only team in the ACC that plays FSU and VT every year.  Shannon is waging political warfare like he never has before in an attempt to stem the tide rising against him.  Some of these are great moves by Shannon for self-preservation,  but there is one problem it may already be too late to save his job.

There is virtually nothing Shannon can do to save his job at this point if that decision has already been made, but if there is a spirited discussion going on behind closed doors he has only one option available to him.  Miami has to go out and beat USF 56 – 7 or something along those lines, the type of beating we have not seen at Miami over an FBS opponent in a long time.  Then if he makes it past Monday whomever the Canes play in a bowl game better get blown out as well, that is the only way to buy back some sort of confidence that things might be able to change.  That still would not be enough to get back any good will from the critics.

With the chatter of John Gruden being interested in coming to Miami seeming to gain steam very quickly, one has to wonder if his interest is true or not.  It’s all rumor at this point, but it has desperate Hurricanes fans clinging to the idea because they have lost hope.  Over at allcanes.com/blog an article was written recently about the Gruden situation, and there were a lot of good points made.  Shalala and Hocutt have not gotten where they are by being stupid and reactionary, if they listened to emotional fans they would make knee jerk reactions and that would not be good.

They are not going to make a change for the sake of making a change to appease fans whining on message boards and blog posts, whatever they decide to do will surely be calculated and planned properly.  Sure we don’t know how much money Miami has in the coffers to spend on a head coach, but a private school with no state funding and a smaller student population is at a disadvantage financially in some areas compared to public universities.    The John Gruden discussion could have an extremely positive effect on the program, or plummet it to a point that it may be hard to recover from.

Gruden won a Super Bowl in his first year with Tampa Bay (some would say with Tony Dungy’s team), and some consider him the Larry Coker of the NFL.  Gruden only had one other double digit win season after the Super Bowl year, and he had a continuous carousel of quarterbacks he collected and messed around with.  Gruden is a big name, but there is not enough there to say he is a sure thing to lead the Hurricanes back to glory.  These are the things Hocutt and Shalala have to look at when they make a decision on the coaching situation.

It is not an easy decision on what to do next, and the decision to fire Shannon is going to be based on what coaches are available to take the job and want to come here.  Gary Patterson, Chris Petersen are two names Canes fans would love to have in Coral Gables, but who says they would leave the god like situations they are in right now?  Firing Shannon for another young coach or an unproven assistant has a lot of risk as well.

Regardless of what decision is made Hurricanes fans will be waiting anxiously on Sunday to see if there is movement in Coral Gables.  The fan base is split by those who want Shannon gone, and those who want to give him one more year.  If the Hurricanes convincingly win the last two games of this season, then some of that bad taste won’t taste as bitter.

The Miami Hurricanes were dismantled by the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday 45 – 17, and it was that bad maybe even worse.  The Hurricanes put up one of the most underwhelming performances in the history of Miami Hurricanes football, and against their biggest rival no doubt.  As usual the fan base and sports media are up in arms calling for Randy Shannon’s head, and the benching of Jacory Harris immediately.  The fans should take a minute and relax; the knee jerk reaction whining is helping no one.

It's Cold In Coral Gables For Randy Shannon.

We all wanted to believe that “The U” was back, but the truth is we have all chosen to ignore the stark reality of college football.  The game of College football has changed over the past decade, and it has left the Hurricanes behind.  Fans fail to see the bigger picture here, get mad at Randy all you want.  Firing Randy Shannon and bringing in a head coach like Mike Leach is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time, if Leach came in as an offensive coordinator maybe, but definitely not the head coach.  The administration led by Donna Shalala has a clear mission to have clean cut players who graduate, and carry themselves with dignity and respect on the field and off.

Sure Shalala would love to win a national championship, but her focus is academic accolades and proving that you can be at the top of college football while having a high graduation rate and no arrests.  Her marching orders to Shannon first and foremost were no off the field issues, and clean the program up.  Goals which Shannon has achieved with flying colors, why do you think they gave him a four year extension?

Back on Leach people do desperate things in desperate times, and I hope that Hocutt is smarter than that.  If Leach was such a great coach why has he not gotten a head coaching offer from the many that were open?  He interviewed for several jobs, and rather than coaching this year he is enjoying his time off from coaching.  Here is Leach’s coaching record at Texas Tech:

Year    Team             Overall    Conference
2000    Texas Tech    7–6        3–5
2001    Texas Tech    7–5        4–4
2002    Texas Tech    9–5        5–3
2003    Texas Tech    8–5        4–4
2004    Texas Tech    8–4        5–3
2005    Texas Tech    9–3        6–2
2006    Texas Tech    8–5        4–4
2007    Texas Tech    9–4        4–4
2008    Texas Tech    11–2      7–1
2009    Texas Tech    8–4        5–3
Texas Tech:                  84–43   47–33

In nine years at Texas Tech leach only had one 10 win season, and three nine win seasons.  He only won one conference title in nine years, and did not consistently beat Texas or Oklahoma.  Many will say well Leach had less talent and would thrive at Miami, but the fact is can we really say that Miami has elite talent now?  That is the perception, and it is true at some positions, but the quality of talent is unknown throughout the team.

Bring in Leach who may not be able to recruit the state of Florida, has no propensity for putting together good defensive squads and all Miami ends up as is Florida Tech.  If fans are complaining about mediocrity, then that is all you will get with Leach as well.  Randy Shannon has only been a head coach for four years, and maybe the Miami job is above his head.  But Leach’s first four years as a head coach are no better than Shannon’s record, so the Mike Leach talk needs to stop.  It’s a lateral move at best.

This administration is not going to bring in a $3 million dollar a year head coach, so forget a Saban or Meyer type coach coming in to save the day.  Miami makes coaches and does not pay them, why do you think we can never keep a great coach for long?  Then they decide to pay Coker of all people?  If you want to see what life will be like after Randy, look at what happened to Michigan when they switched systems.  Unless you get a coach who has a system to match the talent level on the team, then expect to struggle for two or three seasons as the team starts from scratch.  Maybe Shannon is not the answer, but outside of the top 5% what coach is going to come in that will guarantee success?  It’s all a roll of the dice, and if you are willing to risk three years of exchanging recruits, attrition, new systems and new coaches while the team struggles in hope of winning something in year four be my guest.

The bottom line is you have to have the horses to be in and eventually win the race.  The Hurricanes may not have the horses they need to win the ACC race, and changing jockeys will not necessarily fix that problem.  Robert Marve did not prove anything except that he is spoiled, and who is to say he would have worked out here.  Jacory is not the answer although he looked like he had potential last season, in contrast what is Meyer without Tebow?  Mediocre.

Drastic moves and changes hardly ever solve problems, Alabama and Florida hit lighting in a bottle.  Name another program that replaced a coach all of a sudden they were winning national titles?  That Paul Johnson move for Georgia Tech worked for one season, and they sure look like a power house this year (sarcasm).  I bet the probation, embarrassment, and NCAA sanctions heading Butch’s way at UNC are desirable as well, and for such a great coach he has not sniffed a conference title.

For all the panic and complaining this team can still win the ACC, and make a BCS game.  Should they pull it off then that may redeem Shannon and prove he is worthy of being the coach of this team.  One thing is for sure, no coach will ever take a demotion, if that is put on the table Shannon will leave the program.  Good luck finding good coordinators for the paltry salary Miami pays its assistants, Mark Stoops (FSU Def. Coordinator) makes more money than Randy Shannon.  If Miami is a big time program they need to pay to get the coach’s that will make them one, until then good luck attracting anyone big time to come to Coral Gables.

In the aftermath of the loss to Ohio State the Miami Hurricanes have regrouped and refocused to prepare for their upcoming game against Pitt.  The Hurricanes players though had a lot of regrets about their performance against the Buckeyes, and realize that they let a good opportunity get away from them.  Some of the players even apologized to the fan base, and vowed that things will be different going forward.  The players owed no one an apology, but they wanted to stand up and answer criticism received from the community.

The fall out of this game and the subsequent post game revelations by some Hurricanes players, caused head coach Randy Shannon to impose a Team wide Twitter blackout.  All Hurricanes players appear to have complied with the deactivation or deletion of their personal Twitter accounts, and although not confirmed a controversial Tweet seemed to trigger all of this.  About two and a half hours before the Ohio State game Miami quarterback Jacory Harris tweeted something to the effect of “Middle fingers all around, this is why you play college football”.

Harris tweet was apparently a description of the actions of Buckeyes fans as they pulled up to the stadium before taking on the #2 ranked team in the country.  On top of that Harris later revealed that he had received a direct tweet stating that “fans don’t want a black quarterback at UM” before his Twitter account was shut down.  Of course members of the UM athletic department found the comment deplorable, and shameful that in this day and age people still have a close minded view of things.  Randy Shannon shut down twitter so the Hurricanes can limit the distractions and focus on football.

It remains to be seen if this is going to accomplish that, players have hundreds of distractions and if they were weighed out women would probably beat out tweeting every time.  As for Harris’s pregame tweet, it was on the bus heading to the stadium and not in the locker room or on the field, so why it has become a big deal is a bit perplexing.  If anyone knows Jacory Harris staying loose, laid back, and keeping his teammates loose are generally his normal modes of operation.  It seems Harris has let the negative reaction from fans affect him as several Hurricanes players indicated in a few articles that Harris was not his normal up beat self and indicated to them that “stuff on Twitter” was the reason.

Harris has to realize that under no circumstances is he going to be able to please the entire Miami Hurricanes fan base, and someone will always have something negative to say about him.  He wants to lead this team to a national title more than anyone, but he cannot let the pressure of trying to get the Hurricanes back to the Promised Land get to him.

Head Coach Randy Shannon shocked the team by giving the team what equated to a tongue lashing after the game, where he told them they wasted a great opportunity.  Shannon left no position unscathed by his speech; he told the players that they did not consistently do their assignments or run the proper routes during the game.  It shocked the players because most if any of them had never seen Shannon that emotional or directed and pointed in his criticism.  Harris’s situation is a direct result of Shannon taking a proactive approach to put this team in a better mindset, and it already appears to be working.

Many players say the talk from Shannon got them fired up, and made them realize that they let Randy Shannon down as he tries to make people realize he is the right coach for this program.  The players have said they are more focused on what they have to do going forward, and have put an emphasis on physicality this week in practice.  The team has largely put the Ohio State game and Twitter mess behind them, and all indications point that they are 100% focused on correcting the mistakes and execute better when Thursday rolls around.  If they follow through with everything they are saying, then Pitt is going to be in for a tough night.

The anonymous Tweeter has been outed by several media outlets that follow Miami Hurricanes football, and the account belongs to a man named Douglas Diaz who’s Twitter handle is motown305.  He got into several racially charged discussions with Hurricanes fans on Twitter as a result, it’s good to see that people did not let him slide on his ignorant comments.  Maybe at some point people like this won’t be around to show the apparent ignorance still left in the world.

There have been many conversations about how the Miami Hurricanes will finish this year, and the lines are fairly well divided.  Hurricane fans are very optimistic about the potential this upcoming season will bring, but of course all the other naysayers seem to doubt what the has been assembled down in Coral Gables.

The Atlantic Coast Conference preseason picks were voted on by media members, and they picked the Hurricanes to finish second in the Coastal division.  The Media members of course picked Virginia Tech to win it’s fourth ACC title in only it’s seventh year as a member of the ACC.  I think these media members felt that they can’t go wrong by picking Virginia Tech, they always have a solid team and have a very good team returning led by Tyrod Taylor.  The Hokies have never been able to win the big game when it counted, the Hurricanes on the other hand have slowly been returning to form and media members are not ready to jump on the bandwagon yet.

When you break it down the Coastal is really a two horse race this year.  Miami and Virginia Tech are the only two teams with a “Viable” chance to win the Coastal Division.  Duke and Virginia we can go ahead and toss out of the race those teams are still behind the curve in talent and ability to make any ripples in the conference.  North Carolina was not that good last year, going 4 – 4 in the ACC, and 8 –   5 overall the Hurricanes had no business losing to the Tar Heels last year.  I think Miami gets it right this year, plus with all the shady business hanging over North Carolina’s football program right now they may be in for a long season.

Georgia Tech lost Demaryius Thomas and Jonathan Dwyer, so the only returning player from their big three is Josh Nesbitt.  He won’t have an explosive receiver like Thomas on the outside to make enough big plays to keep teams honest against the options.  Couple that with   losing the speed and power of a Jonathan Dwyer and  giving ACC defenses a third year to look at this offense, and they will have a hard time threatening for the Coastal Division title.

It has been well chronicled why Miami is going to have a good season, so we will talk about why the Hokies will finish in second place.  People will look at Miami’s loss to Virginia Tech last year and say there is no way they beat the Hokies this year.  You can’t blame it on the weather or anything like that, Miami just failed to show up for that game.

Pride will win out this year, and comparing the two quarterbacks Harris is a much better passer than Tyrod Taylor which will help provided the Hurricanes stick to the running game.  The Hokies defensive line won’t have the same success they had last year, they will still be able to pressure Harris somewhat.  Miami will play smarter this time, and have a game plan to account the pass rush.  Looking at the stats Taylor only threw for 98 yards on four completions, Virginia Tech ran the ball well, but that was really it.

Most of their points came off of Miami mistakes, if the Hurricanes limit the turnovers and run the ball with authority.  The defense will be more than sufficient to shut down Taylor, they just need to worry about stopping the running game.  Looking at it closely if Miami takes care of the ball I do not see where the Hokies are going to get enough points to beat them.

Miami should win the Coastal Division without much of a fight, if they get past Virginia Tech none of the other teams are really built to win right now.  Unless Paul Johnson comes up with replacements who are Dwyer and Thomas’ caliber they won’t’ have enough to win it either.  Miami should have been the team voted to win the Coastal, but let the Hurricanes play the underdog role where they have always been successful.