The Al Golden era in Miami has come to an end.
With banners flying overhead and rival programs selling shirts imploring Miami to keep him as head coach, things were obviously tedious before Saturday. But losing 58-0 to Clemson, the worst defeat in program history, sealed his fate.
The adjectives are hard to limit -- embarrassing, unacceptable, pitiful -- you name it. They all could be said about Saturday's performance. Now I'm an Al Golden fan as a recruiter, having followed him at places like Boston College, Penn State, Virginia and Temple. But his loyalty to his staff, especially on defense, and his inability to consistently recruit elite talent in Florida and keep the wolves at bay (Florida State, Florida, Alabama, you name it) killed him.
It's not all his fault however. Someone compared the Miami job to USC on Twitter Saturday and I laughed. They are not the same. While the facilities are lacking (though both have improved in recent years) and the fan support is front-running in a pro city for both, Miami does not recruit itself like USC does. And more importantly, USC isn't competing with the aforementioned wolves and many others for players.
Until Miami fixes what's wrong - facilities, a stadium closer than 45 minutes from campus, etc. - it won't matter who's in charge. If you can't win in this ACC culture, you can't win period. But I don't think Golden is done as a head coach. If Rutgers fires Kyle Flood or if Boston College is tempted to move in another direction from Steve Addazio, one should hire Golden, a Jersey native who can recruit in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic like crazy, immediately.
Perhaps Miami, with all the sanctions and scandals he was hit with immediately, was too big of a job.
With banners flying overhead and rival programs selling shirts imploring Miami to keep him as head coach, things were obviously tedious before Saturday. But losing 58-0 to Clemson, the worst defeat in program history, sealed his fate.
The adjectives are hard to limit -- embarrassing, unacceptable, pitiful -- you name it. They all could be said about Saturday's performance. Now I'm an Al Golden fan as a recruiter, having followed him at places like Boston College, Penn State, Virginia and Temple. But his loyalty to his staff, especially on defense, and his inability to consistently recruit elite talent in Florida and keep the wolves at bay (Florida State, Florida, Alabama, you name it) killed him.
It's not all his fault however. Someone compared the Miami job to USC on Twitter Saturday and I laughed. They are not the same. While the facilities are lacking (though both have improved in recent years) and the fan support is front-running in a pro city for both, Miami does not recruit itself like USC does. And more importantly, USC isn't competing with the aforementioned wolves and many others for players.
Until Miami fixes what's wrong - facilities, a stadium closer than 45 minutes from campus, etc. - it won't matter who's in charge. If you can't win in this ACC culture, you can't win period. But I don't think Golden is done as a head coach. If Rutgers fires Kyle Flood or if Boston College is tempted to move in another direction from Steve Addazio, one should hire Golden, a Jersey native who can recruit in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic like crazy, immediately.
Perhaps Miami, with all the sanctions and scandals he was hit with immediately, was too big of a job.
