Miami Fires Coach

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Miami fired coach Randy Shannon on Saturday night, hours after the Hurricanes finished a 7-5 regular season that began with championship expectations.
Athletic director Kirby Hocutt made the call.

"We have made a decision to seek new leadership for our football program," Hocutt said in a release. "Our expectations are to compete for championships and return to the top of the college football world."

Randy Shannon was the first coach to sheppard Miami only as an ACC team, but he struggled in the conference.

Shannon received a four-year extension just before the start of the 2010 season. He was 28-22 in four seasons at Miami.

A source told ESPN that offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland will take over as interim coach.
However, the fate of all members of Shannon's staff has not been determined. Some will remain for Miami's bowl game, but one assistant coach told The Associated Press that "everybody, all the coaches, weight room, the training room guys, secretaries, we all think we're gone." The coach spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not been told about his own job.

Shannon had considered firing both offensive coordinator Mark Whipple and defensive coordinator John Lovett in recent days, along with some -- but not all -- of his other assistants.

Hocutt was scheduled to meet with reporters at 1 p.m. Sunday, and players were told a team meeting would be held beforehand.

Hocutt made the decision shortly after Miami lost to South Florida 23-20 in overtime on Saturday afternoon, in a game where only about 27,000 people filled the 73,000 seats at Sun Life Stadium. A plane circled the stadium before kickoff calling for a coaching change, and players left fearing that it would be the last time they played for Shannon.
"Put it on us as players," wide receiver Leonard Hankerson said.

The sentiment may have been noted, but in the end, Shannon was ultimately responsible.
Shannon is expected to receive a buyout of around $1.5 million. Miami -- a private school that doesn't have the deepest of pockets when it comes to paying coaches -- has had a fundraising drive to support athletics for several years and believes it will be able to put together enough money to lure a top-notch staff.
The Hurricanes expect to be selected for the Sun Bowl, although that still's far from a done deal.

Hocutt said he would begin a nationwide search, and there'll be no shortage of names on his list. Among the possible candidates: former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach (who has a residence in the Florida Keys), Georgia's Mark Richt, and Oklahoma associate head coach Brent Venables, who has ties with Hocutt going back more than 20 years.

Shannon drove away from the stadium around 5:30 p.m. Saturday unsure of his fate, though he had suspected that he would be fired after the Hurricanes were embarrassed at home by Florida State on Oct. 9 and then were beaten by lowly Virginia three weeks later. He considered making many changes to his staff and was deciding whether to dismiss some coaches later Saturday evening.

Instead, Miami beat him to the punch.

"I'm not worried about me," Shannon told The AP earlier in the week when asked about his job security. "If they do it, they do it. I think someone will give me another job."
Shannon took over for Larry Coker at the end of the 2006 season and went on a mission to change the culture at the school -- which, in many respects, he did.

They can have Richt, though I think Miami has a little of the Notre Dame syndrome now. They will not be what they once were. That time has passed for them.

Miami says they want to go after a "top notch" coach. Think Richt's performance of late has been less than top notch. Shannon is right. He will be a DC somewhere next season. This opens the door for Whipple to be considered as our OC if the change is made. Wasn't there a thread before with someone "in the know" predicting the Shannon firing, Whipple being our OC and IC coming to Athens. Man, I hope at least one of them last two holds true.

More coaching changes

Vandy
The Commodores played less than 12 hours after getting the news that coach Robbie Caldwell was stepping down after Saturday's game.
Caldwell addressed the players Saturday morning before the school held a press conference in which David Williams, the vice chancellor in charge of university affairs and athletics, said he and Caldwell reached a "mutual agreement that the university and the football program needed to go in a new direction."


UF
10:20 AM ET 11.28 | Florida coach Urban Meyer said an ESPN.com report that Gators defensive line coach Dan McCarney had accepted the head coaching job at North Texas was news to him. "Not that I know of," Meyer said after UF's 31-7 loss at Florida State. "I have not been made aware of that."
Florida Times-Union


Possible

Brian Kelly called it the "silly season." That's how the then-Cincinnati coach tried to downplay weeks of November and early-December speculation linking him to the soon-to-be-vacant Notre Dame job last year.
Of course, Notre Dame did wind up hiring Kelly. Apparently the rumors weren't so silly.
Following Colorado's long-anticipated ouster of Dan Hawkins last week and Minnesota's axing of Tim Brewster last month, the annual early-winter coaching carousel has begun again. While we don't yet know how many more jobs will open, we certainly know the strongest possibilities (Arizona State, West Virginia, Indiana and Illinois, among others). And we can certainly foretell who some of the hottest candidates figure to be. After all, it was no secret this time last year that Kelly, Tommy Tuberville (Texas Tech), Charlie Strong (Louisville), Skip Holtz (USF) and Turner Gill (Kansas) were on athletic directors' radars.
We could also have divided those names into three different categories -- the established A-lister (Tuberville, Kelly), the mid-major stars (Holtz, Gill) and the hot coordinator (Strong). Here's an early look at some of the names that currently fall into each group this year.
The A-listers
• Mike Leach: The former Texas Tech coach, who set that school's all-time wins record but was removed after 10 seasons under controversial circumstances, is high on a lot of fan bases' wish lists. His record-setting offense and unique personality will do that. What's not known is whether the accusations regarding Leach's treatment of injured player Adam James -- not to mention Leach's pending lawsuit against Texas Tech -- will deter future employers. Leach, who pursued the Miami and Washington jobs while in Lubbock, will likely hold out for a high-level program.
• Mike Bellotti: The longtime former Oregon coach (he went 116-55 in 14 seasons) and athletic director (briefly) is currently with ESPN, but wants to get back into the game. His decision to "retire" after the 2008 season at just 58 always seemed a bit premature -- and was probably not entirely his own call. He's acknowledged already having discussions with Colorado. "We had some initial talks, nothing more than that," he told the Denver Post.
• Jon Gruden: No one seems to know whether the former Raiders and Bucs coach and current Monday Night Football analyst is serious about getting into college coaching. He's flirted with suitors before (Notre Dame) and shown an interest in the college game, most recently telling The New York Times that he nearly took an assistant job at Oregon just to study Chip Kelly's offense. If he decides to give it a go, Colorado would likely be interested.
• Jim Harbaugh, Stanford: The Cardinal are 9-1 and ranked in the top 10, yet the school couldn't sell out a recent primetime game against Arizona. That's just one of the many reasons observers believe the highly regarded coach won't be at Stanford forever. But realistically, he only enters the carousel this year if alma mater Michigan comes calling.
The mid-major stars
• Chris Petersen, Boise State: Petersen's name comes up every year, and understandably so, but he's shown no interest to date in leaving the comforts of Boise, with former boss Hawkins' flameout at Colorado serving as an obvious cautionary tale. Don't expect his stance to change.
• Gary Patterson, TCU: Patterson has garnered surprisingly little interest from Big 12 and other schools in the past despite his decade-long success, but he's also not the type to aggressively pursue other options. He's said he believes he can win a national title at TCU. One of the absolute big boys would have to come calling.
• Troy Calhoun, Air Force: Calhoun is a much more likely target, and was in fact a leading candidate at Tennessee each of the past two years. His option-based rushing attack has been wildly successful, and he's developed Air Force into a surprisingly strong defensive team.
• Brady Hoke, San Diego State: Just as he miraculously turned MAC cellar-dweller Ball State into a 12-win team in 2008, Hoke has led the Aztecs to their first winning record in 12 years in just his second season. Minnesota for one appears to be interested, and while the San Diego weather must be nice, Hoke is an Ohio native who spent most of his previous career in the Midwest.
• Kevin Sumlin, Houston: After achieving national acclaim and playing for a Conference USA title last season, the Cougars have fallen back this year due to quarterback Case Keenum's season-ending injury. But that doesn't mean the third-year coach's stock has fallen. Sumlin, 46, has coached in both the Big Ten and Big 12, spending five years on Bob Stoops' staff.
• Al Golden, Temple: What's not to like about a guy who resurrected one of Division I-A's most downtrodden programs and could notch a second straight nine-win season? But Golden has spent his entire coaching career in the East (Virginia, Boston College, Penn State and Temple), and there's reason to believe he'll hold out for one job and one job only: the one in Happy Valley.
The hot coordinators
• Will Muschamp, Texas (defense): Muschamp is the designated head-coach-in-waiting at Texas, but Mack Brown isn't expected to retire anytime soon. (Though maybe this season's debacle will cause him to reconsider.) In the meantime, Muschamp's name will always come up for other schools, especially if alma mater Georgia parts ways with Mark Richt (not likely) or Les Miles leaves LSU (also not likely), where Muschamp once was an assistant under Nick Saban.
• Kirby Smart, Alabama (defense): Another Saban protégé, Smart will inevitably get the call at some point. Also a Georgia alum, Smart has worked for Saban at LSU, the Dolphins and now Alabama, overseeing a national championship defense. His age (34) could be a deterrent to some, but Bret Bielema, Pat Fitzgerald and Lane Kiffin were all hired in their early 30s, too.
• Gus Malzahn, Auburn (offense): Malzahn was an incredibly successful high school coach, led one of the nation's most productive offenses at Tulsa and is now at the helm of the SEC's top offense. It's only a matter of time before someone snags the noted hurry-up guru, though don't expect him to give up control of the offensive Xs and Os wherever he goes.
• Mark Helfrich, Oregon (offense): Though Chip Kelly is the unquestioned architect of the Ducks' breakneck offense, Helfrich's association with the nation's No. 1 team and most explosive offense is sure to attract interest. Helfrich, 37, previously served under Dan Hawkins and Dirk Koetter at Boise State and Colorado and would seem a natural fit at a West Coast school.
• Dana Holgorson, Oklahoma State (offense): The former Mike Leach protégé, hired last offseason from Houston, has engineered the nation's most productive offense (547.5 yards per game) despite inheriting a unit that returned just four starters. Holgorson, 39, is renowned for his play-calling and ability to mix the run with the pass. Some may think he's better suited as a coordinator.
• Manny Diaz, Mississippi State (defense): Considered one of the top young defensive coaches in he country, Diaz, 36, spent four years at Middle Tennessee before joining Dan Mullen this season in Starkville, where he's helped the Bulldogs produce a top 20 defense and a 7-3 record as co-coordinator. The son of Miami's former mayor, the polished Diaz would smoothly handle the job's media spotlight.
• Don Treadwell, Michigan State (offense): The one-time Jim Tressel underling showed tremendous poise and leadership as the Spartans' interim coach following boss Mark Dantonio's late-September heart attack, keeping Michigan State on course for an 8-0 start. He's helped boost the Spartans' running game and turn Kirk Cousins into an efficient quarterback.
• Mark Whipple, Miami (offense): A longtime former Division I-AA head coach at New Haven, Brown and UMass (where he won a national title), Whipple spent five years in the NFL before joining Randy Shannon's Miami staff last season. He's certainly got an enticing résumé and a sterling reputation among his peers and should return to the head-coaching ranks eventually.
• Bud Foster, Virginia Tech (defense): Every year, we wonder how the Hokies' coordinator of 15 years hasn't yet landed a head-coaching job. This one will be no different. Virginia Tech's young defense has struggled at times this season (ranked 37th nationally), but Foster, 51, produced the ACC's No. 1 or 2 unit every season from 2004-09.

Just returned home this afternoon from South Florida. Place is buzzing. One thing folks can get used to, a lot of the high schoolers in that neck of the woods will be heading to Tampa and USF. School to watch, they will be better known real soon. Could become the Boise State of the South. Huge recruiting base, unlike Boise State.

Mark Whipple on the offensive side of the ball, with AM, dynamite.

Have heard some noise about MB stepping back so to speak.

You could not pay Richt enough money to leave UGA and coach Miami. Will not happen. Richt came close last night to looking for employment.