When Randy Shannon took over as head coach for the fired Larry Coker at the University of Miami in 2007 most if not all of the Hurricane fans, UM alumni and current and former UM players were absolutely certain that things were going to change for the better in Coral Gables.
Yet after four years of at the helm Coach Shannon and his Miami football team appeared to be stuck in the movie "Groundhog Day" where the same scenario just keeps repeating itself over and over again year after year.
Let's take a look at one game from 2007 and 2010 as a microcosim of the bigger picture of what happened at UM over the last several years.
In 2007, during Randy Shannon's first season as Head Coach of the University of Miami, his team lost more games than they won. That year your Miami Hurricanes finished 5-7. But three games before the season was over his team had already quit on him. In the final game in the historic Orange Bowl the Virginia Cavaliers not only beat but humiliated the Miami Hurricanes 48-0.
That night in the Orange Bowl, home of the 58 straight and three National Championships Shannon was coaching against a very experienced if not very good head coach in Al Groh. Groh has been coaching since 1967, had extensive NFL experience and was primed to beat a first year greenhorn in Randy Shannon and his uncommitted team.
And so it was.
Groh humiliated Shannon on his home turf with a UVA team that went on to finish 9-4 that year. That final game at the Orange Bowl not only left a mark on Hurricane fans who were there that night (I was) but you would have thought that it would have left a serious impression on the Miami players and coaching staff, especially first year coach Randy Shannon.
You might also think that the typical coach would get angry, or embarrassed or whatever someone feels when they are humiliated in front of their family, friends and fans. But not Randy Shannon.
You see in 2007 the Miami landscape was ripe with excusues: Shannon was a first year head coach learning on the job. He had inherited a team full of "Cokerites", inferior players recruited by former coach Larry Coker. He had weak assistant coaches (some that he had selected or promoted).
Unfortunately for Groh he followed up the Team Shannon beatdown in 2007 with 3-8 and 4-7 seasons and by the end of 2009 he was fired by UVA. He now works as the Defensive Coordinator at Georgia Tech. Oh well, so much for Groh being a great head coach.
In 2010 after four years as head coach Miami's Randy Shannon once again faced the same Virginia Cavaliers, this time under first year head coach Mike London. After four solid years of recruiting, practicing and coaching you would have assumed that Team Shannon would have his team ready to face the lowly Cavaliers who were now in the way of Miami's first ACC title.
You would have though that Shannon would be relentless against his former nemesis and be ready and willing to pound them into submission. Like 48-0 submision. A beat down and humiliation much like the one he himself had suffered back in 2007 at the Beautiful Old Lady that lived on NW 7th Street.
You would have been wrong.
Shannon, arms crossed and staring down first year coach Mike London across the field, and now in his fourth year and his team unfortunately never showed up. Actually that's not completely accurate. They were there, at the stadium in their uniforms, but they played as if the wore shorts and flip flops and as though their minds were on South Beach rather than in Charlottesville.
How does that happen? After four years of recruiting, four years of change, four years of competition in practice, four years of games that mattered?
Shannon and his team were down 24-0 at the half. To a Virginia team that was 3-4 and 0-3 in the ACC coming into the game. Instead of having the expected cakewalk of a game the Hurricanes were down by 24 points at halftime.
Mike London took over a UVA team in turmoil, much like Shannon had in 2007. He had little if any talent and less momentum going into the game against Miami. Yet he notched his biggest win to date in his career against Miami and fourth year head coach Randy Shannon.
London did it much like Al Groh had done back in 2007 when Shannon was still a first-year head coach. And it was done so easily, by London and his players who showed no remorse and no shame. Except at the expense of the Miami Hurricanes football team and their head coach Randy Shannon who was fired at the end of the season.
Then new Hurricanes head coach Al Golden took over the reigns at Miami and hoped to resurrect the talent, tradition and teams of years past. All Hurricanes fans hoped that in the ensuing years that it would no longer feel like Groundhog Day did in 2007 or 2011.
Well it still does. But we hope that this year in 2015, that the bad movie ends, and ends with a bang. Otherwise, it may just fade to black and a restart of the movie, credits and all, will begin in 2016.
Today I begin my tenure as president of the University of Miami. My arrival coincides with the start of a new academic cycle. One of the most wonderful aspects of university life is its sense of constant renewal. The opening of each semester brings to campus an influx of new students, faculty, and staff. Like many of you, I, too, start a new phase of my life today. I arrive with fresh ideas, shared aspirations, and boundless excitement to join the past and current members of the U community in a common journey.