Your University of Miami football program has been wandering in the wilderness for about 15 years now. There have been five head coaches, countless assistant coaches and too many players to count. And still, here we are.
Head coach Butch Davis led us out of the terrible probation period of the mid-1990s before leaving for the NFL. He recruited and stacked the roster with talented players before caretaker head coach Larry Coker was blessed with the greatest collection of talent ever assembled on a college football field.
The results speak for themselves.
Yes, from 2001-2004 Miami was far and above the best team on any field anywhere. Coker won a National Championship and should have won two and maybe could have won three. Miami players stocked NFL rosters for the following decade. But we will let that little detail go for now.
Then the bottom dropped out.
Career 'Cane Randy Shannon was hired to replace "Likable Larry" and was a sure thing to be the next great UM coach. The true Miami fans were convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that Shannon would save us. He had all the credentials but unfortunately none of the skills needed to rebuild the beast. The beast starved to death and was strangled by his abrasive personality, poor media skills and narrow minded recruiting strategy.
Al Golden, a Joe Paterno disciple from Penn State, came in to replace "Rough Randy" with his own master plan that consisted of pillars, principles and plans for greatness. Until he coached his team to be slow and fat and fell on hard times eventually choking on his own neck tie. Golden was tarnished by year two but survived four years. Who the hell wears a necktie in Miami in August much less in college football in 2012? Al Golden did and he is, as we say, history.
Enter Mark Richt, the former Hurricane QB and an experienced head coach would certainly lead Miami back to the glory days of yesterday. I mean the guy was on the team with some of the early greats under Howard Schnellenberger, right? How could he go wrong? Well he replaced the "Golden One" but soon appeared tired and flamed out in record time as if in a hurry to go fishing with Jimmy Johnson in the Florida Keys. Can't blame him, can you?
Enter Manny "The Miami Guy" Diaz. Heck, the guy was a defensive guru (like Shannon) who basically invented the "Turnover Chain". Is there anything MORE Miami than that? Hell to the nah! Manny was THE MAN. He would simply waltz, no make Samba, into the locker room, speak truth to power, and suddenly all would be well with the team once and for all. He created "The New Miami" which meant that Manny simply could not fail.
The truth is that his head coaching performance is already very questionable. And his future is already in doubt among fans. From some people's perspective it is sad. Many say that we need to be more patient with our head coaches.
On the other hand, fans want results and they want them NOW.
And we all know that will not change today or tomorrow.
What we do not want is to carry on like a wayward son.
With no hope or end in sight. All we ask really is that:
There will be peace when you are done,
lay your weary head to rest,
don't you cry no more.