Thoughts on Al Golden

Let me start this off by saying this: any person who says they are a fan of The University of Miami and believes Al Golden should be fired after his first year on the job might as well be in the same group of fans who don't go to the games.

Here's the thing I find so ridiculous about our so called "fanbase." We were great in the 80's, we last were nationally relevant in 2002. Since then, Miami has become medicore at best, and yet, 90% of our fanbase still acts like we have "swagger" (honestly. stop it with that. right. now.), that we should be competing for the title every year, and that anything other than a national championship is unacceptable.

Wake the hell up, people. Cause that is no where near the case right now, and its about to get worse.

Miami found a damn good coach, who does things the right way, who preaches strength, discipline, giving a damn about your team and school first, and earning your spot on the field. On top of that, we found a coach who was willing to sign on long term in the face of one of those most egregious and disgusting NCAA scandals ever (don't bring that Penn St shit in here. its not the same.) Golden's first year was basically doomed from the start. Any big name recruits seemed to disappear once Shannon was fired. He did the best he could, and clearly found quite a few guys in his first class that will be huge. He also inherited a team of guys who only gave a damn about themselves, and went about their game like it was supposed to be given to them with minimal effort. If you disagree with me, just go watch the games the last 4 years. Take a look at some of those juniors and seniors you so revere. Some of the guys who exemplified this mentality transferred before the season started. Unfortunately that didnt happen to all of them. All year theyve been saying "weve bought in" and "were working hard and playing hard for Coach." Yet they go out and play sloppy, undisciplined football almost every week. They killed the team with penalties. They dropped passes. They made stupid, unforced errors. The reality is is that this team was 85% underachievers and 15% kids who actually gave a damn. Look at the play of some of "Golden's Kids", the guys that were fresh to the school and to his system, the guys untouched by the ineptitude of Randy Shannon. Look at Perryman and Chickillo for example. These kids are going to be special. They were out there on every play playing their hearts out, never taking plays off. Meanwhile, you have Travis Benjamin chasing down a punt he should have caught and kicking it against FSU, you have Jacory being late on half his throws, throwing 4 picks against BC. You have senior defensive linemen jumping offsides, and then being topped by senioor offensive linemen drawing false starts. People will say that this team had enough talent that anyone could have won with them. This may be true, but all the talent in the world wont make up for not having the "give a damn" that is needed to perform consistently. My hat goes off to Sean Spence, Lamar Miller, JoJo Nicolas, and the other guys who went out there and played their asses off every game while a lot of their team mates stood and watched.

Were there coaching mistakes along the way? Absolutely. Were they enough to demand this mans head after a 6-6 season? Absolutely not. He did the best he could with the team he was handed, he got them bowl eligible, and he made visible improvements in a lot of areas. He deserves the extension he got, and as a TRUE Miami fan, you should be thrilled that we have someone who has the aura of a guy who can bring the program back to what it used to be. But that sure as hell won't happen after one year, and it sure as hell wasnt going to happen with this group of players. So if you are of the mindset that Golden should be fired, or that we didnt need to give him an extension, or that there was any way in any situation that this group of players was going to be anything but mediocre, then I hope you have fun out there on the sidewalk, because the rest of us fans will be at the games, in front of whatever TVs we can find during games, and cheering on the team we love.

I for one would rather have 100 true fans rather than 10,000 who just want to talk about swagger and throw up the U.