Coaches on the Hot Seat: Miami's Randy Shannon

Just like the photo above, Randy Shannon may soon find himself a man alone. To start the series, "Coaches on a Hot Seat" I chose to start in the East at Miami.

There have been mutterings and rumors about this possibly being Shannon's last season at Coral Gables. His overall record is a paltry 12-13 and his conference record is likewise a dismal 6-10 record. 

What makes this record even worse is the ACC itself has been down overall these past two years. 

The hire was always questioned. Miami lately has been trying to hire on the cheap side and let them grow into the job, but it didn't work with Coker and it doesn't seem to working with Shannon.

As if the record wasn't a bad enough reason alone to place him on the hotseat, the off the field circuses have likewise caused  his status to slump.

The widely publicized leaving of highly recruited QB Robert Marve, who cited Shannon himself as the reason for his leaving, was actually only one of four players who packed up and left.

Then there were the coaching changes. It seemed that coaches either weren't happy there, or Shannon wasn't happy with them. In the two years he's been head coach there have been three defensive coordinators and now 2 offensive coordinators. 

Shannon has an impressive resume as an assistant. But the unemployment lines are filled with coaches who were great assistants but failed to able to handle the pressure of being a head coach.

Clearly at just 41 years old when tapped to take of the 'Canes, Shannon wasn't ready.  He was never respected by the press on any level of coaching other than perhaps recruiting.  In fact before the kickoff of the 2008 season, the "Sporting News" rated him dead last in a ranking of the 55 BCS head coaches.

That in itself doesn't give the administration that hired him a good feeling about what everyone else thinks of him.

Last year, it looked like Miami might have something going, they did defeat the eventual ACC Champion Va. Tech, but were blown out by Florida, and finished the regular season by getting run over by an unranked Ga. Tech team and a down and out NC State team.

They limped into a bowl game only to be defeated once again by Cal.

They have down and out teams like Charleston Southern, a 4-8 Texas A&M, a 4-8 UCF, a 4-8 Duke and a 5-7 Virginia for even having a winning season.

He has done an adequate job of recruiting, but after this season, if he is terminated, he will only leave eight seniors for his successor to build around.

This is a young team. And young teams need a strong hand and continuity to grow, something that has been lacking these last two years at Miami.

Randy Shannon is a fine man and good football coach. He is just over his head as a leader and the thinking around the country right now is this is his year to get it right or get out.

My money is on a new head coach by the year's end.