Michael Irvin Wants Miami Fans to 'Calm Their Asses Down' over Coach Al Golden

Former Miami wide receiver Michael Irvin, a three-time Super Bowl champion and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, had frank words for Hurricanes fans who want the team to fire head coach Al Golden: "Calm your [expletives] down!"

Irvin unleashed his thoughts to Adam Kuperstein of NBC-6 South Florida at Super Bowl media day; here are his comments in full, as transcribed by Susan Miller Degnan of The Miami Herald:

"

I thought [keeping Golden] was the right move, and guys, I've said this over and over again and I'll say it here again: Al Golden—Coach Al Golden—has earned this opportunity, has earned the right to see this through. With what he's done, to jump there and fight, that was not his fight, and he stayed through the fight. He recruited well and he kept us in the fight.

…

We started a freshman quarterback. Where's the smarts? Tell me this: Where's the smarts in saying, 'Hey freshman, we know we started you. We know you learned a lot. But right now we're going to snatch all of that from under you and make you start all over again next year.'

It would be absolutely stupid, absolutely ignorant to do it to him, so it would be absolutely the right thing to let this man get one more year to finish and make it right. Building a championship takes time and there's a process to it. And we're in the midst, I think, of a very good process.

And I surely hope that people, in Miami, can calm their asses down and let the process see itself through.'

"

Golden has gone 28-22 in four seasons at Miami, but a near-.500 record can be forgiven, theoretically, after the way he dealt with the fallout from the Nevin Shaprio booster scandal and subsequent NCAA sanctions, all of which took place under the previous regime.

Regardless, stagnancy the past few seasons has brought Golden under fire, to the point where John Taylor of College Football Talk ranked him the No. 1 hot-seat head coach for 2015.

The Hurricanes started 7-0 in 2013 but have since lost 11 of 19 games.

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Irvin is a Miami legend whose voice within fan circles is respected. But the only thing fans (of every team) love more than former players is complaining about their coach when things go wrong.

Things have gone wrong in Miami, and there's nothing Irvin, Alonzo Highsmith, any other former Hurricane or even the ghost of George E. Merrick can do about it. The only way to fix this is to win.

Otherwise, fair or not, Golden is a goner.

Follow Brian Leigh on Twitter: @BLeigh35