Miami Hurricane's Coach Randy Shannon's Contract: The 800 lbs. Ibis in the Room

There is an 800 pound Ibis in the room no matter what subject comes up regarding Miami Hurricanes Football.  That would be the contract extension of head coach Randy Shannon, who right now is the 11th highest paid coach in the ACC.  Not to mention that he is not really the 11th highest paid he is tied with the guy in 12th place, Frank Spaziani of Boston College.

In one of my other articles I talked about how “cheap” Miami can be when it comes to paying their coaches, and the fact that Coker was making near $3 million a year when he left shows they are willing to pull out the cash when needed.  I can understand starting Randy off at the lower end of the scale—he is a first time head coach—but a decision needs to be made.

Any time coaches sign a new contract goals are set forth, and either he has met the goals you want or not.  At that point you need to make a decision and either fire the man, or give him an extension based off of his current body of work. 

I know that Kirby Hocutt was not the person that hired Shannon, but he has had time to lay out what his vision is for where the football program should be and go from that point.

The cruxes of the matter currently are a discussion over the new base salary per year, and the buyout amount if he gets fired before the end of the contract.  It seems that the administration is offering Shannon about $1.4 million in base salary and Shannon wants about $2 million a year, which is a little bit over the ACC average of $1.75 million per year. 

Here is the table of coach’s pay in the ACC:

1. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech—$2.3 million ($3.33 million possible with bonuses)

2. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest—$2.17 million ($2.5 million)

3. Butch Davis, North Carolina—$2.15 million ($2.26 million)

4. Ralph Friedgen, Maryland—$2.03 million ($2.56 million)

5. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech—$2 million ($2.42 million)

6. Jimbo Fisher, Florida State—$1.8 million ($2.6 million)

7. Dabo Swinney, Clemson—$1.75 million ($2.63 million)

8. Mike London, Virginia—$1.7 million ($2.27 million)

9. Tom O’Brien, North Carolina State—$1.52 million ($2.63 million)

10. David Cutliffe, Duke—$1.5 milliion ($1.5 million)

11. Randy Shannon —$900,000 ($900,000)*

12. Frank Spaziani—$900,000 ($900,000)

(Data provided by http://www.sun-sentinel.com)

What the administration at the University of Miami are saying to the fans publicly is Randy Shannon is our guy, and he is going to be our coach for a long time!  But, privately they want to put gigantic expectations on him to win and make sure the buyout is small enough so we can easily get rid of him.

The $1.4 million is a slap in the face; they are saying that Randy has not done enough to be paid the median salary in the ACC?  I have heard all these Shannon detractors talk about top flight coaches getting it done—well they get paid the salary and are given the resources to get it done.

In Shannon’s case he has not even cracked $1 million per year yet, but Mike London, who has not coached a game for UVA, is being paid almost at $2 million. 

The new contract they are offering is still less than Jimbo Fisher, Mike London, Dabo Swinney, Tom O’Brien, and David Cutliffe, all coaches that have been hired after Shannon.

That is why it will be difficult for Miami to land a big time coach that all the naysayers are clamoring for; they do not want to pay for it.  They pinch pennies where they can, and even though the football program has brought so much into the school they continue to choke it off whenever they get the opportunity.

This is hurting the team on the recruiting trail, and if you notice, this year’s recruiting class was the lowest ranked in the Shannon era.  Much of that had to do with the fact that every living room Shannon went into he had to field questions of are you going to be there when my son graduates? 

How do you answer that question confidently without looking like a liar if things change later—uncertainty breeds mediocrity.

I won’t play the racial angle here, but it would be easy for someone to make that case.  The bottom line is the administration at Miami needs to pay Randy Shannon or give him his walking papers, this waffling in the middle looks like the program has no direction and that is as good as blood in the water to the competition.

I will leave you with this tidbit, when Miami played South Florida this past season Jim Leavitt was being paid about $1.3 million per year.  While Randy Shannon at a “better” program, in a tougher conference, and with a better record than Leavitt’s team was making a paltry $900,000.  Miami beat USF soundly 31–10. So, even though Shannon has out recruited Leavitt every year, he still makes less money?

Lastly, if you are going to comment about how bad the economy is, and say that he should be happy to get $1.4 million you just have no understanding of a free market economy.  This is not an economics article, so I won’t get into it here. 

If Saban and Meyer can get over $4 million why can’t Shannon get his $2 million?