Eureka! Why the Miami Hurricanes Struck Gold with Al Golden

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a head coach. He went to a struggling, almost embarrassing program.

When all seemed lost for that team, he turned the team around and made them into contenders. This guy would soon be offered the head coach position for the University of Miami football team, and led them to a national title in only four years.

Sounds like little more than wishful thinking from a Miami fan who hopes that Al Golden turns the Hurricanes into national champions, but think again.

That’s the story of Jimmy Johnson, who rebuilt a poor Oklahoma State team before taking his talents to South Beach and helping build one of the greatest dynasties in college sports history, winning a national title with the Hurricanes in 1987 and putting the pieces in place for Miami’s 1989 national championship run.

So let me ask a question. Why are so many people critical of Miami’s decision to hire Temple head coach Al Golden, who has so far led a career vaguely resembling the great Jimmy Johnson’s?

Yes, Al Golden compiled a 26-32 record at Temple in his five years. But consider this: Bobby Wallace, who was the Owls' head coach for the eight years prior to Golden’s arrival, won 19 games in his tenure, going 19-71.

And HIS predecessor, Ron Dickerson, went 8-47 over a five-year span. Combined, Wallace and Dickerson won 27 games over a 13 year span.

How many games did Golden win? Twenty-six games.

In how many years? Five.

Golden accomplished in five years what Wallace and Dickerson accomplished in 13, using many of Wallace’s players for the first two or three years. His 9-4 season in 2009 was the school’s best since 1979. Hell, his 5-7 performance in 2008 was the school’s best since 1990. All of the sudden, that 26-32 record looks a whole lot better, huh?

He did all of this while fixing up the program’s off-field issues. The team’s APR score increase over his tenure is one of the highest jumps in all of college football during that time.

He kept the team out of trouble legally as well, proving that it is possible to turn around a program’s on-field woes while running a clean and academically talented program (I’m looking at you, Urban Meyer).

Clearly this guy is a winner, and he will be taking his talents to South Beach to try to lead the Miami Hurricanes back to relevance next season. He will retain many of the aspects of the Randy Shannon era.

He’s a no-nonsense disciplinarian like Shannon. He will keep the players out of trouble and in the classroom. He will maintain the program’s elite-level APR scores and FBS-best graduation rates (well, behind only Army and Navy, who disallow their players from declaring early).

However, Randy was fired for a reason. His players were notoriously prone to under-performing, usually due to a lack of motivation. Randy’s stoic persona does not do well to encourage his players to exceed expectations; they usually only really went through the motions.

That’s where Golden comes in. Anyone who’s seen him has seen his high-energy attitude on and off the field. He’ll not only motivate his players to play up to their expectations, he won’t be satisfied until they exceed them. He’ll energize his players on the field and in the locker room.

If Miami finishes second in the ACC Coastal next year, he won’t say, “Oh well, maybe next year,” and shrug it off. He will lay it into his players thick. He’ll let them know where they screwed up and won’t be satisfied until they fix them.

That wasn’t the only reason Randy was fired. His play-calling ability and personnel choices were lackluster, to say the least. It took a concussion for Randy to finally pull the pick-happy Jacory Harris.

Not the eight interceptions in a three-game stretch from the Ohio State game to the Clemson game. Not the laughable performance by the team against the archrival Florida State Seminoles. An injury.

And, as it turned out, Stephen Morris, though an improvement, showed that there was still a lot to be desired. Neither QB turned out to be very good, and yet both were given the keys to the offense in times when it became clear that the rest of the team should be holding them up, such as late in the Virginia Tech game. The ball was passed way too much for an offense with mediocre QBs and fantastic RBs.

That’s where Golden comes in. He favors the run very much when he calls offensive plays. In his last two years combined, Temple has run the ball 981 times, doing so 63 percent of the time.

In comparison, over the last two years, Miami has run it 962 teams, handing the ball off 54 percent of the time. For a team with potential future stars in Lamar Miller and Mike James, as well as talented senior Damien Berry, it seems pretty weird that Miami has only run the ball just over half the time.

Golden will return Miami to a run-first offense. He will milk Miller, James and Storm Johnson for all they’re worth. He will limit Jacory Harris or Stephen Morris to the minimal number of attempts to get the job done.

That will allow them to find success a higher percentage of the time, as other teams won’t be expecting the pass quite as much. He will also keep up Miami’s strong defensive play. His Owls team finished 19th in the nation in scoring defense this year. He will continue working on future stars like Sean Spence and Ray Ray Armstrong.

So I ask again, why is the hiring of Al Golden so bad? Maybe you doubters should ask Penn State, who is rumored to have had him penned as Joe Paterno’s successor once the old man finally calls it quits in another decade or two.

If Penn State considers him worthy of being the successor to the winningest coach in FBS history, surely they must know something you guys don’t. If he’s good enough to succeed JoePa, he’s definitely good enough to success Randy Shannon.

In short, Al Golden may not be Jon Gruden or Jim Harbaugh, who Miami fans were salivating at the prospect of, but he will still find success with the University of Miami. The fan base is excited. The university is excited.

I’m not here to say Golden will pull a Jimmy Johnson and win a national title in four years, but I definitely expect him to lead the Miami Hurricanes back to relevance by the time his current contract is set to expire.

He’ll remind college football that you don’t need an extensive, decades-long resume to find success at a major program, and also remind them about the age-old adage: It always has, and always will be, all about The U.