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Dwan wrote: Barnett hired in November is a better hire than Fran hired in January.

max the wonder dog wrote:the most compelling argument for Fran is his ability to immediately recruit in Texas. if it is Fran, that advantage was *#@^ed away by not acting in Nov.

Five years ago, Miami won the national title in Larry Coker's first year as head coach, going undefeated and winning the Rose Bowl with ease.

The next year, Miami took a step back by losing in the national title game to a heavy underdog with more heart in Ohio State (Do NOT give me the whole pass interference excuse because replays clearly showed an earlier Craig Krenzel sideline pass to Chris Gamble should have been ruled a completion, and that would've resulted in a Buckeyes first down late in regulation that would have allowed the Buckeyes to run out the clock with a three-point lead.)

The next year, Miami took another step back by not reaching the national title game and settling for a rematch/Wide Right IV win in the Orange Bowl over FSU in a game that was tougher to watch than Johnny Drama blowing another audition on Entourage.

The next year, Miami took another step back by not reaching either the national title game or a BCS game and settling for a Peach Bowl win against rival Florida, playing its final game before Urban Meyer.

Then last year, Miami took yet another step back by not reaching either the national title game or a BCS game and by not only losing the Peach Bowl, but by having fewer explanations for the embarrassing events than Floyd Landis.

It was the loss to LSU that finally got the attention of the athletic department and the privately-funded university's hierarchy and resulted in the ever-loyal Coker making dramatic and somewhat unpopular changes to his coaching staff.

When a head coach at a program with high expectations makes changes like these, it means only one thing: He was gone if he didn't, and he will be gone if they don't work.

Even after these changes, only more questions surround the immediate future of the Hurricanes because of the recent suspensions for the season opener, the exit of Coker's biggest and most controversial recruit in Willie Williams, and Brandon Merriweather's return of fire on a man who shot Merriweather's teammate in the butt.

Big-D 'Cane wrote:While I am not a big SMU fan, I do follow the program and I can assure you that Larry Coker would be the absolute worst hire you could possibly get. I would rather take a chance on a complete unknown than go with a proven loser.

This man did more damage to Miami than probation did in the early 90's. When he was hired he was handed the most talented roster in CF history (15 first round picks in the next 3 years!), and he turned that team into a complete disaster. And each season he was there was worse than the year before. Nowhere else is there a clearer example of someone turning a great team into a bad one. It's one thing to not be able to turn a bad team around, but taking a dominant team and promptly making them below-average is not easy to do. He's the complete 180-degree opposite of a Pete Carroll, who took a 5-6 team and made them dominant.

Coker is a weak recruiter and an even worse talent-evaluator.
His teams and players are soft, lazy, and weak - so much so that players who get this way in Miami are now deemed to have been "Cokerized".

He was a decent OC at times, but is the epitomy of the Peter Principle of getting promoted up to his level of incompetency.

And before you even try to say "but he won a national title" or "look at his record", please remember that Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl and had a better record than Jimmy. So what does that tell you?

We've always said that any school who hires this guy will be an absolute sucker b/c they won't have looked deeply behind the numbers at his record - I just hope SMU isn't that sucker.