Give Shannon Time: Patience Required

So called Hurricane "fans" have been toxic in their denunciation of Coach Randy Shannon the last two weeks. These "fans" demand a winner now. They demand conference supremacy, national titles, and winning football. What they don't understand is fundamentally what College Football is or what it has become.

I've said all along this was going to take years but people allowed themselves to be clouded by the fact we wear the U on our helmet. I stated last year I thought we had 4-8 talent and we ended up 5-7: a credit to Shannon's motivation of the guys early in the year. While the season ended about as badly as it could, Miami did beat arch rival Florida State on the road and secured a recruiting class ranked at or near the top of most national rankings.

This year as I said as recently as last week let's just get bowl eligible and point this thing in the right direction. Our fans are so darn delusional I cannot take it anymore: I have tow write this editorial. In this day and age of scholarship restrictions, big budget public school programs, big TV money, etc you cannot simply flip a switch and go from 7-6, and 5-7 to 10-2. I cautioned people two weeks ago about talking about an ACC title when the truth is the ACC isn't as bad as Miami fans seem to think and Miami has not proven we can beat anyone, and I mean anyone in this league consistently outside of Duke.

Shannon needs time. I've stated before, we can judge him fairly in 2010 or 2011. I stand by that. I speak from experience. Before message boards and internet blog sites were in vogue I wanted Butch Davis fired after losing to Syracuse in the final game of the 1997 season dropping the Canes to a losing record for the first time in 18 years. I did not understand what I now realize: rebuilding a team at a small private school that does have an amazing legacy but still serious constraints takes time after you succeed someone who blew the program up the way both Dennis Erickson and Larry Coker did. Miami's conference opponents spend more money, have better facilities and a larger alumni base that the U. What we do have is the tradition and titles that most can never dream of. That sells more than fancy weight rooms and alumni money: but it takes time.

Randy Shannon has the youngsters playing and believing. Is he a good head coach yet? No he isn't. He makes the same mistakes any inexperienced head coach does, and the same sort of mistakes Butch Davis still made in the 5th year of his Miami tenure. But is he making changes, working on improving the product? Yes. Miami needs a Miami person to lead it. We need someone who understand recruiting in the "state of Miami" as Howard Schnellenberger dubbed it. We need someone who is going to lockdown Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. With young local talents like Sean Spence (Miami-Dade), and Travis Benjamin (Palm Beach) leading the way this staff will get it right: but it may take time. Heck, unlike Butch Davis who stuck with Bill Miller for too long before finally firing him and brining in Greg Schiano to run the defense, Shannon made the move to get one of the best coordinators available after one disappointing season. Don't blame Bill Young for having limitations with a weak front seven and a bad secondary. He cannot be judged yet either. And if you don't believe Pat Nix is evolving as a coordinator, learning how to win games and coach his young QBs, you simply do not understand college football.

No doubt Shannon's record against Miami's rivals needs to improve. 1-3 against FSU, Florida and Virginia Tech isn't going to cut it long term, but don't think Shannon doesn't realize that. Patience has its benefits. Here are some recent examples:

The most obvious one is Miami Basketball where Perry Clark trashed our program and Haith deserved a full five years to turn it back around. Grassy and the Canes Sport/Rivals affiliate site lit up with "fire haith now" after year two and three, when in fact Haith inherited a team from Perry Clark that was one or two injuries away from starting walk ons! Now Miami is a consensus top 25 national team, and likely to dance for the second straight year. What did it cost us? Some patience.

How about Auburn under Tommy Tuberville, former UM assistant? They were 5-6 his first year, but in his fifth year they were undefeated and should have played for the national title. He after all also inherited a team rocked by mistakes Terry Bowden had made, like Coker. Tuberville literally had to blow up the Auburn program to make things work. One of his ideas was to bring an old pupil from the "U" to coach the defense. Thank goodness he refused and stayed home. His name was Randy Shannon.

Ed Orgeron and Ron Zook did not get to finish their jobs- they were fired after three seasons each. Let's take Zook first. He inherited a team that had led by a coach who spent recruiting season on the gold course. In year five he was in Champaign but his players won a title. Orgeron has left his successor in year four of his tenure a great amount of talent ironically much of it recruited by Art Kehoe and Dan Werner.

Do you think right now at Michigan they are screaming to fire Rich Rodriguez, who incidentally went 3-8 his first year at West Virginia but by his third year had tied us for the Big East title, and we needed a miracle from K2 on 4th and a mile to even get that?

I've said all along this was going to take years. I don't know why anyone is surprised. Simply saying "we're Miami" means nothing today. If you are suffering Canes withdrawal do what I did yesterday: throw an old game in the VCR or DVD player. For me it was the Cotton Bowl against Texas. In the middle of this I got a text message from a Dolphins/Canes fan. I'll preface this by saying I have not watched a full NFL game in years including Super Bowls, so I don't really care about Sunday football. But this fan said "forget the Canes, the Fins are the team in town." If you want to trade in a team that has played for the National Title 10 times, won 9 conference titles and been ranked #1 in the nation at some point in ten different seasons of the last 25 for an NFL team with three division titles in 23 years and no conference championship appearances since before the Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens and Carolina Panthers even existed, you can exit stage left NOW. We don't need your type supporting the "U" and Randy Shannon as we right the ship and move this thing forward. The Canes don't need fans like you who don't appreciate what this program has done for our community the past 30 years.

Have patience, people. Support Randy Shannon and our Canes.