Four Hurricanes named to 2025 CFB HOF Ballot

[No_Fly_Zone]

I don't think it was so much that we didn't want A new coach to mess things up. We didn't want BARRY ALVAREZ and his style of offense to mess everything up. Shalalalla already had Alvarez come to us and talk to the team. The only other option we were told about was Sonny lubick. I don't think most of us understood the coaching tree he came from at the time. We just saw it as Butch was perfect for what we were trying to do. How do we go from that style of defense to a Colorado state guy where it's all gimmicks. If we would've understood we probably would've backed lubick the way the offense backed coker.

Pretty much. They marched into Dee's office and pretty much demanded it (with Portis the main mouthpiece) they didn't want a new coach to mess things up.

So maybe something like... Butch's excellent recruiting + Butch's departure + Players' intervention in coaching search + UM administration's ineptitude in Butch's negotiation and in finding his replacement + Coker being a corch = We win No. 5, but at great future expense (i.e., the beginning of down cycle of UM football)? Is this a fair/reasonable way of thinking about it?

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Was it the administration not caring/general ambivalence that allowed a scenario where Coker was able to lead when he shouldn't have and then stay for longer than he needed to?

Is that Coker's fault? I still say he's a chump regardless

No, this nonsense needs to stop.

Coker was given one of the top-$ contracts right after he won his first national championship. Over the next couple of years, though, some of the coaches moved on. Chudzinski left after 2003. Werner for 2 seasons was not good, and then the Olson hire for Coker's final season came after he tried to hire his (terrible) buddy and UM vetoed it. Stoops left for Arizona around the same time as Chud left. And then the firing of Soldinger/Kehoe/Hargreaves after 2005 really destroyed morale.

And let's not forget, we were CRUISING along in 2005. Lost by THREE to FSU on the road in the first game, and then won eight in a row, including a road victory over #3 VaTech.

And then it happened.

The "Seventh Floor Crew" fake controversy right before the GaTech game. Lost that one by 4, which destroyed the season.

We were still in the Top 10 when we played LSU in the Peach Bowl, which was a disastrous game, no doubt. We finished in the Top 20 (AP-17, Coaches-18), but then Coker fired coaches and the sixth season was absolutely terrible.

If not for the "Seventh Floor Crew" nonsense, we would have been ranked #3 (with 1 loss) and played 1-loss Pedo State in the Orange Bowl (national championship game was between undefeateds USC and Texas).

We can rip Coker apart, but look at his X losses prior to 2006.

2001 - 0 losses
2002 - 1 loss - Fiasco Bowl (which we really won)
2003 - 2 losses - losing by 4 to ranked Tennessee at the Orange Bowl is the one we should have won
2004 - 3 losses - lost to UNC by 3 on the road, and dropped 2 in the Orange Bowl, to Clemson in OT and to ranked VaTech by 6, all winnable games
2005 - 3 losses - lost to ranked F$U on the road by 3 and to GaTech by 4 in the Orange Bowl, before losing the Peach Bowl to LSU

Five years, and 9 losses. One game we did NOT lose.

In SEVEN of those nine losses, we lost by one score. Only beaten badly twice in five years, once to ranked VaTech on the road, once to ranked LSU in the Peach.

If not for 2006, it's an unbelievably impressive 5-year performance.

One abysmal year. If we beat GaTech in 2005 and win the ACC (and not fire 4 coaches), who knows where we could have gone.

Then David Samson and the City of Miami ****ed us over on the Orange Bowl.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Why should Coker get in??....For his clapping??....MFer was handed the Greatest collection of talent in NCAA History, and within a few yrs drove everything off a cliff, most notably evaluations and recruiting.

This was the primary thing. The on-field coaching wasn't terrible. Through 2005, we were doing fine in the games themselves. Prior to The Seventh Floor Crew ****, we had managed to replace Chud/Stoops adequately, while only losing ONE game by more than 1 TD in five years. Prior to The Seventh Floor Crew ****, we lost 7 games in five years, and 5 of those losses were to ranked teams.

Then the 2005 GaTech and LSU games happened.

 

[Brooklyndee]

So maybe something like... Butch's excellent recruiting + Butch's departure + Players' intervention in coaching search + UM administration's ineptitude in Butch's negotiation and in finding his replacement + Coker being a corch = We win No. 5, but at great future expense (i.e., the beginning of down cycle of UM football)? Is this a fair/reasonable way of thinking about it?

Not exactly fair. Issues with that. #1 players didn't intervene until shalallllalalalalalalala had Barry alvarez come and talk to the team(nothing at all in place mind you about him coming here)& the first thing buddy starts in on is his discipline,his style of play,his offense,his dress code,his conduct... On and on. Clear as day buddy thought he was some ego driven dictator. Most people here don't understand how those teams were being ran at the time. How the locker room was ran. How we all interacted with each other. How we all held each other accountable. As strong of a leader as Butch is,(only one I've seen tougher was jimmy)it was a player driven team. Always was. Now you got Alvarez thinking he's gonna come in cracking a whip and calling us all Toby? **** that noise. If shalalalalala would've had her way and hired him we would've never had #5 and plenty of dudes would've got kicked off the team. Was an immediate death sentence to us. Lubick was the perfect pick in hindsight out of the options discussed. But we never even took him seriously. Coker got so much support cause it was the devil we knew. Hindsight we never knew the side of him that had to show authority and delegate responsibility cause Butch ran all that **** with an iron fist. So not disagreeing with your assessment that it led to our downfall. One hundred percent it did. But it was a matter of picking a lesser evil cause Barry alvarez wasn't it.

 

[Brooklyndee]

This was the primary thing. The on-field coaching wasn't terrible. Through 2005, we were doing fine in the games themselves. Prior to The Seventh Floor Crew ****, we had managed to replace Chud/Stoops adequately, while only losing ONE game by more than 1 TD in five years. Prior to The Seventh Floor Crew ****, we lost 7 games in five years, and 5 of those losses were to ranked teams.

Then the 2005 GaTech and LSU games happened.

That ****** hurricane as ironic as it was led to the derailment of the program. We play tech when we were supposed to and we curb stomp them. Opposed to losing in the rescheduled game and not caring on the least to play lsu cause we felt cheated. No one wanted to play that game.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

That ****** hurricane as ironic as it was led to the derailment of the program. We play tech when we were supposed to and we curb stomp them. Opposed to losing in the rescheduled game and not caring on the least to play lsu cause we felt cheated. No one wanted to play that game.

Agreed. And I'm not a huge Coker fan or anything. I was fine when we let Coker go after 2006, but he managed to put together an amazing 5-year run. People tend to forget about that, and how close we were in 2005 to getting back to where we were in 2001-2002 (record-wise, because the recruiting was starting to become stale). I'm sure you remember the details about letting a certain DL coach go, but he was not the only UM coach at the time to fall in love with Rivals/Scout as a recruiting/evaluation tool.

 

[Brains]

Amazing how our fanbase trashes it's own, actively rooting against Coker to get into the CFB Hall.

There is zero detriment to you if he gets in, and every additional entrant is a feather in the program's cap.

Get over yourselves.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Not exactly fair. Issues with that. #1 players didn't intervene until shalallllalalalalalalala had Barry alvarez come and talk to the team(nothing at all in place mind you about him coming here)& the first thing buddy starts in on is his discipline,his style of play,his offense,his dress code,his conduct... On and on. Clear as day buddy thought he was some ego driven dictator. Most people here don't understand how those teams were being ran at the time. How the locker room was ran. How we all interacted with each other. How we all held each other accountable. As strong of a leader as Butch is,(only one I've seen tougher was jimmy)it was a player driven team. Always was. Now you got Alvarez thinking he's gonna come in cracking a whip and calling us all Toby? **** that noise. If shalalalalala would've had her way and hired him we would've never had #5 and plenty of dudes would've got kicked off the team. Was an immediate death sentence to us. Lubick was the perfect pick in hindsight out of the options discussed. But we never even took him seriously. Coker got so much support cause it was the devil we knew. Hindsight we never knew the side of him that had to show authority and delegate responsibility cause Butch ran all that **** with an iron fist. So not disagreeing with your assessment that it led to our downfall. One hundred percent it did. But it was a matter of picking a lesser evil cause Barry alvarez wasn't it.

Completely true. And the real permanent downfall took root when Chud/Stoops left, and Coker reeeeeeally didn't have a tough-guy left on the staff to do iron-fist type stuff. Except for Kehoe/Soldinger, but they were more position coaches who were feared by their position groups, but not the rest of the team.

 

[SWFLHurricane]

No, this nonsense needs to stop.

Coker was given one of the top-$ contracts right after he won his first national championship. Over the next couple of years, though, some of the coaches moved on. Chudzinski left after 2003. Werner for 2 seasons was not good, and then the Olson hire for Coker's final season came after he tried to hire his (terrible) buddy and UM vetoed it. Stoops left for Arizona around the same time as Chud left. And then the firing of Soldinger/Kehoe/Hargreaves after 2005 really destroyed morale.

And let's not forget, we were CRUISING along in 2005. Lost by THREE to FSU on the road in the first game, and then won eight in a row, including a road victory over #3 VaTech.

And then it happened.

The "Seventh Floor Crew" fake controversy right before the GaTech game. Lost that one by 4, which destroyed the season.

We were still in the Top 10 when we played LSU in the Peach Bowl, which was a disastrous game, no doubt. We finished in the Top 20 (AP-17, Coaches-18), but then Coker fired coaches and the sixth season was absolutely terrible.

If not for the "Seventh Floor Crew" nonsense, we would have been ranked #3 (with 1 loss) and played 1-loss Pedo State in the Orange Bowl (national championship game was between undefeateds USC and Texas).

We can rip Coker apart, but look at his X losses prior to 2006.

2001 - 0 losses
2002 - 1 loss - Fiasco Bowl (which we really won)
2003 - 2 losses - losing by 4 to ranked Tennessee at the Orange Bowl is the one we should have won
2004 - 3 losses - lost to UNC by 3 on the road, and dropped 2 in the Orange Bowl, to Clemson in OT and to ranked VaTech by 6, all winnable games
2005 - 3 losses - lost to ranked F$U on the road by 3 and to GaTech by 4 in the Orange Bowl, before losing the Peach Bowl to LSU

Five years, and 9 losses. One game we did NOT lose.

In SEVEN of those nine losses, we lost by one score. Only beaten badly twice in five years, once to ranked VaTech on the road, once to ranked LSU in the Peach.

If not for 2006, it's an unbelievably impressive 5-year performance.

One abysmal year. If we beat GaTech in 2005 and win the ACC (and not fire 4 coaches), who knows where we could have gone.

Then David Samson and the City of Miami ****ed us over on the Orange Bowl.

Coker fired Kehoe, Sarge and Hargreaves to save his own ***. Absolutely criminal.

 

[Rellyrell]

Why should Coker get in??....For his clapping??....MFer was handed the Greatest collection of talent in NCAA History, and within a few yrs drove everything off a cliff, most notably evaluations and recruiting.

Yeah, I’m w/ u.

Here’s the thing:
From 2001-2002 He went 24-1

From 2003-2006 He went 36-14.

I’m not even including his UTSA years which r deplorable. This doesn’t scream CFB HOF, & that’s real.

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

Not exactly fair. Issues with that. #1 players didn't intervene until shalallllalalalalalalala had Barry alvarez come and talk to the team(nothing at all in place mind you about him coming here)& the first thing buddy starts in on is his discipline,his style of play,his offense,his dress code,his conduct... On and on. Clear as day buddy thought he was some ego driven dictator. Most people here don't understand how those teams were being ran at the time. How the locker room was ran. How we all interacted with each other. How we all held each other accountable. As strong of a leader as Butch is,(only one I've seen tougher was jimmy)it was a player driven team. Always was. Now you got Alvarez thinking he's gonna come in cracking a whip and calling us all Toby? **** that noise. If shalalalalala would've had her way and hired him we would've never had #5 and plenty of dudes would've got kicked off the team. Was an immediate death sentence to us. Lubick was the perfect pick in hindsight out of the options discussed. But we never even took him seriously. Coker got so much support cause it was the devil we knew. Hindsight we never knew the side of him that had to show authority and delegate responsibility cause Butch ran all that **** with an iron fist. So not disagreeing with your assessment that it led to our downfall. One hundred percent it did. But it was a matter of picking a lesser evil cause Barry alvarez wasn't it.

Appreciate the response and insight. It seems like from the moment Alvarez got introduced into the equation and completely botched the approach, things were kind of destined to go bad. But at least we managed to secure No. 5 (and really, it should have been Nos. 5 and 6) before that happened. Wild.

 

[CreativeCane]

Coker didn't wreck the car that was the 2001 team. Coaching the greatest college team ever assembled to a championship (really a back-to-back) should give you consideration, even if you aren't ultimately selected.

 

[Home Slice]

No, Coker should not get in, but if he does, ALONG WITH the other 3, as a Canes fan for decades, I'm not gonna be mad. Go Canes

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Coker fired Kehoe, Sarge and Hargreaves to save his own ***. Absolutely criminal.

Agreed.

 

[301cane]

Sean Taylor could make the college football hall of fame just based off his games against FSU

This may be my favorite hit in all my years of watching football, knock him inside out and make him humble

 

[kanin81]

The Coker nomination is really more of a lifetime achievement award than anything else. He had a long run as one of the better assistant coaches in the country then should have won two championships plus he started the UTSA program. It’s fine, he won’t get 8n this year but if he does good for him.

 

[rccollins]

Wait- so arguably the most important player on the most important teams of the end of the 20th century gets hosed for decades. Then finally gets on the ballot last year— and now once again can’t whiff it? What in the actual ****? I’ve said it before, i will not stop saying it till he is in there. Jerome Brown deserves to be in the college football hall of fame!

 

[TheOriginalCane]

Wait- so arguably the most important player on the most important teams of the end of the 20th century gets hosed for decades. Then finally gets on the ballot last year— and now once again can’t whiff it? What in the actual ****? I’ve said it before, i will not stop saying it till he is in there. Jerome Brown deserves to be in the college football hall of fame!

Historically, the College Football HOF has had bizarre requirements that has kept many people off the ballot.

On the player side (and I'm not sure if this is still the case), an eligible player had to be named to a major "All-American" team. And many of the All-American teams were based on pre-season opinions, not to mention "certain school biases" (for the year-end All-American teams). Therefore, until the 1980s, UM barely had ANY All-Americans, thus almost NO eligible players.

On the coaching side, you had to have a .600 winning record. Thus, Howard Schnellenberger has NEVER been eligible, no matter what great things he accomplished.

I can't think of a single other HOF that has such requirements. There are some NBA HOF coaches who have, basically, .500 records, but they won 1,000 games.

 

[rccollins]

Historically, the College Football HOF has had bizarre requirements that has kept many people off the ballot.

On the player side (and I'm not sure if this is still the case), an eligible player had to be named to a major "All-American" team. And many of the All-American teams were based on pre-season opinions, not to mention "certain school biases" (for the year-end All-American teams). Therefore, until the 1980s, UM barely had ANY All-Americans, thus almost NO eligible players.

On the coaching side, you had to have a .600 winning record. Thus, Howard Schnellenberger has NEVER been eligible, no matter what great things he accomplished.

I can't think of a single other HOF that has such requirements. There are some NBA HOF coaches who have, basically, .500 records, but they won 1,000 games.

This is true and i think played a part in why Jerome wasn’t in initially. Not that he didn’t make a major all American team- because he did. But Barry Switzer one time told the press how great Jerome was, but that he couldn’t make the Hall of Fame because of that rule. But Switzer was wrong- Jerome was an all American.

 

[MiGonzCane]

Why should Coker get in??....For his clapping??....MFer was handed the Greatest collection of talent in NCAA History, and within a few yrs drove everything off a cliff, most notably evaluations and recruiting.

Coker run circles on Butch as a coach.. just saying