Larry Coker Building a Program

[Gatorhater]

The guy was 4-2 in bowls (technically 5-1)

He won a national title (technically 2)

He won an absurd number of games in a row, and didn't lose a regular season game until late in the third year.

He was 7-2 versus the Noles/Gators.

He recruited off lists, didn't maintain a solid staff, and ignored his S and C program. He deserved to be fired.

Randy Shannon OTOH did not a single good thing in his tenure. All the bad of Coker, with none of the good. Coker was Dennis II. Unfortunately in 2006 when we should have hired Butch II (or butch himself), we hired the Retardo Lord who basically closed the coffin on the program.

Close but Dennis could actually coach. His problem, other than the bottle, was that he could not recruit worth a crap. If he had Butch on staff recruiting, Dennis might had won a half dozen NCs.

 

[Crystal Ball]

All you need to know:

Last 2 seasons -

UTSA - 15-9
UiF - 15-9

We are also 15-9 the last two seasons.

 

[gongorad]

larry had his shortcomings, but he did guide a team of studs to a BCS title win. Its a lot more than any of us have done for this U. For that I wish him the best as he's still U fam...

 

[DeadPoets]

The guy was 4-2 in bowls (technically 5-1)

He won a national title (technically 2)

He won an absurd number of games in a row, and didn't lose a regular season game until late in the third year.

He was 7-2 versus the Noles/Gators.

He recruited off lists, didn't maintain a solid staff, and ignored his S and C program. He deserved to be fired.

Randy Shannon OTOH did not a single good thing in his tenure. All the bad of Coker, with none of the good. Coker was Dennis II. Unfortunately in 2006 when we should have hired Butch II (or butch himself), we hired the Retardo Lord who basically closed the coffin on the program.

Close but Dennis could actually coach. His problem, other than the bottle, was that he could not recruit worth a crap. If he had Butch on staff recruiting, Dennis might had won a half dozen NCs.

Butch and Schiano both said no thanks.

 

[asfasfasf]

Leisure-Suit-Larry is where he should have always been...at a MAC level program. He should have been "Lane-Kiffinned" right after the 2002 MNC game. The only people who wanted him at Miami for as long as he was .....were opposing coaches and the media who wanted to see him drag the program down (which he did with terrifying speed).

For all the damage Shannon did... it pales in stark comparison to the self-wrought devastation of the Coker-years. Dee and Donna got caught up with his "nice-guy" personna but the man was basically a kazoo-player on a Broadway stage. He wanted to be Bobby Bowden (without the coaching skills). He cut enough throats and stabbed enough backs that he could have earned himself a guest spot on Game of Thrones......all to buy himself time as Butch's players left the program. Then he was exposed for all to see as the media tried to shame Miami into keeping the idiot around. Miami handed him a Porsche in 2001 and in 2006 he handed them back a Ford Edsel.

''He should have been "Lane-Kiffinned" right after the 2002 MNC game.''

Hindsight is great, isnt it?

 

[LuCane]

Here's something Ive been thinking about lately: Does it require the same skill-set to take a program from being a bottom feeder to being a bowl team (i.e.: going from 3-4 wins per year to 7-8 wins per year) as it does to take a program from being a consistent bowl team to being a national title contender??

There is overlap, but in general my answer would be that no, it doesn't. There is no such thing as a generic "good coach". There are program builders, disciplinarians, Xs&Os wizards, offense only geniuses, defense only geniuses, CEOs, people who know how to hire great assistants, extreme recruiters, etc, etc., etc.,.

There are a few people who are good/very good at some of these, but very few who are great at every one of them.

If I'm looking at a program builder - Art Briles is the A1 #1 best in the business in that he's got a proven system in place where less talented kids seem to consistently excel against better talent. Butch Davis is another, but for completely different reasons... he identifies talent better than anyone on the planet and is pretty good at changing minds. If I'm looking at someone to maintain a national #1 program, Briles would be in the list but probably not as high as some others, and Butch probably wouldn't even be a top 10 candidate. Someone like Mike Leach makes great sense some places, not so much in others. There are all manners of "good coaches", and Larry Coker was just an absolutely horrible fit for us at that time, unfortunately. We blew something magic.

Awesome post.