I went looking for quotes that other people think about Al and some of the things that have transformed him into the man he is. Please feel free to add to it. Enjoy!
"Taking into consideration how Golden has been able to accumulate a strong crop of talent in the last few recruiting cycles and the same appears true for next February's haul, the talent level at Miami continues to rise under the leadership of Golden and his staff. And as we saw at Temple, Golden can flat-out coach."- Dave Miller
"CBS Sports national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming thinks Golden can be a superstar recruiter at Miami. Last year, Lemming named Golden the top recruiter in the country for the work he did at Temple. With Al Golden, I believe he's as good as Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Mack Brown and Jim Tressell, who I consider the top five recruiters in the country. He's as good as those five, he just never had the platform like he will at Miami. If anybody can get them back to the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s where talent was oozing out the door, it's Al Golden."- Tom Lemming
"The former Penn State tight end, who learned his craft from such coaching luminaries as Joe Paterno, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and Al Groh, has a particular type of player in mind when he hits the recruiting trail. "I'm looking for leaders," Golden said. "I want team captains. I want kids who are willing to take responsibility. To play for us, you have to share our core values.""- KEITH SCHWEIGERT
"I worked with George Welsh at UVA. He’s in the college football Hall of Fame. When I went up with Tom O’Brien in BC we had taken over just after the gambling scandal in 1997. So I really learned how to take on a program from the ground floor. And of course Tom went on to win, I think, 10 straight Bowl games, so he’ll probably be in the college Hall of Fame someday too. Then I worked under Al Groh when I went back to UVA. Al was significant in my development because he really taught me more about football than anybody had. He brought more of the X’s and O’s from the NFL. That was after he coached the Jets, so I was fortunate. Before Al hired me I was always around the Jets’ and Patriots’ training camps. I would hang out with Al, Romeo Crennel, coach Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and all those guys and just try to learn from them. Coach Parcells was always so helpful, and even to this day, if I have a question or an issue or a problem, I can pick up the phone and know that I’m going to get an honest, unbiased answer. I may not always like what I hear — you don’t have to worry about coach being direct, but he’s got tremendous wisdom, experience, and understanding of the dynamics of our game and how to lead people."- Paul Williams
Paul Williams- Everywhere you have coached, including Temple, you have improved your team’s defense. Is defense something you always stress?
Al- Golden- To be honest with you, that’s something that goes back to—and you think about Coach Paterno, or Coach Parcells, or Al Groh—playing smarter and more disciplined football. It’s not just about mental toughness or being in great condition, but you have to know how to play the game. Coach Groh used to say that it’s not a game of four quarters; it’s a game of situations. If your kids can recognize situations: goal line, red zone, whatever the case may be, act and execute accordingly, and if you can develop a culture of discipline, your penalties will go down. The nature of the philosophy is very simple. If you eliminate the things that cause teams to lose, you have increased your odds of winning. All you’re trying to do is to tilt the odds in your favor. So that’s the first step for us at Miami: To get the turnovers and the penalties under control. We’re not where we want to be yet, but we’ve got them under control. If you look back at the history of our success at Temple, we went from the bottom 10 in the country to the top 10 in the country in penalties, and I think that led to our success. Nobody is better than Parcells and Belichick, but that whole lineage I learned from is all about, “We all know the rules of the game. How do we gain tactical advantages just by our culture, our philosophy, and the things that you espouse?” And the reality is the team that gives up the least amount of explosive plays, the team that plays better on special teams and field position, the team that protects the ball and or takes it away better, and the team that has the least amount of penalties, has strongly tilted the odds in their favor. So when you couple third down percentages with that, which is one of the strongest stats in football, those are the things we’re trying to teach our student athletes at Miami now.
"Jimmy Johnson has been out of coaching for more than a decade, and out of college football for nearly 25 years. But he knows enough about the University of Miami to know that he likes second-year coach Al Golden. “I told Al he’s doing it the right way,” Johnson said Tuesday at his College Football Hall of Fame press conference in New York. “He’s an outstanding recruiter. He’s very disciplined. I think he’s the perfect guy to get Miami back on track.”"- Ivan Maisel
"So what makes this year’s class different from past years? It’s the “Jimmy Johnson Model” that Al Golden is following. Now you may wonder what the “Jimmy Johnson Model” is and how is it still relevant in today’s day and age of football? The model is very clear cut and Al Golden is following it to a tee. It starts off by recruiting smart players that come from winning programs, but it goes a lot deeper than just that. Once you find these types of players you look for guys that are leaders with high character. Jimmy Johnson looked for players that didn’t just do it on the field, but guys that could also bring the locker room together and earn the respect of their teammates. Jimmy Johnson never had to worry about telling a player he had to run a better route or finish off a tackle because the leaders that he recruited would not let those little mistakes go unnoticed. This is exactly what the Hurricanes have been missing over the last few years, and exactly the type of players Al Golden is trying to stockpile his roster with now."- Kenney Perez
"Taking into consideration how Golden has been able to accumulate a strong crop of talent in the last few recruiting cycles and the same appears true for next February's haul, the talent level at Miami continues to rise under the leadership of Golden and his staff. And as we saw at Temple, Golden can flat-out coach."- Dave Miller
"CBS Sports national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming thinks Golden can be a superstar recruiter at Miami. Last year, Lemming named Golden the top recruiter in the country for the work he did at Temple. With Al Golden, I believe he's as good as Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Mack Brown and Jim Tressell, who I consider the top five recruiters in the country. He's as good as those five, he just never had the platform like he will at Miami. If anybody can get them back to the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s where talent was oozing out the door, it's Al Golden."- Tom Lemming
"The former Penn State tight end, who learned his craft from such coaching luminaries as Joe Paterno, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and Al Groh, has a particular type of player in mind when he hits the recruiting trail. "I'm looking for leaders," Golden said. "I want team captains. I want kids who are willing to take responsibility. To play for us, you have to share our core values.""- KEITH SCHWEIGERT
"I worked with George Welsh at UVA. He’s in the college football Hall of Fame. When I went up with Tom O’Brien in BC we had taken over just after the gambling scandal in 1997. So I really learned how to take on a program from the ground floor. And of course Tom went on to win, I think, 10 straight Bowl games, so he’ll probably be in the college Hall of Fame someday too. Then I worked under Al Groh when I went back to UVA. Al was significant in my development because he really taught me more about football than anybody had. He brought more of the X’s and O’s from the NFL. That was after he coached the Jets, so I was fortunate. Before Al hired me I was always around the Jets’ and Patriots’ training camps. I would hang out with Al, Romeo Crennel, coach Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and all those guys and just try to learn from them. Coach Parcells was always so helpful, and even to this day, if I have a question or an issue or a problem, I can pick up the phone and know that I’m going to get an honest, unbiased answer. I may not always like what I hear — you don’t have to worry about coach being direct, but he’s got tremendous wisdom, experience, and understanding of the dynamics of our game and how to lead people."- Paul Williams
Paul Williams- Everywhere you have coached, including Temple, you have improved your team’s defense. Is defense something you always stress?
Al- Golden- To be honest with you, that’s something that goes back to—and you think about Coach Paterno, or Coach Parcells, or Al Groh—playing smarter and more disciplined football. It’s not just about mental toughness or being in great condition, but you have to know how to play the game. Coach Groh used to say that it’s not a game of four quarters; it’s a game of situations. If your kids can recognize situations: goal line, red zone, whatever the case may be, act and execute accordingly, and if you can develop a culture of discipline, your penalties will go down. The nature of the philosophy is very simple. If you eliminate the things that cause teams to lose, you have increased your odds of winning. All you’re trying to do is to tilt the odds in your favor. So that’s the first step for us at Miami: To get the turnovers and the penalties under control. We’re not where we want to be yet, but we’ve got them under control. If you look back at the history of our success at Temple, we went from the bottom 10 in the country to the top 10 in the country in penalties, and I think that led to our success. Nobody is better than Parcells and Belichick, but that whole lineage I learned from is all about, “We all know the rules of the game. How do we gain tactical advantages just by our culture, our philosophy, and the things that you espouse?” And the reality is the team that gives up the least amount of explosive plays, the team that plays better on special teams and field position, the team that protects the ball and or takes it away better, and the team that has the least amount of penalties, has strongly tilted the odds in their favor. So when you couple third down percentages with that, which is one of the strongest stats in football, those are the things we’re trying to teach our student athletes at Miami now.
"Jimmy Johnson has been out of coaching for more than a decade, and out of college football for nearly 25 years. But he knows enough about the University of Miami to know that he likes second-year coach Al Golden. “I told Al he’s doing it the right way,” Johnson said Tuesday at his College Football Hall of Fame press conference in New York. “He’s an outstanding recruiter. He’s very disciplined. I think he’s the perfect guy to get Miami back on track.”"- Ivan Maisel
"So what makes this year’s class different from past years? It’s the “Jimmy Johnson Model” that Al Golden is following. Now you may wonder what the “Jimmy Johnson Model” is and how is it still relevant in today’s day and age of football? The model is very clear cut and Al Golden is following it to a tee. It starts off by recruiting smart players that come from winning programs, but it goes a lot deeper than just that. Once you find these types of players you look for guys that are leaders with high character. Jimmy Johnson looked for players that didn’t just do it on the field, but guys that could also bring the locker room together and earn the respect of their teammates. Jimmy Johnson never had to worry about telling a player he had to run a better route or finish off a tackle because the leaders that he recruited would not let those little mistakes go unnoticed. This is exactly what the Hurricanes have been missing over the last few years, and exactly the type of players Al Golden is trying to stockpile his roster with now."- Kenney Perez
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