Miami gets a Golden deal.
Christmas came early for the Miami Hurricanes with the hire of Temple’s Al Golden to replace ousted Randy Shannon. Miami is aggressively working to finalize the deal as Golden was highly sought after in this already turbulent coaching carousel. Rumors were abound that Golden was considered for Pitt or an eventual replacement to Penn State’s Joe Paterno so Miami acted quickly to nab Golden.
As a head coach, Golden single handedly turned around an underachieving and embarrassing Temple program. The former Penn Stater (player and LB coach) used his knowledge and know-how to turn 1 and 2 star recruits into top athletes. He has developed players into NFL talent such as LBs James Farrior and Jaime Sharper. The 3 years prior to Golden’s arrival, Temple was a paltry 3-31 and couldn’t garner any fan or booster support. After his arrival, Temple went 26-32 and in 2009 saw post-season action for the first time since 1979–not bad for a school that does not put any real emphasis on football like the Miami Hurricanes.
Former Miami coach Randy Shannon left Miami in good shape by cleaning up the program and turning it back to a respectable team. Unfortunately, Shannon was not able to win the big games. Where Shannon fell short, Golden will certainly pick-up the pace and vault the Hurricanes to the top of the ACC.
This is a great move for both Miami and Al Golden. ACC foes should be worried with Golden under the helm. It is expected that Golden will ink a 5 year-deal, but the exact terms of the contract have not been disclosed. A press-conference is being held today at 6:00 p.m. to officially announce Golden as Shannon’s replacement.
