"It's a challenge...I'm not going to say it's not difficult," Randy Shannon recently said in response to a reporter's question regarding his inability to receive a contract extension from University of Miami.
Coach Randy Shannon has been a polarizing figure at best since taking over the Hurricanes football program 3 years ago.
Randy Shannon was supposed to be a recruiting beast. After all, in perhaps the most football rich county and state in the nation, how could the first and only prominent black head coach fail to recruit some of the best local talent?
Shannon was reputed to be a players' coach: young, easy to relate to, and paternalistic. On many accounts, Randy Shannon has been a major success. The "U" has posted one of the nation's best academic progress rates, 7th out of 119 BCS schools, under Shannon's leadership.
In sum, Randy Shannon has cleaned up the reputation of The U, he has gotten his kids to attend class, get an education, and graduate. He has done an outstanding job turning boys into men.
On the football field, however, his results have been less admirable. In the three years that Shannon's been at the helm, the Hurricanes are 21-17 and 0-2 in bowl games- not exactly the level of achievement for which Donna Shalala had hoped.
Success in college football is not complicated. As Bill Clinton would say, it's about recruiting, stupid. Year after year, the best programs (i.e., USC or UF) land the best recruits.
Shannon's first year started with a bang. He recruited the best high school talent in the nation led by Jacory Harris and almost a half dozen teammates from Miami Northwestern High School.
Since then, Shannon's has done nothing but struggle recruiting top prospects from Bryce Brown (the #1 RB who chose Tennessee) to Patrick Johnson (the #1 CB who chose LSU) to Kayvon Webster (Defensive player of the year in Miami-Dade who chose USF).
This past year was going to be the year Miami went from good to great. With Urban Meyer's mysterious health issues and indefinite leave of absence, with Jim Leavitt's termination for hitting a player at USF, and with complete confusion in Tallahassee in the wake of Bobby Bowden's "resignation," the recruiting winds would never blow stronger at Shannon's back.
Amazingly, Florida, despite Meyer's uncertain status, recruited one of the best classes in the past two decades, and even FSU cashed in on far more blue chip recruits than expected. Miami, however, failed to land any of the half dozen or so 5 star recruits that strongly considered playing at The U...that is except one.
With a last minute change of heart, Latwan Anderson switched his commitment from West Virginia to The U, making himself The U's lone 5 star recruit in its 2010 class.
Unfortunately, Latwan is a defensive back and not an offensive lineman or defensive end, positions of greater need. While it remains to be seen what impact Latwan will have on The U going into next season, at least his recruitment offers some glimmer of hope that Shannon can still recruit.
Whether this small victory will buy Shannon more time to succeed or help him net a contract extension remains to be seen.
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