Miami Hurricanes Football: Head Coaching Roundtable

Oct 24, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Hurricanes head coach Al Golden looks on from the sideline after Clemson Tigers scored a touchdown during the first half at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

With Al Golden now gone, how do you view the Al Golden era?

Juan Toribio: I actually think there was some (little) success to this era and then a lot of really bad things. Al Golden took over a job that was supposed to get killed by the NCAA and he stuck out with it and eventually ended up beating the NCAA. After all the NCAA stuff got cleared, we all thought it was time for Golden to show who he really was. How he can coach/recruit without any “clouds” over his head. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he just couldn’t win enough big football games. I’m a fan of Al Golden the person, but it was time for Al Golden the football coach to pack up his stuff, and it was definitely time for Miami to move on from this experiment.

Andrew Ferrelli: Al Golden did some fantastic things for this program. He was an ideal man to help guide them through the NCAA scandal and recruited some great talent, but ultimately a coach is judged by his on field performance and he fell way short in that area. Golden’s players were hardly developed and his coaching style did not fit the athletes and play of Miami football. Golden is a great guy and can be successful elsewhere, but his incompatibility with the Miami program led to the Golden era being an overall failure from a football standpoint.

Daniel Nordwall: I will never forget Al Golden’s first press conference as the Miami coach in 2011. He brought an energy and passion that none of Miami had seen in awhile. Yet, it turns out Golden was just all talk. I think many of us wanted Golden to succeed at Miami, but he could never adapt or innovate to South Florida athletes. This was Al’s problem: he could never change his philosophies. He turned out to be a decent recruiter, but Al Golden underachieved mightily at Miami. He did help Miami weather through the NCAA storm which we can thank him for. Also, Golden left plenty of talent for the next coach. However, the Golden Era was nothing but a disappointment.

Sam Jacobs: The Al Golden era was almost exclusively negative. I don’t agree with the people who say he helped Miami deal with the NCAA issues because the team suffered on the field during that time. This was an all-around bad tenure for the Hurricanes.

Shanon Culiner: Al Golden’s gone and it’s no surprise. There’s a part of me that feels bad for the guy on a personal level (he seems like a really great guy and did have love from some of the players), but on a professional level it had to be done. And, I’m glad it happened for many reasons. In regard to the “Al Golden Era”, it will probably be lost and forgotten in space and time at some point in the future as it did nothing for the program moving forward. When looked back upon, it will be noted as a time the ‘Canes were just an average caliber team and some may point out this past’s Saturday blowout to Clemson as it was the worse lost in Hurricanes’ history (which may be hard to forget, ever). I’m hoping sometime maybe after 10 years or so from now and a couple more National Championships behind us, most ‘Canes fans will say, “oh man, we came a long way from when we were coached from that guy in the orange tie.”

Next: How will the team respond?