Coker's Firing - Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb

The man came within one disputed call of claiming back-to-back national championships. He came within two touchdowns of having an uninterrupted string of conference titles in his first five seasons as the University of Miami's head football coach. Yet, it didn't matter.

Yes, the Miami Hurricanes have lost much of their mojo, and their offense currently posesses all the potency of a pop gun, but Larry Coker didn't deserve to be dumped in the dust bin by athletic director Paul Dee, school president Donna Shalala, and the university's board of trustees. Not this soon. Not after all that Coker has accomplished in his short but highly successful tenure in Coral Gables.

There's no question that Coker has presided over a deterioration in the aura of Miami football. A program that once struck fear in the hearts of opponents is now just one of many faces in a crowded and, moreover, mediocre ACC that old Hurricane teams would have easily dismantled. Miami has a ship that, as of this moment, is clearly sinking. No one would dispute that claim.

With all that having been said, however, there is little question that Coker deserved to stay at least one more season and receive a chance to fix the mess he has, in part, created. The logic is simple and, if you want to be ruthlessly honest about this issue, overwhelming.

Larry Coker is being punished for two simple facts: first, his name isn't Bobby Bowden; second, his tenure hasn't been as long as other decorated coaches at other schools. Lloyd Carr, who--like Coker--owns a national title, has spent more than a decade at a school with a stable institutional subculture. While a lot of fans couldn't tolerate Carr's five-loss season in 2005, Bo Schembechler and the other decision makers at the University of Michigan stood behind their Michigan man. There was no such talk of a job controversy among the people that mattered, even while the winds of controversy swirled and writers--this one included--regrettably talked up the story despite the fact that it had no legs. Because of Michigan's stability as an institution, Lloyd Carr deservedly kept his job while anticipated and written-about controversies never materialized. After an impressive 11-1 season, a lot of people have been put in their place by Carr and his Wolverines.

At the University of Miami, however, the same stable subculture and institutional infrastructure possessed by other schools does not exist. Even while the Canes racked up national titles in the 1980s and 90s, coaches came and went: Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, and Dennis Erickson all passed through the U, with the latter two coaches using Miami as a jumping off point for the NFL. Everything about the program was focused on the NFL, as attitude and talent--both equally bold and brash--made behavior and integrity irrelevant to the program. This way of being caught up with the program in the mid-1990s, when Erickson left for the Seattle Seahawks amidst a cloud of questions created by his handling of the Miami program. A hollowed-out Hurricane team would rebuild from the ground up under Butch Davis in the late 90s, and when Davis bolted for the Cleveland Browns after a highly successful 2000 season, Coker was there to assume the reins and take full advantage.

After winning a national title in his maiden voyage as Miami's head coach in 2001, Coker was walking to the middle of the field as a repeat champion (he even got doused by Gatorade in the opening moments of what seemed to be an exploding celebration; it was that far advanced) in overtime of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State. Thirty seconds later, though, the field was cleared, and the officials announced that Buckeye receiver Chris Gamble got held in the end zone on a last-ditch fourth-down pass play. Several minutes later, the repeat national title vanished into the hands of Jim Tressel and Ohio State. In the cutthroat world of college football, one can't help but think that with two national titles under his belt, Larry Coker would not have been fired on the day after Thanksgiving... and, by the way, a spirited effort by his team in a gritty win over Boston College. In a business this ruthless, immediate shifts in perception and fortune carry far too much leverage, even when patience--as shown last year by Joe Paterno and this season by Lloyd Carr--has proved to be a virtue in the world of college football coaching. Coker is simply the latest victim of a culture of impatience, which was enough to override the brilliance of his first three seasons and the solidity of his first five.

Let's return to Coker's resume at Miami. In his first three seasons: three conference titles, three total losses, three BCS bowl appearances, two national title game appearances, two BCS bowl wins, four wins in four games against Florida State. And even in the "down years" of 2004 and 2005, Coker's teams won nine games and came within a single touchdown of winning their conference or division (a loss by six points to Virginia Tech in '04 cost the Canes a crown; a 14-10 loss to Georgia Tech cost Miami an ACC division title in '05).

That kind of resume, extended over time, is exactly what has rightfully enabled Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno to choose the moment when they step down at Florida State and Penn State, respectively. Larry Coker has suffered the scars of the ugly melee after the 2005 Peach Bowl and the sickening outburst of his team against Florida International earlier this year. He has also had to shepherd his team through the tragic death of defensive lineman Bryan Pata, a reality that plainly--and to some extent, necessarily (dealing with grief isn't easy, and never should be)--made football irrelevant in Miami this season. With all that has happened to the Hurricane football family this year, it would seem to be a no-brainer to give everyone in the program, especially the young men who have encountered numerous hardships, a chance to recover from their grief and grow from all the wrenching experiences they've had in 2006. When you also consider how many championships and ballgames Larry Coker won in the five years preceding 2006, it should have been even easier to keep the loyal soldier in the Hurricane program. If Bo Schembechler had been the AD or even a major backroom player at Miami, Larry Coker would still have a job for the 2007 season. But with Paul Dee and Donna Shalala overseeing this sorry situation, a decent man with an exceptional track record was given the cruelest Thanksgiving present a football lifer could ever receive.

Larry Coker had a lot of wrongs to right in 2007--there's no question about that statement. But what's just as certain is that Coker deserved a chance to fix the ailments of the Miami program. Chalk up another victim to this sport's ever-growing monster... a beast known as impatience.