Miami, BC down this year.
surprising stuff from Randy Shannon, but remember, they dont have a QB who has ever taken a college snap.
<TABLE class=cols cellSpacing=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="75%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Randy Shannon lets us in
July 23, 2008 9:31 AM
Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich
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Miami coach Randy Shannon says no one can put more pressure on him than himself.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>It's not easy to truly get to know Miami coach Randy Shannon. He puts up a wall, and doesn't seem to want to let anyone in -- particularly the media, which isn't exactly unheard of in his profession.
It's not uncommon for him to give one-word answers, or answer a question with a question. But on Monday, Shannon opened the door to the program -- and himself -- just enough.
I asked him if he was more comfortable this year, given the additional depth, subtraction of a few players and influx of talented youth. Buried in his answer, Shannon said he doesn't expect the Hurricanes to be much better than last year's 5-7 finish.
"I feel really good about what we've got going on, the direction we're going as a football team," Shannon said. "When you start off building a foundation like we started off last year, when you're trying to create the atmosphere of having a winning mentality, having the attitude of changing a culture around, it's a start.
"If we go 5-7 and was able to recruit guys like we did last year, that means we're in the start of going in the right direction. So we're excited about that, but it's not going to be the savior of everything. We don't expect to be a lot better than we were last year. We expect to be more competitive than we were last year."
Patience, Miami fans, patience.
Besides, what you say, think or post on the message boards apparently does not faze this man anyway.
Nobody on the other side of his wall could possibly put more pressure on Shannon than himself.
"You guys make it that way," he said. "You guys always say the pressure. You guys think that just because it's Miami ... I remember Jimmy Johnson in '85. They wanted to run him out of Miami. Dennis Erickson won a national championship. They wanted to run Dennis Erickson out of town. There's always going to be that no matter where you at, at any school. But you can't put no more pressure on me. The fans can't put no more pressure on me, because the University of Miami is my alma mater -- I bleed orange and green. Nobody can put more pressure on me than myself. When we lose, I take it harder than anybody in this country. When we win, I'm more excited than anybody in this country."
Last season, then, must have been devastating. Shannon offered several reasons, though, for the Hurricanes' plummet into mediocrity -- none of which included himself.
"A lot of things attributed to the losses last year," he said. "Ten freshmen attributed to the losses last year. Not having no depth on the team contributed to the losses last year. Only having six D-linemen, only having three linebackers, only having three receivers at some point in time ... there's a lot of things that attributed."
Including what offensive tackle Jason Fox described as players who were "cancerous" to the program. Shannon said those guys are gone.
"I think it's a situation that everybody is not going to agree," he said. "Players that are not on the team right now are not bad kids, they just didn't agree to what we were trying to get done at Miami. So what you've gotta do is make sure if they're not trying to get things done the way you want it, and they're not agreeing with what you want, you part ways and go on."
Shannon has no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. He made important changes to his staff that should improve the team, and said he wants to get the kind of stability on his staff that coaches like Frank Beamer and Bobby Bowden have achieved. But in order to have stability, you have to stay. And in order to stay, you must win.
The three-year window coaches are so routinely given to win is a myth to Shannon.
"You talk like that," he said. "I don't. You do."
That's about when he closed the door.
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