A plane flew over Sun Life Stadium this morning, before Miami's season finale with South Florida, bearing bad tidings for Hurricane coach Randy Shannon: "4 YEARS 0 ACC TITLES LOTS OF EXCUSES FIRE SHANNON." After watching the 'Canes stumble into their fifth loss of the year, a 23-20 overtime choke in a stadium barely a third of the way full, Miami administrators obviously agreed with the sentiment: The university confirmed tonight that Shannon is officially out as head coach, barely six months removed from signing a four-year contract extension. Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland will take over in an interim role as the team prepares for a bowl game.
The decision is … abrupt. Shannon, a Miami alum and longtime assistant, inherited a proud program in tatters after six years under Larry Coker, whose tenure began with a national championship in 2001 and ended with an ugly slide to 6-6. As recently as two months ago, the U was still trending modestly upward: Last year, the 'Canes were back in the top 10 after big September wins over Florida State, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma and finished in the top 20 for the first time since 2005. They started this season at No. 13 in the AP poll, where they found themselves again in mid-October after road wins over Clemson and Pitt. They were back in the polls just last week – after starting quarterback Jacory Harris was knocked out of the lineup with a concussion in an eventual loss at Virginia.
That flop was the worst of Shannon's tenure. But both losses in the meantime came behind a true freshman, Stephen Morris, who was being redshirted until he was forced into the lineup as an emergency stopgap. In the end, five of the 'Canes' seven wins were over teams with winning records, and three of the losses were against 11-1 Ohio State, 10-2 Virginia Tech and 9-3 Florida State, the latter two now set to hook up in new week's ACC Championship Game. Shannon's specialty, the defense, entered the day ranked in the top 20 nationally in both yards and points allowed, and will probably move up a hair by Sunday morning. Obviously, The U doesn't do mulligans.
It hasn't been doing championships lately, either – before the 0-for-4 run under Shannon so helpfully pointed out by today's presume pilot, the 'Canes were 0-for-3 under Coker after making the jump from the Big East to the ACC in 2004. In the meantime, notoriously fickle locals have steered clear of associating themselves with a non-contender in a disrespected conference, and the stench of stagnation – a smell Miami fans know all too well over the last half-decade – is apparently growing too powerful to tolerate.
Shannon's tenure was as much an inscrutable cipher as the man himself: Three of four seasons ended within two games of .500 in one direction or the other. It didn't feature any defining, breakthrough wins or crippling defeats. It won't be remembered fondly or spat upon in disgust. If it deserves to be remembered for anything at all, it's for this: In four years under Shannon, the former embodiment of "Thug U" had one player arrested, ex-quarterback Robert Marve, who was charged with criminal mischief for allegedly punching out a rearview mirror on someone's car in 2008. He transferred soon after, and no 'Cane has been featured on a rap sheet since.
But if you asked Miami fans right now if they'd trade Shannon's disciplinary record for, say, Urban Meyer's, there wouldn't be any doubt about the results of that poll. In the end, it's all about the 'W.'
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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