After missing with Mark Richt, Miami can't afford to get another coaching hire wrong

In addition to stockpiling absurd talent, Miami built its dynasty with a succession of home-run coaching hires.

Howard Schnellenberger was the architect who got it started. Jimmy Johnson was the star who took it higher. Dennis Erickson kept it going. Butch Davis recruited what some consider the best team in college football history, then left for the NFL before finishing the deal. They combined to win 217 games and four national titles, while laying the groundwork for a fifth.

Those home runs now have been followed by four straight strikeouts. Mark Richt completes the program’s golden sombrero.

Now we’ll see whether Manny Diaz, inventor of the Turnover Chain and most recently the perpetrator of a whiplashing U-turn on Temple, is the slump buster.

Larry Coker was the loyal Davis lieutenant who played caretaker with the 2001-02 juggernaut, winning it all in ’01 and then being shocked by underdog Ohio State in the ’02 title matchup. After that loss, Coker delivered diminishing returns and was fired after a 7-6 season in 2006.

Next up was another career assistant, recruiting dynamo Randy Shannon, a Miami native and alum of The U. The program backslid further, going 28-22 and 16-16 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Shannon was fired in 2010.

That paved the way for the up-and-comer from the outside, Al Golden. He was at least an established head coach, but Temple wasn’t exactly the right preparation for Miami. Golden went 32-25, 17-18 in the ACC, and was fired midway through the 2015 season.

And then came Richt on the rebound from Georgia. He’d had some big years in Athens and was another comfort hire for fans, having played quarterback at Miami. But after two promising seasons his progress screeched to a jarring halt this year, plummeting from the preseason Top 10 to a 7-6 bust in which he colossally mismanaged his quarterbacks.

When Richt suddenly and shockingly retired Sunday, it left Miami in transition and turmoil again. If the loyal lieutenant couldn’t do it, and the recruiting dynamo couldn’t do it, and the up-and-comer couldn’t do it, and now the established SEC import can’t do it … who can resurrect The U?

There is no easy answer. They’ve tried about everything in terms of coaching hires without finding the right one.

Given the lush local recruiting, it is perplexing in the extreme that Miami could go 15 seasons and counting without winning anything significant. No national titles since 2001, no conference titles since 2003, no major bowl victories since ’03 as well. (They’ve only won one bowl game of any kind since 2006, the Russell Athletic Bowl in ’16.)

There was that one (one!) ACC Coastal Division crown last year — something a properly functioning Miami program should have been winning more routinely than anyone else. That was promptly followed by an ACC championship game blowout loss to the program that has become what Miami used to be, Clemson.

Diaz obviously has a chance to win big, because he can drive 20 miles in any direction from campus and find really good players. And nobody knows the territory better, having worked at The U and, before that, having grown up the son of the mayor of Miami. He checks all boxes for those who wanted someone with program ties and South Florida background.

But even that part of the equation isn’t as easy as it once was. There are a lot of players, but also a lot of competition for those players.

Dan Mullen is off to a very fast start at Florida, and that should carry over to recruiting. Willie Taggart had a bad season at Florida State, but his recruiting is going well. The SEC twin towers of Alabama and Georgia know the way you South Florida. So does Clemson. And even the second and third tier of teams can swipe some gems, as Louisville proved when it snagged Teddy Bridgewater from Miami and Lamar Jackson from Pompano Beach.

The Rivals.com list of the top Class of 2019 recruits in Florida shows what a wide-open state it is at present. Of the top 15 prospects in the state, Alabama has signed two, Georgia has signed two, Clemson has signed two, Penn State has signed two, and Florida State has signed one (with verbal commitments from two more). Four more are undecided.

The Hurricanes have none. Their highest-rated local signee is No. 18.

Re-establishing the recruiting boundaries will be vital for Miami. But so will be coaching up the returning players.

Quite possibly the biggest reason why Richt decided to retire was the dilemma posed by his son, Jon, the Hurricanes’ quarterback coach. (Brief pause to insert this public service announcement to college coaches: Don’t hire your sons. If they’re not absolute stars, it’s going to be messy.)

By any measurement, the quarterback position was a raging disaster for Miami this season. Richt ineptly toggled back and forth between senior Malik Rosier and freshman N’Kosi Perry all year, and the result was a passing offense that ranked 12th in the 14-team ACC in yards per game, 13th in efficiency and 14th in both completion percentage and yards per attempt.

All of which means the QB coach didn’t do very good work. But firing your son is an option no father would want. (Again, coaches: Don’t put yourself in this position.) Richt might have basically fired himself to avoid firing his kid.

And now athletic director Blake James’ 12-hour coaching search has landed on Diaz.

It was a whirlwind Sunday – the Hurricanes began the day with Richt as their head coach and ended it with Diaz. It’s as awkward as it was abrupt.

Clearly, Diaz would not have taken the Temple job if he’d known his dream job was going to come open a couple of weeks later. But this is a difficult maneuver to pull on the place that gave him his first head-coaching opportunity – and especially for the recruits who signed letters of intent to play for the Owls less than two weeks ago. Some of those players undoubtedly will be lobbying to be released from their letters so they can reconsider before the February signing period.

Diaz should have little trouble maintaining Miami’s defensive prowess – that unit was No. 2 in the ACC behind only Clemson. It’s the offense that has been the glaring weakness, and his staff moves on that side of the ball will be vital. We’ll see how it works out. For today, it’s a popular hire in Coral Gables – but it’s also far too early to call it a home-run hire.

And Miami absolutely cannot afford another strikeout.

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