Miami Football: Lane Kiffin the obvious choice to bring The U back

With Mark Richt’s decision to resign from Miami football, Lane Kiffin is the obvious choice to bring The U back to national prominence.

A year after they were proclaimed “back” thanks to a 10-win campaign, their first ACC Coastal Division title, and a berth in the Orange Bowl, Miami football once again finds themselves at the crossroads of a coaching change.

The glory days of The U feel further and further away. Since Larry Coker led the team to three straight Top-5 finishes to begin the millennium, the program has been steeped in mediocrity. Coker went 35-3 in his first three seasons, living large with the recruits that Butch Davis brought to Coral Gables. Coker struggled thereafter, going 25-12 over the next three seasons, unable to bring in and develop the talent at the same rate as previous regimes. He was let go following a 7-6 2006 season, replaced by defensive coordinator Randy Shannon.

Shannon’s first season saw Miami miss their first bowl game since 1997, and he compiled a 28-23 record over his four years in charge of the program. He had a mini breakthrough in year three, leading Miami to a nine-win season that had pundits claiming the program was back to national prominence, following that up with a 7-6 record in 2010 that led to his dismissal.

Al Golden and his shirt and tie were brought to South Beach next after a mediocre tenure at Temple. Golden was never the right fit stylistically with the Hurricanes, struggling to get the ball rolling on the recruiting trail and being let go midway through the 2015 season after going 32-25.

Under Shannon and Golden, there had been false flags about Miami’s ascension back up the college football ladder. The hiring of a native son in Mark Richt, a proven winner as a head coach at Georgia, was supposed to be the move that finally shifted the tide. There were to be no more false alarms; Richt was the guy who was going to have Miami winning championships again.

Richt was fired from Georgia after a 15-year tenure where he compiled a 145-51 record, including a 9-3 mark in his final season in Athens that led to his termination. He never could quite get the Bulldogs over the hump to a national title, leading them to three Top-5 finishes and a pair of SEC Championships over his time, but failing to deliver that coveted crystal pigskin or golden muffler that has eluded the Bulldogs for the last three decades.

Richt led Miami to nine wins in year one, and then seemingly had the program resurrected in year two, starting the season 10-0 and leading the ‘Canes all the way to a No. 2 ranking following a 41-8 beatdown of Notre Dame in November. Some of the shine was lost on the season, however, as Miami dropped their final three games. They were stunned by Pitt on the final weekend of the regular season before getting thumped by Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. A loss in the Orange Bowl in a de-facto home game to Wisconsin furthered the sour taste left in their mouth to finish 2017.

That did little to quell the enthusiasm moving forward, however, as Miami entered the season ranked in the preseason Top 10, and with plenty of momentum on the recruiting trail, looked very much on the precipice of being competitive on the national stage for years to come.

But something changed this season, and maybe it began changing at the end of last season. Richt looked exhausted throughout 2018, laboring though the year like never before. Without a consistent QB, and with the defense not as opportunistic as the year before, Miami slipped to 7-6 in 2018.

Athletic Director Blake James derided the team’s performance in the Pinstripe Bowl to cap a disappointing season, and despite voicing his support for Richt moving forward, it was clear that things were slipping for Richt based on Miami’s disappointing early signing class coming in ranked No. 38 in the 247 Sports composite rankings.

Lacking the energy to turn the program around, Richt announced his abrupt retirement on Sunday, leaving James at a crossroads as he looks to find the coach that can finally resurrect a program that has been stuck in neutral for nearly two decades now.

Who is the guy who can reinvigorate a dormant fanbase? The guy who can bring back the swag that led to Miami becoming a national brand thanks to a run of dominance in the 1980’s, 1990’s, and early 2000’s? Who’s the guy who can light a fire on the recruiting trail, bringing high level talent back to Coral Gables and establishing The U as an NFL pipeline once again?

There are two guys who fit this bill. The first is Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal, a Miami native and former Hurricane. Miami would represent Cristobal’s dream job, but he currently has the ball rolling in Eugene, hauling in a Top 5 recruiting class for the Ducks in the early signing period. With Justin Herbert coming back, Oregon is likely to be the preseason favorites in the PAC-12.

With such a good thing going, and after Oregon’s players lobbied last year for Cristobal to get the head job after Willie Taggart’s departure to Florida State, it’s hard for me to believe he would up and leave after just one year in the big seat. Not to mention, his current buyout is $10 million until the end of January when it falls down to $8 million. That price tag would likely be too steep for the Hurricanes to make the move.

So if not Cristobal, then who?

The answer can be found less than an hour drive up I-95 in Boca Raton.

The answer is Lane Kiffin.

The current Florida Atlantic coach checks all the boxes that James is looking for in his next head coach. He will reinvigorate the fanbase like none other, with a natural swag and arrogance that is a perfect fit for The U.

He’ll run a fun, wide-open offense that will put butts in seats, consistently taking deep shots and being unafraid to go toe-to-toe with the giant of the league in Clemson.

He’ll also bring an influx of talent to Coral Gables, immediately recruiting better than any Miami coach since Butch Davis. The ‘Canes have signed just two Top-10 recruiting classes in the last decade, battling inconsistency on the football field that translated to inconsistency on the trail. Under Kiffin, Miami would put together a Top 10 class every year.

There are a handful of candidates that would be solid choices. Guys like Neal Brown and Seth Littrell are good young coaches; Dino Babers has done a fantastic job rebuilding Syracuse; Butch Davis has won at Miami before.

But how many times has Miami gone down those roads? What makes Brown, Littrell, and Babers any different than guys like Randy Shannon, Al Golden, and Mark Richt? They’ve constantly gone the “safe” route with their coaches, afraid to take a risk and swing for the fences by hiring a guy who may be a little bit outlandish, but whose coaching acumen is undeniable.

Kiffin was fired by USC after flying a little close to the sun in the early parts of his coaching career. He tried to run before he learned to crawl or walk. For three years as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama, Kiffin learned how to crawl and walk, helping lead the Crimson Tide to three straight SEC Championships and a National Championship in 2015.

He got his second chance as a head coach in Boca at Florida Atlantic, paying instant dividends for a long suffering Owls program by leading them to 11-wins and a C-USA Championship in his first year. The program expectedly regressed to 5-7 in his second year, but Kiffin has proven himself ready for another opportunity at the power-five level.

Kiffin is the right guy at the right time to bring Miami back to national prominence, invoking the same kind of swag that made Miami The U to start with, bringing excitement to a fanbase that is starved to watch a winner again.

Miami has continuously played it safe with its coaching hires the last three times they have had a vacancy. Miami didn’t become who it was by playing it safe, and they’ll never be “back” if they continue to be satisfied with a seeing-eye single, instead of swinging for the fences.

The opportunity is there in this coaching carousel for Blake James to make the move that finally puts them back on the path of prominence.

All the other options would represent Miami being content with the status quo.

Lane Kiffin would be the homerun swing, and is the only viable candidate who can turn Miami into The U again.