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CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP)—Miami offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland has accepted an offer to be the Hurricanes’ interim coach, taking over less than one day after the university fired Randy Shannon, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Stoutland was holding early strategy sessions with other assistants, all of whom may stay through Miami’s bowl game, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the university did not authorize any public comment before a 1 p.m. Sunday news conference.
The university listed Stoutland’s new title on its athletic web site Sunday morning.
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Shannon was fired Saturday night by athletic director Kirby Hocutt after the Hurricanes completed a 7-5 regular season. Stoutland and Hocutt were to meet with the team Sunday morning as well.
Miami players are not scheduled to practice again until Saturday, though that may change. The Hurricanes expect to have a bowl destination, possibly the Sun Bowl, locked in by week’s end.
“We have made a decision to seek new leadership for our football program,” Hocutt said in a release Saturday night. “Our expectations are to compete for championships and return to the top of the college football world.”
Shannon received a four-year extension just before the start of the 2010 season. He was 28-22 in four seasons at Miami, with Stoutland as his offensive line coach throughout that tenure.
Since the start of the 2007 season, 47 teams have more wins than Miami— including four from the state of Florida. The Hurricanes were 16-16 in the ACC under Shannon, the sixth-best mark in the 12-team league. And barring some wild turn of events, Miami will finish out of The Associated Press Top 25 poll for the fourth time in five years.
The truest consistency was inconsistency.
Miami’s longest winning streak under Shannon was five games during 2008, and three of those victories came against teams that finished the year with losing records. The Hurricanes went 1-7 away from home against ranked teams since the start of 2007. The only win over a top-10 team was last season when Miami beat Oklahoma—a game where Sam Bradford sat out with a shoulder injury.
Hocutt made the final decision shortly after Miami lost to South Florida 23-20 in overtime on Saturday afternoon, a game where only about 27,000 people filled the 73,000 seats at Sun Life Stadium. A plane circled the stadium before kickoff calling for a coaching change, and players left fearing that it would be the last time they played for Shannon.
“Put it on us as players,” wide receiver Leonard Hankerson said.
The sentiment may have been noted, but in the end Shannon was responsible.
Shannon drove away from the stadium around 5:30 p.m. Saturday unsure of his fate, though he had suspected that he would be fired after the Hurricanes were embarrassed at home by Florida State on Oct. 9 and then were beaten by lowly Virginia three weeks later. He considered making many changes to his staff and was deciding whether to dismiss some coaches later Saturday evening.
Instead, Miami beat him to the punch.
“I’m not worried about me,” Shannon told The AP earlier in the week when asked about his job security. “If they do it, they do it. I think someone will give me another job.”
Shannon is expected to receive a buyout of around $1.5 million. Miami—a private school that doesn’t have the deepest of pockets when it comes to paying coaches—has had a fundraising drive to support athletics for several years and believes it will be able to put together enough money to lure a top-notch staff.
Shannon took over for Larry Coker at the end of the 2006 season and went on a mission to change the culture at the school—which, in many respects, he did.
Miami has been among the nation’s leaders in academic success by its football program, and the off-the-field reputation has been cleaned up considerably.
But it never translated into wins. More specifically, not enough of them.
Shannon went 5-7 in his first season, then 7-6, then 9-4 last year. He never won a bowl game, and never got the Hurricanes past second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division. Miami still has not won an ACC championship since leaving the Big East, and hasn’t been part of the Bowl Championship Series since the 2003 season.
“Randy Shannon is Miami,” university president Donna Shalala famously said when he was hired, with good reason. Shannon is a native of Miami, played for the Hurricanes and was a longtime assistant coach there before getting the chance to lead the program.
Even after Miami lost last week to Virginia Tech and was eliminated from the ACC race, Shalala sent Shannon a note of support. But when asked by The AP after Saturday’s loss if he was concerned about his future, Shannon simply shrugged and said it would remain a source of speculation, as it had been for about the past six weeks.
Less than six hours later, he was out of a job.
When Hocutt made the decision to fire Miami women’s soccer coach Tricia Taliaferro earlier this fall, he said the Hurricanes’ teams were being judged on how relevant they were nationally.
And football is not a major player on the national scene—nor has it been for the past several seasons.
Stoutland was holding early strategy sessions with other assistants, all of whom may stay through Miami’s bowl game, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the university did not authorize any public comment before a 1 p.m. Sunday news conference.
The university listed Stoutland’s new title on its athletic web site Sunday morning.
<table class="ad_slug_table" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td align="center">
</td></tr></tbody></table><noscript>
Shannon was fired Saturday night by athletic director Kirby Hocutt after the Hurricanes completed a 7-5 regular season. Stoutland and Hocutt were to meet with the team Sunday morning as well.
Miami players are not scheduled to practice again until Saturday, though that may change. The Hurricanes expect to have a bowl destination, possibly the Sun Bowl, locked in by week’s end.
“We have made a decision to seek new leadership for our football program,” Hocutt said in a release Saturday night. “Our expectations are to compete for championships and return to the top of the college football world.”
Shannon received a four-year extension just before the start of the 2010 season. He was 28-22 in four seasons at Miami, with Stoutland as his offensive line coach throughout that tenure.
Since the start of the 2007 season, 47 teams have more wins than Miami— including four from the state of Florida. The Hurricanes were 16-16 in the ACC under Shannon, the sixth-best mark in the 12-team league. And barring some wild turn of events, Miami will finish out of The Associated Press Top 25 poll for the fourth time in five years.
The truest consistency was inconsistency.
Miami’s longest winning streak under Shannon was five games during 2008, and three of those victories came against teams that finished the year with losing records. The Hurricanes went 1-7 away from home against ranked teams since the start of 2007. The only win over a top-10 team was last season when Miami beat Oklahoma—a game where Sam Bradford sat out with a shoulder injury.
Hocutt made the final decision shortly after Miami lost to South Florida 23-20 in overtime on Saturday afternoon, a game where only about 27,000 people filled the 73,000 seats at Sun Life Stadium. A plane circled the stadium before kickoff calling for a coaching change, and players left fearing that it would be the last time they played for Shannon.
“Put it on us as players,” wide receiver Leonard Hankerson said.
The sentiment may have been noted, but in the end Shannon was responsible.
Shannon drove away from the stadium around 5:30 p.m. Saturday unsure of his fate, though he had suspected that he would be fired after the Hurricanes were embarrassed at home by Florida State on Oct. 9 and then were beaten by lowly Virginia three weeks later. He considered making many changes to his staff and was deciding whether to dismiss some coaches later Saturday evening.
Instead, Miami beat him to the punch.
“I’m not worried about me,” Shannon told The AP earlier in the week when asked about his job security. “If they do it, they do it. I think someone will give me another job.”
Shannon is expected to receive a buyout of around $1.5 million. Miami—a private school that doesn’t have the deepest of pockets when it comes to paying coaches—has had a fundraising drive to support athletics for several years and believes it will be able to put together enough money to lure a top-notch staff.
Shannon took over for Larry Coker at the end of the 2006 season and went on a mission to change the culture at the school—which, in many respects, he did.
Miami has been among the nation’s leaders in academic success by its football program, and the off-the-field reputation has been cleaned up considerably.
But it never translated into wins. More specifically, not enough of them.
Shannon went 5-7 in his first season, then 7-6, then 9-4 last year. He never won a bowl game, and never got the Hurricanes past second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division. Miami still has not won an ACC championship since leaving the Big East, and hasn’t been part of the Bowl Championship Series since the 2003 season.
“Randy Shannon is Miami,” university president Donna Shalala famously said when he was hired, with good reason. Shannon is a native of Miami, played for the Hurricanes and was a longtime assistant coach there before getting the chance to lead the program.
Even after Miami lost last week to Virginia Tech and was eliminated from the ACC race, Shalala sent Shannon a note of support. But when asked by The AP after Saturday’s loss if he was concerned about his future, Shannon simply shrugged and said it would remain a source of speculation, as it had been for about the past six weeks.
Less than six hours later, he was out of a job.
When Hocutt made the decision to fire Miami women’s soccer coach Tricia Taliaferro earlier this fall, he said the Hurricanes’ teams were being judged on how relevant they were nationally.
And football is not a major player on the national scene—nor has it been for the past several seasons.
