Looking at Al Golden's hot seat ranking

Every year around this time, Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com trots out his Hot Seat rankings. He takes a look at each and every coach in Division-IA (screw it, I will always refer to it as Division-IA, not FBS) and does exactly what you think he would with a title like that ... ranks how hot their seats are.

Naturally, the first place I go to on the page is to Miami. So, where does Golden Al come in this year? Follow us to the jump, will you?

Golden, fresh off a contract extension, checks in at a 2.5 according to Dodd. By definition, that means that Golden is "safe, but you never know." The scale only goes to 5, so in that regard Dodd has Golden's seat as been moderately warm.

Now I know Dennis personally, he and I are friends. But it's pretty tough to swallow a 2.5 at face value for Golden. He has one season under his belt and has the entire scandal hanging over his head, one which said blindsided him. That's why Miami just gave him an extension, because it wants to make sure they aren't losing him. That shows his seat is nice and cool, not as hot as your desk chair after an 8-hour shift.

Point is, there is no way Golden is in any trouble right now. I think even the fan base knows that. As we all know, the heat is high in Miami on coaches who don't perform. But with all the circumstances -- both with what he inherited and what he is dealing with -- I think we are going to see Miami fans be as patient as they have ever been.

Not to mention there was a lot of good to take out of his first year. Hey, I can find silver linings, it's what I do well.

His first full recruiting class was large and while it might not have been full of 5-star players, it definitely had some quality prospects. Mostly based on its size, it received high marks from the recruiting services and for good reason. I will always take shots on less-than heralded kids in Florida, which is mostly what Golden did in last year's class.

Then you look at the progression of the team. I know, I know, they lost six games last season. However they were right there in every single one of them. Golden's teams were never blown out the way Shannon's teams were. Of Miami's six losses, each was by one possession. The worst? An 8-point loss to Maryland -- that still hurts to type but we all know it's misleading because of the suspensions as well as the late score for the Terps. The other five losses? By a combined 25 points, or five points per game. I'll take my positives where I can find them.

So with all due respect to Dodd, Golden's seat is as cool as the other side ... wait, no, I will not use a Stuart Scottism.

As for the other ACC coaches:

Frank Spaziani -- 4.0
Dabo Swinney -- 3.0
David Cutcliffe -- 3.5
Jimbo Fisher 1.0
Paul Johnson -- 1.0
Randy Edsall -- 4.0 (boy am I glad we didn't hire him)
Larry Fedora -- 1.5
Tom O'Brien -- 2.0
Mike London -- 1.0
Frank Beamer -- 0.5
Jim Grobe -- 1.5

And last but not least; Will Muschamp -- 2.5.