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The time has come: Al Golden must be fired

Whether today, tomorrow, or after the season, a change must be made. Al Golden must be fired from his position as Miami Hurricanes Head Coach.

By Cameron J. Underwood
Out of answers and out of time, Al Golden must be fired.
Out of answers and out of time, Al Golden must be fired.
Michael Seay/State of the U

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Al Golden has made Saturdays unbearable and awful

Scott Salomon

With today's lopsided loss to Clemson, the Miami Hurricanes have officially become irrelevant. Duke, North Carolina and Pitt all won their games and there is very little empirical evidence to show that Miami will compete for the Coastal Division. For all intents and purposes, this season is over and it was no fun. Al Golden has made football Saturday's unbearable and that is awful for a school with a history like Miami.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Clemson

Jerry Steinberg

SPOILER ALERT: It's all Bad and Ugly

Must Reads

Al Golden has made Saturdays unbearable and awful The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Clemson

I was there yesterday when the Canes suffered the worst loss in the 90 year history of the football program.

After that debacle, one that saw futility, injuries, and insults (I mean, can you blame EVERYBODY for piling on the dead and rotting carcass of the once proud Hurricanes Football Program?), one thing became abundantly clear:

Al Golden's time as Miami Hurricanes Head Coach has come to an end.

After yesterday's performance, there can be no other option than to fire him and move on to a new regime. The levels of terrible that we saw, in year 5 of this coaching staff's tenure, is plain and simple unacceptable.

Earlier in the year, when we were undefeated, there was a comparison to Kent State because they were the only team who converted fewer 3rd downs than Miami. At this point, you might as well extend that comparison to the full program, because that's the kind of result we saw on the field when facing a highly ranked opponent yesterday. Don't believe me: Kent State lost to Bowling Green (a decent but not great team) 48-0 on Saturday.

Now, before I continue about subjective reasons why Al Golden must be fired, here are some objective statistics for your consideration:

WE LOST A GAME WORSE THAN EVER BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF THE PROGRAM YESTERDAY!

Look, this is year 5. YEAR 5!!! Al Golden came into an admittedly bad situation with the NCAA investigation blindsiding him and having to deal with sanctions (some of which are still ongoing through the end of this season), but that doesn't give him indefinite immunity for substandard job performance.

Throughout Golden's tenure, we've heard the mottos ad nauseum: "Trust the process"; "it starts with me"; "we've got to be better"; "we'll get it fixed"; "it's unacceptable"; and so on, and so on, and so on.

I am a process based person. I always have been. BUT, when the result doesn't match goals or expectations, the thing that has to be re-evaluated IS THE PROCESS. But, contrary to any common sense, Golden has insisted on maintaining the process, without alteration, and blindly hoping the results will change.

Reminds me of that one saying about insanity.....

We, the Miami Hurricanes, DO have to be better. We DO have to get things fixed. The results ARE unacceptable.

And that's why Al Golden must be fired.

I know there will be fallout to this year's recruiting class. Hell, yesterday's game was so bad that....wait, I'll let the tweets speak for themselves....

Sam Bruce chimed in with....

Zack Moss didn't even stay for the whole game (not that you can blame him)

There's more, but I'll end it there.

A Miami Hurricanes home game 1. felt like a trip to visit Clemson, 2. was openly talked about as a major recruiting event for Clemson, 3. left MANY recruits and current commits stunned, and NOT in a good way.

What more do you need to see? Why are we still doing this? WHEN WILL THINGS CHANGE?!?!?

I'll tell you when they'll change: when Blake James does his job and fires Al Golden. And don't think James is without blame. He's the one who has allowed this to continue for this long.

But, back to the lecture at hand...

Al Golden is a coach who has led the University of Miami to the most double digit losses of any coach. Al Golden, with 7 NFL draft picks on the roster including all-time leading rusher Duke Johnson, found a way to a 6-7 record in 2014. Al Golden has done a decent job recruiting South Florida, but has also missed on MANY elite level players, far too many to be acceptable.

Through words (those DAMN coachspeak mottos that say nothing and mean nothing) and actions (loss after loss after loss) has proven that while he was the right person to guide The U through the sanctions of recent years, he is not the right person to lead this team forward.

58-0. In year 5.

For those reasons, and many more, the right move, the smart move, the ONLY move is as clear a can be:

Al Golden must be fired. Period.