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Randy Shannon

November 28, 2010 by · Comments Off on Randy Shannon 

Randy Shannon, (AP) – Miami fired coach Randy Shannon on Saturday night, hours after the Hurricanes finished a 7-5 regular season that began with championship expectations.

Athletic director Kirby Hocutt made the call.

“We have made a decision to seek new leadership for our football program,” Hocutt said in a release. “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.

The fate of all members of Shannon’s staff has not been determined. Some will remain for Miami’s bowl game, but one assistant coach told The Associated Press that “everybody, all the coaches, weight room, the training room guys, secretaries, we all think we’re gone.” The coach spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not been told about his own job.

Shannon had considered firing both offensive coordinator Mark Whipple and defensive coordinator John Lovett in recent days, along with some — but not all — of his other assistants.

Hocutt was scheduled to meet with reporters at 1 p.m. Sunday, and players were told a team meeting would be held beforehand.

Hocutt made the decision shortly after Miami lost to South Florida 23-20 in overtime on Saturday afternoon, in 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 ultimately responsible.

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.

It’s expected that one of the offensive coaches, likely line coach Jeff Stoutland, will coach the bowl game, though as of 11 p.m. Saturday, there was still some uncertainty about the Hurricanes’ short-term plans. The Hurricanes expect to be selected for the Sun Bowl, although that still’s far from a done deal.

Hocutt said he would begin a nationwide search, and there’ll be no shortage of names on his list. Among the possible candidates: former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach (who has a residence in the Florida Keys), Georgia’s Mark Richt, and Oklahoma associate head coach Brent Venables, who has ties with Hocutt going back more than 20 years.

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 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.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press.

James Madison University

September 11, 2010 by · Comments Off on James Madison University 

James Madison University, A woman who used a personal tragedy as motivation to change your life, I received a routine notice of public safety that is required by the Clery amendment, a law that emerged from the tragedy.

Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Clery was murdered on campus in 1986. After his tragic death, Howard and Connie Clery, Jeanne’s parents, it was decided to change college. He defended the “Jeanne Clery Act, which requires universities to make timely public announcements about campus crimes and warn students of the impending dangers. The bill was enacted in 1990.

The juxtaposition of the history of the Clery Elizabeth made me think of the tragedy and change – how tragedy always changes people and how such a change, sometimes exceeding them all. Speaking of his own triumph, Elizabeth said: “I put the power of my sadness in the creation of some kind of new life.” The Clerys did the same.

Currently, the campus of JMU – and the campus of each university and the American College of others – is safer because Jeanne Clery’s parents took the tragedy and used it to change the world. The tragedy is a part of life. What we do in the aftermath of the tragedy makes all the difference.

Today, on the anniversary of September 11 somber, a day that always shapes our nation, often reminds me that out of tragedy comes good. All of us, as Elizabeth Burns, can become stronger, and all, as the Clerys have the opportunity to let the sadness motivation to improve the world – to create a new life with the energy of sadness.

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