<p>Thoughts...?</p>
<p>I'm personally unhappy about the situation, mostly because I know the players love him. :(</p>
<p>This - after the Coach was giving a four year contract extension before this season started. I wonder what this “firing” will cost the university?</p>
<p>Wow I’m kinda surprised. I’ve been trying to follow Miami football since I will hopefully be going in the fall. But I like it I feel like Shannon doesn’t have them playing to their full potential. Also I don’t really like jacory Harris, I feel like he makes too many mistakes. So I think a new coach would have no problem benching Harris</p>
<p>That’s true, I do think Shannon may be a little bit too attached to Harris, but I think he was trying to be impartial about it, especially given that he started Morris today when Jacory was obviously fit to play (since he finished the game). But you’re probably right.</p>
<p>As far as the contract is concerned, I was wondering the same thing. According to one of my friends, they have to pay him the remainder of the money in the contract - so 3 years remaining, times the estimated 1.5 million Shannon is paid annually, is 4.5 million dollars. Plus the money needed to search for a new coach (and a new coaching staff entirely, it seems).</p>
<p>I’m really surprised. I know all the fans (and even some of the students and alumni) were calling for his head, but I just never thought it would actually happen.</p>
<p>What really interests me is the interim head coach. I was expecting them to at least let Shannon finish the season, but instead they’ve apparently appointed Jeff Stoutland, the offensive line coach, as the interim head coach (for our bowl game!) I wonder how long Shannon has to clean out his office…</p>
<p>His contract, the pay out, etc - should all be available as an open record. Let’s hope someone asks to see the paperwork and it is reported. These things cost schools and taxpayers lots of money, as as rankir points out- that doesn’t even cover the cost of the search, etc. Citizens can also file an open records request with the university for these documents … BTW.</p>
<p>From AllCanes’ Blog:</p>
<p>"Also newsworthy, talk that the buyout wasn’t as large as some originally thought (possibly half the previously mentioned $1.5M) and that there might’ve been a clause regarding number of losses. The point? The fact that the extension was given doesn’t mean there weren’t stipulations made to protect the university. "</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think taxpayer money goes to football scholarships, just academic scholarships b/c UM is a private university. For that same reason, you will never be able to get a positive response to a record request.</p>
<p>Also a quote from the same blog, because I can’t put it any better:</p>
<p>“I’ve heard Gruden [may be contacted regarding the head coach position] from three different, in-the-know individuals - two close to the program and one with NFL ties - but in the wake of all that’s happened in the past few hours, no one knows. A ton of rumors running rampant, so take everything with a grain of salt.”</p>
<p>I defended Shannon for awhile, but last weekend was the last straw. We have some of the most talented players in the country; there’s no excuse for ever going 7-5. Between getting crushed by our archrival (FSU) and losing badly to VT, between getting beat by one of the worst teams in the conference (Virginia) and blowing the game this weekend (that pass play at the end of regulation was a terrible idea), Shannon has nobody to blame for himself. He had four years of opportunity and we never even won our division, much less the conference… it was time to move on.</p>
<p>No excuses. This was supposed to be the year they got back in the top 10 and in the BCS. It was supposed to be 11-1 this year. Too many inexcusable losses.</p>
<p>I feel bad for him, since he was a true Miami Hurricane, but he just had to go. Was an awesome recruiter, but couldn’t develop or coach the talent.</p>
<p>Also, there was a clause in his contract that if he got fired, we would have to pay like half a million dollars, which in football terms, is nothing. lol</p>
<p>Hopefully we can make a big name hire, like Gruden, and not another “small” coach.</p>
<p>They appaerently knew since Wednesday, that win or lose, he was going to get canned</p>
<p>Sports Illustrated put it best - “Shannon produced a seven-win season with an 11-win roster, and The U can do better.”</p>
<p>He’s a good guy who’s dedicated 20 years of his life to this program, but it just didn’t work out. If we really want to be THE U again we can’t sit by and watch yet another mediocre season that saw us lose to USF and the ACC basement dwellers. Not to mention embarrassing home losses to Florida State and Virginia Tech. I’m glad Shalala and Hocutt agree that this is unacceptable, cause I was worried they wouldn’t.</p>
<p>Oh and MaterMia, Miami is a private school so they don’t have to release anything.</p>
<p>I wonder if the team’s move to the big stadium in north Dade County has hurt the program. Do students and residents really drive 30 minutes to the games? That PLUS the losses this year could have lowered attendance and spirit. Perhaps that had something to do with the firing.</p>
<p>Honestly, there’s not much difference between traveling to the Orange Bowl and traveling to Whatever Stadium. Either way it’s a pain in the ass, the people who made the trek to the OB, make the trek to the new place. If UM can be a Top-5/10 program again, they’ll start selling out games again. The FSU game this year was sold out.</p>
<p>Are current students into UMiami sports? Has there been much school spirit the past year or two?</p>
<p>Absolutely! My daughter did not even know the rules of football and she goes to all the games and is now really into it. She is also going to start going to the baseball games. The students really enjoy all the games and events on/around campus.</p>
<p>Rice1961- It’s not what it used to be since they left the Big East.</p>
<p>Almost everyone goes to the games. I’m actually kind of in the same position as SVMMom’s daughter, before I came here I was never really into football at all. I didn’t even know what a down was. Now I’m all but obsessed! 
There is great spirit among the student body. As long as it’s not a noon game (and even if it is a noon game) you can usually count on at least a quarter of us being there three hours before kickoff, and another quarter to a half showing up in time for kick off.</p>
<p>One interesting thing is that a lot of the time the stadium looks empty when it really has quite a lot of people in it because it’s an NFL stadium and seats around 70,000 people. So, while we rarely sell out, that’s not saying too much.</p>
<p>Baseball games are awesome, too! I love everything but basketball, really - just not my thing But they also have lots of students at them.</p>
<p>There are a lot of students at games, but at the same time I personally know quite a few people that only go to a few per year. Rankinr, you’re off-base with your comment about the stadium, as a lot of college stadiums are actually bigger than NFL stadiums and do sell out every game… for example, schools like Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, and Tennessee each get over 100,000 fans per game. However, because we’re a smaller school and because Miami is more of a pro sports town, the stadium only reaches capacity for the biggest games.</p>
<p>At least according to [List</a> of American football stadiums by capacity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<a href=“wikipedia,%20I%20know”>/url</a> it’s the 22nd largest college football stadium. And you’re certainly right about those other stadiums selling out all the time… but, of course, as you pointed out, those schools have 4 to 6 times as many students as we do. The point is the stadium can look pretty empty relative to other stadiums, but really have a lot of people in it. </p>
<p>Found an interesting article (<a href=“http://bleacherreport.com/articles/398843-ncaa-football-attendance-figures-down-how-did-your-team-do[/url]”>NCAA Football Attendance Figures Down: How Did Your Team Do? | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors | Bleacher Report](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_football_stadiums_by_capacity]List”>List of American football stadiums by capacity - Wikipedia)</a>) that says that average attendance at a college football game is 45545 (within the top 120 schools)… I’d say we’re somewhere around there, despite our small size. Then again, we’re well below the SEC’s average, which is the capacity of our stadium. So you definitely have a legitimate point.</p>
<p>Glad to hear students are “into” UM sports! School spirit was huge back in the early 80s, but I haven’t kept up with it.</p>