Mildly disappointed that Mike Leach (hyyyyarrr!) isn't the new coach of the rootin-est, tootin-est, most pirate-y program in all the land, but at least that embarassing "5" next to "Black Head Coaches in D-IA Football" is now a slightly-but-not-much-less embarassing "6": 'Canes defensive coordinator Randy Shannon is the pick.This is slightly unfortunate for bloggers, as the tendency of teams to grab current head coaches to fill their current vacancies was great posting fodder. Go into "Who's the next head coach at NC State?", carefully scrub all "Wolfpack" references and replace them with "Eagles" references -- check that subject-verb agreement -- and voila! Material!
Anyway, this is a good pick for Miami for a multitude of reasons. Shannon's young (40) and dynamic, familiar with the program (he was a player there and has been coaching at Miami since '98) and brings with him a surge of good PR that the Miami program needs. Most importantly, his defenses have remained consistently wicked throughout Miami's gradual Uncle-Fester-guided decline. Even this year, Miami was fifth in total defense.




