Dear Coach Golden,
Please, for God's sake, turn this damn thing around.
I am utterly disgusted with what I saw on the field on Friday afternoon. I get it. It's the Sun Bowl.
But it was Notre effing Dame. I can count on one hand the number of guys who showed up for the game. It was pathetic.
I am sick of walking into work and not being able to say a word about college football without getting laughed at.
I am a Miami fan. My office is full of USC (resepctable, but still, it's USC), Washington, Arizona and Notre Dame fans. When that is the b.s. mix of people I am talking to and they are talking down to ME about college football, something has gone wrong.
I supported Coach Shannon to the very end. But now I am beginning to think we were one hundred percent correct in going in a different direction.
I tried to be the bigger man this morning. I have a guy in my office who claims to be a fan of both Notre Dame and Washington (which disqualifies him as a fan of both, I know). I walked into his office and congragulated him on his big weekend. This guy didn't even know the name of Notre Dame's quarterback until he turned the game on. I tried to be the bigger man, against every impulse.
What was my thanks?
Five minutes later he walked onto the floor and made an announcement about Miami being terrible. Everyone laughed. I had to clench my jaw andkeep working. Aside from these people being beneath me by virtue of their rooting interest, I really had no response.
Moral? No more Mr. Nice Guy. It doesn't get you anywhere. A loser is a loser and a winner is a winner.
Maybe that was Randy's greatest failing. He tried to do things the right way. He didn't run up scores. His teams did not taunt opponents. As a result, they also didn't know how to step on the jugular when it was time to do so.
You know what? Screw doing it the right way. I want to kill other teams. I want to hurt their players and then celebrate over the top of them. I want a team that wants blood. I want to win by 50 and keep throwing. I want the starters in in the 4th quarter. I want our offense to get in our defense's ass if they mess up, and vice versa.
No more being polite. I want a team that craves violent contact. If that means we take a personal foul or two, so be it. I wouldn't have minded to see Allen Bailey body slam Tommy Rees the other day (FYI--that's the Notre Dame quarterback you fake fan) even if it meant that we got labeled as dirty. You know why? Because that is how you send a message.
"Mess with The U and your ass is grass."
I don't want us to be buddies with the guys on the other team, even if we have known them our whole lives. I want to go back to the days of beating the hell out of the opponent on every play and then telling them about it. You disrespect our hat during your recruitment press conference? You better hope you're not on our schedule anytime soon, because otherwise you are a target.
And targets of the University of Miami do not fare very well. Ask Tamarick Vanover.
I love Coach Shannon and appreciate everything he did. I do not want a team of criminals and delinquents. UiF and FSU can have that.
But it is time to turn a page. I want a team full of men. Of wild dogs. I am done with the little boys that piss like puppies. If your feelings get hurt when you get benched and you go in the tank? Sorry. I hear it is a lot easier to get playing time at FAMU or FIU or UCF or any other damn school, and I don't care how many "stars" you were.
This is Miami, and it ain't for the faint of heart.
Coach Golden, you seem to understand this. Please go out there and instill it. Because right now we have a roster full of prima donnas and pansies. They need to be toughened up.
No more Mr. Nice Guy.
It's all about the U. Always has been and always will be. Time to remind everybody what that means.
Signed,
Dan Stein, B.S. '09
Loyal fan since birth
