Don, you've made a career out of riding the coattails of more successful people. There's likely a reason nobody wanted you as a head coach until your 50s. We're seeing now you have no business running a program on your own. Look at your alma mater: Mike Haywood took a moribund program and turned it around remarkably quickly. He didn't have the most talent but found a way to win a conference title and a bowl game. That's impressive, considering Miami was arguably the worst team in the nation when he was hired. And when he left and you were brought on, Don, the team was returning almost everyone. Expectations were high. How did you do?
Fell like a stone. 4-8. You have three wins so far this year, but you're likely to only be favored in one of them the rest of the way.
What happened? Well, first of all, you hired an offensive coordinator who was in the midst of a 32(!)-game losing streak. That hire was so bad it had Youngstown State fans
openly laughing at you. You know, a school in FCS. Then you decided to take everything that Mike Haywood did successfully and do the opposite of that. Instead of utilizing your athletes and quarterbacks, you're instituting Tressel Ball. That would be great if it was 1980 and the game hadn't yet evolved and the rules hadn't yet changed to favor the passing game, but it's 2012 and nobody wants to play with an antiquated philosophy. Not that it's working anyway: You can't run and you can't stop the run. I think those things are key in what you're trying to do.
It's pretty clear given your catatonic state on the sidelines you know you're over your head. You can try and save yourself all you want after the fact and offer up as many excuses as you can think, but you know. Your players know, too, and it's only a matter of time before they give up on you and your alma mater falls even further behind than it already is.
But hey, you're a Miami Man.