Miami Makes It Official, Names Al Golden New Head Coach

Miami’s two-week search for a new head football coach officially ended Sunday night, when the university’s Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt announced the hiring of Al Golden.

Golden, the program’s 22nd head coach, comes to Miami from Temple, where he spent five years coaching and completely rebuilding the Owls’ football team. While he’s leaving with an overall record of just 27-34 (including an 1-11 debut season), Golden managed to guide Temple to two winning seasons (2009-10); before his arrival, the Owls had just two winnings seasons since 1980.

After a two-week search, it appears that the Miami Hurricanes have found their next head coach.

ESPN’s Bruce Feldman tweets that Temple head coach Al Golden is the choice.

And then there’s Marc Trestman, who seems to have emerged as a bit of a front-runner for the position. Which begs the question…who the heck is Marc Trestman?

Trestman is a former Minnesota Golden Gopher QB who began his coaching career at a little place called the University of Miami in 1981. He quickly worked his way up to QB coach in 1983 where he oversaw Bernie Koser’s rise to glory. Trestman also earned a law degree from UM while there.

We’re being denied the prospect of Football Four Loko in Miami, at least “officially.” (We’re also quite aware of what it looks like, putting “officially” in scare quotes, but this is a college football coaching search and there’s no such thing as ruling a candidate out for good until the actual successor signs a contract and reports to campus.) Bo Pelini is denying (albeit in very careful language) that he’s after Randy Shannon’s old job at Miami, and his AD is backing him up. Here’s Pelini, via the Sun-Sentinel:

The reports that I am preparing to interview at the University of Miami are false. I will not have any additional comment on this matter or any other rumors.

YES HE’S NOT PREPARING BECAUSE HE CLEARLY ALREADY CAME PREPARED, PAAAAOWL. Finebaum’s territory does not stretch into Miami, but if it did, this is what you’d be hearing. Here’s Tom Osborne:

The pendulum in the case of Randy Shannon’s replacement at Miami has swung from Jon Gruden being hired any minute, to Mike Leach (and the Donald) shilling for himself, to Bo Pelini maybe or maybe not throwing his hat in the ring, which may or may not have been a sanctioned act by the University of Nebraska:

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini has spoken to University of Miami Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt about the Hurricanes’ coaching job but has not been offered it, two people with knowledge of the search told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday.

“He is in the mix,” one of the sources said.

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne denied giving permission to Pelini to speak to UM.

“Bo’s never talked to me about anything like that,” Osborne told the Lincoln Journal Star. “If he got permission, he didn’t get it from me.”

It’s easy to forget that Jon Gruden isn’t just a Super Bowl-winning coach. (Well, it is if you watch Monday Night Football on mute.) But ESPN is helping Gruden, who works for the network as an NFL analyst, addressed rumors that he will be Miami’s next coach.

From ESPN PR person Josh Krulewitz, on Twitter:

If Miami wants to replace Randy Shannon with someone who is diametrically opposed to his calm temperament, Jon Gruden wouldn’t be a bad choice. But might the ESPN analyst actually be the guy in Miami?

That’s what radio personality Lake Lewis is touting on Twitter at the moment, despite misspelling Gruden’s first name: