MY THOUGHTS ON THE MIAMI AND FLORIDA HIRINGS

With the holidays in full swing and a newborn rocking my every second I haven't had time to reflect on the Will Muschamp to Florida and Al Golden to Miami hirings. Here are some rambling semi-hungover thoughts on both.

Will Muschamp: Right now I'm 50/50 on this. It could honestly go either way. I'm a little taken back that Muschamp is a UGA Grad and is now the head coach for their hated rivals in Gainesville but then again college football is a business. A very big one at that. Muschamp was probably the hottest coordinator/head coach in waiting. He was suppose to be Mack Brown heir apparent. Obviously it didn't work out that way and Texas was an utter disaster this season at 5-7. Muschamp couldn't take the blame because he was solely the defensive coordinator but then again I don't remember Texas off the top of my head ever having a dominant swarming defense. I do remember Alabama giving it to them pretty good last year in the BCS Championship game. I'm surprised Florida didn't go after Dan Mullen at Mississippi State. He would have been the perfect hire for the job as Urban's replacement. The last time Florida picked an assistant to replace a Swamp Legend it ended in disaster with two words that are now considered offensive in Gainesville: Ron Zook. I'm not saying Muschamp is the next Zook but I think Florida took a gamble giving a head coaching job for as high of a profile job as it currently is to a guy who has never proven it as the main man. For all I know Muschamp could be the next Nick Saban and maybe Mack Brown gave him a lot of head coaching duties this past season to groom him.

Grade: B-

Al Golden: This has the same feeling of when Georgia Tech got Paul Johnson from Navy. Golden is one of the best young up and coming coaches in college football. In fact he may be the best. Personally I wanted Miami to hire Jon Gruden because it was a sexy hire and it would have brought some flash and attention back to Coral Gables where it has been missing since the early part of this century. The thing is I wasn't sure if Gruden would have been successful coaching the college game. I have the exact opposite feeling with Golden. Golden was rumored to be the eventual coach at his alma mater Penn State whenever JoePa decided to hang up the coke bottles or croak on the sidelines. Golden was a d-coordinator at Virginia under George Welsh after being a grad assistant at Penn State. He improved the Cavaliers defense tremendously while in Charlottesville. They went from 108th overall in total defense to 18th. Their scoring defense improved by 10 points using his 3-4 scheme. In 2005 he was named Temple University head coach. He was the second youngest coach at the time. Temple is god awful at football. Their history and tradition didn't exist before Golden got there. In fact they were 3-31 during the three prior seasons before Golden arrived. He quickly turned it around with a 4-8 record in 2006 and then a 5-7 record in 2007. It might not seem a lot but already he had tripled their win total in two seasons. By his fourth season he got Temple to a bowl game with a 9-4 record and then this season led them to a 8-4 season. This was unheard of at Temple. Now in Miami I fully expect him to take advantage of the great recruiter he already was and put a border around all the South Florida recruits. Miami is already loaded with talent and Golden should be able to do what Randy Shannon couldn't do: win games. Lots of them. Miami better enjoy these next few seasons because it could be short especially if Golden does eventually go back to Happy Valley to replace JoePa. As much as I don't like Miami I'm looking forward to them winning again. College Football needs a good villian. A "CONVICT" if you say so. Golden will do great things in Coral Gables.

Grade: A++