If a coach resigns when no one's around, does it count?
For Shane Montgomery, the answer is yes.
One day after the RedHawks lost to Ohio University to finish a season 2-10 for the second time in three years, Montgomery officially resigned.
It had all the feel of a George Costanza preemptive break up; the split was going to happen anyway, so you might as well quit before you can be fired.
Sadly, the prestige of the football program has fallen to nearly an all-time low.
Whether the RedHawks continue to spiral into the NCAA equivalent of Alcatraz or turn the program around depends largely on whom they choose to replace Montgomery.
The Miami University administration does not need to look very far to find examples of small programs experiencing big time success. In fact, if they take a trip south down U.S. Route 27, they will run into two-the University of Cincinnati football and Xavier University basketball.
In 2005, Montgomery's first season at Miami, the Bearcats came into Yager Stadium and were soundly defeated 44-16. Fast forward a few years and the Bearcats are Big East champions, poised for a trip to a BCS bowl game, while the Redhawks are stuck in the basement of the MAC.
It isn't just a big conference/small conference difference either. Xavier plays in the Atlantic-10, hardly a powerhouse conference by any stretch, but the Musketeers, have found a way to become perennial contenders and are now ranked in the Top 20.
The Miami football head coach position is a stepping stone for coaches on the rise-you either succeed and move on to bigger and better places, or you fail and quit. The RedHawks aren't going to get an Urban Meyer or a Bob Stoops.
But the UC program still isn't seen as a destination job. With every win he compiles, Brian Kelly is rumored to be off to another school-first the University of Tennessee, then University of Notre Dame and finally Washington University. That has not stopped him from turning around the Bearcats.
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Similarly for Xavier, the conventional wisdom is head coach Sean Miller is just biding his time until he can bolt for his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh. That didn't stop the Musketeers from reaching the Elite Eight last year.
Miami's next coach is going to have to be young and ambitious. He is also going to have to be a pretty good salesman, not just to future recruits but also to the student community at large.
Students have become apathetic toward the football program-there were pockets of people pushing for Montgomery to be fired, but many were content to watch other games on Saturday afternoons. When the last warm days of summer give way to the first chill of fall, we would rather stand in line to watch a hockey scrimmage than a football game. The next coach is going to have to change that.
Southwest Ohio has great high school football-the Division I and Division II runners-up were from the area. The next coach is going to have to tap into that talent and get some of those great players to come to Miami.
UC defensive backs coach Kerry Combs was the head coach of Colerain High School in Cincinnati for over ten years. He won a state championship with Colerain in 2004. He's energetic and knows this area very well.
More importantly, Combs has had a front row seat in watching Brian Kelly turn around a football program. He may not lead the RedHawks to a BCS Bowl game, but he will definitely change the perception and the attitude here in Oxford. After a 2-10 season, changing the perception of the program is a great place to start.
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