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AFM Magazine


Everybody\'s All-American

Larry Coker brings class to college football and the swagger back to Miami
by: Richard Scott
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Coker's 24-Game Winning Streak

2001 (12-0)
Miami 33, Penn State 7
Miami 61, Rutgers 0
Miami 43, Pittsburgh 21
Miami 38, Troy State 7
Miami 49, Florida State 27 (14)
Miami 45, West Virginia 3
Miami 38, Temple 0
Miami 18, Boston College 7
Miami 59, Syracuse 0 (14)
Miami 65, Washington 7 (12)
Miami 26, Virginia Tech 24 (14)
Rose Bowl (National Championship)
Miami 37, Nebraska 14 (2)

2002 (12-1)

Miami 63, Florida A&M 17
Miami 41, Florida 16 (6)
Miami 44, Temple 21
Miami 38, Boston College 6
Miami 48, Connecticut 14
Miami 28, Florida State 27 (9)
Miami 40, West Virginia 23
Miami 42, Rutgers 17
Miami 26, Tennessee 3
Miami 28, Pittsburgh 21 (17)
Miami 49, Syracuse 7
Miami 56, Virginia Tech 45 (18)

Total Points: Miami 1,015, Opponents 334

Fiesta Bowl (National Championship)
Ohio State 31(2), Miami 24 (2 OT)

He entered the 2003 Fiesta Bowl with a 24-0 record as a head coach, a national championship ring on one finger and an opportunity to win one for another finger. Rockne, Warner, Wilkinson, Bryant, Robinson ... none of them did that in their first two years as a head coach.

So, Larry Coker, what’s it like to be the greatest coach in the history of college football?

Want to hear Coker laugh? Try asking him that question without laughing. Greatest coach in college football? How do you measure these things? What standards do you use? How could Coker possibly measure up to the legends of the game when he’s only been a head coach for two years? When one legend, former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula, recently referred to the University of Miami head football coach as “Larry Corker?” Or when another legend, former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, completely forgot Coker had been hired as Miami’s coach and asked Coker where he was working when they ran into each other at an offseason function?

The best possible answer is that Coker isn’t wasting time measuring himself against the all-time greats, or the even the best of the best in today’s era. Instead, he’s having the time of his life and making the most of an opportunity that he almost thought would never come at age 53, after 32 years of coaching, 22 years as a college assistant.

As if that’s not enough, now he’s the Schutt Sports Division I-A Head Coach of the Year. Historically, the award has been presented to coaches who produced startling turnarounds by turning failure into success, but in this case, Coker won by teaching coaches everywhere about how to effectively handle success with grace, class and the self-discipline that keeps Coker and his Hurricanes hungry for more.

“Obviously, I don’t perceive myself as being the greatest coach in the history of college football,” says Coker, laughing at the thought. “There have been so many great coaches through history and I just feel like I’m very fortunate to coach in college football and have this opportunity I have, especially this late in my career, to be around this type of program and these types of players.

“Sometimes people think that when things are going pretty well that whoever comes in or whatever happens things will always go well, but it doesn’t always work out that way. It’s a real tribute to our players that they’ve been able to hang in there and adjust to what can be a difficult position. It’s difficult to turn a program around, but it’s equally difficult to maintain success because it’s easy to get complacent, let things deteriorate and slide.”

Anyone who thinks Coker is blowing “coach speak” smoke doesn’t know much about the man. Those who do know him insist he is what he appears to be: a calm, balanced, honest, humble-but-confident man who believes in what he’s doing and the people around him. He’s a man who values the ideals of consistency, hard work, class, dignity and integrity and then tries to live them.

He’s also a man who knows all this praise and success can do more harm than good if he doesn’t know how to handle it in a healthy manner.

“Sometimes you don’t really know you’re in the spotlight until people recognize you and want autographs,” Coker said. “I’m not really used to all that, but now it’s a part of my life – and it’s a good part. Sometimes you realize ‘wow, this is really important to a lot of people.’

“But then you have to make sure you don’t take yourself too seriously.”

Coker has always had a good idea of where he’s going because he’s always had a keen sense of where he comes from and where he is. It’s hard to fly too far from home when you’ve spent most of your life on solid ground.

For Coker, it all started back in the oil fields of Okemah, Okla., a town of 3,000 in the northeast part of the state. The Coker family lived at the end of a dirt road and never actually owned a house. Coker played his high school football for the smallest Class B school in Oklahoma. Playing for the Sooners was out of the question, so he spent his college years playing defensive back at Northeastern State Oklahoma from 1966-69.

“We didn’t have a lot of wealth when I was growing up, but we were never hungry or destitute,” Coker said. “I was very appreciative of what we had. My mother and father were both very grounded people, very giving people and you learn a lot from the people you’re around.”

Coker continued to learn valuable lessons in his chosen career, a career that started pretty darn close to the bottom of the coaching ladder. Coker actually started his career at the junior high level and then moved up to the high school level, becoming a head coach at Fairfax (Okla.) High School in 1970. After eight years in high school football, Coker became an assistant coach at Tulsa in 1978, coaching running backs and quarterbacks. Two years later, he was the Golden Hurricane’s offensive coordinator.

Coker went on to run the offense at Oklahoma State from 1980-82 and then directed the offense at Oklahoma from 1983-89 until he was fired. Yes, even Coker knows what it’s like to be let go. He also knows what it’s like to be passed over by younger coaches for the Tulsa and Oklahoma State jobs, and he knows what it’s like to start over by taking a job as the defensive backs coach at Ohio State in 1990.

Coker moved back to offense to coach the Buckeye quarterbacks in 1993 and then moved to Miami to become Butch Davis’ offensive coordinator in 1995. At the time, the program was still trying to rebuild from severe NCAA probation and penalties and the once cocky Hurricanes were surprisingly humble. Coker’s humility and quiet confidence proved to be a perfect fit.

Coker also relied on his faith to keep him grounded. Coker became a Christian as a child, but his faith became more real to him as he experienced the ups and downs of the winning and losing and sought solid ground to stand on.

Faith in God and faith in himself helped sustain him when he reached his 50s without becoming a head coach. He knew that with each passing year his opportunity to become a head coach was slipping away, but he also held on to the belief that he didn’t have to become a head coach to be a successful and fulfilled coach.

“I don’t know how much better it could have been as an assistant coach,” Coker said. “I felt very fortunate to have had those opportunities. It wouldn’t have been a wasted life if I had not become a head coach.”

At the same time, Coker believed he had the qualities needed to be a successful head coach – if someone else would just give him a chance. That chance finally came in February, 2001, when Davis left to become the Cleveland Browns’ head coach just before national letter of intent signing day.

The players responded immediately by pushing Coker as a candidate, but Miami looked elsewhere at first, offering the job to two other established head coaches before Miami athletic director Paul Dee finally listened to the content of the players’ message.

“We felt coach Coker was not only a good person, and a good coach, but he’s been through everything,” Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey said. “We felt he had every qualification to be our coach.”

“Coach Coker is more of a player’s coach, he’s much more personable,” Miami center Brett Romberg said. “Coach Davis was distant, intimidating. I guess guys felt they couldn’t approach him. But everyone knows we can talk to Coach Coker. He’ll talk about anything with you.”

After Coker once jumped into a huge barrel of ice-cold water with his offensive linemen during a post-practice ritual, former Miami tackle Bryant McKinnie said, “He is one of us. You have no idea what that means.”

At the same time, the players also knew the program wouldn’t sink back into its days as a halfway house for renegade outlaw players or become “Party Time With Uncle Larry.” They knew full well Coker was a no-nonsense coach who would toe the line and demand the best from his players, on and off the field.

“They like me, but hopefully more than that they respect me,” Coker said. “I’m not here to be liked. This isn’t a popularity contest.”

Coker earned the respect of the players by being true to them and himself. He didn’t put on an act or try to be one of the boys. He just walked the walked on a daily basis – even when that walk wasn’t something the players always understood.

“They make fun of me,” Coker recently told the Miami Herald. “Matt Walters calls me a grandfather figure, and I like it. I don’t want to be their friend. I don’t want to go out with them. And, believe me, they wouldn’t want to go out with me. You don’t go out with your grandfather all the time. You enjoy his company on Thanksgiving. I don’t want a bunch of guys out there who are 54-year-old clones of me.”

From the moment Coker became the Hurricanes’ head coach, Coker behaved like a coach who knew how to be in charge. He started by working with his players to save the recruiting season from falling apart and then turned his attention back to building a talented roster into a championship team. Throughout the 2001 season, critics kept waiting for the Hurricanes to stumble, and even when it appeared that the Bowl Championship Series might leave Miami on the outside looking in at the championship picture, Coker led the way by keeping an even keel and reminding his players that the best thing to do was keep winning and let the rankings take care of themselves. The Hurricanes not only mimicked his every word, but they proved him right by winning their way to the national championship game and then dominating Nebraska with an impressive performance in the Rose Bowl.

Despite losing a multitude of star players to the NFL and several solid veterans who completed their eligibility, the Hurricanes maintained their steady championship course this season, extending the program’s winning streak to 34 games and earning another trip to the national championship game, this time in the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State. The Hurricanes survived a few close calls and doubts that they could stay on top, but once again Coker set the tone for the program by pushing the players to move forward and keep improving instead of getting satisfied with success.

Along the way to their second consecutive national championship game, the Hurricanes also left a strong impression for their behavior on and off the field. It was obvious, for those in and outside the program, that these Hurricanes carried few similarities to the rowdy, arrogant and often troublesome Miami teams of the 1980s and early 1990s.

“You know what the great thing is?” Dorsey said. “We not only have great players, we have really high-quality people, too.”

“It’s great to win,” Romberg said. “It’s better to win with manners and class.”

Winning with class, Coker believes, has to start with the head coach and his example. Coker knows that if he doesn’t handle success well, he can’t expect his players to do the same thing.

“Some of it’s my age,” Coker said. “I have done this for quite awhile and I’ve been around it for quite awhile, and I think that helps you stay grounded.”

Coker also knows that quality of character must extend to the program’s recruiting efforts. According to defensive coordinator Randy Shannon, Coker insists that coaches talk to high school teachers, counselors, ministers and fellow students in addition to high school coaches to find out as much as possible about a prospect’s priorities and personality.

“You don’t ever know who’s going to be a really good player,” Shannon said. “We’ve never had a recruiting class rated No. 1, even while we were winning five national championships. But Coach Coker keeps reminding us of the big question, which is, ‘Is this kid going to be a good player and make you a good representative in the community?’”

Thanks to a tradition of success, national recognition and respect and geographic proximity to some of the nation’s best prep football players, Coker knows Miami is going to get good athletes. The key is to bring in the kind of people who will fit in with a program that’s built for success, from top to bottom.

“You’ve got to have a total program and surround yourself with great people: assistant coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, training staff, secretaries, everybody,” Coker said. “Surrounding the program with top-notch people helps you stay on top.

“Also, you need a process or a plan to be successful, to do more than just maintain success but to be keep building, keep reaching to be better. Then you have to convince the players to believe in it and buy into it so they can see that it’s really something that will help them have success.”

Nothing, not even wins or championships seemingly change Coker – except, perhaps, to make him more appreciative than he already is.

“That’s what makes him so special,” Miami offensive line coach Art Kehoe, who has been with the program since arriving as a player in 1979, told the St. Petersburg Times. “He is what he is and he ain’t gonna change. He’s the genuine article. He’s steady Eddie to me.”

After a recent practice, Coker’s steadiness gave way to a moment of heartwarming introspection in an interview with a Miami Herald columnist. For all the credit that goes his way, for all the attention, praise and awards, Coker’s unassuming nature still overrides the temptation to pound his chest and tell everybody what they were missing all those years when they didn’t hire him as a head coach.

He wouldn’t say it then, and he won’t say it now, but the job he’s doing as a head coach is reflected in the success of his team. Not just the winning streak or the national championship opportunities, but the attitude that mirrors a special coach.

“I’m very proud that we have humility,” Coker says. “The coaches were leaving the locker room the other day after practice and we were marveling and saying, `We really have some great kids.’ We couldn’t wait to get back for the next day to be with them again. That’s pretty rare.”






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