Randy Shannon To Fau?

UNT Mean Green · December 29, 2010

Two rumors sprouted this week regarding the possible future landing spot of fired Miami coach Randy Shannon, and hopefully one of these will actually happen (unlike the rumors connecting his name to the Minnesota, Indiana and Vanderbilt jobs and the Texas DC opening).

Franz Beard of Swamp247.com and FootballRumorMill.com both link Shannon's name to Florida Atlantic, with Beard saying that Shannon will be FAU's head-coach-in-waiting for one season before succeeding Howard Schnellenberger (in an arrangement similar to Dana Holgorsen's at West Virginia), while FRM merely says that Shannon will top the Owls' wish list if the 76-year-old Schnellenberger decides to retire immediately.

Meanwhile, Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times reports that Shannon attended Wisconsin's Rose Bowl practice on Monday and suggests that Shannon might be a candidate to replace Dave Doeren (who went to Northern Illinois) as DC. However, Shannon likely was there to visit his friend Greg Jackson, Wisconsin's nickel backs/assistant LB coach, a fellow Miami native whom he recommended for a job on Bret Bielema's staff last March.

A lifelong South Florida guy, Shannon makes too much sense for Florida Atlantic, even if Wisconsin is a BCS-conference school. (That's if he really is a candidate for the Badgers opening.) We're not sure if Shannon could go straight from the Owls to a BCS-conference head-coaching job, but since he has already been a BCS-conference head coach, taking a coordinator position probably doesn't make much sense if he has an alternative.

Edited December 29, 2010 by UNT Mean Green

Mean Green 93-98 · December 29, 2010

That would be huge. Imagine if recruiting classes like this were going to FAU.

OwlFamily · December 30, 2010

Not holding my breath, but there sure seems to be some smoke on this around the net.

One thing to consider is that Howard is under contract thru 2011. There has been 0 talk about extending or renewing his contract. It is widely believed that he will coach in the new OCS and then steup down from coaching duties.

If so then bringing in someone makes sense from a recruiting standpoint.

Well see, but I am cautiously excited about the possiblity.