DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Kosar says he's interested in Miami job

December 6, 2006

MIAMI (AP) -- Former University of Miami and NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar said he is interested in becoming the school's next football coach, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

Kosar told the newspaper that he has had preliminary talks with university officials about replacing Larry Coker who was fired last month.

"Yeah, I'm interested," Kosar told the paper. "UM people knew that I had been offered the president of the Cleveland Browns job. They knew I wanted to get back into football and asked if I'd be interested in the UM job. At first it was just flattering, but then I thought, 'Yeah, I'd really like to look into it."'

Kosar has no coaching experience, but he often serves as a mentor to quarterbacks at Miami. He retired from the NFL after a 12-year career with the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins.

There has been much speculation about who would replace Coker, who was fired on Nov. 24 after the Hurricanes completed a 6-6 season after going 53-9 in Coker's first five years at Miami.

The only confirmed candidate to replace Coker is Miami defensive coordinator Randy Shannon, who hasn't commented on his interest in the job.

Other names have been mentioned as possible candidates -- Rutgers' Greg Schiano, former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez, South Florida's Jim Leavitt, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech's Mike Leach and former Alabama coach Mike Shula, son of Miami Dolphins coaching legend Don Shula. Some NFL coaches are also in the mix.

It was a turbulent season in Miami -- with the biggest blow being the death of Bryan Pata, who was shot and killed outside his off-campus apartment complex on Nov. 7. Even before that, a top wide receiver was suspended for much of the season after getting involved in an altercation with two women, a player was shot in an alleged robbery attempt where another teammate returned fire at the purported assailants, and the Hurricanes were involved in an on-field brawl with Florida International which resulted in the suspension of 31 players, 13 from Miami.

Kosar was a fan favorite as the Hurricanes quarterback from 1983 to 1984, leading Miami to a national championship as a freshman, beating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. The Browns got him in a supplemental draft after he graduated early with a dual degree in finance and economics.

Kosar threw 124 touchdown passes in his NFL career, with 87 interceptions.

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The problem with starting your coaching career down in Miami is that the expectations are so high. If the Hurricanes don't have a top 10 team, then the seasons a failure. On the other hand, like USC and Ohio State, you get all the best recruits. It's not like turning a program such as Rice or Rutgers around. They have some really good players down there.

I don't see Miami offering Kosar the job unless all the available experienced, big time HC, decline the offer. The Rutgers guy already declined. He apparently has his sights on Penn State when Paterno retires.

Bernie we love ya, but no way in heck is Miami gonna offer thier coaching job to a former player with ZERO coaching experiance, there program makes way too much money for the univercity to put it in unproven hands...

what he needs to do, is teach Charlie how to get rid of the ball quicker to avoid the blitz, burn the defense and prolong his career. Then if he's successful, he can say he has some coaching experience.

I agree with that. Bernie was a brilliant football player but more than one brilliant player turned out to be an awful coach... if Miami offered him this job it would be a decision based 90% on emotion and it's too important of a decision for Miami to make based on emotion...

I would feel a lot better if he had taken some Florida high school team to the state playoffs 3 years in a row,...then he would also have built some knowledge of how to recruit and deal with these kids.

He would be so much better off to have some front office business job with the Browns. He doesn't need the headaches of a Miami.

when was he offered this?

That's what I'm wondering. Anyone have any info at to when the Browns offered BK a job?

Raleigh

<Unqualified Opinion> Seems to me there was some banter about this in the past, and the hangup was he didn't really want to relocate the family from Florida,...??

I believe and I could be wrong, but I think Bernie was affiliated with one of the competing groups trying to win ownership of the Browns. They may have been the people that "offered" him the Prez job.

I remember all of that, but that article makes out to sound like the Browns recently offered him a position. Oh well, just curious.

If I recall right, last year when the browns were trying to "Reconnect" with the fans by bringing in past-Browns names, Bernie was on the list, but nothing was official made public since he didn't accept a position.

Other than that, last I recall was when Lerner first got the team and they said Bernie would be part of it, then tossed him aside like a ragdoll.

not 100% sure, but I do believe at the time your talking about, Bernie was having marrital problems and wanted to stay / work out of his home in flordia, and it was agreed he needed to be in Cleveland so nothing was accepted on his part. Just bad timing....

That's what I recall happening,...

Thats was the most recent one....But the "ragdoll" issue I was referring to was when Lerner first won the bid for the Browns back in '97/'98 and during a press conference it was Lerner, Kosar and ??Policy?? standing at a podium for a news conference, and at the time it was inferred that Bernie would have a position with the team, that never came to fruition.

J/C, I for one would love to see if Kosar is capable of being an HC. Then after RAC's run is over if Bernie looks like a decent Coach then maybe he could HC the Browns. Tell me ya wouldn't love to see that. If he could do a solid job. I believe he's more than smart enough but it's the intangibles that I want to know if he has? Especially being able to motivate players but he would need to be able to formulate a game plan that isn't all pass. However with no coaching experience I doubt that Miami offers him the HC spot right off the bat. Now if he had been QB coach or OC and had success then maybe.