Hot Seat scale: Ranking 10 coaches in South Florida market by most to least job pressure | Opinion
Like a wine paired to a certain meal, we can recommend a musical accompaniment to what you are about to read. It is the 1980s song, “Under Pressure,” by Queen and David Bowie.
Pressure, pushing down on me, pressing down on you ...
We identified the 10 most prominent teams in the Greater Miami/South Florida sports market (no offense, FIU hoops, Miami FC soccer and others who just missed) and then came up with a Hot Seat scale to rank which of the teams’ head coaches (or manager) are under the most pressure in terms of job security.
The scale is 0 to 10 — 0 meaning the coach’s job presently could not be safer, 10 meaning the firing line is in view and the blindfold and cigarette are being offered.
Our summer of ‘21 Hot Seat rankings:
▪ Phil Neville, Inter Miami: Hot Seat 8.0 — David Beckham made an ill-fated coaching hire in Diego Alonso for Inter Miami’s inaugural year in Major League Soccer, then fired him after the season. Beckham then hired a former teammate and longtime friend, Phil Neville, who’d been England’s national women’s coach, for Year 2. Results have been hugely underwhelming. Miami is 2-2-7 with five consecutive losses entering Saturday night’s match, and has scored the fewest goals in the league. Friend or not, if Neville (with only a two-year contract) doesn’t right the listing ship and turn around what has been a really shaky launch to this franchise, Beckham likely will be on the coach hunt yet again.
▪ Butch Davis, FIU football: Hot Seat 6.5 — The old Canes boss turns 70 during the coming season. He’s after a late-career hurrah and we hope FIU’s mercurial athletics leadership gives him a fair chance as he enters his fifth season — the last in a five-year contract. Davis has gone 6-12 the past two seasons including a COVID-racked 0-5 last year, so the heat will be on barring a big turnaround this fall.
▪ Don Mattingly, Miami Marlins: Hot Seat 5.5 — Mattingly is in his his sixth season with the Marlins; only four MLB managers have been with their current club longer. His two-year contract extension expires this year, but the Marlins picked up his option for 2022. Miami unexpectedly made the playoffs in pandemic-strewn 2020 but have regressed and disappointed this year and are lodged in the NL East cellar — despite starting pitching as a strength. Derek Jeter must begin to spend to add offense, but owners don’t fire themselves. And surely first-year general manager Kim Ng will be given time as baseball’s first-ever woman (and Asian woman) GM. That will turn up the heat under Mattingly if the now-bounteous farm system and potential don’t start being reflected in the standings.
▪ Manny Diaz, Hurricanes football: Hot Seat 5.0 — The standard and expectations make this one of the most high-pressure, must-win jobs in the market, and the seat under Diaz is a bit warm entering the third season of a five-year contract. Improving to 8-3 last year after a 6-7 debut was fine, but Diaz is 0-2 in minor bowls (including an embarrassing shutout loss to Louisiana Tech), has lost to FIU, and lost 62-26 at home to North Carolina late last season. Much room for improvement. (Upsetting national champion Alabama in the 2021 opener would be the loudest possible statement.) Big picture: Canes must find a way to solve Clemson and become an ACC power. And if the College Football Playoff increases from four teams to 12, the pressure will greatly increase on wanna-be contenders like UM to consistently reach the playoff.
▪ Joel Quenneville, Florida Panthers: Hot Seat 3.5 — “Coach Q” just finished the second season of a five-year deal, with two early playoff exits putting a disappointing damper on two solid regular seasons. With the franchise’s first Stanley Cup the clear goal, there is urgency to stop wasting the Aleksander Barkov/Jonathan Huberdeau years. This club, and Quenneville, need a deep postseason run. Another factor here: Q was hired by now-departed general manager Dale Tallon, not by current guy Bill Zito. Also in play: A recent New York Post report suggesting Quenneville might consider leaving Sunrise to coach the expansion Seattle Kraken, whose GM is a longtime friend and former teammate.
▪ Willie Taggart, FAU football: Hot Seat 2.5 — Taggart went 5-4 in his Owls debut last year after being fired by Florida State after only 21 games. But Lane Kiffin is a tough act to follow. With a five-year contract, Taggart is still in the honeymoon phase in Boca Raton but might get only three seasons to establish firm progress.
▪ Jim Larranaga, Hurricanes men’s basketball: Hot Seat 2.0 — Larranaga is signed through 2023-24 and, at 70, isn’t thinking retirement. He’s had six 20-win seasons in his 10 years in Coral Gables but the past three have been a real downturn, with a combined 39-51 record including 16-41 in the ACC. His job isn’t riding on it, but he could dearly use a faith-restoring bounce-back year.
▪ Katie Meier, Hurricanes women’s basketball: Hot Seat 1.5 — Meier is entering (time flies) her 17th season in Gables, as the longest-tenured of the market’s big-team coaches, and UM appreciates what it has. Her latest contract extension runs through the 2024-25 season. The very-respected coach has been a consistent winner here but seeks a rebound year after consecutive .500 seasons. Her resume could also use a postseason kick, as her teams have yet to advance past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
▪ Brian Flores, Miami Dolphins: Hot Seat 1.0 — CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora recently listed Flores among nine NFL coaches in his own hot-seat rankings. BetOnline’s first-coach-fired odds have Flores 12th highest, or upper half. Wrong! Don’t buy any of it. That can change fast with this team — and so much of it depends on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s progress and ceiling — but entering his third season of a five-year, fully guaranteed deal, Flores is rock-solid safe. Players love him. And after a 5-11 debut Flores went 10-6 last year with the Fins’ best plus-points differential in 18 years. Last season mustn’t prove to have been a fluke, though. It needs to have been the start of sustained winning, or the seat under Flores could go from comfy-cool to toasty fast.
▪ Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat: Hot Seat 0.5 — Spo just finished his 13th season by the bay, second in NBA tenure to only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich. He has 10 playoff seasons, two championships and three other Finals appearances including last year. On this team, the question is if Pat Riley can give Spoelstra the players to contend for a title — never whether they’ll be sufficiently coached.
How’d we do in our rankings?
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 3:33 PM.
