That new Miami look and the coach, Larry Coker, who put it there

Coach and Athletic Director, Jan, 2004 by Kevin Newell

WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN OKEMAH, OKLAHOMA? HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU BEGAN PLAYING FOOTBALL AND WHERE DID YOU PLAY YOUR HIGH SCHOOL BALL?

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COKER: Okemah is a typical small southwestern town of about 2,000 people. My dad worked in the oil field and we had a house kind of in the middle of the oil field. It was a great place to grow up in.

I started playing football in the seventh grade of junior high school. I started for three years as a quarterback and defensive back. When I moved on to Okemah High, I also played on the basketball and track teams. Not that I was good at any of them, but track definitely helped me speed-wise as a football player at Northeastern State U. in Tahlequah, OK.

COACH: Were you a scholarship athlete?

COKER: I was a walk-on. My first year I earned books and tuition, the next year I earned room and board, and the last year I got a full scholarship. We didn't win a game my first year, but lost only once in my final year when we finished third in the nation. I think the transition probably did a lot to shape my attitude toward the game.

COACH: When and under what circumstances did you decide to go into coaching? Was it a special person who influenced that decision or did it just develop naturally out of experience?

COKER: When I was in the fourth grade, the teacher gave us one of those essay questions: What do you want to be when you grew up? Since my brother, Nolan, and my brother-in-law, Mac, were both high school football coaches in Oklahoma and I really idolized them, I probably had to say "football coach."

When I got to college, I actually majored in Pre Med. I soon realized that it wasn't for me. After graduating from Northeastern St., I tried to get an assistant's job at a large high school in Tulsa. That didn't work out. So I wound up going to a very small school in northern Oklahoma as an assistant coach. The head coach and I were the entire staff.

I eventually became the head coach at Claremore, a large high school near Tulsa. Then Jon Cooper hired me as quarterbacks coach and running backs coach at the U. of Tulsa.

That was in 1979. I became the offensive coordinator the next year, and that's where I was until Pat Jones found me in 1983. I became his offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State from 1983 through 1989--big years in my growth as a coach.

COACH: Over the next six years, you coached at Oklahoma and Ohio State, first as an offensive coordinator and than as a defensive backs and QB coach at Ohio State. And that's when Miami came calling for an offensive coordinator/QBs coach.

As a longtime assistant, 22 years to be exact, did you ever become frustrated waiting for your turn to become a head coach? How did you prepare yourself for that time?

COKER: I always tried to prepare myself as I grew through the profession. I think Butch Davis did a great job of that. Talk about a guy who really grows every year and works hard in the profession! He is the epitome of that.

I tried to do that myself--to grow and prepare myself to be the best assistant coach I could be, the best coordinator I could be. During the process, I was fortunate to be around a lot of great players and also great leaders and great programs. All of that helped prepare me for year 2001.

COACH: What advice would you give anyone in a similar situation? How to stay the course?

COKER: First of all, I like to use a little cliche: Bloom where you are planted. Too many guys keep looking ahead at that next job. My philosophy has always been that if we're successful and we win, and we do it the right way, great things are going to happen. So the thing I would say is, make sure that you do the job that you have the very

best way you can and treat it as if it's going to be the last job you ever have. Because it may be!

COACH: During your tenure as an assistant you worked with a lot of head coaches. Did you develop a certain philosophy over that period?

COKER: I think I've borrowed from some of the people I've been around, even as a high school coach. Certainly the opportunities I had from being around Jon Cooper and Jimmy Johnson and Pat Jones and Gary Gibbs--the organization Gary had--and of course, Butch Davis. The six years I spent with Butch, after he had been in the NFL, were invaluable.

But I don't think you can be somebody else. You can't be Jimmy Johnson or Butch Davis or Jon Cooper, but some of the strong things they do can certainly help you develop a philosophy you can be comfortable with.

COACH: Did you have any mentors in the development of your offense and defense?

COKER: Not so much defensively. Our defensive coordinator, Randy Shannon has really taken control of that. He'd be my mentor. Randy is much more of a believer in a philosophy of effort and chasing the football and being relentless. Scheme-wise, that's his responsibility. The things that I want scheme-wise are incorporated. But pretty much I leave it up to Randy.

Our offense is something we developed over the last several years. We've kind of borrowed from several people. It's more along the lines of a West Coast style that mixes in the running game.