AL GOLDEN

After turning the Temple Owls from a joke into a bowl team, Al Golden is leaving North Broad Street to take over at the University of Miami. Golden will be introduced as the Hurricanes 22^nd head coach at a press conference on Monday.

“We are proud to welcome Al Golden to The U.” said Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt in a statement. “His desire, leadership, communications skills and preparedness stood above the rest and he is the right man to meet the championship expectations of this program.”

The qualities that Hocutt mentioned allowed Golden to take the Owls from 0-11 in the season prior to his arrival to their first bowl game appearance in 30 years when they played in the 2009 Eagle bank Bowl.

In five seasons as the Owls coach, Golden was 27-34 with 17 of those wins coming in the last two seasons. Temple, the preseason favorite in the MAC this year, wasn’t invited to a bowl game despite an 8-4 record including a victory over Connecticut, which will play in a BCS bowl game (Fiesta Bowl).

“Al Golden did not just win games at Temple University but he built a football program and he did it the right way,” Temple University Director of Athletics Bill Bradshaw said in a university release. “He engineered one of the most remarkable turnarounds in Division I history. Not only did he turn Temple football around, he did it in such a way that it will last long after his departure. The turnaround was not only seen on the gridiron, but also in the classroom, with unprecedented academic success.”

Temple will start an immediate search for a successor.

Rock Hoffman can be e-mailed at Rdvsports@yahoo.com