Talk About a Dream Deferred
Jan 4, 2002
By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – A crooked smile creased Miami coach Larry Coker’sface when his 21-year-old cornerback walked off the field after touching thenational championship trophy and told his friends he would savor this win for a”lifetime.”
As if the kid had any idea how long that was.
As if any kid knew how far you had to travel and how much you had to endureto savor this win the way Coker could now.
Thirty-two seasons in the football business, 22 as an assistant, longer thanmost of the kids who played for him had been alive, and until this one, theyall ended pretty much the same way – with someone else in charge. With someoneelse covered with glory or draped with blame.
And really, how could any kid know how long and how hard Coker ached to bethat guy?
“It’s really hard to say now because everything hasn’t soaked in,” he saidafter the Hurricanes overwhelmed Nebraska 37-14 Thursday night at the RoseBowl. “It’s an unbelievable honor, it’s tremendously gratifying to be aroundsuch great players, to be able to coach kids at such a high level.
“I’m just so grateful,” Coker said, his voice softening, “for thisopportunity.”
Talk about a dream deferred. Coker was 52 years old when his finally cametrue. The fifth head coach he’d worked for, Butch Davis, announced he wasleaving Miami the day after last year’s Super Bowl to take the same job withthe NFL’s Cleveland Browns.
By then, Coker had worked as a high school coach, as the offensivecoordinator for flamboyant Jimmy Johnson at Oklahoma State, for solid JohnCooper at both Tulsa and Ohio State, and for Gary Gibbs at Oklahoma. He hadmanaged to bring out the best in future NFL stars Barry Sanders, ThurmanThomas, Eddie George, Orlando Pace and Edgerrin James. And yet, nobody but realcollege football insiders could have picked Coker out of a lineup.
It wasn’t so much that he wanted it that way, only that he was raised towork hard, to serve others and let that carry him as far as it might.
Coker grew up in Oklahoma the son of an oil field pump man who died in Marchat age 89 and a mother whose successful fight against cancer 40 years agotaught him lessons about toughness and survival that still drive him today. Heplayed defensive back at Northeastern State University, then made the segueinto coaching at Fairfax (Okla.) High, where he won two state titles. In 1978,after moving to nearby Claremont High, he caught Cooper’s eye and joined thestaff at Tulsa. Thus began the life of a coaching gypsy.
