Golden: Canes' First-Rounders: 'First of Many to Come'
With a heavy dose of Miami Hurricanes getting their name called early in the 2015 NFL Draft -- six of seven in the first three rounds -- is there any resulting contrition felt by Al Golden considering they went 6-7 with that level of talent?
"I think from my standpoint it's really about the kids," Golden said on Tuesday afternoon on the Marc Hochman Show with Zach Krantz on 560 WQAM. "And I hate to attach anything even remotely negative to those kids accomplishing their dream, guys. At the end of the day we put that season to bed five months ago. For these guys it's about them and whatever we can do to help them as they finish out their careers. Some of them are graduating, obviously a lot of them went to the Combine and went to all-star games and have been around working out. To see them transition from doing all those things I just mentioned and then having their name called is nothing but awesome.
"It's been a long drought for us -- seven years since we've had someone in the first round. So I know the way our team's looking at it, the way our staff's looking at it, is this is the first of many to come as opposed to the culmination."
Al Golden continued to stress the moment belongs to the kids.
"It's not about me," Golden said. "At this stage, for those guys, it's not about the '14 team. It's not about me. It's not about anything other than them realizing a lifelong dream and that's it. And a lot of people can't get their mind around that.
"I'm happy for guys and just excited. To have two guys go in the first round after seven years without any -- that's big, again, for the University of Miami in terms of developing players. And I think it's fair to say the next challenge for us is to keep developing players like that and then develop teams at the same time."
