In complete control

Hurricane Randy made landfall Dec. 8, blowing away any uncertainty about his coaching style in his first team meeting as Miami’s coach.

“I gave it to them straight,” said Randy Shannon, the 41-year-old defensive specialist charged with restoring order at Miami after last season’s scandal-ridden 7-6 campaign. “I said, ’Any of you guys who have won a national championship, please feel free to come up here and coach.’ Nobody raised their hand.

“Then I explained to them that I’ve won three titles, as a player [1987], grad assistant [1991] and coordinator [2001], so I’ve got a pretty good idea what it takes in terms of desire, commitment, approach and discipline.”

Ah, yes, discipline — perhaps the last word anybody would associate with Miami’s 25-year run as college football’s defining program. After all, these were the camo ’Canes, do-rag U, the “Convicts” to Notre Dame’s “Catholics.”

On the field, the program’s most recent moment in the national spotlight came in October, when Miami and Florida International engaged in a stunning melee that led to the suspension of 13 Hurricanes, most notably Brandon Meriweather. Off the field, Miami made headlines a month later when defensive lineman Bryan Pata was shot and killed outside his apartment.

After the Pata tragedy, even the program that often seemed to embrace its renegade status had to admit former coach Larry Coker had lost institutional control.

Enter Shannon, Coker’s defensive coordinator and perhaps one of the few men in the profession with the personality, background and credibility to curb the flowering chaos in Coral Gables, Fla.

Don’t tell Shannon about the mean streets. He grew up in Miami’s infamous Liberty City. At the age of 3, Shannon saw his father murdered. He lost two siblings to AIDS and a third to homicide before starring at linebacker on Jimmy Johnson’s teams of the mid-1980s. Shannon never used his built-in excuses, and he refuses to accept them as a coach.

“He’s the personification of tough love,” fifth-year senior linebacker Tavares Gooden said. “Everything with him is all about team and respect. If your actions distract the team in any way from our common goals, he’s coming down on you heavy.”

To that end, Shannon outlined a strict code of conduct for his players at that first team meeting:

Any player caught in possession of a firearm immediately will be dismissed from the team and expelled from school.

Cell phones are prohibited in the classroom and in team meetings.

All players with a GPA under 2.5 must live on campus.

Any player drawing a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct will be benched.

For this season at least, all names have been removed from the backs of jerseys.

“If I hear you’ve skipped a class, you’re not starting,” said Shannon, who showed every episode of “Band of Brothers” to his team during summer camp to stress unity. “If I get a call after midnight about a guy for disciplinary reasons, whatever that reason, you’re not playing. When I say zero tolerance, that’s exactly what I mean.”

Off the field, the early results are glowing. The first eight months of the Shannon era have been incident-free. And the immense change in team culture seems to have attracted, rather than discouraged, potential recruits. To date, Miami has secured 17 verbal commitments for next year’s recruiting class, entrenching the Hurricanes firmly among the top-10 early class rankings.

Success has followed on the field, as well. Though the Hurricanes (1-0) still have serious issues at quarterback, Miami crushed Marshall 31-3 in last week’s opener behind some vintage Shannon defense, recording 13 tackles for loss against the Thundering Herd.

The ultimate barometer comes Saturday in Norman, Okla., where Shannon’s refocused Hurricanes meet No. 5 Oklahoma (1-0) in a compelling cross-conference matchup. An upset would vault Miami back into the national spotlight … for all the right reasons.

“It’s not Miami vs. Oklahoma as much as it’s Miami trying to be the best it can be,” said Shannon, who started for the Miami team that beat the Sooners 20-14 to win the national title in the 1988 Orange Bowl, the last meeting between the schools. “This game presents us with both a great challenge and a great opportunity.”