Miami's start likely seals Shannon deal

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The season's first month was a clear success for Miami, with three wins over nationally ranked teams and plenty of reasons to believe the Hurricanes are on the cusp of rejoining the nation's elite.For that, Randy Shannon may be on the verge of being rewarded handsomely.After No. 11 Miami beat Oklahoma 21-20 for the program's most significant win in several years Saturday night, Hurricanes athletic director Kirby Hocutt reaffirmed that the university has no intentions of letting Shannon slip away. Shannon's contract expires after the 2010 season, but formal talks about an extension haven't yet taken place.And any whispers that Shannon's future could be in jeopardy are certainly nonexistent now."Randy Shannon is going to be our head coach for a long, long time," Hocutt said.Hocutt has offered similar sentiments before and Shannon quickly dismisses any talk about his contract, even though he's acutely aware that trying to convince recruits to spend four years at a school but not having any assurance he'll be there past 2010 can be daunting."Not worried about it," Shannon said. "Really, I'm not."But after this 3-1 start, there would figure to be motivation for Miami to get a deal done — probably around season's end."The city of Miami has shown that they will support a winner," Hocutt said, referring to the nearly 62,000 fans who showed up to see the Hurricanes beat a top-10 team (Oklahoma came in No. 8) for the first time since 2005. "Randy has this thing going in the right direction."Never moreso than Saturday, perhaps.Down 10-0 early, Miami chipped away, getting three touchdown passes from Harris, 150 yards rushing from Javarris James (against a Sooners defense that gave up 122 in their first three games combined), and some huge defensive plays from Brandon Harris and Joe Joseph. Miami even got a game-changing special-teams hit from former walk-on Corey Nelms."We still have some things we've got to get done," Shannon said. "As far as record-wise, after the first four games, I thi

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