Jim Larranaga explains what keeps him going in coaching

College sports have undergone several notable changes. That includes things like the Transfer Portal and NIL that have impacted how coaches build rosters and relationships with their players. It’s something that Miami Hurricanes head coach Jim Larranaga has felt.

Still, even amid frustrations he has with those changes, Larranaga knows that he’s going to keep going in coaching because of his passion for it.

“If any of you have met my wife, you know,” Jim Larranaga said. “I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing and the players are going to keep doing what they’re doing. I don’t have control over that.”

To help explain his point, Jim Larranaga compared it to calling a play in the middle of a game. He does it but once he does, things are out of his hands.

“It’s not like you call a play and the players just execute the play. No, you call the play and then it is up to the players to execute it. If they don’t execute, nothing I can do about that. Well, practice it and get them to do it right. Yeah, well, that’s what we’re doing but if they don’t do it correctly, that’s on them,” Larranaga said.

“That’s why the game comes down, it doesn’t come down to your preseason polls. Two or three years ago we were picked 12th and finished in the Elite Eight. Last year, we were picked fourth in the preseason poll and finished in the Final Four. This year, we were picked Top 10 in the country and second in the ACC and finished 14th in the league. I mean, there’s no predicting accurately because you just don’t know who’s going to be healthy, you don’t know how your chemistry is gonna develop.”

So, amid all of that, why does Jim Larranaga want to keep coaching? He still loves doing it and he wants to keep coaching until that changes.

“I love coaching. I love being around the players. I love practice. Practice it’s my favorite time of the day. So, I’ll keep doing it until practice is no longer my favorite time of the day.”

Jim Larranaga is 74 years old and began his coaching career in 1971 as an assistant coach at Davidson. He got his first head coaching job at AIC in 1977 before later moving onto Bowling Green and George Mason. In 2011, he became the head coach at Miami and has since taken the Hurricanes to the NCAA Tournament six times, including last year’s Final Four.