Marino's rookie year was 1983 @Gotham Green, not 1984. He was a rookie in 83, playing in 11 games and actually starting 9 of them. 1984 was his second season in the league, when the Phins went 14-2 and went to the Super Bowl.
Saw the writing on the wall after a 4-12 season when he wasn't offered an extension and wanted a parachute out before being burned on the hot seat when Vermeil offered him the succession job in KC. https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/...on-revisit-shadowy-departure-article-1.273197
This is just sour grapes. Look at them in the Championship ever year. That's all Nick Saban has to point to. Doesn't need to do anything sketchy to recruit. Kids want to win championships and go to the NFL. Alabama is a good bet.
Yeah so Herm probably did was 75% of college programs do but he got caught doing it. And they don't really care about hammering a mid-tier Pac-12 team with violations that'll realistically never be a playoff calibre program anyways. Not to mention everyone already covered that he'll be lucky to be there for five more years anyways if he even wants to keep going. Herm should've made this jump 7-8 years ago and might've carved out a nice little finale to his coaching career. At his age, I can't imagine he even wants to do this for that much longer.