Larry Edward Coker (born June 23, 1948) is a former American football coach and player. He previously served as the head coach of the University of Miami and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Coker's 2001 Miami team was named the consensus national champion after an undefeated season that culminated with a victory in the Rose Bowl over Nebraska. In the process of winning the championship, Coker became the third head coach since 1948 to win the national championship in his first season. (Bennie Oosterbaan from the University of Michigan and Dennis Erickson of the University of Miami were the last two head coaches to accomplish this feat.) Coker was fired by Miami on November 24, 2006, following his sixth loss that season. After a stint as a television analyst for ESPNU, he became head coach for the University of Texas at San Antonio, whose Roadrunners football team began play in 2011. He resigned as UTSA coach on January 5, 2016. Coaching career Early career Coker has served as an assistant at several universities, including Ohio State University, the University of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State University. He was Miami's offensive coordinator from 1995 to 2000 before taking over as head coach following the departure of Butch Davis to the Cleveland Browns of the NFL. Coker had several successful seasons as offensive coordinator over nearly a decade from 1983 to 1993. He is most known for coaching RBs Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State, and Jeremy Shockey, Andre Johnson, Bryant McKinnie, and Edgerrin James at Miami. All went on to become Pro-Bowlers in the NFL. In 1971 Coker became the head coach of the Fairfax Red Devils and won two Oklahoma State football titles in a just a few years. He also coached several award-winning players, including Jodi Tillman, George Pease III, Craig Lance, and Oklahoma Football player of the year Arthur Crosby. Miami 2001–2003 After Butch Davis was hired by the NFL's Cleveland Browns, Coker, previously the offensive coordinator, was promoted to head coach. Options for a new head coach were limited because Davis announced his decision to leave when it was nearly February and the Miami administration's first two choices for the coaching position, Dave Wannstedt and Barry Alvarez, turned the job down. In addition, many Hurricane players, especially Ed Reed, were lobbying for Coker's promotion. They believed that not changing the team's system would