Richt Leaves Miami: Surprising, Yet Not So Much

On a certain level, Mark Richt’s sudden departure from Miami was a huge surprise.

On another level…not so much.

ICYMI:  Miami head coach Mark Richt suddenly announced his retirement this past Sunday.  This came in the wake of a 35-3 drubbing at the hands of Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Mark Richt was in his third year at Miami, where he alighted after being fired by Georgia after the 2015 season.  The plan had been to take a year off and reassess and then maybe get back into the coaching game.  But then Miami came calling, and even the sainted Richt could not pass up that temptation.  Miami was his alma mater.  It offered easy access to high-school-talent-rich South Florida and was situated in the ACC Coastal, which is less competitive than the SEC East, so it offered a reasonably clear path to a championship if Richt could elevate the talent level in the program.  Recruiting had always been Richt’s forte.  For these reasons, Miami was apt to be Richt’s best chance to coach at a level where winning championships was at least a reasonable possibility.  If Richt had waited a year as per the original plan, the Miami job would not have been on the table.  So Richt took it, much to the chagrin of his family and closest friends.

Richt’s Georgia program had been in a state of slow but steady decline, and by 2015, a season which saw Georgia win 10 games without beating anybody of consequence. Richt seemed a coach out of ideas.  (When your idea of a brainstorm is to start your third-string quarterback in the biggest game of the season, with the SEC East title on the line–you need another brainstorm.)  But when he got to Miami, he seemed reenergized in a way he hadn’t for years in Athens.  A 4-0 start in 2016 turned to a 4-4 that included several near-misses (a Richt specialty, as any Georgia fan ought to know).  But then he reeled off five straight wins to close out the season and ten straight to start off 2017.  Miami rose to #2 in the country.

Then, just like that, it all came unraveled.

And how.

Miami started the 2018 season at #8 and was an overwhelming preseason pick to win the ACC Coastal.  Then they got embarrassed by LSU in their season opener.  They then managed to win five straight without beating anybody of consequence (sound familiar?) before dropping four straight.  They closed out the regular season with wins over Virginia Tech, which was likewise falling apart, and Pitt, which had already clinched the division.  Richt, who had changed quarterbacks midway through the season, changed back for the bowl game *facepalm* and got himself beat 35-3.  Miami looked just awful.  So much so that athletic director Blake James, who hired Richt, was prompted to take to Twitter to say “Our football team’s performance tonight – and at other times this season – is simply unacceptable to all of us who love The U.”

If I had a nickel for every time I saw a Miami score, especially during this season, and chuckled and thought to myself “Yep, same old Richt”…well, I’d have enough to catch the bus to work tomorrow.  And maybe to catch the bus back home.

There once was a time when the world seemed Richt’s oyster.  But times changed, as they are wont to do, and Richt seemed a man out of time.  Richt is a Bobby Bowden acolyte; Bowden’s teams won because they had the better players.  Nowadays the landscape is dominated by Nick Saban and his disciples and it is no longer enough just to have the better players.  Saban wins, and keeps winning year in and year out, because he has the better players and because they execute to his exalted standards.  Whereas Saban and his acolytes are all about precision and execution, Richt was the antithesis thereof.  How many of the most egregious losses of the latter half of the Richt era at Georgia could aptly be described as failures of execution?

Miami finished the season tied for 91st in total offense.  Richt, who had got his start as Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator, had returned to calling plays at Miami.  His son, Jon Richt, was the quarterbacks coach.  Miami was dead last in the 14-team ACC in yards per pass, next-to-last in passer rating.  Does nepotism ever end well?  As a longtime follower of Georgia athletics, I could tell some stories about that.

Developing quarterbacks had long been Richt’s specialty.  Richt had coached Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, David Greene, D. J. Shockley, Matthew Stafford, and Aaron Murray.  If he suddenly can’t coach up quarterbacks (we saw hints of this in 2015 as the passing game was dreadful at times that year), then what is left?  The bright spot of this year’s Miami team was its defense. but its architect, defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, is headed to Temple to take the job vacated by new Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins.  Recruits are reportedly de-committing left and right, despite the fact that recruiting is Richt’s strength.

In just three years at Miami, Richt went from solution to problem.  Your AD saying that your team’s performance is unacceptable says it all, doesn’t it?

On a certain level, it is surprising how fast it all came unglued.  It seemed as if the change of scenery had reinvigorated Richt.  Perhaps he had learned from his mistakes.  Certainly he would never lack for talent being in talent-rich South Florida.  But the misuse of talent was the overarching issue that led to Richt’s demise in Athens, and it has caught up with him again.  So on another level, Richt’s departure is not surprising at all.