Richt Makes the Rounds at ESPN

Mark Richt recently spent the day at ESPN going through the “Coaches Car Wash” along with some other ACC Coaches. Among the topics he discussed were recruiting, what it meant to be back at the U, Brad Kaaya, and what would constitute a successful first season.

Richt appeared on ten different shows. His day began at 8:55AM on Mike and Mike and continued until he appeared on the Jorge and Izzy show at 2:55pm. The trip to Bristol gave Richt a great opportunity to discuss his vision for the Miami program.

One of the reiterating themes was being back at the U. Richt said he likely would have sat out a year if the Miami job didn’t open up. He knew the job wouldn’t be available in a year and that timing is everything.

Everyone Richt met with noticed he seems rejuvenated with a new sense of excitement. He credits that to going back to calling plays, being able to work more hands on with the offense in general and the quarterbacks specifically. It helps that Brad Kaaya is one of the best QB’s in the country.

Richt has had high praise for Kaaya with everyone he spoke with about his junior quarterback. He mentioned to Mike and Mike that Kaaya reminds him of former Georgia Quarterback David Greene. He was impressed with Kaaya as a team leader and said Kaaya always puts the team and winning ahead of himself and his stats.

Richt was asked what he has been working on with Kaaya since taking over.

"The big part is just learning the system, learning the language, learning all of our run checks, pass checks, our protections …Work hard on footwork, ball handling the whole thing. I mean just from ground zero as if he was a true freshman because he’s brand-new in the system it’s interesting because its trajectory certainly has been moving upward.  (College Football  Today) How do you think about easing that transition?: I‘m going to give him a systematic way to think and read and progress and make decisions and when he gets so bored with it because we do it over and over and over again he’ll be ready to go, almost becomes robotic it it’s at some point."

On Mike and Mike Richt discussed the importance of regaining a stronghold recruiting South Florida. It was Richt’s college coach Howard Schnellenberger that said we need to build a “fence around South Florida” and recruit the “State of Miami.”

Richt said:

"The big thing is recruiting, we all know college football a huge part of it is recruiting and we’ve got very fertile recruiting grounds in the Miami area. That tri-county area of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties got a lot of great players…Miami also traditionally has gotten great players from all over the nation we’ll continue to do that to do that."

Richt discussed his expectations for this year with Mike and Mike and his long-term expectations for the program on College Football Live.

About this year Richt said:

"“I’m not gonna put any limits on what we could do. I believe we can win the Coastal and play for the (ACC) Championship and you get to that game and anything can happen and obviously if you win that one hopefully we’re in the in the four-team playoff. So I’m not going to put a lid on what could happen this year. I mean we got a chance to be pretty good, but there’s a lot of other pretty good teams as well that we’ll play."

About the long-term goals and where Miami should be year to year Richt said:

"Fighting for the championship . I mean that’s where we need to be and it will get there. I don’t know how quickly…We’ll see what happens but the big thing is i just want to see us play Miami football and get after people’s rear end and you bring the excitement back."

Georgia went to a bowl game all 15 years he led the program. He took over the bulldogs in 2001. At the time there were 25 bowl games, there are 41 plus the college football playoff this season. Eighty-six teams will compete in the post-season this year.

Miami was picked second in the Coastal Division preseason rankings behind North Carolina. They play the Tar Heels on October 15 in Miami. Richt’s goal of getting to the ‘Canes first ACC Championship game seem reasonable. The fact that they have yet to reach the ACC Championship was something no one could have expected when Miami joined the League.

Next: Mark Richt and Brad Kaaya Discuss Season at ACC Kickoff

The game against UNC is the second in a brutal four-game stretch to finish October. They host Florida State on October 8, after the UNC game they travel to Blacksburg to face Virginia Tech four days later. They conclude the month with a trip to Notre Dame on the 29th.

The Fighting Irish joining the ACC for everything but football has brought back the UM-ND rivalry. Notre Dame has to play five games a year against ACC opponents as part of their deal to join the conference.