What had a Bigger Impact, Miami Hurricanes 10-0 start or 0-3 finish?

Richt spoke with ESPN’s David Hale about Miami’s issues with depth, how the 2017 season played out and how that affects the future.

"You opened the season with 10 straight wins. You lost three in a row to finish. What’s the takeaway from last season: the great start or the struggles at the end? Richt: If you look at it overall, we accomplished some things we set out to do. We won the Coastal. Of course, we wanted to win when we got there, and we realized we were a little ways off of that one. I’m not sure our roster was ready to go toe-to-toe with [Clemson] yet. But that’s why we’re recruiting. The bowl game, we certainly had our chances, but we didn’t take advantage. We played a really good team. If we won, we’d have finished in the top 10. Are we progressing? Yes. Are we getting better? Yes. Are we getting closer to a championship-caliber team? Yes. Are we there yet? We proved we’re not quite ready to be champions yet. But I think we got a chance to smell. We didn’t get a chance to taste it."

Miami’s lack of depth significantly hurt their offense at the end of the season. The Hurricanes lost starting running back Mark Walton four games into the season when he suffered a season-ending ankle injury against Florida State.