Mark Richt was hired in 2015 to return to his alma mater and restore the Miami Hurricanes to being a nationally prominent program.
After their first ACC Coastal Division Championship, and appearances in the ACC Title Game and the Orange Bowl Richt is well on his way to bringing the U back to the Miami Hurricanes.
Last season was the most successful the Miami Hurricanes had since 2003. Richt has been able to build on that by bringing in the nation’s eighth-ranked recruiting class in 2018.
This is his third recruiting class since taking over at Miami. The Hurricanes talent has improved with each class. The 2016 class ranked 22nd nationally, the 2017 class was 12th before this year’s class was eighth.
One the priorities Richt stated when he took over was building an indoor practice facility for the football team. Richt spearheaded a fundraising drive for that. He donated $1 million of his own money to the campaign. Richt has also stated the importance of upgrading the depth and overall talent of the roster.
The Miami Hurricanes were unable to deal with injuries to their three best offensive players last season. Ahmmon Richards dealt with injuries throughout the 2017 season, Mark Walton was lost for the season after week four and Christopher Herndon IV sustained a season-ending knee injury in the regular season finale at Pittsburgh.
Richt spoke about all of these and more with ESPN’s Chris Low in a lengthy article that is titled “Mark Richt on his way to restoring Miami to its former glory”.
The question has always been is the U back? That depends on who you ask and what the criteria are. That is a subjective answer. One thing that’s for sure, Richt has changed the direction and culture of the Miami Hurricanes football program.
At the groundbreaking of the new Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility Miami Hurricanes Baseball Coach Jim Morris told Richt “You don’t understand. This is a miracle, what’s happening right now.”
Twenty-eight of the $34 million raised for the new facility came after Richt was hired. That included securing $14 million from Soffer’s family towards the building that will have her name on it.
Richt returned to Miami after 15 years at Georgia because he could win. It was not because its where he played college football. Richt told Low:
"“I keep telling people that I didn’t come here just because it was my alma mater…I came here because you can win. If you do things right and get the support you need, you can win. It’s been proven."
"The players have always been here. You just have to make sure you get the right ones, and a lot of the other things they used to ding us on, our facilities and things like that, they’re not going to be able to do that anymore with this brand-new building and the improvements to Hard Rock Stadium.”"
Led by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross Hard Rock Stadium underwent $500 million of renovations and a rebranding over the last three offseasons. Even adjusting for inflation that is more than double the cost it took to originally build the stadium. Richt can sell his recruits on the fact that they get to play in a world-class stadium that is also home to an NFL team.
The expectations at Miami are high. The bar was set by the coaches before Richt. Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Larry Coker all won National Championships coaching the Hurricanes. Butch Davis set the foundation for Coker.
Low mentioned that Richt has a ball signed by each National Championship team in his office. Richt expects that his program can win another National Championship.
"“There’s five national championship footballs signed by the national championship coaches here,…It can be done again, and that’s what we’re working toward every day: to bring this program back to where we all expect it to be.”"
After all they accomplished last season Miami ended the year on a three-game losing streak. That came after talk of a possible berth in the College Football Playoff and being ranked as high as second in the country. Richt talked about the end of the season.
"“We limped into the end of the year…Our three best offensive players got hurt, and we don’t have a lot of depth still, dudes that can step right in there and play championship ball. That’s where we need to catch up.”"
With the recruiting improving with each of Richt’s three classes, Miami might not be that far away from being able to compete with Alabama and Clemson on the field. Miami currently has the second-ranked class for 2019. Richt’s former school, Georgia is first. That’s as much because of quantity as quality.
Miami’s 12 oral commitments are the most of any team ranked in the top 50 classes for 2019. Ten of the 12 players are three-star prospects. The other two are four-stars.
RIcht has come in and stabilized the program. Prior to his arrival, the Hurricanes had five coaches in ten years. That included two interim coaches.
Jeff Stoutland coached Miami’s Sun Bowl loss to Notre Dame following the 2010 season after Randy Shannon had been fired. Larry Scott coached the final six games of the 2015 season after Al Golden was let go midseason. Larry Coker’s tenure ended after six seasons following the 2006 season.
The previous staff also had to deal with sanctions regarding the Nevin Shapiro scandal. They finally got back to being allowed the 85 scholarship limit in October of 2016. The Hurricanes are still trying to fill that out.
Richt spoke about the difficulty of recovering from the probation.
"“When I got here, Miami was still on probation,…We still haven’t gotten our [scholarship] numbers up to 85. Last year we were at 73 but could have been higher. It just takes time to get your numbers back. You have a max in any given year, and that can only get you so far, and then you have attrition. You can’t make it up in one year. We lost kids to the NFL, lost kids who knew they weren’t going to play here and wanted to go someplace else and play, which happens everywhere. “You will also have some discipline issues: not guys who were bad guys, but guys who weren’t going to do what they were supposed to do — go to class, be prepared, be respectful and do your best. That’s really all I’m asking.”"
The Hurricanes have lost several players who transferred and others who have been kicked off the team due to various disciplinary reasons. They have also had some attrition with players leaving early as Richt said. Miami enters the 2018 season without star defensive tackles Kendrick Norton and R.J. McIntosh who left a year early for the NFL.
Next: What to expect from Miami Hurricanes early enrollee Freshmen this spring
All that attrition means that younger players need to play. Miami was lucky last year to sign graduate transfer cornerback Dee Delaney. They bring in two graduate transfers this season. Defensive tackle Tito Odenigbo from Illinois and offensive lineman Venzell Boulware from Tennessee.