Jimmy Johnson Says Mark Richt should give up play calling

Legendary former Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Jimmy Johnson said that current Head Coach Mark Richt should give up play calling during an appearance on the Joe Rose show on WQAM on Tuesday morning.

The Miami Hurricanes offense under Mark Richt the last three years has been in sharp decline. Richt has upgraded the talent and yet seen a decline in performance.

Johnson’s background before he became a Head Coach at Oklahoma State was as a Defensive Coordinator. Johnson became the first Head Coach to win a National Championship and the Superbowl.

He led the Miami Hurricanes to a National Championship in 1987 and set Dennis Erickson up for two others. Johnson then led the Dallas Cowboys to two Superbowl title.  Johnson is currently an analyst on FOX NFL Sunday.

Johnson is considered one of the best minds in football. He lives in Islamorada in the Keys so he is still relatively close to what’s going on with the Miami Hurricanes and the Dolphins.

The three-game losing streak for the Miami Hurricanes has seen their worst three-game stretch offensively since 2012. The 39 points combined against Virginia, Boston College and Duke have been well documented. This hasn’t exactly come against three great teams or defenses.

Only Virginia of those three teams has a top 25 defense. Boston College has a pair of productive defensive ends. but that hasn’t produced overall to a stout defense. The downfall of the Hurricanes offense is perplexing. It’s lead to suggestions throughout social media and in the media on what Richt needs to do to turn his offense around.

If Howard Schnellenberger is the Godfather of Miami Football, Jimmy Johnson is the Don. He’s the Hurricanes version of E.F. Hutton when he talks, people listen. Let’s hope that Richt would be willing to listen to Johnson’s advice when it comes to Miami Football.

"“When you have you high expectations and you don’t meet those expectations there is going to be disappointment. Obviously, there is going to be heat.”Let me say up front, I like Mark Richt, I think he has done a really outstanding job of going out and recruiting good players.As far as the Head Coach Calling the plays…You’ve got to oversee the whole thing. There are so many demands on your time. I’d rather have a guy a calling plays who can spend night and day, 24 hours per day working on that one thing. I think it’s ever harder in college than it is in pro football…College Head Coaches, there’s a lot of demands on your time with the alumni, with the university. with recruiting…it’s hard for you to be on top of it night and day 24 hours per day. I’d rather have somebody doing it all the time.”"

Richt is very stubborn. It hasn’t changed since he was fired by Georgia and took over at Miami a few days later at the end of the 2015 regular season. One of the criticisms that Richt faced at the end of his tenure in Athens was that he needed to give up play calling.

Richt ceded the play calling to Bulldogs Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo who is now the Head Coach at Colorado State.

It’s not clear what Athletic Director Blake James is thinking regarding Richt, the losing streak and what needs to be done to get Miami back to even where they were a year ago. The majority of analysts seem to think Richt should give up the play calling or at least be creative offensively.