After stating that he knew changes needed to be made with his offense, Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Mark Richt retired over an apparent power struggle with Athletic Director Blake James in regards to potential staff changes.
The Miami Board of Trustees and James were reportedly urging if not demanding Mark Richt to give up play calling, hire a new Offensive Coordinator and a new Quarterbacks Coach. Richt was not ready to do that and chose to retire instead.
Richt began calling plays again when he was hired by James for the 2016 season. He had given up play calling as the Head Coach at Georgia after their Board of Trustees made similar demands to Richt. Loyalty and stubbornness have been attributes attributed to Richt. Those were probably his strengths and downfall.
Richt did not want to fire Offensive Coordinator and Running Backs Coach Thomas Brown who played for him at Georgia and his son Jon who is the Quarterbacks Coach. Appearing on the Donno and Friedo Show on WQAM The Athletic’s Hurricanes beat writer Manny Navarro confirmed the likelihood of the power struggle.
During an appearance on the Joe Rose Morning show on WQAM today Diaz implied that he will be bringing in his own hire as the Offensive Coordinator. He did not give an indication or name as who that could be.
One of the names to watch is recently fired Houston Head Coach
. Applewhite was the Offensive Coordinator and Running Backs and Quarterbacks Coach at Texas when Diaz was the Defensive Coordinator there.
The Miami Football era under Mark Richt was mixed. The Hurricanes had three four-game losing streaks mixed in with three winning streaks of four games or more.
The pinnacle of the Richt era was the 15 game winning streak spanning the 2016 and ’17 seasons, the wins over Florida State, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame and the ACC Coastal Division Championship and a trip to the title game in 2017.
Richt hired Diaz from Mississippi State to Coach Miami’s defense. Diaz was the Defensive Coordinator and essentially had free will to run the defense as he saw fit.
Diaz restored the pride to the Hurricanes defense. Miami finished with the nation’s second-best defense in 2018. That led to him getting hired by Temple and then Miami.
Diaz upgraded the defense, restored the upfield, get after the quarterback and into opponents backfields aggressive style that successful Miami teams have been known for. Miami led the nation in tackles for loss in 2018.
While Diaz was revolutionizing the Miami defense, Richt refused to make the changes to his offensive staff and/or change the pro-style offense that he preferred to run. Richt’s stubbornness and loyalty to Brown and his son were his undoings.
Miami’s abysmal offense is what led to their 7-6 season. It culminated with one of the worst offensive performances in Miami history. The Hurricanes were drubbed 35-3 by Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl on Thursday in what turned out to be Richt’s last game as the Head Coach of his Alma mater.
Miami had only 168 yards of total offense, 48 passing and six first downs in the loss to the Badgers. Malik Rosier’s 62-yard run in the first half accounted for over a third of Miami’s total yards on the night.
Diaz now has the task of upgrading the Miami offense. He sounded encouraging in his discussion with Rose. It seems like Miami is going to take the same approach offensively under Diaz that they have with his tutelage defensively. That is good news for everyone that follows Miami football.