Mark Richt’s nephew commitment to LSU sign of losing Miami football program

A lot has been made about the Miami football Surge ’19 poor ranking. One of Mark Richt’s biggest losses during his three-year stint running the Hurricanes was his nephew, Class of 2020 quarterback Max Johnson, committing to LSU.

The loss of Johnson was noticed by most of the big name websites covering College Football. That’s not a good look for the Miami football program. Johnson did thank Richt before mentioning anyone else in his tweet announcing his decision to attend LSU.

The decision by Johnson not to attend Miami was bigger than his commitment to attend LSU. Deadspin, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Yahoo all referenced Richt in their articles about Johnson deciding to commit to the Tigers. The headlines were very critical of Richt’s inability to recruit his own nephew.

The Headlines about Johnson’s decision focused more on where he chose not to attend school than where he will be playing two autumns from now.

Deadspin Managing Editor Tom Ley wrote, “Mark Richt unable to recruit own nephew.” Richt has a history with Deadspin going back to 2014 when they published a letter from Richt, that the then Georgia coach claimed wasn’t him.

Ley claimed that Johnson’s decision came as a shock and ended the article by sarcastically stating that “at least he had the gratitude of his nephew, which is priceless.”

Yahoo Sports also chimed in about the fallout of the Hurricanes losing Johnson and the terrible Miami offense during the 2019 season.

"“The Hurricanes have especially been lackluster on offense with the quarterback play from senior Malik Rosier and redshirt freshman N’Kosi Perry being particularly underwhelming.So that’s why it was a tough pill to swallow for Miami fans when Max Johnson, one of the top quarterback prospects in the class of 2020, committed to LSU on Wednesday night”What makes Johnson’s decision particularly displeasing for Miami fans is the fact that Johnson is the nephew of Hurricanes head coach Mark Richt"

Richt’s departure from Miami has given Manny Diaz and his staff a clean slate. Diaz cleaned house by firing the offensive coaching staff less than 24 hours after being hired to replace Richt on December 30.

That would not be the only significant staff turnover in the two months since Diaz was hired. He replaced most of the Miami football recruiting staff earlier this month. Among those to go was Director of Player Personnel Matt Doherty.

David Cooney who has been a Quality Control Analyst on the Miami Offense is expected to be named Doherty’s replacement. Cooney has been offered the promotion of becoming the Director of Recruiting. He has not officially accepted the position yet but is expected to do so.