The sudden, and widely surprising, move of Mark Richt to Miami is kind of a feel-good story at the moment because there's a lot of folks still enormously impressed with how he handled his firing at Georgia. So you're seeing a lot of "Miami is lucky to have a class guy, great fit, etc."
That's all well and good, but the guy still has to build a staff and recruit and figure out what kind of offense he wants to run. You wonder how an older, mild-mannered figure will mesh in a culture that traditionally requires flash and aggression in its coaches. And if the reports are true that Richt wasn't even sure he wanted to keep coaching before he accepted this job, you do wonder if he'll go full-bore the way a head coach needs to in that situation.
I'm skeptical.
At the very least, though, it's quite cool to look over at the Coastal Division and see Richt and Justin Fuente as at the two newest names.
Bruce Feldman asks some very fair questions of the Richt hire.
Richt had given up play-calling years ago and had been more of a caretaker at Georgia in his later years. Perhaps Sunday's firing stirred something in Richt to become more hands-on again. We'll see. Some of the old Miami players I spoke to had felt the 'Canes needed a high-energy guy with an edge to him to give this program, which had become irrelevant nationally, a much-needed spark. After Sunday's events in Georgia, though, I think Miami brass felt like they just couldn't bypass someone of Richt's stature.
One big plus is Richt inherits a very talented drop-back QB in Brad Kaaya, who should be an ideal fit for what the former Georgia coach wants to do offensively. I suspect Richt's temperament will play well with the 'Canes' current roster and allow the kids to play fast. But I will be very curious to see what kind of staff Richt puts together.
Golden's first staff didn't have enough connections and clout in South Florida, and he was digging out of a hole from not long after the time he'd arrived. Can Richt grind and win big recruiting battles against Florida State, Florida, Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan when they swoop down there? Will he be able to bring Georgia commit Jacob Eason, the strong-armed, 6-foot-5, 230-pound blue-chipper from Washington State, whom many tout as the nation's top QB recruit? Will he be able to land the kinds of D-linemen that he had at Georgia, the kind that Miami used to be loaded with but that have been lacking for the past decade?
-- Mark Schlabach has more details of the Richt hire.
Richt, 55, is expected to receive a contract similar to the one he had at Georgia, the sources said. The Bulldogs paid him $4 million per season, and they will still owe him a $4.1 million buyout, regardless of what he earns at Miami.
Miami fired former coach Al Golden on Oct. 25, one day after the Hurricanes lost to Clemson 58-0 at home, the worst loss in the program's 90-year history. Golden had a 32-25 record in four-plus seasons at Miami.
The Hurricanes chose Richt over a handful of other candidates, including Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, former Miami and North Carolina coach Butch Davis and former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano.
According to sources with knowledge of the search, Richt and his wife, Katharyn, met with Miami athletic director Blake James and other school officials in Atlanta on Tuesday. Richt also was contacted by a handful of other schools about their head coaching vacancies, including Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia, but he quickly settled on returning to his alma mater.
In the Monday news conference, Richt indicated he wanted to coach again. Members of his family had urged him to take a year or two off from coaching to recharge his batteries, sources told ESPN.com.
If you're South Carolina, how do you not at least consider Butch Davis at this point?
-- Mark Bradley of the AJC has 900 words in defense of Greg McGarity.
This did not, to borrow Vince Dooley’s unmet challenge to Ray Goff in 1995, constitute significant improvement. To McGarity, it was confirmation of a simmering suspicion — that Richt, for all his strengths, could no longer deliver a championship. This AD’s charge to every Georgia coach is to play for championships. Can you hold the leader of your highest-profile program to a lower standard?
McGarity could have waited another year to see what happened with the heralded recruit Jacob Eason, but what if Georgia was 9-3 and an SEC East also-ran again in 2016? Would Richt be yet given another mulligan because Eason was but a freshman? Borrowing a political stratagem, Florida AD Jeremy Foley likes to say that what should be done eventually must be done immediately. Not for nothing did
McGarity work alongside Foley for 18 years.
At 12:37 Sunday, Georgia announced its parting with the second-best coach in school history. What happened immediately was that any frustration with Richt was washed aside by righteous indignation: A good man had been done wrong! #FireMcGarity!
And here we ask: Fire him for what? For doing his job?
-- Matt Brown of Sports on Earth reacts to the Richt news.
Landing a respected coach and person like Richt is undoubtedly a step in the right direction for Miami. And while it was a long time ago, Richt knows what it's like to be part of a Miami program trying to climb back from irrelevance.
His first year on the field, 1979, was Howard Schnellenberger's first season as head coach, and the Hurricanes went 5-6. They hadn't been to a bowl game in over a decade. Two years later, in 1981, Miami was coming off its best season in years, finishing 9-3 behind head coach Schnellenberger and quarterback Jim Kelly. The moribund program was beginning to become something special, and Richt had a front-row seat -- as Kelly's backup.
While Richt threw just 229 passes over four seasons, he played a role in one of the Hurricanes' biggest wins of the era. In the '81 season opener, Kelly was hurt against No. 17 Florida. Richt came in and hit two passes to fuel the comeback. One was a 55-yard touchdown to Rocky Belk. The other was a 20-yard pass to Glenn Dennison that set up Miami for a 55-yard field goal to win, 21-20. The comeback began a season in which Miami ultimately went 9-2 and finished eighth in the AP poll -- its second-highest finish ever. Two years later, with Kelly and Richt gone, Miami won its first national championship.
For the second time, Richt will head to Miami to try to play a role in a revival. This time, however, he won't be merely in the background. This time, a Miami turnaround rests squarely on his shoulders.
-- And we close with some really fresh sounds from a band called The Wild Reeds:
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