On Mark Richt working hard toward getting Miami an indoor practice facility and the coach pledging to donate $1 million of his own money to get it done…
“We are working hard on it. That is something that I have talked about for a few years now about being a real need for our program. Once Mark got here and had the chance to evaluate everything, it quickly became the number one thing on his list. We have great support from our university and our fan base and it is something I think will be a reality here in the near future. We have a lot of dollars to raise for it, but we are working on that and I am confident that we will get it in place and give our program something that is really needed. When you look at the landscape nationally, and for us it is really a lightning situation. I think last year 20 of our practices were impacted by lightning delays and the health and safety of our students is our number one priority and it does have a big impact on what we are able to accomplish.
On how close the funding for indoor practice facility is to being done…
“Once we get a naming gift finalized, I will make an announcement. We are working with a group right now to finalize the naming gift. Once we have that in place, you will hear a number of other announcements come. I think everyone recognizes it is a real need for the program and it is something to get our program to where we all want to see it be and it is something we have to make happen.”
On the impact Richt has had with building excitement…
The energy that has been injected into the program since December 4th has been incredible. We have seen it in ticket sales up front. Typically it is great if we get to 80 percent season ticket renewal rates and last I saw is that we were up over 87 percent. New season tickets are coming in at a higher pace than we have experienced. I am confident we will be well beyond a number we have ever had when the season starts.
On if he believes Sun Life Stadium will be ready for the season opener…
“Yeah. I know the Dolphins are doing everything they can to have the stadium ready. They have been great at communicating with us and we recognizes that construction projects are construction projects, but at the same time we are planning and looking forward to play there on September 3rd. If now, we will have a contingency plan in place that we will communicate in a timely fashion.
On satellite camps…
Lets just call it what it is—its recruiting. Me personally, I feel like they should be associated with the recruiting calendar. If we have a recruiting calendar, then we have to look at the actives that we use as a recruiting tool and apply them to that calendar. If we are going to do these camps, then we need to incorporate them into the recruiting calendar. The way they are set up now, satellite camps are circumventing the rules. It is a situation where we have to look at it and say it is recruiting. Everyone recognizes that is what it is. It is not lets develop these kids and make them better football players. It is a way to recruit. If that is how it is, then lets put it in the recruiting calendar. For me, I want my coaches to be with our kids. We have kids that we have told that we are going to give them a great experience, so I want our coaches to be here coaching them up and mentoring them. Our approach as an institution and Mark’s approach is that we want to get kids on campus.
On if Miami needs to do satellite camps to keep up with everyone else…
“We are in a market where everybody is recruiting this market. There is so many great young men down here that play the sport of football. There is no way possible that we can keep them all at home. We give 25 scholarships at best each year and we know that can’t happen because you get 85 overall. This is a market that will continue to be recruited and I would say that any kids that has the ability to play Division I with the technology the way that it is and the internet, they are going to be seen.”
On each ACC school receiving an average of $26.2 million from the conference…
"We are in a great position with the ACC. We have a lot of great institutions that have tremendous success—the NCAA basketball tournament has been a real winner for us as a league and we have done well in football and the college football playoff allows us to bring more dollars in and ESPN has been a great television partner. That has allowed for us to bring that money in and reinvest it into the program. We have done a lot of operational upgrades from the training table to the full cost of attendance, to nutritional type things."
