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Mark Richt. What did he really do for Miami

One the great all time Canes. Illness derailed him as our HC. Who knows what it would have looked like.
 
Calinative said:
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
This is the sort of thing that illustrates why I made the post with my original thoughts in this thread. The comment you replied to made a statement as if it was factually true (but isn't) and it has added to the lore. Meanwhile, what you said is the actual truth. Also, if memory serves me correctly, Herbstreit's famed speech on ESPN questioning The University of Miami's adminstration's commitment to football came THREE YEARS AFTER Richt was gone.
None of what I just wrote is anything negative with respect ro Richt. It simply shows how people misremember things at times.
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I think the problem with the latter half of your analysis there is that that was the admins doing. WHAT IF we had directly/urgently committed to getting Mario right after he retired?

Now see Idk what date it was KNOWN Richt was going to ultimately retire/not return. But Manny took the AppSt HC job 12/7. Taggart left Oregon like 12/5 and Mario accepted promotion to HC 12/8. Technically Richt announced his retirement 12/30. BUT, we also announced Diaz would be our HC the same day. Was there discussion of Richt not returning prior to 12/8? Was there no possibility to get Mario by 12/30?...

Now maybe you say Mario was better for us having had the Oregon HC job for 3 yrs. I actually believe that is probably the case, because he had the facilities and investment guarantees there and success and then when he came here he was able to make the investment demands that the admin/boosters agreed to. BUT had we gone straight to Mario from Richt, I'd bet you the overall 10yr hindsight look on the program from Pre-Richt to then how we are with Mario, it'd look pretty clearly like Richt was the foundation of it...
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I mean this completely respectfully. I am so ******* confused at what you wrote - in particular the second paragraph. I don’t really know how to respond without a DeLorean, a flux capacitor and a little Plutonium. I’m also a little baked.
 
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
Unpopular take and I’m sure I’ll get dragged: I think the level of reverence Mark Richt is paid is not commensurate with what he achieved here.

To be clear, this is not disrespect. I didn’t say he deserves no reverence. I simply think a LOT of our fans and alumni act as if he brought us championships when in reality he brought us one overachieving season and a few other mediocre seasons. Yes he added (temporary) credibility. Yes he was incredibly generous. Yes he stepped down when he needed to. He is a humble and kind man by all accounts. Those are all admirable acts and traits and deserve to be recognized. At the same time, those things have nothing to do with on field achievement.
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I completely understand this take. At the end of the day we weren't that much better on the field when he stepped down. Also he told the higher ups to go get Manny Diaz. Love Richt and I wish he came here before he was basically retired. He even said himself that he was gonna retire after UGA let him go but obviously with Miami having such a strong pull for him changed things. If we were actually interested in winning football, he should have been someone we went after instead of Shannon. **** he would have been better than Golden at that time as well.
 
cookies said:
Not dragging you cuz i get what you mean from your vantage point of what the standards are for this program and what was and wasn’t considered successful beforehand…that being said,

Don’t see how 2017 was overachieving considering it should’ve been an 11 win season (Arkansas state) if Hurricanes Irma didn’t shuffle the schedule. We were lucky as in 2017 as we were in 2024. Good teams are always lucky and find ways to win more close games than they lose. 2016 was a solid 9 win season for a first time HC. We hadn’t won 9+ games in back to back seasons since 2004 and 2005.

The Pitt loss was a stain on the season but we were very good. The other two losses were against Clemson and Wisconsin who went a combined 25-3. We finally won our division outright. We also snapped a downright miserable 7 game winning streak by FSU; we literally won once throughout the whole Obama presidency. Had two ranked wins, VT, including finally beating ND after three straight recent losses. We hadn’t beaten a team that finished ranked since Maryland in 2010.

Paradise Camp brought a lot of the alumni closer to their program after the disastrous Golden era and summertime Golden camps. Richt also left Diaz a pretty solid, by no means 6-7 worthy, roster in a similar way as Golden left Richt some talent to work with. Diaz ****ed it all up though, similar to Shannon, including the shortcomings of his own recruiting during the Richt era. Diaz killed so much of our collective spirit that the fanbase was relieved Notre Dame took our place in the ACC championship game in 2020.

A lot of current fans were made during the turnover chain Richt era. Us younger fans were starving.

Starving Denzel Washington GIF
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A great what if is what if Kayaa had returned for the 2017 season.
 
It was under Richt that Miami’s blue chip stock finally began to recover. We had gone from nearly 40 under Shannon to just 20 in 2012, and were in the 20s for years afterwards. That 2018 class was the strongest class on paper that we had seen in a long time.
 
caneULM said:
I brought his name up to friends the other day and this question was asked of me. I was like well, I'll tell exactly what he did. He donated a $1M of his own coin to the new facility. He stepped down when he knew his time was up and didn't take a dime of what he was owed on his contract. But the thing he REALLY did was show what Miami could be with all the right pieces in place. Yes 2017 was full of lucky bounces but tell me what other year prior (other than maybe 2002-05) Miami was discussed as being a title contender? Yes he was stubborn, letting his son call plays but man come on, what coach isn't? The only coaches that love Miami as much as Richt is JJ & MC and MC is showing in real time what Miami was and what it should be. I believe CMR would have done close to the same had he come in much sooner.

When Miami raises #6, he needs to be on the field with the team.
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He is one of us….period. That’s it.

Great man, who did it the “right way” and gave us what he had in the end. Love that guy…even during his time with our little sister.
 
His offense was a tad antiquated, IMO, we hired him a bit past his prime as a coach.

But in terms of what he brought to Miami, which was credibility and then the realization that Miami was NOT really in the ball game in terms of playing big boy college football -- is priceless. And he took money out of his own pocket to hammer home the point.

For that, I'll always be grateful
 
First & foremost, he got Miami into the modern age as relates to facilities & commitment. Brought a level of professionalism & started the road to recovery. Coral Gables became paradise. Class act donated $1 million of his own money & didn’t take any money when he left.
 
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