Mark Richt 'felt like Miami would be in better hands' upon his retirement
Former Miami coach Mark Richt believed that Miami would be better in 2019 if he wasn’t the coach.
Richt retired from his job abruptly after Miami’s 2018 season ended. After an Orange Bowl season in 2017 that saw Miami take over college football world with its turnover chain, the Hurricanes slid backward in 2018 and got drubbed by Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl. Days after that loss, Richt was no longer the team’s head coach.
Richt talked about his decision ahead of Miami’s spring game on Saturday and said that he felt it was the right time for him to step down. From the Tampa Bay Times:
“I just thought it was the right time to do that,” Richt said in his first public remarks since retiring in December. “There’s no easy time to do it, for sure, especially when you’re the head coach …
“I felt it was the right time for me as a person, and I felt like Miami would be in better hands. I did because I thought it was the right time for me, and I also felt like it was going to be good for the university, which is my alma mater, obviously.”
Richt was hired at Miami after he was fired at Georgia after the 2016 season. He had a record of 26-13 in three seasons at Miami after he went 145-51 in his 15 seasons at Georgia.
Manny Diaz hired as Richt’s replacement
Richt’s departure left Miami looking for a coach not long after its defensive coordinator had gone to another school. Manny Diaz, a Miami native, took the Temple head coaching job ahead of the Pinstripe Bowl. Nearly everyone believed that the bowl game would be Diaz’s last with the Hurricanes.
But Diaz was willing to come back to Miami to be Richt’s successor and left Temple after less than three weeks on the job. Miami was also willing to pay Diaz’s buyout to get him back.
If Miami is going to be better in 2019 like Richt believes, the biggest improvements are going to have to come from the quarterback position. Both Malik Rosier and N’Kosi Perry struggled in 2018 and Miami’s lack of offense was on full display in the team’s 35-3 bowl loss to Wisconsin.
Rosier was a senior in 2018 and Perry is competing with Ohio State transfer Tate Martell and Jarren Williams for the starting quarterback job.
Richt is getting into TV
Richt’s comments on Saturday came as the ACC Network announced that he had joined it as an analyst.
Welcome to the ACC Network family, @MarkRicht 🙌 pic.twitter.com/j1yJrwgqXk
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) April 20, 2019
The ACC Network, operated by ESPN, is launching in the fall as a cable channel that will be very similar to the SEC Network.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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