MIAMI – The warm weather, the blue ocean and waves, the palm trees, the 15-winning streak, and the No. 2 spot in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
What’s not to like if you’re Mark Richt and the Miami Hurricanes right now?
It’s late November and there’s a chance to make some real history along the way. In what has been a wildly successful season as the ACC Coastal champions for the first time, Richt is all about keeping things in perspective.
Knowing from his previous head coaching stint at Georgia and his time as an assistant coach at Florida State, Richt realizes that staying in the moment is key. In other words, there are no guarantees in college football or anything else.
The expected win at Pittsburgh on Friday afternoon (12 p.m. kickoff time on Nov. 24; ESPN) and 11-0 record is one thing Richt won’t count as an automatic thing. Not when any team can be beaten in any given game.
“An undefeated regular season could happen Friday,” Richt said. “That would be wonderful. It would be not the first time for me as a coach, but as a head coach, it would be. That would be nice. I’m not against that. I don’t think many of the guys on our team have been on a team that has done that before. It’s very meaningful.”
Notice that Richt said the words ‘could’ and ‘would.’ The Boca Raton (Fla.) alum is aware that changes can happen, such as the makeup of his coaching staff next year and beyond.
With defensive coordinator Manny Diaz currently being recognized as one of the nation’s best assistant coaches, anything can happen. Richt is acutely aware of what ‘could’ exist in the offseason.
“I’m waiting to see what happens with everything,” Richt said. “Staffs can change. I don’t want it to change. I want everybody to stay. I think we’ve got a great thing going. I’m hoping everybody wants to stick around. If I knew 100 percent that everybody would stay, I would have a better idea of what I might do. Not knowing that, it may totally change the dynamic of what I need to bring in.”
Richt experience a level of continuity when he was at Florida State years ago.
“I’m not trying to cause a firestorm,” Richt said. “It’s just coaching. Sometimes coaches move on. Sometimes they stay. When I was at Florida State, it might have been 12 years in a row when nobody budged, and we had unprecedented success. I think we have that type of staff here right now.”
With that said, the players will always come and go. This is due to a combination of things, such as recruiting, graduation, season-ending injuries, transfers joining and leaving the program, and the NFL Draft, among others.
One change that has happened this season was the season-ending knee injury that junior running back, reigning team MVP, and possible NFL Draft prospect Mark Walton suffered against Florida State.
“He’s doing well,” Richt said of Walton. “He’s off crutches. It’s an injury he’ll do well with. He’s limping around, but he’ll be fine.”
With sophomore running back and Oxbridge Academy alum Travis Homer taking over for Walton in his absence, Miami (10-0) hasn’t missed a beat.
“Even the day it happened, it wasn’t like it was the end of the world for him,” Richt said. “You think it might be for a guy who you perceive to love the game so much, and know that he does. He said the words: ‘you know, that’s football.’ He knows that’s part of it, and injuries happen. He was thankful it wasn’t anything that would really hurt you for the long term, so that was good news.”
In other good news, Miami swapped spots with Clemson for the No. 2 spot in the fourth installment of the College Football Playoff rankings. Clemson, the defending national champion, repeat ACC Atlantic champion, and Miami’s opponent in next week’s ACC Championship Game (Saturday, Dec. 2; 8 p.m. kickoff in Charlotte, N.C.), is No. 3 this week.
“I don’t worry about it too much, to be honest with you,” Richt said. “I guess they’ve been cutting hairs on who’s number one, two, three, four and five anyways. I don’t know their formula. I’m not trying to figure out what it is. I’m just trying to figure out how to beat Pitt. I’m sorry, that’s all I’ve got.”
Richt shared with media members after today’s practice what he’s thankful for in particular.
“It’s always for what God has done in my life, through his son Jesus, number one,” Richt said. “My wife, number two. Our kids, number three. And our family and this program, obviously. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to be here and to have so many people working together to try and be great and not caring about who gets the credit. It has been a lot of fun.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Keith Forde
