Maryland’s coaching search, which began on October 11 after the school fired Randy Edsall, entered its eighth week on Monday.
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Simply put, the Miami Hurricanes are relevant again. While Schnellenberger can certainly be credited with elevating the ‘Canes program to elite levels in the ’80s, his arrival wasn’t necessarily that promising, considering he was coming off a 4-13 tenure over two seasons in Baltimore. Now he comes to a relevance-starved UM fan base that regards an 8-4 record as an insult and 7-5 as a disaster.
Miami fans probably would have loved to have their team average better than nine wins a season since 2001. That’s also why Cristobal, a head coach only at FIU, wasn’t seriously considered.
No coach is a sure thing, especially not at a place like Miami, which has such high expectations but hasn’t come close to touching them in recent years. Those aren’t exactly football factories.
Smart was hired by Alabama in 2007 and has been defensive coordinator since 2008. This was a huge hire for the Hurricanes, as it reconnected the team to Johnson’s glory days with “The U”, and it was a big name from a Super Bowl winning team.
He said he told players they should be happy for a coach who has “worked hard to create another opportunity for himself” and that they’ve been through such coaching changes before.
Peter Ariz, a UM senior who operates the website CanesInsight.com, first reported that Richt will accept the job. Before that he was twice a national-champion offensive coordinator for the Florida Gators under Meyer.
After a few seasons marred by brawls, Coker was sacked after a 6-6 season in 2006. The fans, players and recruits are all happy about this move, but now it’s time to see what Richt brings to the table.
Top Miami staff and other coaches had not been informed of the hire Wednesday night, largely because of the incomplete details.
Smart would be the latest in Georgia’s tradition of hiring candidates with no experience as a head coach. He ran one of the top programs in FBS for 15 years, and though he didn’t compete for championships every season he had just one losing record (and only because the Bulldogs lost their meaningless bowl game in 2010). Miami tried that with Golden, out of Temple. Two years later, with Kelly and Richt gone, Miami won its first national championship. And you can thank Mark Richt for this return to the college football spotlight for something other than booster scandals and empty seats. Richt, a quarterback at Miami from 1978 to 1982, reportedly met with school officers Tues.
Welcome home, Mark Richt, and welcome back to relevancy, the University of Miami.
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Richt is a Miami alum, having played quarterback there in the early ’80s. At Georgia, Richt was ultimately forced out for not doing more than a 145-51 record with one of college football’s most powerful programs at his disposal.
