The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

This is kind of a big deal. I would think even the non Hurricane fans would have something to say about it.

Former Georgia coach Mark Richt on Wednesday agreed to become Miami's new coach, and the deal is expected to be announced by the end of the week, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Richt, a former Miami quarterback, agreed to return to his alma mater only three days after he was fired at Georgia, where he guided the Bulldogs to a 145-51 record and two SEC championships in 15 seasons. Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity fired Richt on Sunday after Georgia went 9-3 this season.

The Bulldogs have tabbed Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, a former Georgia safety, as Richt's replacement. Smart's hiring will be announced after the No. 2 Crimson Tide play No. 18 Florida in Saturday's SEC championship game.

Trying To Bring W's To The U
Only three coaches in FBS history have won more games in their first 15 seasons as a head coach than Mark Richt.
WINS   SEASONS
Bob Stoops*   160   1999-2013
Barry Switzer*   148   1973-87
Tom Osborne   147   1973-87
Mark Richt   145   2001-15
Steve Spurrier*   142   1987-2001
* Won national title during that span
-- ESPN Stats & Information
It is unclear if Richt will coach Georgia in its upcoming bowl game. At a Monday news conference announcing his firing, Richt said he was "really looking forward to coaching these boys one more time." Miami interim coach Larry Scott is expected to coach the Hurricanes in a bowl game.

Richt, 55, is expected to receive a contract similar to the one he had at Georgia, the sources said. The Bulldogs paid him $4 million per season, and they will still owe him a $4.1 million buyout, regardless of what he earns at Miami.

Miami fired former coach Al Golden on Oct. 25, one day after the Hurricanes lost to Clemson 58-0 at home, the worst loss in the program's 90-year history. Golden had a 32-25 record in four-plus seasons at Miami.

The Hurricanes chose Richt over a handful of other candidates, including Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, former Miami and North Carolina coach Butch Davis and former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano.

According to sources with knowledge of the search, Richt and his wife, Katharyn, met with Miami athletic director Blake James and other school officials in Atlanta on Tuesday. Richt also was contacted by a handful of other schools about their head coaching vacancies, including Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia, but he quickly settled on returning to his alma mater.

In the Monday news conference, Richt indicated he wanted to coach again. Members of his family had urged him to take a year or two off from coaching to recharge his batteries, sources told ESPN.com.

"I'll say this: If and when I do coach again, I'm looking forward to coaching again in terms of being more hands-on," Richt said Monday. "I miss coaching quarterbacks, I miss calling plays. I miss that part of it, whether it's in the role of head coach, coordinator, quarterbacks coach, whatever it is. If in fact I choose to do that I'd be really excited about coaching QBs again and getting in the middle of coaching offensive strategy."

At Miami, Richt will try to rejuvenate his career while reviving a once-proud program. Although he has the fifth-highest winning percentage among active FBS coaches with at least 130 victories, Georgia did not win an SEC championship in his final 10 seasons.

Richt has close connections to Miami and South Florida. He played football at Boca Raton High School and played for the Hurricanes from 1979-82, when he was mostly a backup to Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.

"I thought I'd start as a freshman," Richt told ESPN in 2012. "I thought I'd be an All-American relatively soon, win the Heisman Trophy and turn pro. That was my plan. It didn't turn out that way. I got to watch Big Jim do it. The only thing he didn't do was win the Heisman. He did just about everything else."

Three years after graduating from Miami, legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden hired Richt as a graduate assistant. After spending one season as an assistant at East Carolina, Bowden hired Richt as his quarterbacks coach in 1990, and he was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1994. He remained at FSU until Georgia hired him as its coach in 2001.

"He's too young to get out and I was thinking how wonderful it would be if he stayed in coaching," Bowden told the Palm Beach Post. "Why? Because we need his kind of men in coaching."

"I didn't think he would want to be a coach," said former Miami coach Howard Schnellenberger, who guided the Hurricanes to the 1983 national championship. "I thought he was too smart to be a coach."

Richt inherits a Miami program that has spent much of the past two decades chasing the magic that helped it become one of the sport's dominant programs during the 1980s and '90s. After winning five national championships from 1983 to 2001, the Hurricanes have lost four games or more in each of the past 10 seasons, including an 8-4 record this year. Miami hasn't won a conference title since winning the Big East in 2003
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14275799/miami-hurricanes-name-mark-richt-new-head-coach

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This is really the first "big name" coach Miami has gone after. I'll be interested in seeing how it pans out.

I'll say this again, there are a lot of openings this year and several candidates are being swooped up already. Some of these teams better get on the ball or better be able to identify who the diamond in the rough is.

I know Richt is a former Hurricane and South Florida guy but I have concerns about him succeeding down there or even wanting to put up with what comes with the job. That's a horrible place for former player interference and he is a straight laced very reputable guy who has been living "in the south" for quite a while ... 30 years to be exact.  Outside of returning to his Alma-mater it really doesn't seem like a match made in heaven to me. 

Even though I'm firmly from South Florida, I really don't know very many die-hard Canes fans.  It's a weird fanbase, since nobody actually goes to school there from the community.

I know people who, if they had to choose a college team, would pick the Canes, since they're the most local, but I literally don't know one hardcore supporter of the Hurricanes -- especially one that went to school there.

Almost everyone here are fans of Gators, Seminoles, even UCF, FAU, or USF...but almost no Canes fans. 

I've told people that to people and they think I'm crazy. I remember being in Bokamper's several times on Saturdays and seeing many more Gator and Seminole fans watching games.

Mark Richt is a good hire, but I see him performing like he did at Georgia.  He'll win 8-10 games a year and win an occasional ACC title.  But he won't be FSU/Clemson very often, and eventually the fan base will be calling for his ouster.

I live in south FL and I'm surrounded by Hurricanes fans. Damn near everyone I know is a die-hard. They're  the reason I can't stand the Hurricanes. Blind ass, bandwagon jumping, hypocritical, delusional, non UM attending, dumbass hand throwing "U" sign people...the lot of them. Here's hoping they continue to suck.

DIE HARD SINCE 86 ;D ;D

Did you go to school there?

<--- Canes fan here.
Wouldn't consider myself "die hard," frankly, because my interest in college football as a whole has dwindled in recent years.  However, I've been a Hurricanes fan since I was a small kid watching games with my dad when Vinny Testaverde was QB.

Thing is - it costs a bajillion dollars to go to UM.  All those other schools you named are state schools.  So, its not really fair to say that.  I know a few people who went to school there and they are die hard Canes' fans.  But, overall, there are just more people in your circle of life that attended those other schools, simply because of the cost of tuition.

Case in point - when I graduated high school, I wanted to go to UM in the worst way.  I applied there, had the grades, the test scores, got accepted!  I only applied to one other school, as a backup plan - just in case.   I was thrilled when UM offered me a half-tuition scholarship to attend the University of Miami!!  When I saw that I still had to come out of pocket for $27,000 per year, I shed a tear and reluctantly accepted the admission of my backup school, Florida Atlantic.

From the UM web site:

Tuition and Other Expenses   2014-15
Undergraduate Tuition and Fees   
       Full-Time (12-20 credit hours)*   $43,040
       Required Fees*   $1,310
Room (residential college, double occupancy)   $7,336
Board (19-meal plan)   $5,348
Travel, Books, and Personal Expenses   $5,820

They estimate $62,854 per year if you take 12-20 credits (more or less and there is an additional surcharge) to live on campus.

Compare that with FAU:
"Tuition for these [Florida resident] students is set at $2,522 for the 2014 - 2015 year, a discount of 72.0% [from the non-resident tuition rate]. Fees are $2,309, bringing the total yearly cost for these full-time undergrads to $4,831."

So you wonder why fewer people you know went to UM...?  I could go to FAU for 9 years and still not pay as much as 1 year at UM.

Brian, you call yourself a UM fan -- but do you watch games?  Do you go to games?  I have known you a long time and never once heard you talk about it with any passion.  I am not doubting your fandom....it just doesn't seem like you care. 

When you go to see the Canes play, the stadium is filled with people who didn't attend the school.  It's a "trashier" demographic than you might expect, in my experience.

This is true - because college football is a sport.  I am kind of tired of the "you have to attend the school to be a fan."  In the end, I am a fan of south Florida sports and the Hurricanes were my team before I even went to high school.  Was it OK back then?  I think my point above was clear - most people cannot afford to go to UM, but that doesn't mean you can't root for their football team.

I never discuss college football with you at all, Dave, I don't watch very much college football.  The teams that are perennial powerhouses make me want to vomit, and the teams I like suck.  So, I watch an occasional Canes game if its on TV.  I have been to numerous Canes games, in the Orange Bowl and at Joe Robbie, but I don't go regularly.  I consider myself a casual fan. 

You'll notice there are really only 2 teams I talk about a lot (especially on here): the Dolphins and the Panthers.  I consider myself a casual fan of the Heat, Marlins, and Hurricanes.  Heck, and the Owls, too.  Notice what they all have in common...?

Miami is in the same bracket as schools like Stanford, Duke, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, BYU, Northwestern, and Purdue.  Schools that have great athletic and academic programs and a lot of prestige. These schools give out athletic/academic scholarships, but are extremely expensive to attend.  So unless you're a smart kid or a great athlete, you can't go there unless your parents are rich.   And they are in towns where the locals do not meet any of those three criteria, so they just follow the local team. 

Not to take anything away from Miami but some of these schools probably wouldn't let them sit at their lunch table if this was a high school cafeteria. I know Miami has a good reputation but I don't think they are looked at like some of these other schools, especially when outside of Florida.

I am in no way saying that you have to go to a school to be a fan of the school or the team.  But when the community doesn't go to the school as a whole, there is less excitement about it in the community.

I grew up here and I only know one person who went to the school, and it was on full scholarship.  And since, she moved away to Boston.

I think it's that way for many prestigious and private schools. Around Raleigh you have UNC, NC State, Duke, and Wake forest all within 1/2 hour from each other. Duke and Wake Forest has tons of fans but few and far between are locals who are able to go there because of acceptance criteria and or fees. 

The question is, does Miami fall into that category.  I believe so?  They've got excellent programs in a lot of areas of medicine and law.

Here's the difference -

There are Miami graduates all over the country.

I'd guess the vast majority of FAU graduates are localized in Florida or at least the southeast US.  I'd bet that the population density of UM grads vs FAU grads outside of Florida is WAY higher.

According to Wikipedia,

In 2010, undergraduates were composed of: 32% from the Greater Miami area, 12% from other parts of Florida, 44% from other U.S. states, and 11% were foreign students. Graduates were composed of: 34% from the Greater Miami area, 16% from other parts of Florida, 37% from other U.S. states, and 13% were foreign students.

I am only speaking anecdotally.  Grew up in S. Florida.  I knew 1 person who went to the school and have known a few fans of the football team over the years, but none went to the school.