Look, finding stories about Mark Richt impacting someone’s life positively are as easy to find as working porch lights on Halloween.
Richt is a great football coach, but it doesn’t nearly stop there. If you’re looking for a coach where his job duties don’t end when the office lights go off, he’s a pretty good place to start. Most notable has been his work helping former players he’s coached, because for all those cheese commercials about NCAA athletes “going pro in something other than sports,” the truth is, many struggle to find their footing.
The optics of religion in a locker room always will get a few people to pull out their “offended spray,” but Richt explained a move that was wildly popular by just stating that he did it after hearing so many players say they didn’t have Bibles or had ones that were so damaged, they were unable to be read.
Before everyone gets worked up, ask yourself if you’d get angry if he had Dr. Seuss books personalized and left for players/staff that wanted them. Unless you really hate the Cat in the Hat, odds are you don’t have a firm stance either way.
Richt plainly pointed out that players could take them or leave them, but based on player reactions, the move was (duh!) a big hit.
Successful coaching is a lot of different things, but no more than any of them is simply getting people to want to play hard for you. The X’s and O’s of sports don’t change a whole lot anymore. If it can be done, for the most part in football, it’s been done.
No more motivated is the person to work for you than if you show them you genuinely care about them, which Richt has done wherever he’s been. Now, he’s at Miami, so there’s no reason to think it’d change.
Richt has never been a person shy about his feelings about his faith, and just as someone may not be shy about their lack of faith, or their passion for something entirely not faith-related, it’s cool to see a coach go ahead and open up to that real part of their lives understanding that not everyone will be on board necessarily.
No matter what you think of Richt the football coach, in this day in age where everything is hyper-over-analyzed and just getting up in the morning walking to the bathroom to brush your teeth means you’ve possibly offended someone already (joke. Sort of.), the human side of people is why players play for coaches often.
Miami’s players, again, were effusive in their praise of the move, mostly alluding to how it shows how much Richt cares about them beyond running a correct dig route or plugging the A-gap on a run play.
Whether these things translate into wins is immaterial next to the impact it probably has to know the coach is willing to open himself up to that level and, hey, personalized gifts are meaningful from the moment you get old enough to not want toys under the Christmas tree.
Meanwhile, the Canes have burst out to a top 10 ranking and a blistering 4-0 start that has the imprints of “good off season hire” written all over them. Miami has a real chance to end this season as top dawg (pun intended) in the hyper-competitive and eternally elite state of Florida.
Florida State and Florida are never going to be full on bad for any sustained period of time, and both have seen markedly more recent success than the Hurricanes since Miami was ruling the roost in college football, a combined three titles betwixt them.
But that level of success is difficult to sustain constantly, and the Noles are struggling to piece together their usual nasty defense, giving up 41.7 points per game to FBS competition thus far this season on average. Florida is significantly better on defense, but still is working the wrinkles out of the Will Muschamp sheets on offense.
Thus this becomes Miami’s quick opportunity to not only close the gap, but basically leap over it like a pit in Super Mario Bros.
Hopefully, you’ll get to hear of more stories like this one with Richt, a coach overhearing something players may be missing and going out of his way to cure that desire in a way that doesn’t get the NCAA banging on your door for something menial.
Miami is on the way up, quick, fast, and in a hurry, and Richt’s passion both on and off that field for his players (to be fair, something a lot of coaches have) only will help expedite the process. There may not have been a more impactful hire this off season.
