Richt has harsh words for ’Canes
UM football coach peeved after poor practice.
CORAL GABLES — The normally jovial Mark Richt was in no mood for it after Friday’s practice.
The Miami Hurricanes coach was so disappointed he requested the media not print anything he said to his team in the final huddle before players left the field. He had choice words for them after a poor showing this late into the preseason.
“I wasn’t too happy about how the thing ended,” Richt said. “Trying to do situational offense, one-minute drill in particular, it didn’t look like we didn’t coach one down. We had meetings to cover. We had walkthroughs to cover. We jogged through it two days ago. We jogged through it again [Friday] ... We [knew] exactly what to do, how to do it, and it didn’t happen.”
The performance was especially frustrating considering the Hurricanes will hold their second scrimmage Saturday at Greentree practice fields. No one was safe was from Richt’s wrath, not even the equipment staff. He scolded them for not having the field properly set up.
“Plus, we can’t even get our pylons in the right spots because they are landmarks for us to make decisions on certain plays,” Richt said. “Our equipment people, we might have put them in the right spot to begin with, but by the time we got to the drill it was in the wrong spot, which helps blow up the drill. Everybody around here has got to do their
job, OK? Right now, it’s not happening, and I’m part of it. I’m leading it. It’s on me. I promise you it’s going to be on everybody else, too.”
The Richt blowup was a rarity. Defensive lineman RJ McIntosh described it as “once in a blue moon.” Richt typically keeps calm during practices.
“He wasn’t happy but I think it’s because the offense is coming not along,” McIntosh said. “They’re making a couple mistakes right now but they’re going to get it.”
Offensive lineman Kc McDermott attributed the offensive struggles to having so many young players. They are still adjusting to the system. The linemen were perhaps the only unit unfazed by the dressingdown, because they experience it daily under position coach Stacy Searels.
“We didn’t execute the way that we needed to,” McDermott said. “Obviously it was a learning curve for the younger guys … At the end of the day, we didn’t do a good enough job preparing for it. Again, that’s why they call it practice. They call it practice for a reason.”
Richt was mostly upset about players being unaware of their assignments. He said this hasn’t been a frequent occurrence but expects things to change by the scrimmage. If not, he will continue handing out reprimands regardless of if it’s a starter, backup or scout team player.
“I don’t care what string, first of all,” Richt said. “I don’t care what string because we’re teaching every single guy here. It’s not a matter of ability of where you’re at on the depth chart. It’s a matter of will you listen and do what you’re supposed to do, which is not happening. If a guy gets beat, OK. If a guy runs the right route and the ball hits him in the chest and he drops it, that’s going to happen from time to time. But I’m talking about just flat out not knowing what to do when it counts the most. That’s why we lost games last year, close games.”
If anything, he hopes Friday can serve as a wake-up call. The Hurricanes are just two weeks from the season-opener against Bethune-Cookman at Hard Rock Stadium.
“I hope it got their attention,” Richt said. “It got my attention that we’ve got to coach better. This isn’t the first shot out of the cannon doing one-minute offense. This is our second time doing it. We meet at night. We walkthrough in the gym. We come out here and jog through routes. We meet about it again in the morning before we go out. We did that two different times. Are you a visual learner? All right, watch it on the board. Watch it on the film. Are you an audio learner? Then listen. You a kinetic learner? We’ll jog through it for you. Every way a person learns, we show them how to do it and they didn’t do what they were supposed to.”
Before ending his rant, Richt didn’t exclude himself. He felt the coaches were also to blame.
“But again, to me, when we don’t execute, it’s coaching, it’s coaching, it’s coaching,” he said. “It’s either too complicated or we’re not good enough teachers or we got the wrong guy in the game. That’s coaching. We’ve got to figure that out.”
Linebacker out again
Linebacker Jamie Gordinier will miss the season after sustaining a right knee injury.
It is the second major setback for Gordinier, who is a sophomore. Last year, he was injured early in the season-opener against Florida A&M and missed the rest of the season. That partial game will now account for all his playing time over three years at UM, since he reshirted his first year.