Richt brings staff, players out for youth camp

CORAL GABLES — Usually, when Mark Richt commands a huddle after practice, he’s surrounded by finely-tuned college athletes that use their height, size and speed to their advantage on the football field.

On Sunday afternoon, the coach was surrounded by athletes of a different sort — wide-eyed youth football players that came out to Moore Park in the blazing heat to learn from Richt, his staff, and yes, some of those Miami Hurricanes players they’ll be cheering for in the fall.

Since arriving at Miami a little more than 18 months ago, Richt has made reaching out to the South Florida community a priority. Sunday that meant bringing his entire staff and more than a few of his players — including running back Mark Walton, quarterback N’Kosi Perry, offensive linemen Trevor Darling and Corey Gaynor, receiver Mike Harley, and tight end Michael Irvin II — with him to work with young football players. A similar scene will play out Tuesday at the Hollywood PAL when the coach brings his camp to Broward County.

And for his part, Richt is having as much fun as both his players and the youngsters they’re meeting.

“I’ve been getting some video on them, just in case. You never know. Have to remind them they were here,” Richt laughed. “It’s been great. We’ve had a lot of young kids, boys and girls actually, and we’re just teaching them the fundamentals of offense, defense, a little bit of discipline and how to get warmed up before a workout, things of that nature. I think it’s been good. The weather’s been great. Appreciate all the parents and coaches, youth league coaches, that have brought the kids out here to participate.”

For Richt’s players, Sunday’s youth camp was a chance to take a bit of a break from what have already been some pretty intense summer workouts.

Richt noted Sunday that most of the Hurricanes have been on campus since May 22, taking classes, working with Miami’s strength and conditioning staff and taking part in meetings with their coaches.

The hope is that will all prepare players for the start of camp, which Richt said Sunday will begin Aug.1.

“Every single guy on scholarship is out there right now, working and what a lot of people don’t know too is that during our second summer session, we’re going to have 12 practices during summer school. There’s really not a break for these guys at the end of the summer because some of the rules pushed back the starting date because we can’t have two-a-days and we have to have a day off in the middle of camp,” Richt said. “Quite frankly, I didn’t push it back as far as I could have because I didn’t want to put more of a burden on our guys. … They’re working hard. People will be proud of the work they’ll see.”

Richt on Stoops

Along with the team’s summer workouts, Richt addressed several other topics with reporters Sunday, including the surprising announcement from former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops that he was retiring.

Richt and Stoops were on opposite sidelines several times while Richt was at Florida State and Stoops was at Florida and the coach said Sunday he had nothing but respect for Stoops — and the timing of his decision to step away from the game.

“I just think everybody knows when it’s time and he thought it was time,” Richt said. “I actually agree with the timing of it. I think he left the program in awesome shape and he’s got a great staff that’s going to be able to continue through the summer and into the season. It seemed like a very good transition for the program in general and I’m sure when he left, he wanted to leave it that way.”

As to how he wants to leave the game when his time is finished, the 57-year-old Richt noted he’s enjoying watching how the Hurricanes program is coming together ahead of his second season at UM.

“Hopefully when I go, the U will be in a great position to channel its greatness. It’s fun putting everything together, it’s fun seeing it come together,” Richt said.