NO UNBEATABLE FEELING YET
Richt has experience with success in second season — and he knows it can be fleeting.
Mark Richt is in his second season at the University of Miami and it’s going just fine.
The Hurricanes are 5-0 and ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press poll. That’s enough to get people all over the country watching, and they will be when ESPN devotes its 3:30 p.m. feature kickoff to Miami vs. Syracuse.
That’s a ton of progress in just two seasons, but for Richt it’s not unprecedented.
Back in 2002, in Richt’s second year at Georgia and his second overall as a head coach, the Bulldogs ripped
off a 13-1 season that would have been good enough for a spot in the College Football Playoff if that format had only existed back then.
Too long ago to really matter now? Not to Richt. His only loss in 2002 was to the Florida Gators and rookie head coach Ron Zook. That 20-13 upset loss was enough to keep Georgia, the eventual SEC champion, from playing for the national title.
A spectacular second season at Georgia for the coach, in other words, but not the ultimate. That’s kind of where Richt and Miami are today, and where they might stay for weeks to come.
Syracuse stands ready to stop the Hurricanes’ run, with a quarterback named
Eric Dungey who last week passed for three touchdowns in an upset of Clemson’s defending national champions. Florida’s Rex Grossman represented the same kind of problem for Richt in 2002.
If Miami knocks off the Orange, there are similar challenges down the road against Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, both of which are ranked in the AP’s top 15, both of which beat the Hurricanes last year.
There should be no need to point any of this out, to offer a reminder that Miami isn’t “back” until a full season of strong performances says that it is. Richt does his best, however, and it sounds something like this.
Asked earlier this week what Miami’s killer comeback wins over Florida State and Georgia Tech
will mean for the rest of the season, Richt said, “I couldn’t tell you. It could be two great moments in a season that’s average or it may be a springboard to something bigger. We’ve just got to keep playing every week and getting to where if you continue to win, then those two games become much more meaningful.”
That’s straight talk. It stings a little. It helps a lot, or at least it should.
Washington State’s players could have used some of that truth prior to last week’s 37-3 loss to California. That took the steam out of two earlier epic wins for the Cougars, a 47-44 shootout with Boise State in three overtimes and a 30-27 upset of Southern Cal, which was ranked No. 5 at the time.
Oklahoma is another team that didn’t see it coming. The Sooners manhandled Ohio State at the Horseshoe in September but lost to unranked Iowa State at home a few weeks
back.
This is college football, with the schedule set to stun each Saturday.
What buoys my confidence in Miami is the fact that the Hurricanes actually watched Syracuse beat Clemson on live television last week, a Friday the 13th stunner. The team was together, coming out of meetings in preparation for last week’s Georgia Tech game, when ESPN served up that motivational gift.
Seeing the Tigers lose their starting quarterback, witnessing coach Dabo Swinney’s unending alarm on the sidelines, watching Syracuse bounce back from the shock of a fumble returned 63 yards for a Clemson touchdown, all of that was a gift.
No amount of game film and scout-team drilling, no matter how specific, could have given the Hurricanes such a head start on understanding the Orange, or of what it will take to match their upsetminded energy.
Travis Homer hits the holes a little harder now, and he was good for 170 rushing yards against Georgia Tech last week. All those Miami defenders who played so well against FSU return to full boil. And if somebody doesn’t finally pop out a kick return for a big gainer or a Hurricanes touchdown, I’ll be surprised.
If all of this works against Syracuse, and it should, we can kick this discussion down the road and pick it up again in weeks to come. That’s how the transition works, from wanting to reclaim past glories to actually doing it.
To accomplish all that in just two years with Richt would be astonishing, but better stick with the essential for now. Beat Syracuse, and keep the beat going.