The honeymoon phase is over for Mark Richt at Miami

After losing for the fifth time this year, we can now say that the honeymoon phase is over for Miami Hurricanes head coach Mark Richt at his alma mater.

Only a year ago we thought that Mark Richt had his alma mater Miami Hurricanes football program humming again. Miami went 10-3 (7-1), won the ACC Coastal division crown and played the Wisconsin Badgers in the Orange Bowl.

2018 was a year of lofty, but realistic expectations for Richt and the Hurricanes. Now after dropping to 5-5 on the year on the road to the division rival Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, it’s safe to say that the honeymoon is firmly a thing of the past with Richt in Coral Gables.

After starting 2017 at a perfect 10-0, Miami has since gone 5-8 in its last 13 games. Miami was expected to win the ACC Coastal again, with maybe some challenge from a program like Justin Fuente’s Virginia Tech Hokies. Now the Hurricanes have two games left to achieve bowl eligibility.

This loss to Georgia Tech is a huge red flag for the Miami program and here’s why. Richt has coached against the Ramblin’ Wreck every year since 2001 after he first became a head coach with the Georgia Bulldogs.

At Georgia, Richt went an impressive 13-2 in 15 games versus his former in-state rival. Interestingly enough, those two losses were at home in Athens in 2007 and 2014, respectively. Until Saturday night, Richt had never lost as a head coach at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Falling to Paul Johnson’s Yellow Jackets, a team that notoriously runs the antiquated triple-option attack, an offense Richt has faced every year since 2008, should not happen. He has had time to recruit his players in the Sunshine State to The U, yet the Hurricanes couldn’t slow down the Georgia Tech rushing attack.

Miami needs to beat either Virginia Tech or the ACC Coastal leading Pittsburgh Panthers to achieve bowl eligible, as Georgia Tech swiftly handed the Hurricanes their fourth conference loss of the season.

Through their first 10 games of the season, Miami has beaten only one team that has achieved bowl eligibility. That would be to Butch Davis’ Florida International Panthers, the same Butch Davis that coached the second wave of The U in the late 1990s. While Larry Coker coached the 2001 National Championship team, that was with Davis’ players. Davis went to the NFL to coach the expansion Cleveland Browns…

In Richt’s 17 previous seasons as a head coach, he has only had one losing season and has led his team to a bowl every holiday season. The 2010 Georgia team played in the SEC at its peak, got clobbered by Cam Newton’s Auburn Tigers and still achieved bowl eligibility, even without star wide receiver A.J. Green for four games due to suspension.

This is the worst the ACC has been in probably a decade. Miami was expected to contend with the juggernaut Clemson Tigers for the right to play in the College Football Playoff. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Richt has the coaching acumen to get this right. That being said, this is easily the worst season of his 18-year college football coaching career. The honeymoon is over.