Putting on Miami’s orange, green and white has become routine for Mark Richt. Others need a little more time, such as his new ACC colleagues.
“One of the coaches, I can’t remember which one, said it’s hard to get used to me wearing a ‘U,’” Richt said at the conference’s spring meetings last week in Amelia Island, Fla. “I said I’m five months on the job. I’m used to it already.”
For 15 years the coach at Georgia before his firing at the end of the 2015 season, Richt has moved past the adjustment phase in his new job as coach of the Hurricanes.
“I’ve embraced it,” he said. “I’m excited about it. But people that have known me for 15 years at Georgia, it’s different.”
Among other things, the change has meant a new home, league, rivals and relationship with Georgia Tech. Long his in-state rival, his conception of Tech has morphed into something different, as the two teams compete for a spot in the ACC title game, a different sort of prize than the Governor’s Cup and state bragging rights.
“(Tech-Georgia) was such a huge rival game,” he said. “It was very meaningful from a rival standpoint, but not from an SEC standings (perspective). You could lose that game and win the SEC. Can you lose to Georgia Tech and win the ACC? I don’t know. You have a lot less chance of doing that.”
Joining a new set of coaches at Amelia Island wasn’t any sort of jarring change, he said. While the ACC projects a different air of collegiality than the SEC, Richt didn’t see much difference.
“I know a bunch of (ACC coaches),” Richt said. “But it was just as welcoming in the SEC if a new guy came in. It’s very similar. Everybody respects each other and the job that everybody has to do.”
The night before the meetings began, Richt visited with Tech coach Paul Johnson. At the meetings, Johnson didn’t find it so unusual to share a conference room with the coach whom fans and media in the state so often juxtaposed as bitter rivals.
“Not really,” Johnson said. “He sat two over from me. Our meetings are real informal.”
Richt seems to be enjoying the trade of his estate near Athens — a 5,800 square-foot home in Watkinsville on four acres of land — for something befitting his and wife Katharyn’s new stage of life as empty-nesters. The Richts live in a townhouse in Coconut Grove, a Miami neighborhood about 10 minutes from Miami’s campus in Coral Gables.
“We walk out of our community right into 40, 50 different restaurants and movie theaters and shopping places,” Richt said. “Everybody’s on vacation around us.”
Richt will make his return to Bobby Dodd Stadium, a place where he helped the Bulldogs go 8-0 against the Yellow Jackets during his tenure, Oct. 1. The Hurricanes have gotten the better of Tech during Johnson’s tenure — Tech is 2-6 in his tenure against Miami — but Tech has made the ACC title game three times in that span. Miami is still awaiting its first trip.
“As far as the league’s concerned, it’s a more meaningful game,” Richt said. “As far as the rivalry’s concerned, it’s not an in-state rival game. It’s different.”
