The Miami Hurricanes have completed their first regular season under first year head coach Mark Richt. The Hurricanes are awaiting a bowl invitation to possibly the TaxSlayer or Pinstripe Bowl however at one point in the season Richt’s honeymoon in Coral Gables came to an abrupt halt moreover thoughts if the Canes would even make a bowl.
It’s been a streaky season for the Hurricanes. They opened with four straight wins against Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic, Appalachian State and Georgia Tech. Then Miami dropped four straight, starting with a loss to in-state rival Florida State, and continuing with North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame. The Hurricanes got back on track with a big 51-28 win over Pitt three weeks ago and rattled off two straight wins against Virginia and NC State.
Richt is a 1982 University of Miami graduate and former backup to Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. After three successful decades as an assistant at Florida State and coach at Georgia, this coaching position was taken with joy by him. However there was a tremendous amount of cleaning up he had to do which previous coach Al Golden left behind.
“Just a great victory, a great way to finish,” Richt said. “I like when we finish without a whole lot of drama at the end.”
Miami hadn’t finished a regular season with four or more consecutive wins since 2002, when it was 12-0 going into the Fiesta Bowl. The Hurricanes will try to win a bowl game for the first time since 2006.
I predicted this Hurricanes team in the ACC title game but they were not tested early on. Richt’s offensive play calling was questionable at times. However they built on the most pros and least cons leading this Hurricanes team to finish second in the ACC tied with North Carolina.
A win in the bowl would put the Hurricanes over .500 as a program and get them on a winning streak into next season. For “The U”, not only do they need to win the game itself, but to show signs of greatness of that team led by Ken Dorsey.
Thank you, the stage is set.
