MARK RICHT
Head Coach
Overall Record:
171-64 (72.8%)
University of Georgia (2001-15)
University of Miami, FL (2016-18)


He may have become a head coach more than two decades ago, back in the days of the BCS and fax machines, but Mark Richt has kept the same phone number all these years later.
 
Richt led the programs at Georgia and Miami from 2001-18, and through that journey, keeping relationships with his former players and assistants has always been a priority. Sometimes a player will call and invite him to a baptism or wedding. Other times a player will call on Father's Day, as a thank-you for Richt's influence on his life.
 
"It's very gratifying to have that kind of relationship with so many players," Richt said.
 
Richt's impact on the game and on so many of those who played it can be hard to measure — unlike his actual coaching career. That's because the former longtime coach can now officially call himself a College Football Hall of Famer, based on his sideline performance with the Bulldogs and Hurricanes.
 
"We're very humbled by it," Richt said. "Quite frankly, we're thrilled, Katharyn and I. We always considered ourselves a team, and she's as much a part of this as I am. But it's a blessing. We shed tears together."
 
Richt is the fifth former Georgia coach to make the Hall and the fifth former Miami coach to earn the moniker. Richt was hired by Georgia ahead of the 2001 season, immediately making an impact. He became one of only four coaches in FBS history to win 135 or more games in his first 14 seasons. He won nearly 72 percent of his games at Georgia and Miami, and he made a bowl game every season.
 
Richt led the Bulldogs to SEC titles in 2002 and 2005, earning conference coach of the year awards both years. Georgia made five SEC championship game appearances overall, and his teams finished in the top-10 of the coaches' poll eight times.
 
At Miami, his alma mater, Richt led the Hurricanes to a 26-13 mark, including their first ACC Coastal division title in 2017, a year that ended in the Orange Bowl, the program's first major bowl game appearance in more than a decade. He earned ACC and Walter Camp coach of the year honors that year, too.
 
Though it's hard for Richt to pinpoint a best memory from his time on the sidelines, he remembers his first big win — the 2001 comeback at Tennessee in the infamous "Hobnail Boot Game" — as the start of something special.
 
"It was a game that gave us as a staff some validation, that maybe these guys can coach," Richt said. "I think it helped validate us with our team and with each other as a staff, and with the media and the administration and just the Georgia fans in general, that we knew what we were doing.
"It was a landmark victory in my coaching career, but there were many, many others."
 
The 63-year-old Richt likes to joke that he would have been voted least likely to coach when he was a quarterback at Miami, and he even tried his hand at a number of different jobs after graduation, including bartending.
 
Bowden eventually hired Richt as a graduate assistant to work with Seminoles' quarterbacks. Shortly afterward, quarterbacks coach Art Baker was hired as East Carolina's head coach, and Bowden decided to fill the staff opening by promoting Brad Scott to tight ends coach, leaving Richt as the main guy in charge of the signal callers.
 
"He kept an eye on things, but I handled the meetings and I was coaching them as a first-year GA coach," Richt said. "So, it was kind of a miraculous start to my coaching career, to be at a Power 5 school and all of a sudden you're the QBs coach at age 25."
 
Now an ACC Network analyst, Richt earned his first "full-time" job as East Carolina's offensive coordinator in 1989, before returning to FSU a year later. A devout Christian, Richt credits his conversion to a speech that Bowden gave his team shortly after offensive lineman Pablo Lopez was shot and killed in 1986.
 
In 2016, Richt was named the first honorary coach for the AFCA Good Works Team. He and his players were active with H.E.R.O. for children, Habitat for Humanity, Camp Sunshine and other community causes. As Richt reflects on the Hall honor, one person is on his mind.
 
"The most important person to thank besides God is my wife. She helped me through the toughest times I had as a coach," Richt said. "One of the toughest times I ever had as a coach was my one year at East Carolina in 1989. I was a first-time coordinator and I didn't feel adequate to do the job, and I was struggling. But she was there for me then and she was there for me in the good times as well. But everything I've ever accomplished is critically attributable to her love and support."
 
UP CLOSE:
 

• Overall Record: 171-64 (72.8%), including 145-51 at Georgia and 26-13 at Miami (FL).
• One of only five coaches in FBS history to record 145 or more wins in their first 15 seasons.
• Led Georgia to 15 consecutive bowl appearances, including three New Year's Six bowls, and Miami to three consecutive bowl berths, including another New Year's Six Bowl.
• Guided Georgia teams to 11 appearances in the Top 25 rankings, including seven Top 10 finishes, and Miami teams to two more Top 20 finishes.
• Led Georgia to two SEC titles and five SEC championship games and Miami to the ACC Coastal Division title.
• Named the 2002 and 2005 SEC Coach of the Year and the 2017 ACC Coach of the Year.