CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Miami coach Mark Richt says there’s pressure and there’s stress.

Richt felt the same pressure to get the job done at Georgia for years, the pressure to join the national championship line of schools in that conference while there from 2001 to 2015.

It might seem crazy to say, but Richt might face less pressure to win a national championship at his alma mater than he did at Georgia.

MORE: Ranking the top 40 college football players for 2016

“I think whether you stress out about it is up to you,” Richt said from the podium at ACC Media Day on Thursday. “I've tried not to stress out about much of anything.”

That might seem counterproductive for a program that has yet to break through its first ACC championship, let alone another shot at a national championship. There will be pressure at Miami, but this program brought in the right coach at the right time.

Richt later sat at the podium with a green tie and “U” lapel pin, ready for his first ACC Media Day interview session. When asked to compare it to the SEC Media Day, Richt shrugged it off.

“It doesn’t look all that much different to me,” he said.

That’s when you can see it. Richt is going to win big at Miami, and it’s easy to see why. He has a lot in his favor.

He has alumni

The first step to winning at Miami is to win over the alumni — a rolodex of former All-Americans and NFL studs who carried those dynasties in the 1980s, '90s and early 2000s. This is that concept of "The U" that pops up every time the Hurricanes win a few games in September.

Richt had what he calls a “Paradise Camp” this summer, and several of those alumni showed up. Ray Lewis was there. So was Michael Irvin. So was Jeremy Shockey and so many more of the names that Richt didn’t want to leave out.

“I was trying to get a few selfies myself,” Richt joked before delivering a message that doesn’t matter at all schools, but does at Miami.

Those alumni are watching, tweeting and upholding that tradition of five national championships.

“I’m one of them,” Richt said. “I’m a former alum, and I think that’s helped. They feel like one of their own has come home.”

Richt said he popped in some film of the 1983 team this summer. That team didn’t have more talent than some of the other Miami super teams. But that team would beat No. 1 Nebraska 31-30 in one of the most memorable Orange Bowls of all time.

“Coach (Howard) Schnellenberger, by year two is when he came in for me. He would always say, ‘We're on a collision course for a national championship. The only variable is time,’” Richt said. “He believed that wholeheartedly. He did everything that he could possibly do to get us there.”

MORE: Top 16 college football programs since 2000

He has a backyard

Richt has that time, too. That’s why he spent the summer hitting up parks in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties. Richt is looking at high school recruits, of course.

But he’s also working on those 8- to-10-year-olds to start liking Miami now. That was a not-so-well-kept secret Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and later Butch Davis and Larry Coker knew. When you develop that talent, Richt said, you watch a “175-pound kid turn into a 215-pound gazelle of a receiver.”

Richt knows that landscape well. That’s where the battles with Florida and Florida State will have to be won first. There will be hundreds of opportunities every year. He had the same opportunities at Georgia and didn’t hesitate to reel off some of the names he shepherded through the NFL Draft Process with the Bulldogs. Matthew Stafford. A.J. Green. Knowshon Moreno. Todd Gurley.

There’s even more talent in his backyard now.

“How many great three-star players come out of Florida?” Richt asked and answered. “A bunch. Ray Lewis was a three-star player. These three-star guys, if that kid was in another part of the country, he’d be a five-star player.”

He has the QB

With the talent on the roster, no player is under the microscope more than Brad Kaaya, a third-year starter with first-round potential. Kaaya was grilled about being the de facto challenge for Clemson’s Deshaun Watson.

Last year’s meeting against the Tigers was the flashpoint, even if Kaaya doesn’t remember much. Kaaya was knocked out of the game with a concussion. Clemson won 58-0. Al Golden was fired the next day.

That started the path to getting Richt at Miami, and gave Kaaya yet another coach to work with. It took until about halfway through the spring, but Kaaya said by then it felt like he’d been with Richt for three years.

“One thing that he stresses to us: More games are lost than won at the quarterback position,” Kaaya said. “Playing quarterback at Miami is kind of a hallmark of what Miami is.”



Quarterbacks such as Bernie Kosar, Steve Walsh, Gino Torretta, Craig Erickson and Ken Dorsey brought those national championships to Miami. The Hurricanes are 14-12 the past two seasons.

Miami might have a lot of questions this year. Quarterback isn’t one of them. Kaaya made that clear by volunteering to be part of those coveted 6 a.m. morning workouts during the offseason.

You read that right. Kaaya wanted to wake up at 5 a.m. to get ready for Richt to correct his mistakes.

“I couldn’t be in a better position to have a coach who’s been where I’ve been before,” Kaaya said. “He’s been through it before and you can tell.”

MORE: ESPN to launch ACC network

He has the drive

Richt’s relaxed responses continued until he was asked about his role calling plays at Miami.

That’s when he perks up. There’s a little more bite in his responses. He wants the players to see his reaction to calling plays. He wants to beat the defense every day in practice. He wants back-and-forth conversations with offensive coordinator Thomas Brown and son/quarterbacks coach Jon Richt, not to mention Kaaya.

“I knew if I was going to coach again, I wanted to do it,” Richt said.

That doesn’t sound like a 56-year-old coach waiting on building a program. That sounds like the coach who won 74 percent of his games at Georgia and wants to bring the same back to his alma matter.

The expectations remain the same.

“There’s always some fans that it’s like 'it’s national championship or bust,’” Richt said. “But mostly there is people that want to see us get after it and play Miami football.”

He’s relaxed

That path is laid out for Miami, and it’s anything but national championship or bust at this point. It starts with a Coastal Division championship. That first ACC championship. Then you can start talking about “The U” again.

Miami has been an absentee landlord on the national stage of late. The Hurricanes own an 89-62 record since joining the ACC in 2004. That’s the fourth-best record of schools that have been in the conference that long, behind Florida State (115-44), Virginia Tech (113-47) and Clemson (109-48). The battles will come with them, and Georgia Tech and later Florida. This is familiar territory.

Richt knows that terrain well, and he’s already embraced the same pieces that led to all those national championships in the past. It’s a formula that works, and Richt brings the brutal lessons he learned from college football’s most-cutthroat conference.

There’s pressure and stress.

Only Richt sees paradise. Miami has been wrapping up practice by 11:30 a.m. He has time to stroll the shops in Coconut Grove, Fla., with his wife on a date night. The new stadium — one that should drive a few more recruits to Miami — might be ready for the opening. It might not. It’s all the same to Richt.

He has all the time in the world, and he’s not feeling any stress at all.

“I’m enjoying it,” Richt said. “I can say I’m enjoying it right now.”

What about that pressure?

“I focus more on the process of doing things right,” Richt said. “I feel like the results will come.”