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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFFJuly 18, 2018Mark RichtJaquan JohnsonAhmmon RichardsCharlotte, North Carolina Q. Ahmmon, just what you can say about going through the adversity of injury and coming back from something like that, what it's taught you to have the game kind of taken away for a little while and now get it back? AHMMON RICHARDS: Going through that, it was very tough. I mean, I've never been hurt for a long period of time like that, and it taught me a lot about myself, just not to take a lot of things for granted, whether it's little things like stretching, hydrating, just little things that matter at this level, and I'm appreciative of that now. Q. How do you make some of the catches that you make? I'm thinking of the one against Duke last year where you were well covered, you were up against the sideline, had very little room, somehow you went up over the defender and managed to come down with the ball and get a foot in. How do you do that? AHMMON RICHARDS: Just trying to make plays when my number is called. That's pretty much it. Just trying to be a playmaker and trying to make plays whatever I have the ball in my hands. Q. Obviously Travis Homer is one of the top running backs in the league, but there's a couple guys behind him pretty good, Lorenzo Lingard and DeeJay Dallas. Can you talk about that run back three-headed monster? AHMMON RICHARDS: Yeah, we have a lot of talented running backs, and all the guys do great things. Travis Homer, he bursts onto the scene. He's a great running back. Guys like Deejay Dallas, and then, like you said, Lorenzo. All those guys are going to contribute to the team and they're going to help us win. Q. Every squad has to bring on a new group of students. What is it about the new group coming on and what is your role in getting them acclimated to the system? AHMMON RICHARDS: I have to be more of a vocal leader. I have to lead these guys, especially the young guys in the receiving corps. We have a lot of young guys that have to learn the system. And I think they're mature. I don't really see them just as freshmen. They're mature. They're guys that can play day one, and I know they're going to contribute and help this team win games. Q. It's not easy to change to become a vocal leader. What is it about yourself that you think you've got that ability to be more vocal? AHMMON RICHARDS: I mean, I'm not really a vocal guy, but flashes of it pops up here and there. That's how I know it's within. It's just something that I'm going to have to do. It's tough. It's not as easy as it may seem, but it's something that I'm going to have to do in order to help the team in the long run. Q. Malik is a guy who can extend plays with his feet. What's your thought process as a receiver when the primary routes break down but he's still moving around looking for a target? What do you try to do to get him off the hook and get open? AHMMON RICHARDS: Yeah, like you said, just get open. When he gets out, we go through a scramble drill in practice every week, and it's going to help us during games when the pocket may break down and he scrambles out, but that doesn't mean the play is over. He can still create a big play like the Wisconsin game where he broke out and threw a touchdown pass to Lawrence Cager. That's just an example of what can happen. Q. Jaquan and the defense have the turnover chain. Isn't it time the offense gets something for themselves now? AHMMON RICHARDS: I think so. I think it's time. But those guys work hard, and they're really enjoying it, and it helps them out, also, wanting to make plays and stuff. So I think we should have something, but it's not up to me. Q. Tell us a little bit about your teammate who's getting ready to step up, and keep in mind I'm going to ask him the same question about you. AHMMON RICHARDS: Jaquan Johnson, man, he's the alpha dog of the defense. He's a leader. He's one of the leaders on the team. He just attacks everything like a dog. His mentality is just different than everybody else's. Like he says, he endures pain, whether that's physical pain, mental pain, whether that's lifting weights, he embraces that. And that's just what separates him, and that's what makes him the player he is, and as you saw last season, what he accomplished. Q. Have you had fun today? I know it's been a long day. AHMMON RICHARDS: I did. I had fun. I enjoyed it. It was new to me, and I enjoyed it. Q. Jaquan, tell us about Ahmmon. JAQUAN JOHNSON: Ahmmon, he's a competitor. Everybody knows he's an elite athlete, a speedster. What they don't understand is how he lays out for the team, how he's always trying to block you, how he's trying to put you into the ground. He's got that competitive spirit in him. Like he said, he sometimes shows flashes of being vocal, but sometimes he just has to show it through his play. Q. Some of the catches Ahmmon makes, you just can't explain it. You get to cover him from time to time I'm sure. How does he make those plays? JAQUAN JOHNSON: You know, he's God gifted for one, and the second thing is he works hard. He doesn't just let his talent show. He goes out every day and he attacks every day. He empties the bucket like Coach Gus said, our strength and conditioning coach. Q. So indeed the chain is coming back this year? JAQUAN JOHNSON: Definite. Q. How much time do you guys spend on the sidelines talking about the chain, planning for the chain? Obviously it seems like the 12th man of sorts on that defensive unit. JAQUAN JOHNSON: Well, I don't hear as much conversation on the sidelines talking about the turnover chain, but I hear we need turnovers. Whatever that means. But we definitely look forward to getting a turnover and then putting the chain on our neck. It motivates the team. It excites the crowd, and it bothers the other team. Q. When you just said that it motivates the team having something special like that, a symbol, the U has been a symbol throughout history as something to respect. Do you feel like you're getting back to that point in your opinion, and has the turnover chain helped to kind of bring the swagger back in your opinion, as well? JAQUAN JOHNSON: Yeah, I definitely think teams have learned to respect us. I read something, I'm not sure what coach said it, but it was something about how Miami if you get them in a close game, they're not going to finish. This was like two years ago. And last year we really wanted to emphasize on finishing the game, and in close games we needed to win them. That's what we were able to do last year. I mean, the turnover chain itself is definitely like the 12th man. As soon as it comes out -- as soon as we get the turnover, it starts; you start to hear all the yelling and the shouting, but once the turnover chain goes on our neck. It's like a whole 'nother notch, like man. Q. You've had a chance to play for several different coaches during your career. What have you learned about yourself through the transition of the staff and the personalities that you've come across? JAQUAN JOHNSON: You know, you learn that when you're committed to the University of Miami, you are committing to the University of Miami. Unfortunately this game, coaches have to get fired and things of that nature, but I'm happy that we did get Coach Richt to come in. You believe, you buy in right away. Some guys resist, but for me, I bought in right away. I was looking forward to the change, and I trusted the process, and I believed in everything that Coach Richt said, and I'm sitting up here now. Q. Last year, ten wins to start, three losses to end the season. How do you take that experience over with you into this year? JAQUAN JOHNSON: Well, we used those three games that we lost. We try to not lose them. We talk about finishing. That's one of the main things. We've got to start fast and finish strong. We started fast last year, but we didn't finish strong. In Wisconsin we let that game go, come up here to Charlotte, and I get we get surprised by the big stage and lose that. Then we slipped up at Pitt, lackadaisical, missing throws, not executing on defense, things like that we can't do. We have to have an attack mindset the entire season. That's the only way you can win it all. Q. You had a little bit of a quiet start last year, a couple games that were not primetime TV and then you have the hurricane and didn't play. You were talking about the sad ending to last year. Right out of the gate, LSU. Talk about the potential of opening under the bright lights against LSU and what that offers. JAQUAN JOHNSON: I mean, opening up against LSU, we all know that it's not a slouch team, SEC competitive team. Look forward to going out and competing every day just like us. You hear DBU over there. Those guys, they're just like Miami guys, to be honest. That's where the great Ed Reed is from, so you always have to pay respect to the opponent that's in front of you. But the team, we're excited, we're motivated, and we're working hard towards LSU. Q. Coach, a year ago we were standing here and the turnover chain had yet to be born. Over the last 365 days what's been your reaction to that phenomenon? MARK RICHT: What's been my reaction? It's the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's really the greatest thing since the 10-bite sandwich, actually. People ask me about that -- first of all, I didn't know about the turnover chain until the first game. Coach Diaz is like, hey, Coach, by the way, we've got this chain, in case we get a turnover we're going to put it on their neck. I said, All right, that's cool. I said, It's kind of big and gaudy. I said, Well, we're in Miami, that's all right, it's no problem. So I really didn't know much about it. I had never seen it. I had never touched it. Even during the game, I'm on the sideline looking at the game, and behind me is when all the party is going on, I didn't know what was going on. It wasn't until the night of the first game that I looked on social media and saw Malek Young with the big grin and that big chain on his neck. I don't even think I touched it until the season was over. That thing is about six pounds. I mean, it is a thick, Cuban link chain with that big U. It is gaudy and it's beautiful. But like I've said all year long, or since the season ended, if we got three turnovers last year, it would have been mocked. It would have been laughed at. But when you get 31 turnovers or whatever it was, maybe there's something to it. It did create an awful lot of excitement for our team. It created an awful lot of excitement for our fans, not just at the games but around the country. It was a special thing. Q. Ron Dugans, what are you going to say about his evolution? I know he's been with the receivers the last few years, and to move forward from that to what he is for you now in the offense with a more expanded role, just what you can say about his work? MARK RICHT: Well, I'm a huge Ron Dugans fan. I call him Ronnie as a term of endearment because I've known him a long time. I love him. I actually was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Florida State when he was a receiver there. He actually -- everybody remembers Peter Warrick and the touchdowns he caught in the National Championship game, but Ronnie actually caught a touchdown in that game, as well. So I've known Ron a long time. I know what kind of player he was, tough, hard-nosed, had to earn everything he got. I know what kind of person he is. He's a God-fearing man that loves his family and loves the players. And then I've seen a body of work before I hired him as a professional collegiate coach and really loved what I saw. Now that I'm working with him, I wouldn't choose any wide receiver coach in America over him. He's a guy that not only understands what it takes as a receiver to run the routes a certain way, but he will get it out of them. He will not -- he's not interested in being their friend, he's interested in being their mentor. He's interested in being a role model and a guy who's going to help them grow into a man, off the field, too. All the things I'm looking for, all the ingredients I want in a coach, he has those attributes, and I think he's well on his way to becoming a coordinator one day and a head coach if he chooses to. Q. Your impact on the running game here at Miami in year one was evident. Year two, Mark Walton got hurt early and things were different. Travis Homer came on as the year evolved. 160 yards a game, is that about where you want it, or do you expect more this year? MARK RICHT: You know, to me, balance is not necessarily having 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing necessarily. Balance is if a team overloads your running game, are you good enough to throw it and get them out of that. Or if they double team your receivers, are you good enough to run it to force them out of those double coverage situations. You just have to be able to do what you have to do in any given game. If somebody is just bent on putting no safety deep and everybody in the run game and just lock up and play man-to-man on your three eligible receivers, you'd better be able to throw it down the field because you're going to be outnumbered in the running game. So we just have to be able to be good at both the run and the pass, and obviously the better you run it -- I love having a good running game because I like the play action pass that comes off it, and the RPO is what comes off what you would consider play action pass nowadays. I don't want to tag a number on it so much. I will say this: Last season is the first season I coached offense in 30 something years that I didn't have a true fullback really ready to go and play. We were going to try to invent one through a young offensive guard, Corey Gaynor, and we were taking a linebacker for a minute seeing if he could do it, and it didn't work out. I think it hurt us in short yardage and goal line, and that's not going to help again. That's why Realus George is on the team and we moved Trayone Gray to fullback and let him start training like a fullback, and we're going to have a little bit more power than we had in years past. Q. You were a part of a big infusion of new coaches and new blood kind of in the ACC fraternity of coaches a couple years ago, and obviously performance has risen a lot on the field throughout that time and a little bit before. How much have you seen since you've been back in the ACC the level of talent and competition raised? MARK RICHT: Yeah, there's no question in my mind. I was at Florida State, as we said, for years, for 15 years, and I think Florida State might have been in the league seven or eight years while I was there, the first seven or eight years, and the league -- even two years ago when I got here compared to then was night and day. There's no question. Florida State at that time, we just -- we out-classed a lot of people in just the athletic ability and all that type of thing. And then now I come back, there's a lot of teams that are very talented. There's a lot of teams that got good coaches, and I think people are beginning to say, in order to be great in football, we've got to pour resources into all the things that it takes to develop a player, whether it's facilities or strength and conditioning or how you feed them or all those types of things, and you've also got to hire certain coaches and give them the ability to have a salary pool that will allow you to get a good staff that will stick with you without getting out-bidded every time you turn around. And I see that happening throughout the league, and I think we're seeing a lot of really good teams that can beat anybody across America on any given day. Q. It didn't take long for you to become the longest tenured coach in the state. Is the state of Florida up for grabs in terms of being the preeminent program? And with you being more established and Willie and Dan Mullen in the state, does that bode well? And can you assess how Willie Taggart has been on the recruiting trail against you? MARK RICHT: Yeah, I think that the programs are bigger than the coaches. I think coaches obviously make a big deal -- I think leadership is a big deal, but I think when you have an established program like Florida, Florida State, even Miami, at any given time, those teams could be the best in the state and the best in the country, and then now you see what has happened at Central Florida and what's continuing to happen there, and South Florida, and even Florida international, Florida Atlantic. These teams are just continuing to grow and get better, mostly because you've got the talent base in the state, and there are limitations to how many people everybody can take out of there. Kids are starting to say I'd rather stay home than go play at this other school and stay in my home state. All those teams are going to continue to rise and get better, and I think any given year, any one of those top four or five teams right now could be the best team in the state. Q. We've been talking this afternoon about the importance of returning starters, but beyond that, what leads to winning, that that's not the be all and end all. Some coaches have talked about competition in practice, some about chemistry, Paul Johnson brought up luck. What do you see as the -- he did talk about the 4th and 16. MARK RICHT: It was lucky, by the way. Q. And it rained. What do you see as the factors that determine whether you finish 9-3 or 3-9? MARK RICHT: Well, I agree with whatever coach said competition. I think when you have enough great players at any given position or all your positions across the board and they're battling for that job of right tackle, for example, every day they know another guy is just as good as they are, and I'd better bring my "A" game every single day or I'm not going to win the job, or I'm going to lose my job. Then the other type of competition is that defensive end who's rushing the passer every day. When that guy is a great player and that right tackle has got to try to block him day after day after day, he's going to get better, and when he is able to block him, he's going to make that pass rusher better. When we get the Ray Lewises and the Michael Irvin and the Vilmas and the Wilforks and all these great players of the past coming back and speaking to our team, that's what they talk about. Back when we were here, the toughest day of the week was the week of practice, and the hardest games we played were in Greentree Practice Field. And then when we got to the real games, they weren't as tough because of the competition level that we had. So it's about bringing in great players and having coaches that will guide and direct them properly. And the other thing, too, is to do things right. If you do things right and don't shoot yourself in the foot, if you're not your own worst enemy, so to speak, sometimes when it comes to rules and regs and all that, that helps a lot, too. Q. You talked about ACC teams being more willing to put in the resources, being more willing to commit, of course, the amount of revenue that it takes to run a big time football program these days. Commissioner Swofford said the ACC Network is right on track, ready to go next year. How important is that to closing the gap with some of these other conferences? MARK RICHT: It's very big. And you can have a network and not necessarily generate the same revenue as other networks. Not only do we need the network, but we need to get the people to want to watch it and do what it takes to get the viewership and all that up to get the revenue up. The revenue is going to go up, but how much? And it's certainly going to go up enough to continue the trend of the advances that people are making, and I think some of the AD's -- I'm not in their business, but I would think, knowing that the network is coming and there's more revenue coming, they're having more confidence to step out and do the things that it takes to be great. Q. Just the changes in recruiting with social media and everything that you've seen, how you handle it as a coach now as opposed to in the past? MARK RICHT: Well, you just communicate with the guys the way they communicate. If it used to be Facebook, you use Facebook, you use Twitter, Snapchat. Whatever it is within the rules, that's how you communicate with these kids, and that's what they're used to. Recruiting hasn't changed much. It's about relationships and it's about trust, and it's about proving to the kid -- where does he fit into your program and how can he become the best he can possibly be in life. And the last thing I'm going to say is I'm putting in a plug and I'm letting our season ticket holders know we've got like 500 season tickets left. We're about to sell out our season tickets for the first time at Hard Rock Stadium. And I know a lot of schools sell out for like the last 90 years, but for us it's a big deal. And if you don't get your tickets now, you're going to be in trouble. I had to put that plug in. God bless, and go 'Canes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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