Mark Richt isn’t just Coach; he’s coaching again

3:19 PM ET

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Mark Richt has called a play or two in his day. But the night before Miami held its first scrimmage of the spring, Richt started to feel a little uneasy.

The next morning, he felt the same way.

Even $4 million coaches with 145 wins get nervous.

Despite his long history running offenses, Richt would be calling plays for the first time in nearly 10 years. Just a little piece of him wondered whether he would get it right. But this is exactly what he wanted. In fact, it was a make-or-break proposition when he agreed to coach at Miami after 15 years at Georgia.

Mark Richt, who is calling the plays and coaching the quarterbacks at Miami, looks re-energized, and Brad Kaaya is responding well to his coach’s hands-on approach. Courtesy Miami Athletics

“I was like, ‘If I’m doing it again, I’m going back to coaching the quarterbacks, putting in the offense, calling the plays, doing the whole thing, even if it kills me,’” Richt said in a recent interview.

Richt is alive and well. And Brad Kaaya threw five touchdown passes in that first scrimmage. Nerves? Gone rather quickly. Richt remembers exactly what to do.

If anything, this spring has been a return to Richt’s roots, honed as an assistant at Florida State, fine-tuned in the early years as head coach at Georgia. But in late 2006, he decided to turn play-calling duties over to Mike Bobo and removed himself from day-to-day meetings with the offense, choosing to focus more on becoming a better head coach.

He missed working with the players “pretty much right away.”

“I think the players see me in a different light here than the last six or seven years at Georgia,” Richt said. “When there’s a scrimmage now or even a practice, they can see more of my competitive spirit because I’m competing with them, offense versus defense. I’ll still see something great happen with …

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