A day before crucial scrimmage, Mark Richt unloads on UM offense

The calmest coach on the planet got mad Friday after football practice.

University of Miami coach Mark Richt was not happy with his offensive players — in particular the messy, one-minute drill that they bumbled enough to get him steamed and emoting to reporters afterward.

“These guys know any minute now we’re breaking into scout team, so don’t come crying to me,” he said. “We gave everybody reps. Ones, twos, threes got a boatload of reps, got a chance to show Coach whether you’re ready or not.”

UM’s second scrimmage of fall camp, once again closed, will take place Saturday morning, weather permitting, Richt said. It’s the one that could determine the next starting quarterback. Better believe he’s adding that one-minute drill to the scrimmage, as well as third-down situations, overtime and a two-point play.

“It looked like we didn’t coach one down,” Richt said of the “botched” one-minute drill. “We have meetings to cover it. We had walk-throughs to cover it. We jogged through it two days ago. We jogged through it again today. Told everybody exactly what to do, and it didn’t happen.

“Plus, we can’t even get our pylons in the right spot because there are landmarks for us to make decisions on certain plays… So everybody around here had got to do their job, OK? And right now it’s not happening. And I’m part of it, OK? I’m leading it. So, it’s on me. But I promise you it’s going to be on everybody else, too.”

Richt wouldn’t specify what group messed up the one-minute drill, though it seemed as if he were referring to the younger players.

“I don’t care what string, because we’re teaching every single guy out here” he said. “It’s a matter of will you listen and do what you’re supposed to, which is not happening.”

The coach said he understands “if a guy runs the right route and the ball hits him in the chest and he drops it” once in a while. “I’m talking about flat-out not knowing what to do when it counts the most. That’s why we lost games last year, close games.”

Senior left tackle Kc McDermott agreed a few minutes later that the offense didn’t execute well.

“Obviously, there’s a learning curve for the younger guys,” McDermott said. “Some things they haven’t seen before and we try to prepare for it. But at the end of the day we didn’t do a good enough job preparing. That’s why they call it practice.

“Tomorrow we’ll be ready for it during the scrimmage and we’ll do the best we can.”

▪ Redshirt sophomore linebacker Jamie Gordinier has torn the ACL of his right knee and will miss the season. Gordinier tore his other ACL in the first game of last season, and has not played since. He will undergo surgery next week. Gordinier, from Monmouth Beach, N.J., was a consensus three-star recruit out of Red Bank Catholic.

▪ Richt said the quarterbacks once again will not be allowed to be tackled Saturday. .... All-American receiver Ahmmon Richards was on the conditioning bike during media viewing for the second consecutive day.

This story was originally published August 18, 2017 at 3:25 PM with the headline "A day before crucial scrimmage, Mark Richt unloads on UM offense."