Fans are ripping him, but Richt says Canes need them. (And that QB ‘doghouse’ talk...)

Backup quarterback N’Kosi Perry is not in the doghouse, says University of Miami coach Mark Richt, and no matter how much the coach is being ripped by fans and everyone else for everything from quarterback choice to play-calling, he wants them at Hard Rock Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday for the Duke game.

“We’re going to be home Saturday night against Duke and we need home-field advantage,’’ said Richt, who pointed out Monday during his weekly stint on WQAM radio that several Top 25 teams lost this past weekend, and almost all of them were on the road. “We need our fans to come. It’s not easy beating a good team on the road, and that’s what we want to create when Duke shows up.’’

Richt’s regime, in its third season, is now being compared with wildly unpopular predecessor Al Golden’s, but the Hurricanes coach remains vocally appreciative of the Hurricanes’ fan base and knows how important the UM diehards are to propelling the Canes (5-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) at Hard Rock Stadium.

The detractors include former players such as offensive lineman Joaquin Gonzalez and receiver Randal Hill and defensive tackle Warren Sapp.

“It’s official!! The U is Dead Under @MarkRicht !!!” Sapp tweeted on Saturday after UM lost 24-17 on Friday at Boston College.

Richt was especially talkative and fired up for the radio show, not seemingly angry but eager to answer the questions he knew were coming regarding quarterbacks, play-calling and overall inadequacies after consecutive road losses against Virginia and BC.

“We all take pride in what we do,’’ the coach told WQAM host Joe Rose. “A lot of things get bantered around by people that don’t — I’m not saying they don’t know football, but they don’t know exactly what’s going on. It’s hard for people to figure things out. Obviously the quarterback position is the most visible one. That’s the one everybody wants to talk about the most. And the head coach obviously is the guy where the buck stops. I understand that and I appreciate again the fan base and how much they want us to win. That’s important.

“We love that about Miami, and we’ll never sit there and deny that that’s not a positive thing for us. And we know that if things don’t go well then everybody is going to want to know why and we’re going to have answers. So, I don’t blame them for that. Some things, we’re not going to just broadcast to everybody. And some things, we think we’re on the right track and it’s just a matter of getting it done properly.”

As for redshirt freshman quarterback N’Kosi Perry, who has not played since he was replaced by fifth-year senior Malik Rosier early in the second quarter at Virgina in a loss on Oct. 13, Richt denied that Perry was in “the doghouse’’ for posting a video Oct. 18 on social media that showed Perry in a car playing with wads of money.

“He’s not in the doghouse,’’ Richt told WQAM. “He’s still developing and still getting to the point where he can handle everything that was going to come his way. But he’s close, and we’ll see how this week goes. But that’s where we are at right now.”

When asked why he named Rosier the starter for Duke (5-3, 1-3) “so early,’’ this was Richt’s response to Rose: “For the next game? Because I’ve decided he’s the starter today and that’s what I decided. It’s based on what we know and what other people don’t know, I guess.’’

Then, guest host Dave Hyde asked Richt what Rosier needs to do “to get back to that guy who was leading a pretty good offense for the first three quarters of last year,’’ when UM had won its first 10 games before collapsing the next three.

“It’s a matter of when everything is right you have to be accurate enough to hit guys on the run,’’ Richt responded.

“That’s his part, but offense is about 11 guys doing it right. We’re still not getting that consistency across the board. We’re still getting too many mistakes by one guy. If you’ve got 11 guys and they only made one mistake in the game it could cause 11 different drives. So everybody on offense has got to get it right.

“That’s coaching. We’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys to be able to do that. But the bottom line is it’s not just the quarterback, it’s the center, the guard, the tackle, tight ends, wide receivers, backs — it’s everybody in cohesion doing things right and that’s when things go well offensively.”

Richt, who cited incorrect route-running, lack of blocking and blocking errors in defending Rosier, whom he said has been communicating correctly in reading defenses, stressed that he has “historically’’ been “a pretty patient guy’’ when it comes to finding the right quarterback.

“We’re trying to find the right answers and we’re making all our decisions based on what happens in games and what happens in practice, what happens in meetings, and tests. We test these guys, pitch some reminders. There are all kind of ways to test the readiness of everybody and that’s what it’s based on. “

The coach also said true freshman quarterback Jarren Williams is “doing well, ’’ but again did not elaborate on when he will play next, after one brief appearance against Savannah State.

“He works hard at trying to get himself in position to really be a guy that can handle everything we do. He’s like any freshman. We’ve got Brevin Jordan in there, we’ve got Dee Wiggins in there, we’ve got DJ Scaife in there. We’ve got a bunch of true freshmen in there — [Mark] Pope. And quite frankly they’re making freshman mistakes, and sometimes that’s not what you need.

“You need guys that are really veteran players. But these guys are talented and they’re learning as they go. And anytime you’re playing a freshman at any position across the board you’re going to get some inconsistencies as they’re learning to do it exactly the way they should do. But we’re getting there.”

Finally, Richt reiterated, when asked about play-calling, his belief that UM’s offensive problems have nothing to do with the game plan, and that coaches have an array of good options for every situation.

“It’s a matter of can you execute them or not,’’ he said. “So, the plays aren’t bad. The plays are executed not enough on a consistent basis, and that’s for us as coaches to make sure they can do that. That’s the battle right now.’’

This story was originally published October 29, 2018 at 11:29 AM.