UM Student Who Broke News Of New Coach Discusses The Hire
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CORAL GABLES (CBSMiami) – The Miami Hurricanes will hold a press conference on Friday morning to announce the school's next head football coach.
All indications are that it will be former Georgia head coach Mark Richt who will be new leader of the Hurricanes.
The news broke on Wednesday night, and it was University of Miami student Peter Ariz who was the first person to report it.
Ariz is the owner of CanesInSight.com and has a reputation for being a reliable source of Hurricanes news.
CBS4's Mike Cugno caught up with Ariz on Thursday to discuss the hiring of Richt and what it means for the university.
"This was Mark Richt's job as soon as he lost his job at Georgia a few days ago," said Ariz. "Blake James did a good job of identifying him and going out there and getting the job done."
Almost immediately after the news of Richt being fired at Georgia became known, the former Canes backup quarterback was linked to the opening at Miami.
"This was [James'] guy from the start, really the job was not offered to anyone else," said Ariz.
Richt grew up in South Florida, attending Boca Raton High School where he was a star quarterback before attending Miami.
While playing for the Hurricanes, Richt worked with other legendary Canes QBs such as Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde.
"He's a guy with roots here, obviously played down here from Boca in high school, played at the University of Miami, so he's got his roots down here." said Ariz.
Another interesting aspect of the hiring is that Richt has a track record of success with college quarterbacks.
During his time on Bobby Bowden's coaching staff at Florida State, Richt helped two different quarterbacks win the Heisman Trophy. Charlie Ward won it in 1993 and Chris Weinke took it home in 2000.
Richt also helped develop Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford while at Georgia. Stafford would end up being selected with the first overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.
Now at Miami Richt will get to work with ascending Hurricanes quarterback Brad Kaaya, who has become one of the top passers in the ACC.
"Something that's very attractive for Richt at Miami is the opportunity to coach a quarterback such as Brad Kaaya," said Ariz. "Richt is a guy who has done a great job developing quarterbacks over his coaching career so to see someone like Kaaya whose going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the country next season I think was very attractive."
The Hurricanes will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. on Friday morning to introduce the school's 24th head football coach.
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