The Miami Hurricanes will meet the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech this weekend with one thing in mind. These two teams are very close to competing for an ACC title. Richt has had his problems with Tech in the past, and now he has to encounter them in his own conference. Miami will be missing three people for this game, and Richt must make sure that he can make up for the fact that he has a lot of injuries.
The injuries come at the worst time
The injuries that have happened to Miami are coming at the worst time, and it is very important for the Hurricanes to make sure that they have come back and put in their best secondary players to counteract Tech. Tech might not even throw the ball at all in this game, and that means that the Canes can just put eight people in the box and try to stop Tech. There are a lot of reasons why the triple option works, but one of the best reasons is blocking. Miami needs to put in enough people to block so that Richt can learn from the mistakes he made at Georgia agains tthis team.
He has just as much experience against Tech as any other coach in the ACC, and Miami cannot afford to lose this game.
Miami is trending up
Miami is trending up in the ACC while Tech is just a stagnant team that is good sometimes and bad other times. There are some season where Tech looks like it could win this conference, and there are other seasons where they look so bad they only talk about firing Paul Johnson. The inconsistency of this team has been their downfall over the years, and Richt needs to capitalize on that to make sure that his Miami team can win this game and get everyone healthy.
What if Miami wins?
Miami needs this win so that they can stay in competition with Clemson for the ACC title.
They probably do not have enough talent to beat Clemson, but they probably need the confidence boost that tells them they are close to winning. Being close makes this team much better overall, and it provides the team with the confidence that can be used next year to compete more with Clemson. Every year that Richt is at Miami, the team will get closer and closer to being a national competitor. Their only problem after that is the fact that they might fall apart late in seasons like Richt did at Georgia. He needs to learn from his mistakes, and he needs to show us that he has learned from them in this game. Mark Richt and Miami have a lot to prove, but Georgia Tech just needs to ruin Miami's season. Two teams going in two different directions could help determine the ACC title.