GREENSBORO, NC – Miami’s Mark Richt has been selected the 2017 Atlantic Coast Conference Football Coach of the Year, the league announced on Tuesday.
Richt led the way in balloting among a select panel that included 45 media members and the league’s 14 head football coaches. Richt received 41 votes, while Clemson’s Dabo Swinney placed second with 10.
Richt guided the Hurricanes (10-1 overall, 7-1 ACC) to their first ACC Coastal Division championship and a top-10 national ranking in his second year at the helm of his alma mater. Miami will face Clemson in the ACC Football Championship Game on Saturday night in Charlotte.
Miami’s 10 wins this season are the most for the program since 2003, and the Hurricanes’ seven league wins are their most since joining the ACC in 2004. The Hurricanes’ 10 wins to open this season, combined with five consecutive wins to close the 2016 campaign, produced a 15-game winning streak that ties for the fifth-longest in league history.
Richt is a semifinalist for the 2017 George Munger College Coach of the Year Award presented by the Maxwell Football Club. Ten of his Miami players were voted to the 2017 All-ACC team. The Hurricanes lead the nation in turnover margin and rank seventh nationally with 17 pass interceptions. Offensively, they closed the regular season averaging nearly 423 yards and 32 points per game.
Richt owns a 19-5 record in his two seasons with the Hurricanes and is 164-56 in 17 years as college football head coach, a winning percentage of .745 that ranks seventh among FBS coaches with a minimum of five years of experience. He becomes the first Miami football coach to earn ACC Coach of the Year honors.
2017 ACC Coach of the Year voting:
Mark Richt, Miami 41
Dabo Swinney, Clemson 10
Steve Addazio, Boston College 5
Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia 2
Dave Clawson, Wake Forest 1