Mark Allan Richt (born February 18, 1960) is a retired American football coach, former player, and television analyst. He was the head football coach at the University of Georgia for 15 years and at the University of Miami, his alma mater, for three. His teams won two Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships, five SEC division titles, and one Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) division title. He was a two-time SEC Coach of the Year (2002, 2005), the 2017 ACC Coach of the Year, and the winner of the national 2017 Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award. On January 10, 2023, he was inducted into College Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2023 class.
Richt was raised in a blue-collar family, the second oldest of five children. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Lou and Helen Richt. Lou worked as a tool-and-die maker for Western Electric. In 1967, the Richt family moved to Boulder, Colorado when Lou got a new job. In 1973, Lou was transferred to South Florida where Mark would graduate from high school.
Richt is married to the former Katharyn Francis of Tallahassee, Florida. Katharyn graduated with an economics degree in 1987 from Florida State, where the couple met when she was an FSU cheerleader and Mark was a graduate assistant. Katharyn later earned a nursing degree in 2016. During Mark's tenure at Georgia, she began serving as "water girl" so she could spend time on the sidelines during games.
They have four children: Jonathan ("Jon") (born March 11, 1990), David (born December 1, 1994), and two children they adopted from Ukraine in 1999, Zach (born May 15, 1996), and Anya (born February 13, 1997, with a rare disorder known as proteus syndrome). Jon, like his father, was a college quarterback before becoming a coach. Jon coached at Georgia and in the NFL before serving as Mark's quarterbacks coach during his time with the Hurricanes.
Richt was hired as head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs before the 2001 season, replacing Jim Donnan. Richt's teams won two Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships (2002 and 2005), six SEC Eastern Division titles (2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2012), and nine bowl games. The 2002 season marked Georgia's first conference championship since 1982, and Georgia's first-ever outright SEC East Division championship and SEC Championship Game appearance since the league began divisional play and the championship game in 1992.
After one year at East Carolina, Bowden brought Richt back to Florida State to serve as the Seminoles' quarterbacks coach. Richt was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1994 upon the departure of Brad Scott. Under Richt, Florida State had one of college football's most explosive offenses. In his seven years as offensive coordinator, the Seminoles ranked in the nation's top five scoring offenses for five seasons, they were top twelve in total offense for five seasons, and top twelve in passing offense for five seasons. Richt coached two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks: Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke. Richt coached a total of six FSU quarterbacks to the NFL, including Ward, Weinke, Brad Johnson (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Danny Kanell (New York Giants), Danny McManus (Kansas City Chiefs) and Peter Tom Willis (Chicago Bears). During this period, FSU won seven consecutive ACC titles and two national championships (1993 and 1999).
Fans embraced Richt's arrival in strong numbers. Before the opener of his first season, the Hurricanes surpassed 40,000 season ticket sales, the highest number since they started playing at Hard Rock Stadium in 2008. The Hurricane Club (UM Athletics's booster club) also sprung to a record level of members and donations.
ESPN's College GameDay featured a documentary on October 25, 2008, titled "GameDay looks at the Richt family's adoption of a young boy and girl from Ukraine" detailing the Richts' personal story of the adoption of Zach and Anya. The Richts declined on several occasions to publicly share their adoption story before deciding to proceed with the hope that it would encourage other families to explore its rewards.
Richt is a devout Christian and credits his conversion to a locker room speech given by Bobby Bowden when Richt was a 26-year-old graduate assistant. In 2011, the Richts sold their lake house in Georgia that was valued at nearly $2 million, announcing they intended to contribute more to charity. They have also taken several mission trips abroad.
After leaving Georgia, Richt was named the head coach of the Hurricanes of the University of Miami, his alma mater. Richt made the announcement on December 4, 2015. Instead of saying he was leaving his home in Georgia, he said he was coming home: "My wife and I can tell you this: This is our home. We love it." "I have no intention of doing anything but finishing my coaching career at Miami." Richt graduated from high school in Palm Beach County, an hour north of campus.
Shortly after joining Miami, Richt began spearheading a campaign to raise money for a new indoor practice facility. In May 2016, he told University of Miami boosters in Chicago he was donating $1 million of his own money towards the campaign, "I'm not just giving lip service to (making Miami great), that I truly believe it and I'm willing to invest my life in a lot of ways and our resources, too."
In July 2016, Richt and his wife Katharyn announced that they will be launching 'The U Network'. "The U Network is going to be designed to help guys find work when their playing days are over whether it's right after college or after their pro days. My wife is going to be the person kind of facilitating everything—all of the paperwork and all of the things it will take to connect people with events and connecting players with employers. It's also going to be about reunion and connection, but the main goal is finding work for these guys and I'm talking about the guys who truly want work. We're not just going to give somebody something. They've got to do their part, but sometimes all they need is a little bit of help of guidance, connection, and networking."
In 2017, Richt received the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award as the Hurricanes peaked nationally with a No. 2 ranking after 16 consecutive wins, clinching the ACC Coastal title.
Four months later, athletic director Blake James announced the new $34 million practice facility would be slated to open in 2018. The practice facility includes an 80,000 square-foot indoor practice field as well as a 20,000 square-foot football operations center. The operations center will house coaches' offices on a mezzanine level, team meeting rooms, position meeting rooms and a recruiting suite, and have a direct connection to the Hurricanes weight room and locker room.
In 2018, Richt told ESPN that due to the nature of trust in recruiting, he feels that it is unethical to pursue other jobs since the head coach is offering a long-term commitment to his players: "I never once have tried to leverage another job for more money. I don't think that's right. The day we took the job, my mentality has always been, 'If you're the head coach, too many lives depend on you.' If I just say on a whim, 'You know, I think I'd rather go here,' well, all these recruits you said something to, all these coaches you said something to, what about them? Every time you hire a coach, you're taking the coach, his wife and his kids on an adventure. They're trusting you and believing in you enough to become a staff member. I don't want to just walk into a room and say, 'Hey, guys, thanks for helping me get to where I really want to be.' It's the same thing with these kids. They've had enough disappointment, enough men leave their lives. You're trying to build trust, and then you bolt on them because of money or because of whatever? I've just never been able to get past that part of it."
Through a statement released directly and through the University of Miami, Richt announced his retirement from coaching on December 30, 2018.
On October 21, 2019, Richt tweeted that he had suffered a heart attack but had survived the episode and intended to resume normal activities quickly. On July 1, 2021, Richt announced via Twitter that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
During his tenure at Georgia, Richt's parents and sisters joined him in the Athens area. Richt's sister Nikki is married to former NFL quarterback Brad Johnson, Richt was Johnson's position coach when he played at FSU. His nephew Max Johnson started at quarterback for LSU in 2020, before later transferring to Texas A&M University. His nephew, Jake Johnson also plays for Texas A&M.