Mark Richt: Miami has big advantage over Indiana, but winning won’t be easy

The Hoosiers are a team built largely on transfers — approximately two-thirds of Indiana’s starters began their careers elsewhere, including Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

Miami’s starting lineup has approximately half of its starters out of the transfer portal, including former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck.

Richt joked with Beck earlier this year at the ACC Media Days that he and Beck had a lot in common, going from Georgia to Miami, where Richt finished his College Football Hall of Fame coaching career from 2016-2018.

“Except,” Richt said on stage to Beck in front of cameras, “you got paid a lot more money.”

Beck’s NIL deal with the Hurricanes was worth a reported $4 million after he withdrew his name from the NFL draft and elected to play another season of college football.

As important as the quarterbacks will be to the game’s outcome, Richt is focused on another matchup.

“I do think Miami has the advantage up front on both sides of the ball,” Richt said.

“The offensive linemen for Miami are a lot bigger than the Indiana defense,” Richt said. “Then Miami’s defensive line is the premier defensive line in America with the two defensive ends, Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor.”

Richt said it’s a matter of whether Miami can run the ball effectively and apply pressure on Mendoza.

“I spent hours studying Indiana, and it’s amazing the journey and turnaround under Curt Cignetti,” Richt said. “It’s amazing what the rules changes of college football have allowed to happen, this sort of thing would have never happened before.

“It used to be, ‘let’s have a 4-year plan,’ but now, it’s ‘let’s get this program turned around today.’“

Cignetti is in his second year leading the Hoosiers, and his strategy of recruiting older players who have not been injured and come from winning programs has proven successful.

“He had a specific type of player he was looking for, knowing he wasn’t going to get a boatload of the greatest players out of the portal,” Richt said. “But he had a vision of what he wanted, and then being able to attract Fernando was key.”

It will be up to Beck to prove he can be a key for a national title team.

Beck was 24-3 as the starter at Georgia in 2023 and 2024, but he wasn’t the starting quarterback on the 2021 and 2022 Bulldogs’ teams that won national titles.

“To finally be the guy and the quarterback, a part of a team that has done this and gone through a season and eventually earned the opportunity to play in a national championship, obviously it’s a dream of mine,” Beck said at the CFP Championship Game Media Day on Saturday.

“Having been a part of it, having been on teams that have done it, have gone all the way, have won all the way, to be back in this moment is pretty surreal.”

Richt believes a Miami win is possible, but, as the gambling sites suggest by making Indiana a 7½-point favorite, the odds will be against the former Georgia quarterback and his Miami football team.