Since Mark Richt stepped away from coaching football in December of 2018, you could certainly say the former University of Georgia head coach has remained active. After three seasons as the head coach of the University of Miami (Florida), which succeeded a 15-year tenure at Georgia, he has stayed busy with speaking engagements while working as an analyst for the ACC Network.
Even after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease earlier this year, Richt may now move at a slower pace—but he has hardly slowed down.
“Everything is going really good—as good as I could hope for at this point,” Richt informed UGASports earlier this week. “I’m just living life and enjoying it the best I can.”
Soon after his coaching career ended, Richt was approached to write his first book. He essentially dismissed the idea by saying he would “think about it.” However, upon suffering a heart attack less than two years ago, Richt suddenly changed his mind and decided to add a book to his already busy schedule.
“I decided then that if I was to ever write a book, I better write it now because you never know what might happen to me next,” Richt said with a laugh.
Penned by Richt and published by B&H Books, Make the Call: Game-Day Wisdom for Life’s Defining Moments is a collection of inspiring memoir-like stories from the coach’s playing days at Miami through his coaching career at Florida State, Georgia, and with the Hurricanes—a period of more than 40 years. In each instance, Richt encountered a crucial moment whereby he had to make the call, so to speak, on what action to take.
“The book is a behind-the-scenes look at decisions I made on the football field, with my family, and in my faith,” Richt said. “When a person has a certain belief system, the decisions he or she makes are how they view the world, and things in general. How I view things is through the eyes of someone who is trying to live a life that’s pleasing to God.”
Although the book contains stories occurring both on and off the gridiron, Richt is aware of what many of its readers will be most attracted to.
“I think fans will really enjoy the football part of it: the technical aspects about certain plays and coverages, the nuts and bolts of why plays worked or didn’t work,” Richt said. “And the book is just not all about the good decisions I made in life. It contains some of the bad decisions I made, as well. There’s a good bit of both—good and bad.”
Sold separately, Make the Call – Bible Study Book: 40-Day Experience for Men is a supplement to Richt’s book. It contains Scripture, devotionals, and contemplative questions for eight weeks of individual or group-setting Bible study. “The supplement is a men’s devotional book which examines the teaching points from the collection of stories,” according to Richt.
Of Richt’s collection of stories in the book, he was asked which one made the biggest impact on his life—of all the instances where he had to “make the call,” which decision has affected the former coach the most.
“If I had made the decision more than 35 years ago to go to Baton Rouge instead of Tallahassee, who knows where my life would have gone,” Richt said.
Prior to the 1985 football season, Richt had accepted a graduate assistant position at LSU. With a U-Haul already packed and set to leave for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the 25-year-old aspiring coach received a phone call from Bobby Bowden. The Florida State head coach offered Richt a graduate assistant role to help coach the quarterbacks under his guidance.
“I was just hours away from heading for Baton Rouge before Coach Bowden called. And once I left for Baton Rouge, I know, there was no way I would have turned around,” Richt said. “That one phone call from Coach Bowden not only changed everything in my football career, but it was also the turning point in my life, spiritually.”
A year later, Richt was steered by Bowden to a deeper religious faith following the murder of Pablo Lopez, an offensive tackle for the Seminoles. In addition, it was at Florida State where he met his wife, Katharyn, a cheerleader at the school. As a graduate assistant, followed by the team’s quarterbacks coach, and finally its offensive coordinator, Richt was also part of 14 consecutive (1987-2000) Seminole squads which finished ranked in the AP Poll’s top five before he became Georgia’s head coach in 2001.
“Whether to go to Florida State or not was a situation where I had to make the call. Like me, people are faced with crucial moments all the time when a significant decision must be made,” Richt said. “In Make the Call, the reader will be challenged to make the most important call of all in life.”
Make the Call, which is already in its second print run after being released just over two weeks ago, is available wherever books are sold. Richt will be signing copies of the book at the UGA Bookstore this Thursday, September 16, from 4 – 6 p.m.
