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How Mark Richt went from fired bartender to UM football coach

Before he was one of the most recognizable names in college football and before he led the Miami Hurricanes to their first Coastal Division crown and first 10-win season in more than a decade, Mark Richt was a failed, fired bartender. And a struggling valet.

The classes Richt took to learn how to sell life insurance? Those didn’t exactly go as planned. Selling gym memberships wasn’t his forte, either.

But Richt kept pushing, pursuing his football dreams. And during an appearance Wednesday morning at the YMCA of South Palm Beach County’s Inspiration Breakfast, the coach detailed how faith and perseverance have brought him to this point in his life, a point where he’s tasked with not only leading a major college football program, but trying to be the best husband and father he can be.