Why CMU QB Daniel Richardson is ready for his breakthrough moment
Benedict Hyppolite remembers gathering his entire offense in the parking lot of a hotel the night before they won a championship.
Coming into the 2015 Florida 4A state title game, Booker T. Washington High School's offensive coordinator told his team to expect a battle. He knew that Jacksonville Raines would be the team's toughest test.
"Don't be surprised if we get challenged in this game," Hyppolite recalls telling his team. "It's gonna be okay. Just continue to chop wood, continue to compete. Somebody will make a breakthrough."
Sure enough, the Tornadoes were challenged. Trailing 23-22 and backed up against their end zone, Hyppolite dialed up a play to let his freshman prodigy quarterback show off his arm.
Daniel Richardson took the snap and dropped back until his feet tapped the white line of his end zone. Then, he stepped up, looked quickly to his left and then back to the right, firing a pass up the seam and finding Gustavious Dames, etching the pair into the record books with the longest touchdown pass in Florida state championship history.
The freshman provided the breakthrough.
"That opened up the game for us," Hyppolite said via phone almost five years later. "That allowed us to get comfortable, separate and win that game."
Now, just 18 months into his tenure at CMU, Richardson has become the starting quarterback. Through a mixture of playmaking, arm strength and knowledge of the game far beyond his years, Richardson’s coaches, past and present, believe he’s ready for his opportunity.
To fully understand Richardson’s path to his debut, it starts when he was a five-year-old linebacker playing catch in the backyard.
A South Florida celebrity
Speaking on ‘The Coach Mac Show,’ Richardson spoke of switching sides of the ball at the urging of his Godfather, who nicknamed him "Daunte Culpepper," after the 11-year NFL veteran.
This one day set in motion one of the winningest careers in South Florida football history.
Playing youth league football with the Pembroke Pines Optimist Bengals, Richardson was 56-0 and won four straight youth league Super Bowls. He secured a scholarship offer from Florida International after his eighth-grade season and shot up the leaderboards as one of Florida’s best quarterbacks in the class of 2019.
He landed at Booker T. Washington, where Hyppolite and the coaching staff initially wanted him to ease into the starting role. After all, what freshman is ready to take on a starting quarterback role at a school with three consecutive state titles?
In short, Richardson was the answer.
“From the way he conducted himself in the spring ball and coming and throwing the ball around a bit and the way he went into the summer camp and trained and 7-on-7’s and passing camps, man, he won the locker room,” Hyppolite said. “ ... Everybody gravitated around him and supported him and wanted him to be the starter, so he won that just based on his day-to-day, how he carried himself with his maturity level and the work ethic that he put in.”
Around that time, Richardson began working with Oliver Bozeman, founder of “Bozeman Quarterbacks” and one of the best quarterback trainers in the area. Under Bozeman, Richardson began learning the importance of analyzing pre- and post-snap reads of opponents.
Richardson’s mastery of this skill is something that sets him apart, Bozeman says.
“One thing I do with all our quarterbacks is, they get on the board first and we’re able to identify coverages,” Bozeman said. “ ... With him doing this stuff at a young age, it makes it a little easier for him. It gives him a kind of heads up for what he’s supposed to do in college.”
Richardson was unable to completely replicate the success of his freshman season throughout the next two years but began climbing the passing leaderboards in Miami-Dade County. By his senior season, the all-time passing record was in sight.
Before he could achieve it, though, he had to make a decision: Stay at Booker T. Washington, or transfer to Carol City, where Hyppolite had become the head coach.
He chose the latter, teaming up with his former offensive coordinator for one last state title run. This decision was no small one, by any means. Richardson had established himself as a celebrity throughout the area, which meant this decision had national ramifications.
“It was almost shocking news,” Hyppolite said. “There was media all over. Every hallway, every community, every household, every park. Youth league parks, kids around there knew what type of quarterback was coming. ... The kids looked up to him.”
With Richardson behind center, Carol City spent time as the top team in the country in 2018 before falling in the second round of the state playoffs. Once his high school career ended, it became time to look to the future.
In addition to FIU, Richardson had offers from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Tennessee-Martin and Toledo. Many schools were hesitant because of his size, but there was still plenty of interest.
The recruiting journey, as extensive as it was, ended when Hyppolite received a phone call from a Mount Pleasant, Michigan area code.
‘A match made in heaven’
Jim McElwain was announced as CMU’s head coach on Dec. 2, 2018.
One of his first phone calls on the job was to Carol City High – he wanted to talk to Richardson. McElwain had grown familiar with Richardson from watching the high schooler compete at 7-on-7 camps all over the country.
Pleased with what he saw, McElwain phoned Hyppolite intending to bring Richardson to his program. Richardson and his family visited the school, and Hyppolite said the decision was almost made right away.
“I thought it was a match made in heaven,” Hyppolite said. “I always thought he was going to be successful there. I think Jim McElwain does a phenomenal job with quarterbacks and with offenses.”
With Richardson and his family on board, McElwain had his quarterback of the future. Spending a majority of his 2019 campaign on the sideline, Richardson had the chance to grow his understanding of the game and the Chippewas’ offensive scheme.
In the offseason, with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down spring ball, Richardson returned home and began working with Bozeman. During that time, he worked out with Denver Broncos receiver Jerry Jeudy and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and former Chippewa wideout Antonio Brown.
Richardson put the ball in a spot where Jeudy and Brown did not have to break stride.
“He’s continued to show the elite arm strength required to play at the college and NFL level,” Bozeman said. “Just his ability to keep up with the speed of those guys because you know Antonio Brown, Jerry Jeudy, those guys are some of the fastest guys on the planet."
Now, Richardson has a chance to show off his understanding of the game, his elite arm strength and playmaking ability. McElwain named him the starter going forward as the Chippewas continue to await an answer on the status of David Moore.
According to McElwain, Richardson has grown leaps and bounds since enrolling in the program 18 months ago.
"(Richardson's) a guy that really is able to make plays and create," McElwain said. "He's not a fast guy, not ultra-mobile but he does an outstanding job of seeing the field and creating explosive (plays)."
Until Moore is cleared, the team is in Richardson’s hands. If he plays well enough, the redshirt freshman may never relinquish the job.
It's Richardson's time to breakthrough. Just like it was five years ago in the 4A state championship game.
The Chippewas are counting on him to replicate the magic he created in the Citrus Bowl five years ago.
