Mark Richt couldn’t lead Georgia to a national title. But Kirby Smart may be on his way to guiding the Bulldogs to a championship, as they’re currently the No. 1 team in the country after getting off to an 8-0 start this season.

Even though Richt’s tenure at Georgia ended when he got fired in 2015, that hasn’t changed the way he and his family feel about the program.

“We love Georgia; we always have,” Richt told Chip Towers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week. “We poured our lives into it. I think the fans at least respect the job we did and how we did it. They know we cared about Athens and cared about the university and cared about the players. And we won a bunch of games. We just didn’t win enough, or we didn’t win the national championship, to be specific. But did we leave it better than we found it? Probably.”

Since Smart took over as the Bulldogs’ head coach prior to the 2016 season, the university has upgraded many aspects of the football program. That included the additions of an indoor practice facility, upgrades to Sanford Stadium and the construction of a football operations building that is nearing completion.

Richt has been impressed by it all when he’s been back to Athens to visit.

“Well, it just didn’t happen in my time,” Richt said, per Towers. “But I’ve gotten a chance to see most of it and it’s pretty spectacular, I can say that. It certainly helps in recruiting and people’s impression of how serious is Georgia when it comes to being great to being the best. You can see it.”

This Saturday, Richt will be in Athens again as he’s set to be honored by Georgia for his contributions to the team. He was the head coach from 2001-15, and then he spent 3 seasons as the head coach at Miami from 2016-18.

Georgia and Missouri are set to kick off on Saturday at noon ET on ESPN.