Mark Richt's consistency can't cut it anymore in Athens
Steve Spurrier. George O’Leary. Frank Beamer.
Over the last three weeks, Mark Richt has gotten three reminders that nothing lasts forever.
Some of the longest-tenured head coaches in the country have resigned from their positions over that span, and they’re the kind of men who each turned a graveyard into a garden. Consider that Spurrier is responsible for all three of the Gamecocks’ best seasons in terms of wins. O’Leary holds all four of the best seasons for the Knights. Beamer holds all 13 — yes, 13 — for the Hokies.
In his own right, Richt has maintained the Bulldogs’ backyard, but maintained doesn’t cut it between the hedges.
Georgia has put up 141 wins since he took over in 2001. The only Power 5 schools with more are Ohio State (158), Oklahoma (155), LSU (150) and USC (146). However, it’s the quality of the wins that’s more important. The Buckeyes, Tigers and Trojans all won national titles over that span, while the Sooners won the year right before that in 2000.
The Bulldogs have been ranked among the AP top 10 at some point in 11 of 15 seasons under Richt, which is phenomenal. However, they’ve only reached No. 1 once, and that was in 2008.
And Georgia has appeared in 18 straight bowls, 14 of which have come under Richt, and that’s tied for the 7th-longest active bowl appearance streak in the country. However, it doesn’t say much when the only major bowl appearances came in 2002, 2005 and 2007 — all in the Sugar Bowl — and the team hasn’t been to one since.
Not winning an SEC title in exactly 10 years doesn’t help either.
One could say all the consistency and success should still be reason to celebrate and that all of the above shortcomings are basically first world problems to many other developing schools. But that’s life, and death, in the SEC.
Richt has been as great of an ambassador as the school could’ve ever asked for, and he’s done it for 15 years. It wouldn’t be appropriate to fire Richt, who at the least should be asked to resign like his counterparts at those other programs have done recently. There’s just a sense in Athens that Richt simply isn’t hungry enough to put Georgia over the hump. He certainly fed Bulldogs fans more ammunition there when the team settled for a field goal inside the 10-yard line while trailing 20-0 in the third quarter against an archrival.
After the game, Richt essentially put a gag order on himself and his players, apparently because of what might be said on Twitter and such.
Richt said, “It’s one of those times you’ve got to guard your words.”
It’s ironic because by doing that, the rest of the country actually got a perfect view of the state of the Georgia program, and it’s not good. Putting tape over their mouths seemed like hitting a panic button, much like the decision to start quarterback Faton Bauta out of nowhere and throw him in the fire against a fearsome defense that wound up intercepting him 4 times. He said he felt like it was time to make a change at the position, but many are saying the same about his position now.
It isn’t like Richt hasn’t been in this spot before in his tenure at Georgia, but this feels different. Now, different seems like a concept worth entertaining with how Florida is doing under first-year coach Jim McElwain.
Richt has kept Georgia’s lawn looking like one of the best on the block for some time, but the school needs a change of scenery before things get uglier.
what do you all suggest? fire him and hire mcelwain?
We’ve seen how this plays out. Richt is the slightly less successful(no championship) Phil Fulmer. Phil was 152-52. He went 10 years without and SEC championship and got fired.
Firing the coach is easy part…hiring a new coach is hard. Everyone pays big money now and coaches realize that it’s not good enough to just win 75% of your games at theses schools. For big names it’s not worth the risk. So you end up with Brent Venables or something like that.
unless you’re florida. mcelwain is killing it.
Too early to write McElwain’s bio @ Florida. truevol makes a great point about the difficulty in finding a new coach, especially after you fire one who has had so much success just because he couldn’t reach the mountaintop. How many times has this strategy worked vs the number of times it has completely blown up in a team’s face?
Coming from Bama, I completely understand the overwhelming want to win it all. I don’t discount that. But I feel there’s more to it than just winning at the collegiate level. Look at a coach like Joe Pa. (Leave the Sandusky thing out and focus on the field and in the classroom) It took him 16 years to win a title and he finished with just 2 in 45 years as head coach. But he ran a great, clean program that consistently produced quality teams and great young men. I think everyone would agree that Richt runs such a program in Athens and he is a wonderful ambassador for that school. Georgia has right now what a majority of the programs across the nation only wish they had. I totally get the frustration of failing to meet expectations the last several years, but will firing him really be the best move for the future of Georgia or will it simply placate the frustrations of the fans over the short term only to enhance them over the long term?
The atmosphere of entitlement at Georgia is a far bigger problem than any coach could ever approach. Success does not come from who the media says you are. It comes from every team’s work ethic (and yes leadership too). It a common problem at the college level, nobody want to sweat the details. If the coaching staff at Georgia has a problem, then it is shared by lots of other coaching staffs (certainly Missouri’s staff has some ruts to get out of). My way of staying out of this rut was to set aside lots of time for professional advancement. Then during the season constant check my application of these thru detailed goals. Once the season starts it is very hard to find the time for consulting but if time could be made, it’s possible even that could be coordinated.
I’ve noticed that there are a lot of Mizzou fans that are starting (really since 2007) to adopt a similar attitude. It seems that most of our “loud” fans have either forgoten, repressed the memories or weren’t alive during the Mizzou dark ages between Al Onofrio and Larry Smith.
right on target
Wolfman, hit the nail on the head with the statement, “the atmosphere of entitlement at Georgia is a far bigger problem than any coach could ever approach”. Georgia fans and the media are sending out the message to potential coaches, that if you don’t win a championship there, then you will be forced out, even if you have on average 9-10 wins in a regular season. It’s going to take a special coach to want to work under that kind pressure especially with some many other openings that have fan bases that would be a little more patient.
I seem to remember UF and UF fans wanting to get rid of Muschamp. Y’all gave him 4 years. Richt has had double that time, but it’s not right for UGA and UGA fans to want more? Hypocrite much?
Will Muschamp’s record at Florida was 7-6, 11-2, 4-8, and 6-5. With a record like that, it was time for a change. So your argument is invalid. Mark Richt has a winning record at Georgia. You Georgia fans want to get rid of a coach that has a winning record.
You are contradicting yourself. You fired a man with a winning record(28-20) no matter how you slice it. What are your standards? Is it what Steve Spurrier accomplished at fla? Is it what Urban Meyers accomplished at fla? 1* Tell us.
Tuberville got fired with a 85-40(1 secc) record and Gene Chizik got fired a season after they won the nc(33-19 record). Ga fans have been very patient sir.
1* Spurrier(12 seasons) won 1 nc, 6 seccs and 42-26 against rank teams Urban Meyer(6 seasons) won 2 ncs, 2 seccs and 18-10 against rank teams. Mark Richt won 2 seccs and he’s 39-40 against rank teams. Last sec title 05.
If you want to know how to pick the right hc for your football program go to rival.com and click on the recruiting ranking index link then go to espn and click on the cfb schedule link. Find a coach then look at his recruiting ranking record then compare it to each opponent on his schedule. Look at his win against teams with lesser talent, equal talent and more talent vice versa. This system is very accurate.
Triple that time***
im sorry 68% not 52% my math was all messed up but still worse than Richts in the first 15 years
Y’all are crazy. Wolfman missed that nail and hit his thumb. If 10-15 years isn’t patient, I’m not sure what is.
Georgia fans don’t have a problem with having a 9-10 win year season, which we haven’t done since 2012 (Not counting the “complimentary” Belk Bowl), and won’t do it this year. We have a problem with having one of the hottest recruiting beds in the country, sending loads of talent to the NFL, but yet not winning a championship since 1980, or at least the SEC since 2005.
“Georgia has put up 140 wins since he took over in 2001. The only Power 5 schools with more are Ohio State (157), Oklahoma (154), LSU (148) and USC (146). However, it’s the quality of the wins that’s more important. The Buckeyes, Tigers and Trojans all won national titles over that span, while the Sooners won the year right before that in 2000.”
What don’t you understand?
I’m a UGA fan and as one it kills me to see people with attitudes like yours. First of all Richt is 55 he is not 70 so the spurrier, o’leary, beamer thing is a mute point. We do not have a reliable qb we lost our Heisman hopeful RB for the season, and our other top running back has a broken hand. It is hard to play in the SEC gauntlet to begin with and then you throw those factors in on top of that.. its damn near impossible. UGA fans like you have gotten your heads blown up and i would say that it has to do with how HCMR has turned the program around. From 1989-2000 we were 86-53 pretty damn mediocre for an entire decade. Since richt has come in we are 141 and 50.. A vast improvement but that doesn’t give you the right to “Expect” national titles.. I don’t know if you know this but vince dooley didn’t win his first national title until his 16th season as head coach and the year before that he went 6-5.. should have fired him too.. then maybe we wouldn’t have a damn NC. Get over yourself.. seriously
Finally, a realistic UGA fan!
Get over myself? lol Get off your high horse.
I actually do know that about Dooley and his 6-5 record in ’79. I think Richt will be around next year and it’ll be his last shot to prove himself. Crazier things have happened.
I highly doubt our coaching staff will remain as it is this year though. Schottenheimer may be gone. We may actually hire a special teams coach finally.
And by last chance, I mean if we see a vast improvement with Eason & Co. coming in.
moot
So in vince dooleys first 15 years he was 118-56 so he won 52% of his games… why didn’t we fire him?
Why does UGA have a QB problem? Because of talent evaluation? Watson, just to name one, wanted to play QB for UGA but CMR wanted him to switch positions. Chubb was the #4 RB heading into last season & only got a chance due to injuries ahead of him. I mention this because it goes with talent evaluation. Also there are two 5* RB’s behind Chubb not one. For every example of a coaching change that didn’t immediately work out there is another coaching change that did. UGA is a job that will draw high caliber coaches!!
The problem is that there are almost 130 other teams with the same goal. Only a handful of those programs have a legitimate shot at achieving that goal but UGA falls in a conference that has more than it’s fair share of contenders. The risk of releasing Richt is not getting a national championship or having a winning record year after year.
A lot of comments here that are well worth reading twice. One more thing, don’t read the word “entitlement” in too narrow a context. It applies to recruiting services, recruits, starters, bench warmers, freshmen, seniors, head coach, equipment managers, media, media consumers, ticket buyers, bloggers, the richest alum, and the poorest student. Because when the wrong attitude has a broad foundation it’s hard to change, and when two teams meet and one has a better foundation than the other, talent has to be overwhelming to compensate.
Well here we go again you guys don’t realize that you are making a case for how good CMR is when you bring up recruiting vs wins and NFL players. According to Rivals and 24/7 Sports from 2010-2014 UGA brought in only the 5th best recruiting class in the SEC yet has won the 3rd most conference games and placed the 2nd most players into the NF over that same time period.
Further, UF won 2 National championships in the last 10 years, so you kinda look like a jackass saying we should be more patient.
Texdawg, hate to say it but locstar77 is right. Just like Atlanta Braves fans, we are so spoiled. We have years of winning seasons and maybe not the big championship win, but we do have winning seasons. I am also a Falcons fan and same attitude about the same subject…”we need a championship!!!” Easier said and seen than done. Of course everyone wants to win a championship including me, but we have to be realistic. I used to sit in the Fulton County Stadium and watch the Falcons play along with the other 12,000 fan base for years. We were once called “Loserville” in Atlanta because all our Atlanta AND Georgia college teams did not hardly ever have winning seasons. Please do not complain to ME about not winning a championship!
I live near Atlanta and see the same thing. I also used to live in NOLA and pulled for the ‘Aints’ back in the day. I will guarantee you, and other UGA fans, you will not get an SEC or National Championship without having a consistent winning record. Championships are few and far between and most schools never come close to that level.
Great man, not so great coach. No spiked ball on the Bama 5 in the almost certainly national championship game, bone head play vs SC last year on their 4 yd line, blown GT win in the last 15 seconds on squib kick, not ready for a fake fg vs West Virginia in the Atlanta sugar bowl and on and on and on. Most recently, using Bauta to QB vs Florida with a Lambert game plan. No killer instinct when the other team is down like Bama’s post pattern TD when they got on top of UGA this year. Richt and his boys need to go.
And of course just not showing up for the FLA game last year…..
I tend–from beginning to end–to agree with Armydawg’s analysis. Coach Richt is truly a great man! And, i think the caliber of athletes he has drawn to Athens during his tenure is largely reflective of his character. (In fact, i’d love to see him kept on in some kind of recruiting role). That notwithstanding, these repeated big play errors have become too common. (And to me you might add starting a running QB and never really utilizing his running ability.) Even more important (for my thinking) is the unimaginative offense over the years. There is next to no mystery for the defense facing our Dawgs! That makes it very difficult to beat those programs who have (at least) equal talent, which may well explain success against weaker foes but failure against top competition. I am rather confused what happened between Bowden’s version of the greatest show on turf to our Bulldogs’ dullest show on turf, under the leadership of the same coach. Quite odd! Whether Coach Richt (or any of our staff) stay or go, we must infuse into our offense some mystery (misdirection, motion, pic plays like the ones that got UT into the end zone TWICE against us, etc.). MUST! Stellar example for me is that, even after getting burnt by BAMA’s fake bubble screen for a forward pass earlier this season, somehow we couldn’t figure to do the same to an opposing defense who was totally selling out against OUR bubble screen. Slip the blocker out, send him down the sideline for crying out loud. Perhaps we’ll be crying out loud if we dismiss Coach Richt then return to the level of mediocrity that marked his predecessors. Perhaps. If we get almost anyone who will try to confuse the defense a bit, i bet i’ll be less likely to throw something through my TV screen when watching the offense of UGa. UGh!
Seems like a hard choice… consistent decent performer or take a chance on someone new? Tennessee screwed up getting rid of Fulmer all those years ago and is still feeling the affects.
As a Gator, I want all rival programs in complete disarray at first thought, but as a fellow SEC East team, I want our division to reclaim the glory days when the East destroyed the West every year and that starts with Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee being great programs.
Florida looks to be on the road to recovery and gives the East it’s best chance since, well, Florida in 2009, to win the SEC Championship. Georgia is Georgia… always good for a loss to keep them out and let a lesser team like Missouri represent our division for the last couple years. Tennessee looks to be getting screwed with bad luck this year, but I would say, with bitten tongue, that they look to be well on their way to recover IF their coaching staff can learn to close out games.
So go lightly Georgia fans… You could pull a Florida and get an immediate positive change, or you could pull a Tennessee and be adrift for a decade looking for the way to get back to past glory.
Last year “lesser” Missouri lead the SEC East to a perfect 5-0 bowl record. The media still hasn’t admitted they largely ignored that phenomenon. Without those wins, the SEC would have had an overwhelming losing bowl record and would not have a team in the CFP this year.
In 2013 /4 bowl season Auburn got beat by a criminal quarterback, Alabama got soundly beaten by big-mouth-Bob Stubbs, b u t t h e v e r y n e x t n i g h t “lesser” Missouri avenged by beating Oklahoma State.
Seems like SEC West teams draw tougher gigs than East teams! Auburn was at least playing in the NC game. Which game was Mizzou in?
There seems to be a lot of non-Georgia fans really invested in the coaching staff at Georgia. Mark Richt is probably one of the most moral and upstanding coaches in all of college football, but at some point, it’s a game and it’s about winning those games. I don’t think the problem is that Mark Richt has had several seasons with 9, 10, or 11 wins, I think Georgia fan’s frustrations concern how they’ve had a talented enough roster more than one season to win a national championship and Mark Richt can’t seem to get over the hump to even get in the game. Richt is a great guy and good coach but so was Terry Bowden and so was Tommy Tuberville. At some point, “he’s a great guy and good coach” doesn’t replace the other SEC teams waving their conference and nation championship’s in your face.
*Disclaimer for those talking about Chizik: Gene Chizik was one of the biggest hiring mistakes Auburn football has ever made, he is our Mike Shula. Difference is, he had Guz Malzahn and Trooper Taylor recruiting for him so he become the luckiest coach in college football history when Cam Newton won him a national championship. He got fired because his staff started finding better jobs, the recruits left, and he was exposed for being the mediocre head coach that he is.
Tuberville might have gotten Auburn further up the ladder if a couple of a$$ho!es had not been sawing at the ladder base. That hurt Auburn in a number of ways, including trying to recruit a replacement coach.
Answer: “Steve Spurrier. George O’Leary. Frank Beamer.”
Question: Name three coaches that are leaving schools that would love to have Mark Richt and may be offering him a job at this moment?
“Georgia has put up 140 wins since he took over in 2001. The only Power 5 schools with more are Ohio State (157), Oklahoma (154), LSU (148) and USC (146).”
But not good enough for some UGA fans. Be careful what you wish for.
I can understand UGA wanting a change but his record does sort of “cut it between the hedges”. 35 years since a national championship and 8 SEC championships since 1966 is not really a stellar tradition. Good but not great.
However, I do agree that UGA has the resources – both in talent and facilities – to be more competitive. That argument holds merit, that is the argument you use to change things up not trumping up a decent tradition as if it were a great tradition.
Georgia is ranked 4th according to the number of players on current NFL rosters. Out the top 5 teams ranked according to that category (USC, FSU, AL, LSU, UGA) Georgia is the only one of them to have not won a National Championship in the last 10 years. They also haven’t won the SEC championship in 10 years. That may just be an anomaly but tt is definitely consistently doing less with more over time.
I sorry but when a coach recruits a player amd that player “sells the institution” a dream, how is it the coaches fault? Coach Richt has ALWAYS played by the rules, coached by the rules and recruited by those very same rules…. It shouldn’t be his fault that that player does a 360 once they get enrolled in UGA, gets handed a full “FREE RIDE” towards a University of Georgia degreee and gets national spotlight. I say Coach Richt deserves a little more understanding..
And Im not a Georgia fan FAR FROM IT..But this man is whom I wish would one day recruit my son.
How do we Dawg fans know it is time for him to go. Most all of us knew we didn’t have a chance in hell beating Fla. Sometimes people just need a change. Nothing is guaranteed.
The program has grown stale, the dawgs have not scored a TD in the last two games~! Recruiting will fall off, and will continue to get worse. Sometimes, everyone just needs a change of scenery~! A breathe of fresh air, whatever~! He will get another job if he wants it~! Someplace else~!
Let me explain the frustration of us Dawg fans a little bit more. Yes, we are jealous of our certain rivals winning championships with lesser quality players. Yes, we are in disarray over what to do. Yes, we love Richt as a good person. Yes, we are grateful for the moments. But it is a Ford vs. Chevy deal all over. Richt is a Mark Martin all the way. Great guy, just couldn’t get over the hump to win a championship. Personality is very dull.Us fans wants a Earnhardt, Jr. Someone thats has great potential and makes every race exciting. Does not win as much but races hard. If Richt was more vocal, showed more emotion, not be monotone, have passion, willing to gamble with desire, his losses would not be of to much of concern. Getting blown out week in and week out with the kumbaya my lord let’s hold hands I love you attitude, doesn’t cut it. So we must decide the Martin or the Earnhardt mentality. BlackOut, RedOut, RichtOut.