Richt believes Georgia is poised for a bounce-back season
Georgia coach Mark Richt believes the Dogs can avoid some of the problems that plagued recent teams. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
Here’s a sneak peek at a column that will appear in print in this Sunday’s special AJC College Football Section. The 34-page section will preview Georgia State, Georgia Tech and UGA seasons, the SEC and ACC, top games, Heisman candidates and more.
Nine years ago, Mark Richt lost his first SEC game as a head coach (to South Carolina) and started 4-3 in a conference that generally doesn’t allow for long honeymoon periods, at least not outside of Vanderbilt.
It wasn’t the usual backdrop for what would happen in the next four years. Richt went 44-9 overall and 25-7 in the SEC. He won two conference titles at a school that hadn’t won one since 1982. He won a Sugar Bowl.
What has occurred since at Georgia is less a market correction than it is a changing landscape. Think of the SEC as a boulevard of resort hotels. Richt built what seemed like Xanadu in 2002. The problem came when Les Miles, Florida and Alabama built more lavish structures down the street.
LSU, Florida and Alabama didn’t just win SEC championships. They won national championships — the last four, in fact. Over that same period, Richt went 20-12 in the SEC without making it to the conference title game once.
Xanadu began to look like a slightly weathered Marriott.
Which brings us to 2010. Georgia is not crumbling and Richt is not on the firing line. There has, however, been a leveling off in Athens. To deny that would be like a hotel owner ignoring the other properties that are stealing his business.
The Dogs are somewhere back in the vapor trail left by Florida and Alabama. Richt’s not in denial — otherwise he wouldn’t have fired three assistant coaches after going 8-5 (4-4) last season.
The question now: Is this the bounce-back year? Possibly. Richt may never have a better chance to quiet critics.
The potential pitfalls of starting a redshirt freshman quarterback, Aaron Murray, should be minimized by an experienced offensive line and two key weapons for Murray to feed: A.J. Green and Washaun Ealey. The defense should be significantly improved under Todd Grantham (who is switching to a 3-4).
The schedule? Instead of opening against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, as in 2009, the Bulldogs open against Louisiana-Lafayette in Athens. They don’t play Alabama. They don’t play LSU. They do play Florida, but it would be surprising if the Gators didn’t feel the loss of nine starters in the first five rounds of the NFL draft, including: Tim Tebow, Joe Haden, Maurkice Pouncey, Carlos Dunlap and the serial eye-gouger, Brandon Spikes.
There’s also this: Richt just feels better about his team. Granted, all coaches like their team before opening kickoff, but Richt’s confidence is rooted in something legitimate: strength and stability on his offensive line.
“I like our maturity on offense,” he said. “You see it especially up front, even the non-glamour positions if you want to throw in the fullbacks.
“There’s something about when your offensive linemen are your sages, your veterans, your leaders. When they’re running it, things tend to go well. They’re pretty grounded. They’re not glamorous. They’re really the most unselfish guys on the team. ”
Glamour seldom is Georgia’s problem. It seldom gets more glamorous than Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno in the same backfield. But that was in 2008, and a pre-season No. 1 team wound up getting drilled by Alabama and Florida, losing at home to Georgia Tech and settling for the Capital One Bowl.
Georgia’s problems have been in other areas: a lack of discipline, sometimes passion, sometimes just a seeming willingness to punch the opponent in the mouth.
Experience and the arrival of Grantham, who’s far more fiery than Martinez, should help in those areas. But fire starts at the top and Richt needs to light one with his team.
This season could start well — very well. If the Dogs can get past early tests against South Carolina and Arkansas, they could be 8-0 going to Jacksonville. But Richt knows better than to play “the schedule game.”
“I used to do it more than I do now,” he said. “What year was it – Stafford’s freshman year [2006]? I kind of did it that year a little bit. We didn’t have a great season. Everything looked different than it was. So I don’t do that any more.”
The Dogs were coming off Richt’s second SEC title that year but they went 4-4 in the conference in 2006. The landscape changed. Richt, going into his 10th season, realized Georgia required some renovation.
Now we find out what the place looks like.
♦
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283 comments Add your comment
CHDawg
August 26th, 2010
8:05 pm
One more point: as Boling alluded, the injuries in the line gave the backups more 1st team reps and could actually help our depth up front! That is why SC and ARK are critical–our first team might not be in great shape until a month into the season, or even a little more.
Russ, the Temporary Mascot
August 26th, 2010
8:15 pm
Well, I guess Richt can believe anything he wants. But I watched those guys practice. At least we won’t have to worry about anyone getting a brain injury. It’s kinda hard for anybody to get at anything so small when it’s surrounded by so much muscle and fat. I mean, putting on a jersey right-side-out is a 50-50 thing. The good part is, I felt like a mental giant on the field, and I’m including the coaches.
At least we won’t need to go to Shreveport in December. It’s the ACC’s turn. Somebody’s got to take the hit, and it might as well be them.
Ted Striker
August 26th, 2010
8:18 pm
Jeff — Xanadu is nice but I’ve also had some pretty good times with cocktail waitresses at weathered Marriott’s.
p.s. I’d trade a 10-2 season for two “10’s” any night of the week.
Russ, the Temporary Mascot
August 26th, 2010
8:23 pm
The 8:15 post is not from the original a$$ painted Russ. Somebody has taken my name. Probably an a$$ painter.
dawgster
August 26th, 2010
8:26 pm
Hey dawgfan…take it easy on the gators you might hurt their feelings..whether the eye gouging goes on or not alot of times, it still is a classless thing to do…i’m hearing some strong praises for our secondary..They will knock your head off from what i have been told…Its going to make the receivers a little bit skiddish coming across the middle with the new attitude and scheme that the new coaches have brought…go dawgs
Beast from the East
August 26th, 2010
9:25 pm
dawgster,
About as classy as the entire team storming the filed after a first quarter touchdonw while mocking the opponents, grabbing their crotches and talking trash? Yeah, I gotta agree that one kid retaliating in the heat of the moment is worse than that. It amazing the different perspective peole have from one side of the fence to the other.
Rennie
August 26th, 2010
9:26 pm
I sincerely hope this is Richt’s last year at UGA. Let him go to a lower division school where he can win championships. He’s never going to do that in Athens.
Of course, he won’t be making $3,000,000+ a year at a smaller school.
Beast from the East
August 26th, 2010
9:27 pm
typo….it’s and people are mispelled. One too many Jameson and waters perhaps? We’ll never know!
TECH STILL SUCK'S
August 26th, 2010
9:40 pm
8 out of 9 and more to come, how is that for a REALITY CHECK !
Harry the Hat
August 26th, 2010
9:49 pm
Why is LOSER Mark Richt still here? He’s not doing his job, which is to – at least – win the SEC.
His azz should be fired. Now.
Kal
August 26th, 2010
9:51 pm
Oh my goodness, red panties are falling from the sky!!!
Hunker Down
August 26th, 2010
10:10 pm
Cut down the silly penalties and turn over ratio and Dawgs should do well!
Hunker Down
August 26th, 2010
10:14 pm
Tampa gator
Whats with the players quitting UF?
dawgster
August 26th, 2010
10:16 pm
Hey Beast from the East…I guess the gators never talk trash or grab their crotches or do the gator chomp in the faces of other players, no they wouldn’t do that…Hey lets agree that alot unclassy things take place way too often on the football field…i will give you that the dawgs storming the field was not a smart move, and they paid for it with the penalties and the never ending publicity…but to try and hurt another player, intentionally, well i don’t think they are apples and apples….but what happened with the eye gouge fortunately did become serious, and Spikes has probably paid somewhat of a price from the respect side for that…Have a good night..will talk later…
Jeff Schultz
August 26th, 2010
10:18 pm
Falcon Fan — I really think they’re going to have a pretty good year and surprise people. Not sure about winning SEC East though but believe it’ll come down to one game (Florida).
Jeff Schultz
August 26th, 2010
10:19 pm
DawginLex — Check’s in the mail.
Jeff Schultz
August 26th, 2010
10:24 pm
Gatorbait 17-3 — I’m sure a few are smoldering. But most are realistic and can’t deny last few years.
Jeff Schultz
August 26th, 2010
10:24 pm
Sogadog — Thanks.
bigcalidawg
August 26th, 2010
10:28 pm
What if they let the offensive lineman pick the plays?!
Just sayin………….
Jeff Schultz
August 26th, 2010
10:28 pm
Ted Striker — Do you get Marriott points for that?
bigcalidawg
August 26th, 2010
10:31 pm
” I’d trade a 10-2 season for two “10’s” any night of the week.”
Whoa…….talk about takin one for the team.
You gonna shag 2 fugly ones for the DAWGS.
HAHA….GATA!
Buzzzed
August 26th, 2010
10:49 pm
Same caliber team + easier schedule = bounce back season
TampaGator
August 26th, 2010
11:12 pm
Beast from the East…..
Thanks for asking. Retirement is good. Fishing is not. Way too much rain. I haven’t even walked down Clearwater Beach to Caladesi Island yet. The wife has me busy with a lot of “Honey Does” and trips to here and there.
Dawgfan….
Spikes made a serious mistake in doing what he did that day. Meyer sat him down for one game for it. Other than that, Brandon Spikes was a total class act while he was at Florida (but you can think and post whatever you want about him)….he was a good student, an excellent leader, and played four years at Florida. The coach of the NE Patriots currently thinks very highly of his leadership skills and his football talent.
Hunker down….
Coxson, the freshman WR, transferred to Maryland. He was listed #12 of 12 receivers and was going to be redshirted. He was also a lot slower than advertised and probably wasn’t going to play a lot at Florida with the other freshman WR talent on campus…Dunkley, Patton, Ali, Dunbar (who has been the best of all), and one other kid I can’t think of right now.
Jordan Haden (Joe’s brother), was fourth on the depth chart and no where near the player his older brother was. He left school (he said his missed his family back home on the east coast) and has not announced if he is transferring to another school or not. I don’t think he liked college football or the Florida hot weather. It is funny that he quit because his other brother (a running back) just announced that he is transferring from Boston College to play at Florida.
Someone posted on the internet that Ronald Powell and Dominique Easley had quit the team (because they supposedly did not come to practice on Tuesday). Well, they didn’t quit. Easley had permission to miss practice to work out a personal problem that had nothing to do with football and was back at practice on Wednesday and is in the DL rotation already. Powell was at practice on Tuesday but left early because he was frustrated (it is said that he had an attitude and was not working hard in practice or in the weight room and some of the vets on the team got on him big time during practice and he got pissed and left the field. The coaches called him in later and talked to him and he was also back at practice on Wednesday and Meyer said he had his best practice yet. He needed an attidue adjustment like many high school prima donnas have when they come to college and they are no longer the best player on the field (that tells you a little bit about the talent on the Gator team when a “Ronald Powell” becomes just another player on the Gator practice field).
ATL Dawg…..Spikes did a “punk” think….but he was about as far from being a “punk” as anyone could be. As I said, he was a big time leader and a class act during his 4-year stay in Gainesville…except for that one unfortunate incident. And now he is a class act in New England for the Patriots. Great kid. Great football player. Period.
david
August 26th, 2010
11:25 pm
you people are all idiots–check facts and stats b4 spouting your bs.
Hairy Dawg
August 26th, 2010
11:28 pm
Dawgs will be showing dominants this year with Wet Wille told to pack the road. We got the SEC talent and speeds to winning and chipping off shoulders. Coach Richt is showing the good coaching and that why he not hot seating. We winning east this year and goning more to.
Hunker Down
August 26th, 2010
11:32 pm
Sorry to see the injuries on the OL Tampa. We got a few dings ourselves on the ol but hopefully our guys will be well by the start of the season. The kid with the pin put in wrist how long is he loss for?
Hairy Dawg
August 26th, 2010
11:33 pm
Spikes is a punk things and so is that arrogant Oscar Myer hot dogs coach whoose nervous breaking.
david
August 26th, 2010
11:37 pm
good God— u people need to turn off your computers and talk to your family–its COLLEGE football for Christ’s sake. Is it life & death? jack wagons
Dear Russ
August 26th, 2010
11:41 pm
You’re not the first to receive special treatment. In the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Sonny Seiler mentions brushing talcum powder on a grayish spot on UGA’s head before the game so he looks good “for the cameras”
GT BABY
August 27th, 2010
12:30 am
.
GT BABY
August 27th, 2010
12:31 am
LET ME GUESS GEORGIA FANS…..YALL ARE GOING TO WIN THE SEC AND THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS? THERE’S A SHOCKER! YALL ARE FREAKING RETARDED!
1980 THWG!
Jeffrey Ledawgski
August 27th, 2010
5:37 am
Mr Schultz:
Don’t forget the special teams duo: best in the nation
That’s pretty sweet.
GO DAWGS!
12-2
August 27th, 2010
6:43 am
I like our maturity on Offense ?
What ?
You mean the guys Starting with the BETTER PLAYERS buried on the depth chart because they are YOUNGER (BETTER, but YOUNGER.)
No, you mean the QB position, right Coach Richt ?
All Freshmen
TECH STILL SUCK'S
August 27th, 2010
6:46 am
TECH STILL CANT WIN A BOWL GAME
Bigeazy
August 27th, 2010
7:31 am
10-2 this season but everything is riding on us winning at the Chicken coupe
bamafan
August 27th, 2010
7:36 am
Chicken coupe? Which model car is that?
bamafan
August 27th, 2010
7:39 am
Simple Simon – since your point is that Richt has had a better first 9 years than did Bear, should I conclude that his next 28 will be as good as Bear’s? Gonna have to kick some real a$$ to come up with 5 more national titles, 3 national coach of the year awards, and 13 more conference championships…………Coach Richt is a good guy, but I don’t think anyone believes he is the second coming of Bear Bryant.
Bigeazy
August 27th, 2010
7:43 am
You know the model Bamafan it is that model they make over in Columbia SC
Joey
August 27th, 2010
7:48 am
Replace Bobo with a bright, creative, young NFL mind, and the Dawgs will be back on top in ‘11. if Richt doesn’t see this, maybe McGarity will!
Harry the Hat
August 27th, 2010
7:57 am
Which brings us to 2010. Georgia is not crumbling and Richt is not on the firing line. There has, however, been a leveling off in Athens.
A leveling off, yes. Leveling off at mediocrity and irrelevancy. What happens in Athens is now only a minor sideshow in the SEC.
And nothing will change untill Richt is run out of town.
Carson
August 27th, 2010
8:01 am
All of you defending CMR with his “10 wins a year average” need to know that it translates into a 7-4 season back in the 10 gane regular season. Is that worth $3M a year?
No, it isn’t.
WonderDawg
August 27th, 2010
8:04 am
Come on! Folks, it took the great Saban a full year to get his defense up to speed – don’t expect Grantham to do it quicker. There will be growing pains especially when playing teams with top notch OCs, SC, AR, UF, UT, GT. They will exploit Grantham’s new, young defense.
Give the D a year to get dominate, move Bobo back to QB coach, get a NFL-calibur OC, and UGA will at least be UF’s and Bama’s equal again.
Reese
August 27th, 2010
8:05 am
You Dawg fans who keep repeating “30-24″ like a mantra enjoy yourselves all you want. The thing is… Tech alumni and fans have lives that don’t depend entirely on what a bunch of kids does on Saturday afternoons. College sports are fun to follow, but the biggest reason for going to college is to get an education.
UGA fans don’t seem to care about anything but football, and they don’t care if their players are enrolled in silly majors that no parents who are paying the bills would send their kids to UGA for. The very few football and basketball players who graduate have no job opportunities and end up unemployed or working in menial jobs that hardly require a college degree.
Georgia Tech is a real school with serious academic standards, and that includes scholarshipped athletes. UGA has a long history of being a party school, where parents send their kids for an easy degree, even if the degree itself is practically worthless.
Jan Kemp exposed the crap going on at UGA with athletes being enrolled in courses a ten-year-old kid could pass. That was almost three decades ago, and nothing has changed. If anything, the abuses are more blatant today. Way too many illiterate morons are being recruited, and the very high arrest rate shows clearly that Richt does not care if his players have any morals or self-discipline.
The bottom line is that most Tech fans have very good jobs and productive lives that don’t depend on Tech’s football record for their happiness in life. It would be great to beat UGA more often, but when you put scholar-athletes up against thug-athletes, it’s usually no contest.
It’s pretty pathetic to see UGA fans who typically have never been within miles of a college classroom and who live or die with UGA’s weekly results on the football field.
So keep on posting your “30-24″ all you want, especially since you’re home with plenty of time on your hands. I wish you well, maybe you’ll get lucky and get your old job back at the Waffle House before your unemployment checks stop coming.
Tawgdard
August 27th, 2010
8:07 am
So many dawgtards and dawgturds on here.
DaltonDAWG706
August 27th, 2010
8:16 am
I cant wait to see Georgia in the Nat’l championship in January its goin to be cold but exciting to say the least..
DaltonDAWG706
August 27th, 2010
8:18 am
If Georgia goes all the way and i win the lottery book me down for bout 4 tickets and a pepsi please.
POAD
August 27th, 2010
8:29 am
DaltonD you are sntiifing too much carpet glue. Even if UGA wins the Sec East with their the easy schedule, then UGA is not good enough to win teh SEC. UGA in the Nat. Ship game would just get the dawgs embarrassed bad.
WonderDawg
August 27th, 2010
8:30 am
Reese, this is a fooball blog. Mostly football fans show up here. I read your, intellectual-wana-be’s idiotic ramblings, and buddy, you need help with your bitter, jealous, obsession. Please see a professional before you go “postal” But if you must, please, please save a bullet for yourself, you freak!
hotbobby
August 27th, 2010
8:33 am
What will we do if Murray is a flop? If SC and Ark beat us, where does that put us? If there is no discipline again this year, kick Richt to the curb. He maybe cautiously optimistic, but he is also running scared!
David
August 27th, 2010
8:36 am
I think it is about to time to relive the Buck to Lynsey pass. How many years has it been now?
Don’t give Hershell any credit, it was really Buck’s handoff skills.