Mark Richt will be back next season — and he deserves to be
The sideline hasn't been as enjoyable a place for Mark Richt the last two seasons as during his first eight. (Brant Sanderlin/AJC)
ATHENS – It’s probably best that we start with the latest indication of Mark Richt’s future employment.
“Mark’s going to be our coach in 2011,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said. “I haven’t seen anything in 11 games that would lead me to any other decision. I’d be stunned.”
The thinking is, it’s always best to end such declarations with even the smallest of escape routes. Because if for some reason Georgia were to lose to Tech 42-10 Saturday, finish the season 5-7, not go to a bowl game and later that evening 17 players find themselves in handcuffs for whatever reason – well, let’s just say you want the escape route.
But Richt will be back. And he should be back.
Let’s be clear about something. There are significant problems at Georgia. There are problems that may not go away under Richt.
The team has disappointed and underachieved. The Bulldogs are 7-9 in SEC games in the last two seasons. That nearly equals their conference loss total in the previous four years (22-10).
Celebrated recruiting classes haven’t turned into celebrated teams, an indictment of the coaching. Changes in Richt’s staff have not significantly improved the defense. Physically and emotionally, the team too often still seems overmatched by good teams.
But we should judge coaches like we judge athletes – in fact, like we judge all people. Life is a series of credits and debits. Mark Richt has built up a lot of credits. He deserves a chance to fix this.
He won two SEC titles in his first five seasons. I know. That’s so yesterday. As even McGarity joked when alluding to the fact the program’s off-field issues have quieted somewhat: “You’re only as good as the last few minutes.”
It’s the same on the field, especially in the SEC. When Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Les Miles are combining to win four straight BCS titles, and Gene Chizik is undefeated at Auburn and – cover your eyes – even Mississippi State seems to have passed you by with Dan Mullen, nobody in the fan base is talking about that great 2005 season.
Greg McGarity said he and Richt are "brutally honest" with each other in their meetings. (AP photo)
The more likely response is: Fire the coach.
But dial it back for a moment. Richt was 82-22 overall and 44-15 through his first eight seasons in Athens. There were some bad performances in 2006, hiccups in 2007 and the smack downs by Alabama and Florida in 2008 that quickly extinguished any national title hopes. But the bottom line numbers are too overwhelming to ignore so quickly.
McGarity hasn’t been in his job for long. He said he understands “that everyone is frustrated.” He added, “The bottom line is we’re 5-6 and nobody is happy with that. Nobody is pleased, and nobody should be.”
But he has spent the past several weeks analyzing various aspects of the program, particularly since the Colorado game – “That’s when things began to slow down for me,” he said — and doesn’t believe a change is warranted.
“We’re dealing with a team that’s competitive every week,” he said. “I know people don’t like to hear phrases like, ‘We’re competitive’ and, ‘We’re giving it everything we’ve got.’ Trust me, I get that. We all want different results. But I also see a program that is not in disarray.
“The bottom line is we need to close games better and I also believe this is a critical recruiting class for us. I feel like there are a lot more positive signs than negative signs, even though it hasn’t shown up in the win category.”
McGarity and Richt have a standing meeting every Friday. McGarity said the two have a great and open relationship. “We’re brutally honest with each other,” he said.
He declined to discuss specifics of their discussions but said: “We both want the same thing. The question is how we get there.”
It’s justified for anybody who follows the Georgia program to be upset about the record, about the loss in Colorado, about the fact the team hasn’t been a player in the SEC East for two years. It’s justified to wonder about direction. But Richt deserves another season to figure it out. His resume has earned him that.
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706 comments Add your comment
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:15 pm
Astropig………………….We’ve slipped so 8 wins gets him a contract extension.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
November 23rd, 2010
3:17 pm
And Get Who
Ups and downs are normal
2-8 vs FL = down
2006 slowly moving down since then, and 2007 is down because we should have never had 2 losses
So tell me genius where has the upside been
Woodstock Dawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:18 pm
Chizik hasn’t exactly put on a coaching clinic this year because he hasn’t had to: snap the ball to Newton and let him go. We’ll see how good Chizik is next year. UGA has beaten Auburn 4 out of the last 5 years.
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:18 pm
Starting 0-2 next year will give McGarity pause…..And it could happen.
OkefenokeeDawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:18 pm
Would any UGA fan have believed at the end of the ‘08 Sugar Bowl, that in 2010, we would have to beat Tech to finish 6-6?
Lake Dawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:21 pm
Okefenokee Dawg… hell, Dooley beat Florida when everybody else was beating them too. The Gators never won the SEC until Spurrier arrived. UGa isn’t alone. Nobody else beats UF very often now. Dooley’s SEC championships came over a 25 year career. CMR has about 1/3 of that under his belt. If we are lucky enough to keep Richt at UGa for 25 years he will surpass Dooley in every way possible.
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:21 pm
You live in a mess, after awhile it doesn’t bother you….You lose 5-6 games a year, after awhile it doesn’t___________ you.
Eric Smith
November 23rd, 2010
3:21 pm
Should Georgia win on Saturday the Liberty Bowl should look at matching The Univesity of Georgia vs The University of Notre Dame it would be the 30 year anniversary of the game played in New Orleans in 1980.
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:25 pm
The biggest question for 2011 is, what will it take to keep Richt in Athens for 2012. Are we going to get the vague ” must see improvement” line…What’s that. 7 regular season wins? The Defense will be about the same, maybe a little better, maybe…and the offense minus AJ and Durham ? My take 8 wins gets him another year beyond 2011, and that will not sit well with most.
Gatorhater
November 23rd, 2010
3:26 pm
Even though I did not technically go to UGA and even though technically I never actually played football with helmets, I can tell you that I have inside info and know more about football than Corch Rich. They need to fire Rich imeadiatlie. We will never win while he is in charge. I have the list of perspective corchis in front of me for his replacement and I think it looks good. I cant tell you my source, but let’s just say it talks to me when I sleep.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
November 23rd, 2010
3:26 pm
JB
Thats the problem with some of the delusional fans on here
Its always the same argument
Oh, he has 10 wins, oh he is 1-9 against tech, oh who are we going to get
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
November 23rd, 2010
3:27 pm
9-1 I meant
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:27 pm
Gatorhater………….I hope it’s your grade school spelling teacher talking to you….LOL
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:29 pm
I believe Saban HAD a job when Bama hired him…..Someone in Athens needs to grow a pair and open a checkbook. They’re out there.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
November 23rd, 2010
3:29 pm
Frankly I dont care if we are 8-0 heading into the FL game
We lose to FL again,
Mcgarity needs to ban him from the locker room and call him a cab
Mark My Abs
November 23rd, 2010
3:30 pm
My goodness, a coach who can do a pretty backflip into the swimming pool, should be able to do something as simple as flipping a football team into the winning column.
Alabama | MrSEC.com
November 23rd, 2010
3:30 pm
[...] Johnson’s option in 1995 when Virginia Tech beat Navy 14-0.7. Jeff Schultz of The AJC says Mark Richt deserves another year to fix Georgia’s current mess.8. The Dawgs’ bowl prospects aren’t very [...]
OkefenokeeDawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:31 pm
I hope you’re right Lake Dawg, but if Richt continues his 2 SEC titles per 10 years, he’s still gonna come up short.
And there’s still that issue of the National Championship. Richt came close, but got outcoached by Zook, with inferior UF teams, twice (’02, ‘05).
Gator Man
November 23rd, 2010
3:33 pm
What a sick program, Mark Richt has built up credits” Now I see why UGA has not won NAT since 1980.
Talking about standards, 3 coaches in the SEC have won NAT since Richt been at UGA and it is looking like a 4th. Look at Florida, Urban is in the hot seat with 2 NAT, now thats credit built up.
In Florida we will not settle for lower standards, Mark Richt would have been fired at any of the big three schools in Florida.
Dumbdawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:33 pm
Did I mention that we suck??? We like sucking. Keep St. Mark! Who cares if we never beat the Gators again? We got the best underage, unlicensed, woman slapping group of players in the country baby!
OkefenokeeDawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:35 pm
Maybe Richt decides to relocate to the Rocky Mountains. I don’t want to change coaches, but if he left on his own?
Get Jim Harbaugh a ticket to Athens . . .
Mobile Dawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:38 pm
Don’t forget 07 OD, we don’t get blown out by UT, and don’t lose to SC, we’re in the SECCG.
Dawg fans, it’s time to face the music, the blind homer, kool aid krowd is going to get their way. CMR gets another year. Personally I hope he turns it around and goes undefeated and we can all sing kumbaya and get along. Will it happen, as Schultz says CMR may not be able to turn it around.
None of the things about CMR that got us into this situation is going to change. What may change is McGarity may help CMR surround himself with Assistant Coaches that know what’s going on leading to improvement. I’m on record from several years back pointing out CMR’s weaknesses.
If we don’t get significant improvement next year, watch out you kool aid drinking homers. The bulldozers are coming to clean up this crumbling foundation.
Next Year and Florida
November 23rd, 2010
3:39 pm
I get tired of two things. After about two glorious Saturdays in the fall, we have to start talking about next year. Honestly, i’m done getting suckered in. Next year won’t be any better than this one. And the second thing, which is worse, is the annual beat-down we take in Jax. I honestly think Richt is intimidated by Urban and the Gators. Having said that, does he deserve another year? Probably.
kral
November 23rd, 2010
3:40 pm
I actually appreciate what you just enucienated GH..You hopefully were giving a saracatic answer to all this fire me what have I DONE FOR YOU YESTERDAy people who are such a joke to me..appreciate a semblance of reason from you jeffie… totally took me by surprise
5150 P.O.A.D.
November 23rd, 2010
3:41 pm
The SEC don’t Richt to go. Richt can’t beat the Gators. UGA will now be losing to Miss St. with ex-Gator Mullins. Spurrier will get the Dawgs # just like he had it in Florida. LSU, Bama, Arkansas, and Auburn ain’t Skeered. The Vlos & Kentucky are now toss-ups. Ole Miss & Vandy are really don’t want to play UGA. Boy How the Mighty CONRICHTS have fallen.
Please Keep RICHT. Tech with Johnson is 1-1 and the Jackets ain’t Skeered either. PLEASE KEEP RICHT and keep the dawg fans crying.
DawginLex
November 23rd, 2010
3:41 pm
My suggestion is to let McGarity do his job.
He is evaluating Richt constantly.
The Boise game may not be the beginning.
Richt loses to Tech, I could see someone else coaching against Boise.
McGarity said “I haven’t seen anything to make me think he won’t be the coach next year”.
Maybe it hasn’t happened yet. He learned from Foley. Guy fired his baseball coach 2 years after going to Omaha.
how2fish
November 23rd, 2010
3:42 pm
Gator Man yeah we hear all the time the Gators are all about NC’s well how’s that worked out lately??
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:43 pm
Mark’s on life support with a feeding tube with this staff and current talent. When Adams pulls the plug is anybody’s guess….And it will be Adams who make the call, rightly so i think. I know the Gators etc on here laugh at us talking about 2002, 2005 and 2007……..Don’t forget 1980 they will tell us………Geez……We’ll end up 6-6….but hey, after Saturday, Florida may have 5 loses with ALL THAT TALENT !
kral
November 23rd, 2010
3:44 pm
Ny in the bahamas..that’s where you should go next football season,because you can’t obviously enjoy what may or not happen..so go away tip a margaritte and kiss my a… good-bye
how2fish
November 23rd, 2010
3:45 pm
Mobile Dawg I agree about next year but fully support CMR getting next year.
GT
November 23rd, 2010
3:45 pm
Why I read the AJC and think I reading Perry Mason for the defense is beyond me. If it were an equal defense at least it would sound like it had a foundation of logic, but there is only one fair haired child that can take Georgia raised youth, spoil them to the point they are useless to society and then send them into the world worse that they arrived. The AJC would serve this local crowd far more by laying some wood to Georgia like they do Tech, “the worse 6 and 5 team in the country” according to these men of wisdom, or fanning the fires of Auburn to the point the FBI are called off protecting us from terrorist and drug dealers to investigate a 20 year old football player whose only crime is he is better than the rest. Or Steve Spurrier who forgot more coaching than most of us can remember, and has been asking for years where’s the beef when it comes to Georgia, something the AJC is still beyond doing, and wants to shut Spurrier up themselves. Notice how he was not mentioned above when speaking of Mississippi State, yet many believe he is the team to beat in the SEC next year and maybe the nation. He has not only passed Georgia he as gone to the next time zone To really show you how bad it is I think I could raise some money over at Tech to help you keep Richt on, because when you ever get an adult to run your football and athletic programs we will be in deep trouble. I even bought a copy of the AJC today in support of their misguided support. Every team outside the endorsement of the AJC in this area have improved immensely, so don’t change a thing but try a little harder not to make it so obvious.
Tech Tard
November 23rd, 2010
3:45 pm
You are crazy if you fire Mark Richt. Honestly, I’ll take two SEC championships a decade with a chance to win the NC every 3 years. Yes, bring it on. I am not fazed at all by two bad years. Most people on here act like they don’t know who Donnan and Goff are. Those were miserable years to be a Dawg fan, but I kept supporting those boys no matter what. Also can anyone tell me what Dooley’s record was the year before he won his NC? How many years had he been in Athens? Do you consider Dooley a great coach? Now look at the Man we have in Athens. STFU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sick of this talk. Go Dawgs!
KimZ'spackage
November 23rd, 2010
3:45 pm
It is all Sonny’s fault. The dawgs should never Used and Abused RUSS. UGA painted that poor dogs butt for the football team and all they did was lose.
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:46 pm
Lex, Tech will not be a problem. After Duke, They have checked out with no Nesbitt…….We score at will.
Dawgs73
November 23rd, 2010
3:46 pm
I just don’t understand what Richt has done to “earn” another year making $2mill with endorsements, for a vastly underwhelming performance/job? I wish we could all be so lucky and have our employers overlook our recent work and ineptitude because we had success five years ago…please!
Mark Richt is in over his head and doesn’t deserve anything more than he has earned. He was great the first five years of his tenure but let’s be honest, the SEC is WAY more competitive at every program with the influx of championship caliber coaching. Furthermore, Richt has made several incompetent decisions out of loyalty instead of decisions that should have been for the betterment of his program.
I promise you this, NOTHING WILL CHANGE BETWEEN THIS YEAR AND NEXT YEAR AND WE WILL ALL BE REPEATING THE SAME CRAP NEXT YEAR WHEN WE ARE 6-6…hey, but as long as we are loyal to Richt, then that means you are a true fan…PATHETIC!
kral
November 23rd, 2010
3:46 pm
Enter your comments here
Slim Shady
November 23rd, 2010
3:47 pm
Pete Carroll. Open the checkbook and get Pete Carroll here. I see him pulling a Saban or Petrino and leaving. He wants to be the best then let him coach in the best confrence with the best coaches and lets see what he can do.
Tech Tard
November 23rd, 2010
3:47 pm
Shultz- you were calling for his head all season. What, you don’t believe the stuff you write?
Exley DAWG
November 23rd, 2010
3:48 pm
Be careful dawg fans. Enough with the fire richt crap. Is Tennessee better off after getting rid of Fulmer? I have a feeling chizic will fail big time in the coming years, he has a one man team.
5150 P.O.A.D.
November 23rd, 2010
3:50 pm
Okefe Dawg
Harbaugh will NEVER EVER come to Athens. Harbaugh’s next step is to the NFL not Hickville, Ga.
kral
November 23rd, 2010
3:51 pm
I’ll be honest with you 73 you should change your name to 69 because you just did a hammer job on a coach that possibly has the best winning % of any coach in UGA history…Yes sir that’s a back door job if I ever read one
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:51 pm
No Pete Carroll………. Hell, we’d have to hire A/P girls for the Athletic office…………That program was Auburn West.
Flat Tire on I-95 in Jacksonville
November 23rd, 2010
3:52 pm
Like the Gaterd fan said
At FL Richt would have been done yrs ago
Same at AL
UGA makes sure his bank account is worth 40million wow what stupidity
OkefenokeeDawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:52 pm
“STFU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sick of this talk. Go Dawgs!”
********************************
Yeah, Go Dawgs, but I think this is a blog debating whether Rich should be back next year, dufus.
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:53 pm
5150……………….Looked and listened to that Hillbilly ya’ll got on the flats lately ?
gdawginkalamazoo
November 23rd, 2010
3:54 pm
I agree next year I better have my seasonal anxiety disordered well out of hand heading into Jacksonville with a good feeling that we will win. Or……
JB
November 23rd, 2010
3:56 pm
If Bama holds AU to under 30 this week and wins, Mark needs to get a clue….Maybe we will quit having 7 TE’s on the roster and sign some LB’s and DL’s. !!!!!!!!!
pb
November 23rd, 2010
3:56 pm
People like the ever so pleasant ” Herschel Talker” need to get off their broken record about friring Mark Richt. It ain’t going to happen, even he loses to Tech ( as Schultz says, in the worst case scenario.) He deserves at least one more year. And also, they would have to pay him a lot of money to get rid of him. Dooley had a few seasons where he had break even or losing records, and you never thought he was going to get fired. So neither should Richt.
OkefenokeeDawg
November 23rd, 2010
3:56 pm
“Harbaugh will NEVER EVER come to Athens.”
*******************************
I appreciate Harbaugh’s agent, poad, coming on here to clarify his career goals.
Tongue-in-cheek, poad . . .
Just Sayin'
November 23rd, 2010
3:56 pm
Greg McGarity and Alfred E. Newman …… separated at birth