Richt: Dogs’ lack of effort at times last year ‘embarrassing’
Mark Richt continued his spring speaking tour Thursday night in the town that’s been the site of his greatest frustrations, addressing a couple of hundred of the Bulldog faithful at the Marriott in Jacksonville.
The Florida Times-Union was on hand and reports the UGA head coach didn’t mince words in talking about his team’s lack of effort at times last season. The Dogs lost some games, he said, because the other team played harder. “That’s embarrassing,” Richt said. “It’s our shame and it’s my fault. We’re not going to let that happen again.”
While Richt told Dogs fans in Savannah earlier this week that “I don’t feel any pressure” coming off a losing season, he at least admitted in Jacksonville that the pressure is there. “There’s always going to be pressure in this type of job. There’s pressure every year.”
Talking about opening the season with the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, Richt seemed to embrace the challenge he faces with the idea that the bigger the risk, the bigger the payoff.
“Boise State is a not a conference game,” he said, “but it’s a big game for the University of Georgia. To have a season like we just did that was so far below what we are used to and what’s expected, we needed this game. Boise State is the winningest team over the past 10 years. If we can battle with them, we can make Georgia very relevant again nationally.”
Of course, the subject came up of whether the transition from Urban Meyer to Will Muschamp at Florida means this might be the year to get the rivalry with the Gators back on an even keel.
“Any year would be a great year for us to do that,” Richt said. “It’s always a huge game and a game that’s talked about a lot, especially in this town. You hope to perform well as you get to that game, so that it’s extremely meaningful.”
Indeed. When it comes to assessing how well Georgia needs to do this season for Richt to keep his job, you hear a lot of folks say nine wins … or eight if one of them includes Florida.
What do you think? If Richt manages to start out on a winning note against Muschamp, does that buy him another loss elsewhere? Is the Florida game in a class all its own in terms of importance to Richt’s future, or should it be viewed as just another SEC game?
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346 comments Add your comment
Beast from the East
April 22nd, 2011
3:19 pm
A different opinion.
http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20110422/ARTICLES/110429830/1136?Title=Ranking-SEC-football-coaches
DawginLex
April 22nd, 2011
3:19 pm
Snoop says…Let’s destroy the credibility of the UGA football program
You have to let richt coach the entire 2011 season.
If he starts 0-2, he may get told he is a lame duck.
You can’t interview other coaches until the decision is made.
Do you know anything about UGA football history?
Richt has raised the bar and is now a victim of his own success. The heat is on and he must win now.
Doing what you suggest is insanity, pure and simple. You might get Mike Leach to take the job or Danny ford but that’s about it.
Buckeye
April 22nd, 2011
3:25 pm
Dawg Gone,
Brush up on YOUR current Fulmer Cup. Arrests are the only criteria.
P.S. Got locks?
Beast from the East
April 22nd, 2011
3:28 pm
Buckeye,
Auburn has already won the Fulmer Cup for 2011. They are sitting at 80 points (I checked this morning). You’d have to have several serial killers get caught to take the cup from them. Back to back titles for the Barners!
Buckeye
April 22nd, 2011
3:31 pm
SEC! SEC!
Cam looked the fool in Gruden’s classroom – intimitated and woefully lacking football smarts. Body language and eye contact with Gruden was embaarassing. Gruden told him he’s going to France and has to learn French i.e leanring the NFL lingo. Gruden ripped off a 6-7 point play call and Cam looked stunned. Cam said we simple atAuburn….like a play was called “32″. He’s the next Vince Youngesque bust. Hope Carolina takes him.
Dawg Gone
April 22nd, 2011
3:39 pm
Buckeye got to be a bitter pill to swallow…all the dumbazz’s and rednecks in the SEC and yet you have to play cheaters to beat a 2nd tier SEC team…count your sweater vests and sit quietly in the corner. But I do owe you an apology about the Fulmer Cup..Auburn has taken the lead there…for arrests…Tressel however should get something for sheer hypocrisy.
Dawg Gone
April 22nd, 2011
3:43 pm
Beast from the East really who would listen anyone that ranks a coach who has YET to win a game as a HC over CMR with a decade of success in the SEC? Mushy may turn out to be the second coming of the Bear, but he may not EVER win a SEC game..we just don’t know.
Vixzilla
April 22nd, 2011
3:45 pm
I remember a few years ago when a HIGHLY ranked UGA got it handed to them by an inferior UT as UGA showed up flat and uninspired. I remember Richt saying that we were never gonna let that happen again. So – on came the blackouts….and then sooner than later embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss. So I don’t put much stock in his promise in Jacksonville. Am I throwing Richt under the bus at this time? – NO – but it’s time to put up or shut up. We have been loaded with the Southeast’s elite talent and we have performed like the bunch of undisciplined drunks that we are. Unfortunately that’s what we are labeled AT LEAST until kickoff this fall.We got Game??? PROVE IT!!!
Will
April 22nd, 2011
3:48 pm
What could possibly lead one to think UGA will lose four games this season?
The two best teams in the SEC are not on the schedule. Probably the best team that is on the schedule (USC) is still USC, a program that always fails to rise to expectations plus a team that has to come to Athens. Auburn is going to be just a little better than average and UF will most likely have its second worst team of this century (the worst having played last year). UT? Improving but still a 6-7 win bet for this year. Boise State? They have a splendid QB who has no one to throw to and lost 17 starters from last year. Tech? Please…..tech has already beaten UGA it’s one per decade allocation.
UGA will win a minimu of 10 games this year and most likely play LSU in the SEC Championship.
The Dream Team will enroll this summer and many of those who looked pretty good last Saturday will be delegated to playing time that will last only as long as it takes for the Dream Teamers to catch their breath!! We have the best QB in the SEC, the best defensive coordinator and a head coach that will not let us down!!
Four losses????? Sure, go ahead and think that but if you are right, I promise you a man of the integrity of Mark Richt will not be fired. He will graciously resign the position if this team were to under achieve to that level.
Beast from the East
April 22nd, 2011
4:01 pm
Dawg Gone,
I didn’t say I agree with Pat Dooley. But, for what it’s worth, he’s one of the most respected sports writers in the southeast. I’d have Spurrier behind Saban and no way would I have Petrino or Mullen ahead of Richt. Neither has ever won a conference title. Just put it out there for everyone’s viewing pleasure.
papadawg
April 22nd, 2011
4:01 pm
What ticks me off is everybody has seen this lack of effort, heart or whatever for the last 3 years. Even when moreno and stafford was there they were just going thru the motions. Kick Butt Now
Buckeye
April 22nd, 2011
4:09 pm
Dawg Gone,
While I’ve never made excuses for Tressel on this board, the whole freakin’ thing is over paying for tattos – something that has become a rite of passage for the whole rap bling gangsta culture. Pryor and Co. certainly do not own the patent. Isaiah’s tatts will be in Athens soon enough. They’ll make their national debut against your opening loss to Boise. Sure hope his Mama paid for em.
Buckeye
April 22nd, 2011
4:12 pm
Dawg gone,
And please tell me exactly how the players cheated? They made no decisions other than to hock their own wares not unlike yo boy AJ.
what of it?
April 22nd, 2011
4:13 pm
Is he just now realizing this?
Evansdawg
April 22nd, 2011
4:15 pm
I don’t care what anyone says….If Richt can have a 8-9 win season and have DEVELOPING players that start to emerge and make impact as the season goes along, he’s safe. Why cut him off when his program may be gaining traction again. It will be imperative to keep Richt as this new stellar recruiting class develops. Competitive, solid football where the Dawgs never give up but could perhaps lose a few is what SHOULD be expected. Too many people think a coaching change is turn-key. Its not. Don’t let the rare occurrance of immediate success at Alabama and Florida fool you. It took Bama a lot of time to regain their momentum. Until the last 3 years, the reality was that Bama had become an afterthought. No anymore. Its all cyclical.
RiffRaff
April 22nd, 2011
4:16 pm
Losing to Mickey Mouse U in the last bowl game was hitting rock bottom. CMR has one season to turn it around. Losing to Boise and SC won’t cut it. I like the guy, but this is it.
wildbill
April 22nd, 2011
4:37 pm
Fan Loyalty. Just look around the country at past good teams that are bad teams now. Where are the fans? Go ahead and diss them. There are a lot of things fans can do with their time and money. Yes, one might say they are not fans, that they are ‘fickle’. I believe it is human nature to avoid unpleasantness and join in the fun. Call them ‘bandwagoners’, I call them smart.
Dawg4ever
April 22nd, 2011
4:41 pm
Just shows you how far the UGA program has fallen with Richt still the coach. For a head coach to admit that his team got outplayed and that is the reason they lost several games is totally unacceptable, and this coach should have been fired 3 years ago. This guy was a coach that was hired with no head coaching experience and he has been a work in progress for his whole career. How long does it take for this hard headed guy to realize how terribly coached and how terribly prepared his teams are. I hate to tell this pathetic coach, but this has been happening for 3 or 4 years now, not just last season. Does he not remember the Tenn. game in 2007, when his team got humiliated and everyother big game since then? Hell, he even lost games against Auburn in 2005, and to W.Virginia in the Sugar bowl the same year, and his teams weren’t prepared to play and lost both of those games. This guy has had so many chances, and yet he comes up short. But, because he was lucky enough to win 2 titles, he gets a free pass from UGA fans after all the terrible coaching decisions he has made. No head coach would promote a defensive coordinator and an offensive coordinator with no previous coordinator experience if he had a clue at what he was doing. Nor would any head coach move a coach that played runningback to the wide receiver coach, when every other big rival in SEC has a wide receiver coach with some NFL back ground. No wonder UGA loses so many big time wide receiver recruits to LSU, Florida, Bama, Auburn, and now Tenn. This guy doesn’t know how to evaluate talent when comes to recruiting, and he sure doesn’t know how to recruit and evaluate talent when it comes to assistant coaches. Uga has the worst group of coaches in the SEC east other than Vandy, and it’s a toss up with Kentucky. THis coach and his staff will continue to get out coached in big games, and it doesn’t matter if the team plays hard(What a joke) or not, the coaches want call the right plays, nor will they have the players prepared well enough to win. Bottomline, this coach has used every excuse in the book, hell he even admitted he made a mistake in 2008 by not practicing the team hard. I mean give me a break, i would love for Saban to admit he didn’t practice his team hard, or that his team lost because they didn’t play hard. That is the reason UGA will never win big games again as long as preacherboy is there, because he want be able to beat coaches like Saban, Evil Steve, CheezeStick, and now Mustasche at Florida. These coaches want allow players to be on the field that don’t play hard. But i can assure you that Rambo who is the biggest loafer i have ever seen in a UGA uniform will be a starter the 1st and the last game next year. Richt has become a loser, and everyone knows how losers hide behind excuses. He needs to go, and he needs to go now.
UGA89
April 22nd, 2011
4:44 pm
effort for the last 3 years has been poor, coach.
The Dogs (no “w” in there for now) have been out hustled for some time now.
Good to see you make note of it, but i will believe it when i see it.
Cause you have said some other things in the past without results (ex. arrests, discipline…)
This is exactly why you are on the hot seat coach. Talk is cheap. This is a results business.
ca dawg
April 22nd, 2011
4:44 pm
p. bull terrier: good stuff. i laughed out loud a couple of times when i read that.
Jeff Key West
April 22nd, 2011
4:47 pm
Mark my words…..This is the start of a long win streak against the evil empire! Florida
wildbill
April 22nd, 2011
4:52 pm
I agree with Vixcilla 100%.
Dawgs Back!
April 22nd, 2011
4:54 pm
florida’s run is over—UGA is back! Ga’s roster is loaded with talent and fla will be down for awhile with muschamp. Ga wins the SEC east–mark it down!
saban
April 22nd, 2011
4:54 pm
Boise State 50 Dawgs 8.
Pitiful.
saban
April 22nd, 2011
4:55 pm
Richt is a bartender turned hairdresser.
Choakdawg and 600 krispy kreme`s for the defense.
5 wins tops.
Danny
April 22nd, 2011
4:58 pm
Did anyone hear Mushchamp’s interview yesterday on ESPN? He stated that he is not a “CEO type coach”… Was he taking a jab??
Woof! Woof!
April 22nd, 2011
5:00 pm
Richt is never going to win big with the low class, undisciplined, illiterate goons he recruits.
He’s coaching a gang, not a team.
gt
April 22nd, 2011
5:01 pm
Boise State, can you imagine coming from a 10 year nap and hearing that is the litmus test for a great year?
Vonce Diiley
April 22nd, 2011
5:06 pm
I’ve never understood how anyone – even an alumnus – could support and take pride in UGA’s football team. When you look at their history for the past forty years, how can anyone ignore Jan Kemp and the “remedial studies” scam, the Jim Harrick fiasco, the numerous DUIs in the athletic office, the DUIs and other arrests of players, the #1 party school tag (i.e., the most drunk students), the suspensions and outright dismissals, the Fulmer Cup, and on and on?
As disgraceful and humiliating as it is, I don’t see many alums and fans demanding an end to this sordid activity. It sets UGA apart as the kind of school most people abhor, and it’s become an embarrassment to the State of Georgia.
Will it never end? Apparently not while Mark Richt is at UGA. Richt is perhaps the biggest hypocrite in the United States. But even with all the cheating and lawlessness that he ignores, he still can’t win the SEC.
So you’re paying him to be BCS champions, but he can’t even win his SEC division. So why do you pay him millions of dollars a year?
Just asking.
Tanned and Coiffed
April 22nd, 2011
5:10 pm
“Richt is a bartender turned hairdresser.”
Don’t forget the tanning salon and the cool sunglasses.
ATL Sports Fan
April 22nd, 2011
5:12 pm
The problem with you idiots is you want to get rid of Mark Richt but you can never rattle off names of staff you would want to replace the current one. If you want him out so bad then rattle off some names to take over….
ATL Sports Fan
April 22nd, 2011
5:14 pm
numerous DUI’s in the athletic office. Name the NUMEROUS DUI’s. I can think of one and he is not currently employed.
ATL Sports Fan
April 22nd, 2011
5:14 pm
Haven’t heard of any UGA players in trouble this year. Funny how all you have is things that happened well over 10 years ago.
ATL Sports Fan
April 22nd, 2011
5:15 pm
The Techies bring up Jan Kemp but never say anything about having to forefit games due to playing academically ineligible players.
Alpharetta Dave
April 22nd, 2011
5:21 pm
You’re absolutely right, Mark. last year’s Dawgs were an embarrassment for their lack of effort. Win or lose true Dawgs give their all and that certainly wasn’t what we saw in 2010. Two questions come to my mind: 1. Why did such players stay on scholarship let alone get the chance to play for Georgia?
2. Why did you and the other coaches let it happen? True fans want to win every game. But we’d rather lose giving it our best than by making a halfhearted attempt. No excuses this year. GO DAWGS!
Lakedawg
April 22nd, 2011
5:31 pm
dawg4ever—You need a new handle like something with barn or jacket in it, and also do not have a clue about Dawgs football. Will had it pretty much right, a 10 win season and coach will sign an extension. Also with only approximately 18 schlorships to give, top recruits will be on board after the swason starts.
KB
April 22nd, 2011
5:37 pm
I have been Richt biggest critic this season. I wanted Richt gone after the season and replaced with Kirby Smart.
However we cannot define the season by wins versus loses. Beginning of 2010 season a loss to Miss St. was considered an embrassment but Miss St proved to be one of the best in the SEC. Everybody thought for sure UGA would best Auburn but AU went undefeated and won the BCS NC.
I look for what Richt will do with his talent. We have to face the fact that on paper we have very little talent. Offense is down on the O-line and receiver. We are HOPING a true freshman will boost our running game, we lost NFL-caliber talent at Fullback. Defense, who knows if we will be better or worse, again, we are pinning a lot of hopes on a guy who hasn’t even been on our practice fields yet.
UGA could click, everybody over achieve and we win 10-11. Or, we could play hard, execute well and only win 6-7. Let’s define the season by how well the team is prepared, the effort they expend and whether or not we improve over the course of the season. One hard and fast rule for RIcht – play another game like the 2010 games against Colorado or Central. Fl. and he gets to be an ESPN analyst in 2012.
Dawg Tired
April 22nd, 2011
5:42 pm
Buckeye – Calm down. It’s bad enough to hear about how great a team is from the Big Ten who can win a bowl game against an SEC team every once in a while at best. Now you decide to be a jerk about who we are on a blog that has zero to do with the mighty Buckeyes. Show a little class – just a little will do.
SOUTHGADAWG88
April 22nd, 2011
5:42 pm
I think all the players and coaches should stop trying to make excuses for last season.Nobody wants to hear that crap anyway.Every year is different…who the hell saw Aub coming?Or what happened at Fla and Tex last year either.That’s why the play the games…I want to win the Sec period…beating whoever along the way is secondary.I remember when we beat them all the time and still won 7 or 8 games
Pago Pago DAWG
April 22nd, 2011
5:43 pm
Wouldn’t it be nice if after we made a tackle and stopped a one yard gain that we wouldn’t jump and down like we got rid of cancer!
Dawg Tired
April 22nd, 2011
5:44 pm
Plus – your coach lied. That is worse than a traffic ticket.
SOUTHGADAWG88
April 22nd, 2011
5:44 pm
To hell with Kirby Smart….what makes him some great Hc prospect kb?
Dawg Tired
April 22nd, 2011
5:47 pm
Come down and play with the big boys every week and you’ll love 6 win seasons.
Dawg Tired
April 22nd, 2011
5:48 pm
Compare UGA’s record vs. Big Ten teams with OSU’s against SEC teams.
Dawg Tired
April 22nd, 2011
5:51 pm
Plus – Tressel should have been fired. Your president looked pathetic during that whole deal. Sorry to pick on OSU, but at least I did not go onto an OSU blog article to do it.
Saul
April 22nd, 2011
5:52 pm
How in the heck can you go 3 seasons in a row where you win less games? Incompetant!! Fire somebody!!
Saul
April 22nd, 2011
5:55 pm
I like Chris Peterson, also Mike Leach, need a head coach who can score some points against ranked teams, that’s how you win college footballl today.
Guz Malzahn woud be another favorite.
Offense wins Championships.
Einsteindawg
April 22nd, 2011
5:58 pm
Folks, we are who we are. Our coach is a great human being, a good recruiter, and an average coach. Our players are no better than the players at Va Tech, Texas Tech, Mich State, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona, etc., it’s just the extra hype we get from the local media and recruiting sites that creates this frenzy. Except for H. Walker, a national championship course is determined by the Board of Regents. And, I’m not so sure that our school is fine just being competitive in the S.E.C. 60% of the time.
SOUTHGADAWG88
April 22nd, 2011
6:01 pm
You have to make stops to win championships….Bama. and LSU had pretty average OC’s imo
Dawg Tired
April 22nd, 2011
6:06 pm
I’m assuming Einstein is just a handle.