The Hot Button: Will UGA win a BCS title under Mark Richt?
What once seemed inevitable remains an unanswered question. In 2002 or 2004 or even 2008, Mark Richt was primed to guide his program to a national championship. But he’s about to enter his ninth season as Georgia’s coach and the Bulldogs haven’t gotten there yet, and only once in 11 years has the BCS title been taken by a coach who’d been in place that long — Bobby Bowden of Florida State in 1999.
That Richt is a good coach is beyond dispute. He has won at least 10 games in six of the past seven seasons. He has led Georgia to three SEC East titles and two conference championships. He recruits at the highest level and just saw two Bulldogs taken among the top dozen in the NFL draft. Georgia has finished in the top 10 of at least one major poll five times and in top five twice. But it hasn’t won, or even played for, the BCS title.
Last season was supposed to be the breakthrough. Georgia had finished No. 2 in the AP poll after the 2007 season and was ranked No. 1 last August. It wound up 10-3, and if ever 10-3 could be considered a rank disappointment this was the time. At season’s end the coach made much of the 10-win season in light of so many injuries — and the Bulldogs did have a bunch — but for the first time under Richt it was possible to look on UGA and think, “That team wasn’t very well coached.”
And now Richt has a new quarterback (and figures to have another new one in 2010) and his team has been given almost no chance to win the East, where Florida reigns, and the question occurs: Have we seen the best of this gifted coach? Or is Richt, who has done much already, capable of more?
To be fair, Richt hasn’t failed so much as he has been unlucky. LSU won the 2003 BCS crown with one loss a year after one loss cost Georgia a berth in the championship game. LSU won the 2007 title with two losses after emerging from a league that also housed Georgia, which likewise had two losses. Sometimes you have the right team at the wrong time.
Loading ...But last year’s glaring issues — the rash of penalties and the defensive collapses in Georgia’s three losses — have made some among us wonder if Richt is too nice to finish No. 1. He has vowed to be stricter regarding discipline this time, and it must be noted Georgia didn’t face the same problems with players being arrested this summer as last. And he has promoted John Jancek to co-defensive coordinator alongside Willie Martinez, whom Richt has never once criticized.
Still, it’s worth noting that Steve Spurrier needed six seasons at Florida to win a national championship, and it didn’t happen until he hired Bob Stoops from Kansas State to coordinate the Gator defense. And Mack Brown took Texas to the BCS title in his eighth season in Austin only after importing Gene Chizik from Auburn to lead the Longhorn D. Something similar might need to happen for Georgia and Richt to take the final step.
But would Richt, for whom family and fraternity are of massive import, ever demote or fire Martinez? Is keeping a longtime friend who’s a solid coach — solid as opposed to inspired — more important to him than taking a risk that might (or might not) lead to a greater reward?
We know Mark Richt can coach football. What we still don’t know after eight years of watching is whether he’s pragmatic enough to be a national championship coach.
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446 comments Add your comment
UGA livin' through LSU
July 30th, 2009
4:12 pm
Keep living vicariously through LSU since y’all suck ass.
45-42
#1Threader
July 30th, 2009
4:17 pm
Has Tebow touched enough 3rd world gregs to win the national title again this year?
gdawginkalamazoo
July 30th, 2009
4:17 pm
Tide, definitely no but I hated the way you guys canned him. Like Ray Goff for us, I don’t think Mike’s problem was a lack of effort or not wanting to win, he just couldn’t get it done.
JaxDawg
July 30th, 2009
4:19 pm
Gordon- good question, but going back in time I personally would still hire Richt. Urban is a great coach and has won everywhere he’s been, but again the comparrisons aren’t as far off as people might think.
Urban’s 1st 4 yrs:
44-9
2 SEC East titles
2 SEC Championships
2 National Championships
Richt’s 1st 4yrs:
42-10
2 SEC East titles
1 SEC Championship
What truly seperates the two in most people’s minds is the two national titles, but again as I alluded to earlier, there is a great deal of luck that goes into winning the MNC.
Think about this S.Spurrier he won 6 SEC titles played for 2 titles won 1, and in his run with UF only failed to win 10 games 3 times from 90-01.
Again not taking anything away from Meyer, but he has been lucky that things fell into place for him the two times he had florida in contention.
Gator fans enjoy the run U.Meyer is on, but don’t put him on such a high pedestal that you can’t realize that as good as he is, he’s been lucky as well. Seriously how many Gator fans truly thought you guys had a shot of making the game in 06 knowing that to have any chance, USC would have to lose to a 6-5(heading into the game) UCLA team AND He had to politic to make sure voters moved UF to #2 above Mich.
Anyway, no I personally wouldn’t trade Richt for Meyer.
bballfan
July 30th, 2009
4:19 pm
Until Richt can put together 13 straight games without a dud, he is going to have a hard time winning a championship. He always seems to have 2 to 3 games a year that they just look out of sync. Sometimes you win those games like at Vandy and sometimes you lose like at SC. Richt knows what went wrong: bad game plan, bad prep, players not ready to go, whatever. Great coaches make the adjustments and overcome. He gets the talent to win, we’ll see if he is a great coach or just a very good one. I’m betting he will. But not this year.
#1Threader
July 30th, 2009
4:22 pm
who does Nigeria’s circumcisions during the football season, Shane Matthews?
SAINT SIMMONS
July 30th, 2009
4:25 pm
I’m stupid!
#1Threader
July 30th, 2009
4:27 pm
Chuck Norris vs. Tim Tebow, who dies?
Comin' Down The Track
July 30th, 2009
4:33 pm
University of Georgia record over Georgia Institute of Technology
59-39-5 .720 all-time since 1893
32-12 .727 overall since 1964 (the year Tech ran away from the SEC with their tiny stingers tucked between their legs)
12 wins in the last 44 years.
Tech would have to go 20-10 (a .667 clip compared to the previous one hundred sixteen years at .280) in order to EVEN this series within thirty years (2039 (Good news! Star Track [sic] might be even true by then)).
Thy beatdown cometh, bugs.
BLAZER
July 30th, 2009
4:34 pm
2ND IN THE SEC EAST IS ALWAYS GOOD!
#1Threader
July 30th, 2009
4:37 pm
I LIKE TURTLES!
#1Threader
July 30th, 2009
4:44 pm
Tebow is a virgin anally too?
shane#1
July 30th, 2009
4:56 pm
Zoo, Goff was put in a bad spot, he wasn’t prepared to be a head coach. Donan averaged 8 wins a year, just like Dooley. His problems were losing to UT, and UF consisrently and losing to Tech at times. Plus, the man had no political skills. University Presidents all want to win, but the coach at a State school like UGA has to hobnob with fat cat boosters and state pols to bring in more money. Donan was not good at that part of the job and those guys didn’t like him. So Dooley goes into the college coaching hall of fame and Donan gets fired.
gtforever
July 30th, 2009
5:02 pm
NO
Gordon
July 30th, 2009
5:06 pm
Kalamazoo and Jaxdawg,
Thanks for your responses. I have to say I’m a little surprised, but you guys have obviously thought it through. Richt is a great coach, and I do see one advantage over Meyer: I think he wants to stay where he is long term. I’m not so sure about Meyer.
gtforever
July 30th, 2009
5:14 pm
Comin’ down the track or whatever you call yourself….. The gap will be closing, domination is OVER! The game will be competitive every year…. Your going down, again, this year! Bank on it!
David Granger
July 30th, 2009
5:17 pm
I don’t think so. He’s a good recruiter and a pretty good administrator. UGA will be consistently strong under him, if fo no other reason than just because he’ll be a competitive recruiter. But he’s a little too “gimmicky” for the SEC, I think. He tries to finesse too much, when there are times you need to just hitch up your pants and knock the slobber out of the other team. (Georgia seems to get less out of our blitzes than just about any team I’ve ever seen. And we blitz in some of the strangest situations…) Plus, I think Richt has brought a little of that Bobby Bowden “aw, them boys are just having a little fun” attitude of ignoring players acting like punks. (And it’s hard for a longtime Georgia fan to see my beloved Dawgs act like that FSU scum…)
I think that Richt is an Eisenhower, not a Patton.
weak SEC sisters club
July 30th, 2009
5:18 pm
Huh?
July 30th, 2009
5:28 pm
So to sum up today’s Mark Bradley blog:
Mark Bradley: Will Richt ever win the BCS?
Georgia fan: Yes we will win a national title.
Crybaby haters: No you won’t.
Georgia fan: Yes we will.
Crybaby haters: No you won’t.
Georgia fans: Yes we will.
Crybaby haters: No you won’t.
And so on and so forth….Real riveting stuff AJC. I definitely see a Pulitzer on the horizon Mark.
Jermaine Johnson Lives
July 30th, 2009
5:31 pm
“Uh, dummy, UGA did not dance on the Vandy logo. How many times does this have to be explained to you? Coutu’s FG was kicked from near midfield and the players were just celebrating the made, winning FG.”
Wow, midfield? I didn’t realize the Dawgs had Tom Dempsey kicking for them (in the clever guise of Coutu) in 2007.
Cheese balls
July 30th, 2009
6:15 pm
Jermaine Johnson lives,
you obviously do NOT know the tradition of UGA kickers. Go crawl back into your hole. The quote said “near mid-field”. I know you guys love to take things out of context and try to be cute with your hatred remarks but, the truth is you are JEALOUS of the Dawgs otherwise you wouldn’t be on this blog and certainly not responding.
Houdawg
July 30th, 2009
6:19 pm
Hey Ramble ……. Tech winning two before Richt, etc. ?? Simply NO WAY that ANY current ACC team even gets to the MNC game, muchless Tech.
And IF by some harmonic convergence, it happened ….. they’d have the fertilizer kicked out of ‘em by an SEC ; Big 12 ; Pac 10 ; or even a Big 10 opponent. Ya dreamin’ boy ………
Fire the Coordinators
July 30th, 2009
6:23 pm
Bobo is average at best and Martinez is just plain awful. Bradley points out that UGA’s defensive numbers and stats lead us to believe that CWM is doing a fine job at coordinating, however there is so much more to defense than just plain numbers. I remember watching than VanGorder coached players flocking to the ball carrier and knocking people as hard as possible (Davis and Blue). Willie’s players completely lack that intensity. There is no reason why players such as Brandon Miller and Reshad Jones should not have that killer instinct. Jones was slated to be the next coming of Blue or Davis, and that is a completely fair assumption based on his size and skill level, but anyone who as the Tech game couldn’t help but notice how he tried to bump players out of bounds to no avail, rather than driving them into the ground. The only reason a player of his caliber would play in such a manor is poor coaching.
This season we had three incidents where the defense completely collapsed, but all we have to do is keep looking back and we find plenty of examples of times when it seemed like the D had no idea what they where doing. There was the West Virginia game, the first half against VA Tech, 2006 and 2007 against Tennessee. I know anyone can go back a few years with any team and find poor defensive performances, however the examples I cited were complete and utter breakdowns caused by BAD preparation and coaching.
Richt needs to realize that Willie is dragging the team down, the players don’t respect him, and if something does not change with the coordinators, something will change with the coach.
And on a side note Richt needs to improve with his overall team discipline. Its no secret in Athens that Moreno and Stafford were downtown almost every night. That doesnt seem like a great pattern for your 2 star players and LEADERS.
BS Patrol
July 30th, 2009
6:44 pm
Comin’ down is not too good W/ fractions. The correct % is 60. Dogs win 6 of 10. Tech wins 4 of 10. But all that is about to change.
dawgfan1911
July 30th, 2009
6:52 pm
Coach Richt is a good coach and an even better person. The problem is that Urban Myer is a GREAT Coach and a lousy human being. That said, Gators have the advantage. The coaching staffs are so far apart as well. Florida’s coaches are better by a long shot. Our special teams and defensive coaches are terrible. We cant even kick the ball out of bounds. Georgia also faces a lot of media critics as well. It will be hard for them to win any votes in the polls and they play a conservative type game where they dont blow teams away, they put in the second string and run the ball for the rest of the game. I hope we can win a championship soon, but the reality of it all is that we have a few more thing going against us than Florida. Another thing I didnt mention earlier is the scheduling. Look at Florida’s non conference schedule and even their conference schedule. They dont play anyone especially since FSU have fallen so much.
BS Patrol
July 30th, 2009
7:00 pm
I would also point out for the mentally challenged like track man that this is 1 game per 10 years of being an even split. That’s 50-50 for you.
Blue Fox
July 30th, 2009
7:22 pm
And everyone forgets that UNC turned St. Mark down before UGA interviewed him, what idiots are running the Tar Heels FB program??
BS Patrol
July 30th, 2009
7:25 pm
Hey Train Wreck,
With your slightly less than impressive command of the logic of math, I hope you aren’t planning to design any parking decks any time soon. At least wait until you have mastered grammar school arithmetic.
Top Dawg
July 30th, 2009
7:27 pm
Since like 8th grade or something, Joe Cox has not lost a game he started. (And he has started quite a few.)
doug
July 30th, 2009
7:31 pm
Georgia is not allowed to win National titles. They can however win SEC titles when know one else wants it. Leave the BCS Championchips to Lsu and Florida. I hate it but thats the way it is. We dont have the DC to get us to the promised land. Georgia had the offence to get there last year but the Defense choked.
Top Dawg
July 30th, 2009
7:33 pm
Nobody has been more concerned about our Defensive Coordinator than I have. That said, I think a lot can be said out CMR’s loyalty and family environment he creates and promotes at UGA. Long before Less Miles hired John Chavis, I was calling out for CMR to hire him. Maybe the promotion of John Jancek to Co-Defensive Coordinator will pay big dividends. Plus, a lot of the recruits cite CWM as a reason they have chosen UGA.
Bottom line: Our defense needs to get shored up, and again, maybe it will be. That has been my main concern. I like Coach Bobo as OC, except for his propensity to throw the fade route close to the goal line when it rarely, rarely, rarely ever seems to work for us (for whatever reason).
Go Dawgs!!! Mark Richt is THE MAN!!!!
The Blog Referee
July 30th, 2009
7:40 pm
AJC Editors,
Please delete the blog entries by “uga sucks —-” @ 7:09, @ 7:11, @ 7:15 and @ 7:16. The blogger’s handle is a violation of the AJC blog user agreement.
Thank you.
UGA Grad '08
July 30th, 2009
7:55 pm
The answer: yes. When? When UGA gets the right breaks just like EVERY National Champion that did not start the season as # 1 or #2 then proceeded to go Undefeated.
I hate the Gators but I definitely respect UM and the powerhouse he’s built at UF as well as their accomplishments. With that being said I can’t help but roll my eyes every time some Gator “fan” comes on here and tells me the reason that UF has won Nat’l Championships is because and I paraphrase “UF comes to EXPECT Nat’l Championships, UGA’s just content to win the SEC”. First of all any logical person can see how utterly stupid a statement that is. Second, if there’s ever a poster child for how you NEED good fortune that’s completely out of your control for a NC it’s UF. Let’s go down gator memory lane shall we:
1996 first Nat’l Championship. #1 Gators lose to #2 Seminoles in the final game of the regular season. Texas defeated defending NC Nebraska who was I believe # 2. Due to conference bowl obligations then #2 AZ St. went to the Rose Bowl to play #4 Ohio State. #3 then gets a rematch with FSU in the Sugar Bowl. You can guess what happens next: OSU upsets ASU, the Gators take advantage of their opportunity rolling to a big win in the Sugar Bowl.
2006: Season long #1 and #2 OSU and Michigan always play each other during the regular season as opposed to being a #1 and #2 that have to wait until Bowl week to play each other (like Texas and USC in ’05). The week after #2 USC loses to a 6-5 UCLA team in a HUGE upset. UF beats Arkansas in the SECCG thus ending up as the default team to play #1 Ohio State. Personally I believe, USC would have beaten any SEC team that year had they met in a BCS bowl. Keep in mind this is the team that under Pete Carroll is 6-1 in BCS bowls and more importantly Stomped SEC west champ Arkansas 60-14 to open the season.
Meyer has built a great program in Gainesville but let’s not kid ourselves that lucky breaks are needed to win a NC. A program can only take care of things it can control: recruiting and contending for its conference championship consistently. Do that (which UGA does under Richt) and your shot will come.
Vin Stooley
July 30th, 2009
7:58 pm
The answer is NO! Richt is too busy grovelling to some high school coach in Columbus.
BruffDawg
July 30th, 2009
8:03 pm
Gators don’t kid yourselves. NOBODY repeats as national champs. Even when USC had the chance texas wanted it more. There will always be a team hungrier than you if you are defending champs. Just the way it is. Yes the dawgs will win one under richt if as dawg fans we trust him to keep it up and wait for our turn of breaks to fall into sync. DONT PUT RICHT ON THE UNEMPLOYMENT LIST AND HE WILL GET US THERE!!!!
SabanRules
July 30th, 2009
8:07 pm
No BCS title for Richt as long as Meyer, Miles and Saban are ruling the SEC. Richt is not a prime time, big game coach. He chokes it up big time against the top teams, with a couple of fluke SEC titles when Bama and Florida were down. Richt needs to take the florida state job when the old geezer at fsu leaves, since he will not be winning any more SEC titles!
GT9
July 30th, 2009
8:09 pm
Mark Richt has done an excellent job in Athens as a head football coach. He’s quite capable of winning a National Championship. He’s beaten coaches who have won national championships; Fulmer, Saban, Meyer, Miles, and Spurrier. Richt coached the winningest quarterback in the history of the NCAA. (Was Richt calling the plays during all 4 of Greene’s seasons?)
The Richt family are an incredible asset to the University of Georgia, Athens-Clarke County, state of Georgia, SEC, and the NCAA.
Would it be U of Cal, Berkeley or U of Cal, Los Angeles or U of Cal, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, or Santa Barbara?
Anonymous
July 30th, 2009
8:13 pm
UGA Grad ‘08,
So, your point is what? That the Gators were “lucky” and they didn’t deserve to be national champions in 1996, 2006 or 2008? Or, the Gators did exactly what they were supposed to do, and were in a position to take advantage of their “luck” when it fell their way? Are you saying that’s exactly what the Dawgs need to do—-become annual SEC contenders, and then wait for the inevitable BCS title opportunity?
You sound a little conflicted.
Dawg'94
July 30th, 2009
8:16 pm
Richt is a great coach & will win the big one soon. On the other hand, Fabis is NOT a good coach & should have never been allowed back when he left for Oklahoma for a week. He is the coach that should be outta here!
BruffDawg
July 30th, 2009
8:24 pm
Look at miles and sabans record vs richt. Miles has NEVER beaten richt. Saban and richt are separated by a game, and meyer is a different story. That being said he has beaten them all and will do so again. Plus, richt will go to miami b4 he ever goes to fsu. Do some research before you post about a man you know little about. Stay forever richt.
weston
July 30th, 2009
8:34 pm
>>Uga should have a ring made like a cupcake, they love those cupcake teams!!!!!!!!!
Ha. Ha. Hee. Haw. at the yellow wig. Hmmm, Jacksonville St, Gardner Webb, Duke. Yeah, those are some powerful teams there that Bug U plays, yellow wig. We look upon your schedule and tremble, thankful we don’t play any of them….LMAO
Mark: obviously the AJC needed some web hits for you to dig up this corpse of a story again. But to answer your question: until Martinez and Boobo are fired, Richt’s teams will continue to come up short every year. Neither coach (n.e.i.t.h.e.r) should be coaching at this level. Coach Searels should be the OC, Boobo and Martinez should be at Troy.
I know. I know. “10 win seasons are great!” “I don’t care about winning the BCS as long as we win 10 games!” “Remember Goff? Nuff said!” “It took Dooley 100yrs to win one!” There. I saved you all the trouble.
Dawgs lose 2 games this year: LSU and FL. Possibly 3rd at OK ST. Just depends on how well JC can manage to keep the team ahead with the Martinez defenses laying down on the field.
BruffDawg
July 30th, 2009
8:47 pm
Final score in stillwater sept 5th UGA 35 OKST 17.
Gatorzone
July 30th, 2009
8:51 pm
This just in: Meyer just called another timeout! 49-10 baby—it’s all good!!!!
This year, it could be worse! Tebow wants an undefeated season and should get it. He’s really fired up!!!
Chad
July 30th, 2009
8:54 pm
Playing in BCS game is sometimes due to a lot of luck, or bad luck. In 2002 UGA has 12-1 record, but Miami and Ohio St are undefeated. In 2006 FL doesn’t get to BCS game except that UCLA upset USC in last game; and in 2007 LSU doesn’t get to BCS game except MO and WVA, #2 and #3 ranked teams both get upset in last week of season.
HanDAWG
July 30th, 2009
9:10 pm
read http://www.bighairyblawg.com for real coverage of Richt’s Golden Era: We’ve been in the Top 10 five of Richt’s 8 years and finished #2 and #3; only one goal remains, and the path leads through Jacksonville, where we can even the recent (6 games) series with Florida with a win. We did beat Tebow two years ago and can again, although Gators will be favored this year. Dawgs get past Okie St and will be favored in every other contest.
UGA Grad '08
July 30th, 2009
9:13 pm
anonymous my point being: so long as UGA continues to recruit well and contend for the SEC as they have every year under Richt, they will eventually will win a NC.
As a corollary: it’s a bogus argument that Richt is anything less than a very good coach or that UGA is heads and shoulders below title programs like LSU and UF because UGA has not won a NC. UGA has the sixth best overall record this decade ahead of LSU and Florida (which includes an 8-4 year in 2000 under Donnan). Richt has also been to the SECCG more times than Florida during his tenure and has won at least a share of the SEC east five times during his eight year tenure at Georgia.(’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’07) So during the MR years ,UGA more often than not, has had one of if not the best records in the division that is also home to the Gators. Mark Richt also has a three game winning streak against the LSU Tigers, all three of which were pretty big wins against very good teams (with the possible exception of last year).
UGA Grad '08
July 30th, 2009
9:23 pm
I don’t think it’s conflicting to say that you must be consistently good in order to have opportunites to be “lucky” as the Gators did. or as Anonymous said “the Gators did exactly what they were supposed to do, and were in a position to take advantage of their “luck” when it fell their way”.
Chad
July 30th, 2009
9:31 pm
Of course to play for BCS championship you have to have a very good season, but sometimes other teams get the votes and your team never even gets a chance. Remember Auburn was undefeated a few years ago and did not evan get in the BCS game.
Chris
July 30th, 2009
9:31 pm
GEORGIA TECH WINS I GAME IN SEVEN AND THINKS THEY ARE WORLD BEATERS BUT THIS YEAR WITH A BETTER DEFENSE THE DAWGS WILL KNOCK YOU THROUGH THE VARSITY ONTO I-75.KIDS IN THIS STATE DREAM OF WEARING THE RED AND BLACK.
IF WE HAD THE ROOM WE COULD PUT 150,000 OR MORE IN SANFORD,TECH YOU CANT EVEN SELL OUT BOBBY DODD AND YOU HAVE EVEN TAKEN OUT SEATS THROUGH THE YEARS YOU COWARDS DID NOT WANT TO PLAY IN THE SEC.WE REMEMBER LAST YEAR AND WE WILL KICK YOU IN ATLANTA THIS YEAR!GO DAWGS!
truth-serum
July 30th, 2009
9:35 pm
Richt is an underachiever and a loser. Hes had a top 5 recruiting class for nearly a decade and a half and has barely made it to the tangerine bowl. What a loser the guy is…
Mo dumb Bradley. I was trying to buy Michael Vicks jersey. seems there has been a run on them….Tell me, whose jersey is selling more Vicks or that guy that hands of to Turner and Norwood?