What’s wrong with UGA? Sad to say, it starts with Mark Richt
"The meeting of the Mark Richt Fan Club is called to order." (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
Mark Richt’s teams use to have all the answers. Whether it was P-44-Haynes in Knoxville or 70-X-Takeoff in Auburn, his Georgia Bulldogs would win the sort of breathless games that stamped Richt as college football’s next great coach. But it has been a decade, and Richt hasn’t taken Georgia to the pinnacle — got close a couple of times — and nobody sees him that way anymore.
If you’re looking for what has gone wrong with this program, there it is: Mark Richt never quite finished the drill. Georgia was No. 3 in the final polls after the 2002 season and No. 2 according to the Associated Press after 2007 and No. 1 according to everybody in preseason 2008, but the Bulldogs could never do as Florida and LSU and Alabama did — they couldn’t get to the BCS title game and win.
And now they’re 1-4 and Richt isn’t the sleek young man just in from Tallahassee; he’s a 50-year-old who has been on the job a decade and who seems at a loss to arrest the slide. This isn’t to say he’s a bad man or even a bad coach, but it is to say that in college football the blame must always fall upward: There’s a reason head coaches are multimillionaires.
It’s convenient to say that Georgia in Year 10 under Richt resembles Florida State near the end of his mentor Bobby Bowden’s reign. Convenient, and also true. Attention to detail has slipped. Players appear to be coaching themselves. Players also seem incapable of conforming to team rules and community laws.
A college coach can override almost any embarrassment so long as he wins 10 games as a matter of course, but Richt’s team is but 9-9 over the past season and a quarter. And you simply cannot play .500 ball and have 10 players arrested in one offseason.
The belief here is that Richt will not be fired this season or in its aftermath. The belief here is also that Richt stands before us a damaged coach. There was no reason for Georgia to lose to Mississippi State or Colorado, no reason other than that these Bulldogs no longer expect to win. They’ve seen themselves caught and passed in the SEC. They’ve seen their gimmicks — the blackout against Alabama in 2008, the black helmets in Jacksonville last season — fall flat. They’ve seen teams with lesser talent being coached up.
There was a time when we would have expected Richt to solve any problem, but that time is gone. The slide of 2006 — four losses in five games — was halted by three rousing victories at season’s end, but come 2009 the Bulldogs were back in the same place, needing to beat Georgia Tech and win a bowl to salvage a season.
This winter Richt steeled himself and fired three-quarters of his defensive staff, but nothing much has changed. Tackles are still being missed. Coverages are still being blown. The whole operation comes off as disjointed, distracted, dysfunctional. It’s as if the Georgia Bulldogs awoke one morning and found themselves reinvented as the Kentucky Wildcats. (Who, not incidentally, beat UGA in Sanford Stadium last season for the first time since 1977.)
The effect has been stunning. How long since we’ve seen the Bulldogs so inept? (Even Ray Goff’s otherwise lousy 1990 team managed to beat Alabama.) It would be one thing if Georgia wasn’t good enough to compete, but nobody can seriously believe that a roster including A.J. Green, Justin Houston, Branden Smith, Aaron Murray, Orson Charles and Washaun Ealey is without talent. Ask Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen if he’d trade rosters with Richt. Heck, ask Paul Johnson.
Rule of thumb: If it’s not the playing, it must be the coaching. What worked for Richt for five years and two SEC titles has stopped working. (He lost 13 games those first five seasons; he has lost 18 in the four-plus seasons since.) This team of 10 returning offensive starters and the new 3-4 defense hasn’t won a game in a calendar month.
The optimum course would be for the man making the millions — that’d be Richt — to seize the wheel and steer this program back to excellence. But if he could, wouldn’t he have done it by now? It’s the age-old question: What do you do when you’ve run out of ideas?
(Take the guys swimming? Nope. Tried that already.)
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894 comments Add your comment
BULLDAWG BILL
October 4th, 2010
3:27 pm
I remember reading that Vince Dooley told Mark Richt when he was being considered for the UGA head coaching job, “My only concern is that you may not be tough enough”.
Vince, you were right. Richt has the football knowledge and is a fine representative of UGA with his moral values and family life style. I’ve met you and I’ve met Mark Richt. I would rather go on vacation with Mark, but I had rather have you be the head football coach. I also don’t want to go on vacation with Nick Saban or Urban Meyer. One of us wouldn’t come back if I did! However, they can both coach my football team.
SavDawg
October 4th, 2010
3:28 pm
Grantham. The $750,000 mistake. Bobo, worst play caller in the league. Searls, obviously has lost the respect of his players. Van Halenger, what a joke !! Our lineman are fat, slow, and weak. We have a fromer wide receiver coaching running backs. Real smart. Still no full time special teams coach. Our program is in shambles.
LMAO
October 4th, 2010
3:28 pm
Jim Harbaugh will NEVER NEVER come to Georgia
NC Dawg
October 4th, 2010
3:29 pm
I guess the lid that was blown off in 2002 has found its way back.
74 Dawg
October 4th, 2010
3:29 pm
It is absolutely ridiculous to even discuss firing the best coach in school history. It reminds me of the fire Bobby Cox retards. The only intelligent way to have this discussion is to ask yourself ” who could we get that would not only be better in the short run, but give us a reasonable chance of accomplishing our goals of winning championships?” Surely Auburn, Ole Miss and not least of all our national government demonstrates what happens when fools scream for change without a rational alternative plan. So give me some names Mark et al, or go take a cold shower. I will toss out a couple: Dan Mullen, (reportedly Florida was set to hire him, that should mean something), Harbaugh from Stanford, (runs a hard nosed SEC style of program), anyone else? I will go ahead and shoot holes in a couple of local favorites. Will Muschamp- has access to worlds of talent, but Texas defense has not been that great, and he may not be ready yet. Kirby Smart- left UGa under not the best circumstances, may not be ready yet, and Saban is his own defensive coordinator. You are in fact likely to get turned down a couple times and end up with somebody like Auburn, Tennessee and Clemson got, which is just a postponement of the problem .
LMAO
October 4th, 2010
3:29 pm
Vulture yes “Great Fans” read this blog
NoDawgInThisFight
October 4th, 2010
3:32 pm
Realist, your moniker is a misnomer. Do you really think Harbaugh would leave Standord for UGa?
74 Dawg
October 4th, 2010
3:32 pm
Wha happen? the filter ate my blog post. I was saving it for my dawg.
Ray
October 4th, 2010
3:32 pm
Harbaugh signed an extension and isn’t going anywhere. Certainly not to the chaos in athens. You idiots still think your on the same level as usc, oh st fla bama, etc.
After 09,10 you’re an average program floating towards below avg. Just wait til a couple of top recruits jump ship.
Vulture
October 4th, 2010
3:33 pm
I was right about the full stadium.
2BT
October 4th, 2010
3:33 pm
Shreveport just called……………. even THEY are no longer interested!
Nacho Daddy
October 4th, 2010
3:34 pm
Jim Harbaugh = Michigan or Da Bears
John
October 4th, 2010
3:35 pm
OK, Mark, who would you hire? Who would take this job? Georgia is a historically good program, not a great program. During the last 60 years or so, Georgia has won ONE national championship. ONE. This is not Southern Cal we’re talking about.
Richt has won the conference twice in a decade. Dooley won six in 25 years, back when there were only 6 conference games (and no championship game) and he could duck Bama as much as he wanted. Pretty comparable, and Dooley is considered the greatest coach in school history. And everyone wants to run Richt out of town because of a couple down years? What decent coach would take this job, with all of its attendant absurd expectations?
I’m not saying Richt is a great coach – I don’t think he is – and if he settles into a pattern of 6-6, 15-arrest seasons, eventually the AD will have to make a change. But let’s be realistic about what we can expect from the UGA football program.
LMAO
October 4th, 2010
3:36 pm
Vulture – Agreed
Richt era almost over
October 4th, 2010
3:36 pm
When the AJC starts putting Richt down, you know he’s got one foot out the door. Anyone would be a better coach but UGA will never get someone who can compete with Meyer and Saban to take that job. It’s a dead end job as Richt is proving right now.
Nacho Daddy
October 4th, 2010
3:37 pm
“Miss me ?” Willie
LMAO
October 4th, 2010
3:38 pm
You may have a shot at baby holtz. But Richt era almost over has a point no good head coach is coming into the SEC right now with the dominance of Saban. Wait 2 more years and he will go back to the NFL. Look at what tennessee hired lmao
cantondawg
October 4th, 2010
3:39 pm
I’m not one to criticize coaches but Bobo has got to go. He tries to get too cute with his playcalling and screws up the offense. How many 3rd down and short have we not converted because he called a low percentage pass play instead of running it for a first down
Realist
October 4th, 2010
3:39 pm
To everyone, Your right, Harbaugh may not want to leave Standford for lousy UGA (with all the rednecks — haha) however we need to set our goals high! If there is any chance; UGA should at least try to lure Harbaugh to Athens. Keep the faith!
Yellow Fuzz
October 4th, 2010
3:42 pm
Staying out of this one.
But I think the main problem is the dog fans themselves and their careless, unthoughtful and hurtful posts on these blogs about their team. No one can reach their potential if they are afraid to make a mistake you AH dog fans put that kind of pressure on your players and coaches. They can’t win with you!
NoDawgInThisFight
October 4th, 2010
3:42 pm
I think CMR can lead UGa as far as anyone. MOF, he has led them farther than anyone in 30 years. Why do you expect UGa to be better than the top half of the schools in the SEC? Is there something magical about that place which I haven’t seen?
Responses to some posts
October 4th, 2010
3:46 pm
1. Outside of the small percentage of delusional fans that EVERY successful team has, the vast majority of Georgia fans are realistic enough to know we are not going to win multiple NCs every decade, as some accuse us of. Check out the UGA blogs such as Dog Vent, Dog Post, Dawg Run, and you will find very little of this kind of talk. We do expect a competitive team yearly, but that is not the same.
2. What makes you think Kirby Smart and Will Muschamp are the answer? Smart is similar to Ray Goff in a lot of ways: SW Georgia boy, superb recruiter, does have more of a coaching resume than Ray had, but not sure a program like Georgia should turn the keys of the kingdom over to him. What percentage of Bama’s defensive success is due to Smart’s schemes? Working with a lot of future NFL players, Saban’s fingerprints all over that D, many say. Same for Muschamp, fiery guy, excellent recruiter, whose defense Stafford lit up two years in a row, has access to the best talent in the country at Texas and was torched by UCLA recently.
3. I believe Richt has enough capital to go 2-10 and keep his job, but as some have said, 2011 is going to be crunch time for him and this staff. Defensive changeover excuses are gone, Murray will have had a full season, schedule is not that tough for an SEC slate.
LMAO
October 4th, 2010
3:46 pm
If you guys were smart their is one guy thats is an hour away you could hire and no one has said it yet and he would come to Georgia and that name is BRIAN VAN GORDER. Defensive Coach. That is what you need.
Fightin' Mad
October 4th, 2010
3:47 pm
I think CMR has lost the team. If he will look under that huge pile of buffalo turds in Boulder, he will find them.
Curious George
October 4th, 2010
3:48 pm
Inspired by former UGA Athletic Damon Evans, which Bulldog player (or Coach) will be the first (this season) to be arrested for shoplifting red undergarments from Victoria’s Secret?
Tweets that mention What's wrong with UGA? It all starts with the head coach | Mark Bradley -- Topsy.com
October 4th, 2010
3:48 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Chase Cain, U. S. College Teams. U. S. College Teams said: What's wrong with UGA? Sad to say, it starts with Mark Richt – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) http://bit.ly/c7KIdl [...]
LMAO
October 4th, 2010
3:49 pm
As Ted Nugent would say “The Indians need food, They needed skins for a roof”
Great White Buffalo.
The Ol' Ball Coach
October 4th, 2010
3:49 pm
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You mutts have all the talent and can’t do a thing with it. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Walker, Texas Ranger
October 4th, 2010
3:49 pm
If Vince Dooley were coaching today, he would be fired before the 3rd season after his 5-6 team. Also, UGA won 69.79% of the games under Dooley. When did UGA become such a power that it is not satified with a coach that has won at least 8 games every year and is 7-2 in Bowl games. Give the guy some credit.
SadDawg
October 4th, 2010
3:49 pm
First off, shut up about the 3 year decline. We were #10 at the end of the ‘08 season. You wanna know who would like to be there at the end of this season? How about Texas? UF? Most of the other 75 teams ranked above us now? Yeah, I thought so.
20+ season ending injuries, and W Martinez, ended those ‘08 title asperations, along with the same problems affecting our offense as now, sans Stafford and Knowshon. I noticed then, along with many Dawgs, our offense got shut down by the better teams. It got worse in ‘09, with even average (OSU, LSU, UK) to mediocre (UT) teams shutting down the O, and Bobo seemingly helpless to adjust.
This season, the predictable playcalling, and feeble attempts to run out of the Power I (when we have a pure-shotgun- QB) would be laughable, if we Dawg fans weren’t dying inside. How many posts have y’all read here and elsewhere, that many folks watching the games with you can guess the plays coming, by the formations? Run up the middle. Stuffed. Then play-action. Does Bobo not realize play-action ONLY works when you have a running game? I bet these opposing DCs have their game plans by late Monday before the game? Remember Kiffin, “Georgia is the easiest team on our schedule to prepare for. They’re still running the same stuff they have for 10 years.”
The only time this season our offense has looked sharp (don’t count LaLa) is when we are two scores down, and Bobo/Richt “open things up a bit,” and put Murray in the shotgun.
Dammit, if they had put him in the shotgun and left him in it Sat night, UGA would have equaled California’s (yes, California) 52 points against Colorado. But as soon as we got up by 10, ….back to the Power I, and back to the 3-and-outs. What the hell is the point of being cautious when you are 1-3 and on the road – at Colorado?
True Tech
October 4th, 2010
3:50 pm
A trend on the flip side DawginLex. Put the pipe down son.
Terry Bowden
October 4th, 2010
3:50 pm
I have new elevator shoes. Do I qualify for the position of head coach?
Walker, Texas Ranger
October 4th, 2010
3:51 pm
LMAO…they only took what they needed, millions of buffalo were the proof
robodawg
October 4th, 2010
3:56 pm
If we turn the momentum around, finish the season well, and regain our swagger, Richt returns and gets to prove himself next year. Next season will be do or die for his coaching career.
If the whole season carries on like this last stretch of games, we’ll be looking for a coach in December. I hate to say it, and I really want Richt to turn this thing around. There was a time I thought we’d never see him on the hot seat. And I’m not excited about going out and hiring a new coach either.
Best case: Richt turns things around, finishes this year out well, and comes back with a team that’s been through fire together and ready to dominate for several seasons.
Next best case: We hire a coach who recruits well, inherits talent, and has us competitive for the SEC within 2 seasons. But no coach can guarantee this, which opens up the possibility of …
Worst case: The nineties all over again. We go through 2 or 3 coaches over the next decade looking for something that will work while our competitors run laps around us.
S ga
October 4th, 2010
3:57 pm
He deserves at least 2 more seasons. He’s earned that
If we can’t compete by 2012, when the world ends anyway, then who cares.
Jimmy da Geek
October 4th, 2010
3:58 pm
I see a 4 – 8 season, in your future.
Schmeckdawg
October 4th, 2010
4:00 pm
bevanscds @ 11:38
Dude or Dudette, I don’t know where you get your information, but, Dooley only had ONE losing season in the 25 years he was @ UGA.
theroutineplay
October 4th, 2010
4:02 pm
Wade Phillips of the NCAA? Substitute Bum for Bobby…
Franco
October 4th, 2010
4:03 pm
da Greek- need a good doc as I strained my extra calf muscle- any advice?
ViningsDawg
October 4th, 2010
4:03 pm
It seemed almost inconceivable to me watching the Dawgs demolish Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl that I was watching perhaps the high water mark of this program and that it would be downhill from there.
LMAO
October 4th, 2010
4:04 pm
WALKER TEXAS RANGER – IT WAS SAD IT WAS SO SAD
Cythnia Tucker
October 4th, 2010
4:04 pm
CMR needs to let more illegals play.
Jerry Glanville
October 4th, 2010
4:04 pm
Hey padna, I can still coach. Call me.
Rush Limbaugh
October 4th, 2010
4:05 pm
Here’s a tip. Run right, run right.
Obama
October 4th, 2010
4:06 pm
Here’s another tip. Run left run left
theroutineplay
October 4th, 2010
4:07 pm
Before the Miss St and Buff losses I would have said give him two seasons to pick it up. But after last week I’m seriously concerned he just can’t keep up with other coaches in the SEC let alone his own players. He looks defeated and lost…He deserves one more year, but if things don’t get turned around I don’t see him making it through 2011.
David Granger
October 4th, 2010
4:08 pm
Coach Richt does two things extremely well. He’s a clean-cut, nice-looking guy…says the right things, and represents the university well. And he’s a very good recruiter, which is probably the most important ability for a coach to have…especially in a talent-laden state like Georgia.
He is NOT a strict disciplinarian…you called it right on the money when you compared UGA to FSU towards the end of Bobby Bowden’s tenure. And that, I believe, is the root cause of an awful lot of our problems.
In recent years, we have seen:
1. Georgia players commit all kinds of senseless fouls at criticals times during the game. (Many of them have the appearance of being those “He was dissing me” revenge hits…)
2. Georgia players in constant legal troubles.
3. Georgia players dancing and boogeying on the sidelines in the late 4th quarter of a game we’re losing.
4. Georgia players bowing up and shouting back and coaches who are correcting them.
5. Georgia players dancing and strutting on an opponent’s logo at midfield after it took a last-second field goal to beat…Vanderbilt. (To paraphrase Allen Iverson: “We talking ’bout VANDERBILT!”)
Coach Richt has certainly been better than Ray Goff and Jim Donnan. But the discipline on the team had steadily gone down under Coach Richt…and once a coach loses it, he never gets it back. And though we certainly have other problems we need to address, that lack of discipline is our single biggest problem.
Dr Philistine
October 4th, 2010
4:12 pm
If Georgia fires Richt, who would they hire? You think any coach worth hiring would agree to come to a program where the fans turn on a coach anytime their unrealistic expectations are unmet? The next coach who comes to UGA better have the ability to clone Herschel Walker because he’s the only reason the Dawgs have ever won the national championship in the modern era of college football. Wait a minute. That was 30 years ago, so even that’s not all that modern.
Brian
October 4th, 2010
4:13 pm
Mark is a great man and perhaps he is the greatest coach in Georgia history but that is precisely the problem. With national recruiting rankings like we have and the facilities we have why can’t we be another Alabama. What direction are we going? Kids are going to jail in the offseason, we make dumb penalties, and we have been sinking since the preseason #1 ranking. It all seems to have fallen apart. I am a huge Mark Richt fan but sometimes you just need a change to revitalize the program.
Bo
October 4th, 2010
4:15 pm
Man, it seems like most of you guys can’t evaluate a team worth a darn. The biggest offensive problem is lack of blocking…hands down. The fumbles have cost UGA but if the line could run block, they would be up 3-4 touchdowns a game. Bobo’s play calling is fine if the running backs have holes to hit. I swear, you cannot line up and throw the ball on every play. If you can’t run the ball, you can’t win…UGA can not run the ball.
To those guys who say that Bobo’s play calling is predictable: It’s 3rd & 2. Will UGA run or throw? Convention says run the ball. However, UGA has been prone to do either one over the past 3 years. As for his other calls, he certainly looks bad when the running back gets tackled for no gain or a 2 yd loss. Yet, most of the time there is no hole to hit.
The blame either lies with Stacey Searels or the strength program…or both. These guys either aren’t motivated, don’t know their schemes or can’t physically move their opponents…or all three. Whichever it is, it doesn’t have anything to do with the play called. At the beginning of the season, this was supposed to be the best unit in the nation. Well they aren’t that.
It doesn’t matter if your opponent is stacking 8 guys in the box, an excellent offensive line will impose their will on a defense. A mediocre line will still be able to run the ball some of the time if 8 are constantly in the box. Well, UGA can’t run the ball at all and their opponents aren’t stacking the box even half of the time.
As for Mark Richt’s role in this, he knew the offensive line wasn’t performing 4 years ago and brought in a replacement. Well the replacement hasn’t worked out. I can understand his staying with Searels for 2 years. The line was injured and young his first year. Last year, the line was healthier but still pretty banged up. This year there are no excuses and the deficiency is glaring for anyone willing to look past Bobo.