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
hello
October 4th, 2010
1:41 pm
Be careful what you ask for.
I remember when the Falcons decided that they needed to take their program to the “next level” and fired Leemon Bennett after making the playoffs and replaced him with the “up anc coming” Dan Henning. They averaged 3 wins a year for the next 3 years.
I remember when Tech fired Bud Carson after 3 relatively successful years and replaced him with some guy whose name I cannot even remember who crashed like a 1 winged plane.
Sometimes bad times come for even the good coaches. Smart programs stick by those coaches and give them time to right the ship.
Georgia would be stupid to lose Richt because 2 running backs fumbled and cost us 3 games.
The breaks will even out over time. Mark, take a chill pill and get a life.
dawgster
October 4th, 2010
1:42 pm
Ray…good job with the info on the letter of support for Coach Richt…if you have time check out the classless comment made by Jeff Shultz the other AJC writer, regarding Coach Richt taking a mission trip…very classless…
John R
October 4th, 2010
1:43 pm
I read “…use to…” and couldn’t read the rest of the article. Come on Bradley (or an editor)…get it together.
Gay Dawg
October 4th, 2010
1:43 pm
This is crazy. Mark Richt is solid. Lets all get behind Mark Richt and get behind all these young men!
keith
October 4th, 2010
1:43 pm
Sad but True
JB
October 4th, 2010
1:44 pm
Mark needs to take over for Butch Davis at North Carolina…………He is a good coach. Heck, Fulmer was a good coach,,,as was Tubbs At Auburn………………They all ran out of rope……
I’m not saying the guy we hire is the answer, but fresh paint might look good….for Mark Also.
If you study this team, roster and schedule and last years small and shrinking and average recruiting class, 2011, Mark or no Mark, will be a challenge. We are thin at talent and depth and Coaching I’m afraid………………..The money drying up is next…….maybe some empty seats.
UGABugKiller
October 4th, 2010
1:44 pm
dawgster… get a frakking life, you over-emotional d-bag.
What Jeff was saying, obvious to everyone else, is that while Saban and Meyer and whomever else might possibly want to do the charitable acts Richt does, like the mission trips, they don’t.
WHY?
Because they are paid millions of dollars to win championships. Not build a school in Central America.
So instead, Saban and Meyer act charitably by giving money, not time.
Because they have their priorities in line with their job expectations.
Richt does not.
greg
October 4th, 2010
1:46 pm
Mark, besides the cheap shot underneath the picture and the cheap shot at the end it was spot on. I do have a question for you. How much of CMR’s seeming lack of interest has to do with giving up the play calling duties. He looks like he is having no fun at all coaching. I realize he gave it up because of his other duties (and stupid peoples opinions), but do you think after handing over the play calling that he stepped too far back?
JB
October 4th, 2010
1:47 pm
be careful what you ask for…………could also mean, get the young kids out the room so they won’t remember a Georgia team playing like this……….. Coach’s come and go…..you guys have gotten to attached to this guy………..Love the University, not the man……..
dogfish
October 4th, 2010
1:47 pm
Richt is unwilling to make the tough decisions necessary to be a head coach. I believe he also lacks the vision to recognize coaching talent (Smart, 05). He fired Willie only because of the heat he recieved after years of declining results on defense. Richt was a good OC but apparently lacks the skill to be the lead man.
UGA is a team loaded with talented players and should contend for the SEC title often. If the AD does not fire Richt after this season, look for the problem to be compounded as recruiting will start to decline as well.
AP
October 4th, 2010
1:49 pm
The past three years have seen us become a very mediocre SEC program. We have not competed well with upper echelon teams and have competed poorly with teams we should defeat easily. Consequently, we have begun to take sharp criticisms (deserved) from a multitude of media outlets in and around our state. We are surrounded by schools who will do anything to keep UGA down. ( Why are Bama fans constantly taking jabs at UGA. We have really not presented any threat to anyone in quite a while-because everyone sees the untapped potential of UGA) College football is now an ESPN Gameday, radio talk show, internet blog driven machine and if you do not have a positive vibe about your program, you are ignored or negatively reported on. College football has changed drastically in the past 5 years. Coaches at some of our biggest rivals and other successful programs around the country are getting tremendous attention and props at every moment. Is Mark Richt? Honestly, he doesn’t have the appeal of a Meyer, Saban, Spurrier, outside of Georgia. I’m sorry to say, but UGA has put itself into a situation which once again will only produce negative vibes around our program. Fire Mark Richt and UGA is the bad guy. Keep Mark Richt and I’m afraid we remain a mediocre SEC team in the coming years because he won’t be able to recruit the type kids we need, he will need to overhaul his coaching staff, and the negativity will continue. Best possible scenerio, Richt realizes he has lost control of the program and resigns effective after the last game. Any new coach, and I would have to believe we would be able to find someone quite competitive on a national level, would immediately energize a fan base and begin the process of positive vibe concerning local and national media. I would think anyone UGA contacted would have to listen because of our enormous resource base. Peterson, Patterson, Muschamp, Smart and what about Mullen. He beat us, trained under Meyer, has connections with McGarity, and is considered an up and comer, great recruiter, energetic, head coaching experience, national championship experience, and I believe would have to leave MSU if UGA called because of the resources UGA can offer over MSU. If LSU doesn’t get him first. I love the DAWGS and only hope all this works out for the best. GATA
Na
October 4th, 2010
1:49 pm
Richt was a good coach when he was hired, he is still a good coach today.
Did you ever work for a company for 10 years do a great job then you had a couple of bad weeks and they fired you????
Look at yourself before casting that stone.
home&home
October 4th, 2010
1:50 pm
Interesting that of all of the talented guys mentioned, not one was a defensive lineman or an offensive lineman. That’s been a problem for a while, with a few notable exceptions.
Until we’re much, much better in the trenches, we’re going to continue to struggle.
The REAL GA Gator
October 4th, 2010
1:50 pm
UGA owes Richt too much money to fire him this season. So everyone just needs to settle down until next year. It’s obvious that Richt has lost this team (on and off the field), but there’s nothing that can be done until the end of next season unless some mega-rich booster wants to pay out the rest of his contract. Since that probably won’t happen everyone just needs to chill out. Besides, did you really expect to compete for the SEC with a freshman QB and a new d-coordinator? Puh-lease.
dawghater
October 4th, 2010
1:50 pm
Fire Richt, we dare you! Life’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get!
Gay Dawg
October 4th, 2010
1:50 pm
Mark Richt has made UGA a team capable of taking on all comers. This is ridiculous!
lawzoo
October 4th, 2010
1:51 pm
None of this would even be up for discussion if Glenn Mason would not have changed his mind and gone back to Kansas.
Maybe Brad Scott is available.
wayxdog
October 4th, 2010
1:51 pm
Vince Dooley without Hershel Walker is McDonalds without hamburgers.
5150 P.O.A.D
October 4th, 2010
1:51 pm
Mark or Jeff are you going to cover the live blog for the UGA game this weekend? I can’t be on I will already be down at Tech probaably before the Game starts.
If you can get a Photo of Barbara Dooley in her Orange for the game.
BG
October 4th, 2010
1:51 pm
Mark maybe you should coach the Dawgs!
Fake Urban Meyer
October 4th, 2010
1:51 pm
Question to all ya’ll UGA fans:
Who do you get to replace Richt? I am not coming to coach. Saban is not coming either. Vince Dooley is not coming back. His son will be in town next week to put the smackdown on you all.
SEC
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
“games that stamped Rich as college football’s next great coach.”
Who is Rich?
TheItalianDawg
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
fire the clowns and hire Jim Harbaugh! dont waste time and fool yourself, stop the nonsense, fire Richt this year is better than next year. Richt will NOT be able to bring this team to win 10, 11 and 12 games a season, Richt made terrible mistakes by hiring bad assistants, Bobo is terrible OC, he never dreamed of being the Georgia Bulldogs OC, simply because he is not a bright OC, its over! Georgia will never be the same with Richt as HC. Bobby Bowden once said he never thought Mark Richt is a head coach material.Coach Richt was given last year and this year to fix things but the team went from bad to worse. bring in Jim Harbaugh or Kirby Smart and fire the clowns
Crazy Alice
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
Who dis?!?! %$#@*&^
PoundPuppies
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
I have had many debates with the Dawgie faithful. Richt is NOT a good coach! How can he consistently recruit Top 5 talent and lose? He has no ability to motivate his players to play with a killer instinct. He promotes being “Ford Tough” yet he is “Charmin SOFT”. UGA football is consistent with 1 thing year in and year out, LETDOWN!!!
That starts with Richt at the top and he should be fired!!!
Gay Dawg
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
Richt has mad UGA into a powerhouse that takes on all comers. What a joke to try and throw him out like yesterdays news!
Football Ken
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
Please don’t be fooled ….Grantham is “fool’s gold”…
The Party's Over
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
What else is there left to say?
Fake Urban Meyer
October 4th, 2010
1:52 pm
I like Mark Richt.
Dawggone
October 4th, 2010
1:53 pm
But what does the last few seasons do for recruiting in this new era of recruits? These athletes today want to be on a team that wins, and GA isn’t doing that right now. I am afraid that if the problem is not repaired, and quick, the program will hurt in the long run, even worse than it is hurting now. Also, I still cannot get over the lack of discipline on these teams. Why are so many athletes getting arrested? Why did we get penalized last year? This does not look like Mark Richt coached teams I remember seven, eight, five years ago!!!!
Mark PRicht
October 4th, 2010
1:53 pm
If you look back it all started when one week I got onto my guys for standing on the star at Vady and the next week I send them on the field against the Gators. I started the downward spiral with no dicipline and its been downhill ever since
UGABugKiller
October 4th, 2010
1:53 pm
FUM,
Peterson. Smart. Muschamp. Whittingham.
That’s the short list.
Norman Cochran
October 4th, 2010
1:53 pm
No matter what you say, he has done a good job! He can coach, preach, and follow his players 24 hours a day but in the end it is the player who has to make the decision to do right or wrong and the player has to make the plays the way he was coached. Richt can coach but he can’t get out on the field and play for them!!!
Mojo
October 4th, 2010
1:53 pm
WHO ARE YOU GOING TO GET THAT’S BETTER RICHT?
ct
October 4th, 2010
1:53 pm
why does everyone always say…well Richt is a Christian man…who the heck cares..I am Jewish, he can be a friggin atheist for all I care..i just want wins and a NC!!!!! All I know is Florida kept Zook for a couple years with similar record and then fired him quickly and brought in Meyer…enough of liking Richt because he is religious..what the heck does that have to do with Football?
stw
October 4th, 2010
1:54 pm
Hard for me to admit but the bloom has faded on the Richt/rose. We are now middle of the pack SEC and sliding…Wonder if Kirby would consider coming back as Head Man ??
DawgDad
October 4th, 2010
1:55 pm
It’s not like the Dawgs are playing like doormats, they’re in these games but finding ways to lose. The defense remains a big problem; it might take two years of new recruits to fix the problems there. The o-line has been underachieving badly – for several years now. This might be recruiting, player development, or play calling; all three fall back on the coaches, but injuries have changed some of the key faces, too.
Right now this team does not have an offensive identity. Attempts to be an I-formation run-first team went down in flames with the coaches’ expectations of having a strong offensive line and power running backs and AJ Green to stretch the field. The coaches seem to have misread Murray’s strengths (running and a strong arm) and lost track of their tight ends.
Defensively, they have a handful of players playing their hearts out and a bunch of d-backs seemingly confused as to which team they play for.
There doen’t seem to be upper classman leadership on the team. When all these hot-shot freshmen and sophomores start believing they are the big men on campus the discipline problems are bound to follow, off and on the field.
Fake Urban Meyer
October 4th, 2010
1:56 pm
Ya’ll make it sound like UGA is a major college football powerhouse. Come on, man.
Booby's booger finger
October 4th, 2010
1:56 pm
Athletes today want to drink beer, start fights, not go to class, sell jerseys, sell rings, be given cash for spring break.. etc. UGA is right on track for a great recruiting class
Norman Cochran
October 4th, 2010
1:56 pm
Oh yeah, about hiring assistants? Well who knows what goes on behind closed doors! Remember Dooley? He was one of the best, if not the best, coaches Georgia has had but he was run out on a rail by Adams!!!
ApopkaDawg
October 4th, 2010
1:56 pm
Forest Through The Trees
Dawg Fans most of you know this has been a long time coming. This train wreck of a season has been rolling down the tracks since 2007.
Starting Point – 2007 UGA goes into the UF game with MOTIVATIONAL problems. If you recall, the “dance” in the end zone was to hopefully get our players fired up. What?!?!?! Why are’nt they fired up EVERY week. Simple answer, coaching.
2007 – GREAT finish, but Lost to S. Carolina, got thumped by UT, barely beat Vandy. Defense looks shakey, Martinez quiestioned
2008 – Preseason #1 and 10-3 was the best we could do. Willie gave up 30pts or more 4 times during the season. Defense was terribley. No Firing of Willie. We have to put up with mediocrity for another year.
2009 – Finish the season 8-5. Willie gave up 30pts or more 5 times during the season. Defense AGAIN terrible. Starting QB was a under Richt for 5 years and was TERRIBLE. Once again, an underdevelpment of talent. Head to the Independence Bowl.
2010 – Season starting out terrible, 1-4. Looking 4-8 or 3-9 squarely in the face.
The decisions that have led to the dismantling of this season have been going on over the last 3 years. The wheels have been comming off for awhile now. Unfortunately, it has manifested into quite possibly the worst season UGA football has ever experienced. The choices of Mark Richt is what has gotten us to this point.
Every week seems to be a “make it or break it” for Mark Richt and company. I do know this. If UGA gets beat at home by UT, Richt will be facing the fact that he may lose touch with his team and they may not win another game this season. If that happens, UGA may lose the ability to be competitive for the remainder of the season and McGarity will have some tough decisions to make.
Steve Rockenhartplays
October 4th, 2010
1:56 pm
As a Jacket fan, I have to agree with Bradley. Fire him.
(Bradley, I mean. What a dufus.)
bigdawg
October 4th, 2010
1:56 pm
go ahead and get rid of him and my donations for season tickets will go with him.
dogfish
October 4th, 2010
1:56 pm
Mark Bradley, I did not read bugkillers post but I agree with him that it may well have been Van Gorder’s D that made Richt what he was. We all know it takes a great D to contend for titles no matter what league your in. The decline started and deepened as Van Gorder coached players graduated.
M. Vick
October 4th, 2010
1:57 pm
Enter your comments here
collegeballfan
October 4th, 2010
1:57 pm
Part of the problem Richt has is the perceptions and expectations of the UGA football program.
The perception among UGA fans is that UGA is a national championship quality program. Nothing could be further from the truth. UGA football has one national championship in the last 60 years. This is not a national title program. Heck, GT, one of the more average programs in the country has two national titles in the last 6o years.
And then there are the expectations that UGA will win “another national title any day”. Based on what? Hope. Hope only! There is no evidence that UGA will ever win another national title.
But UGA fans have “…that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;”.
And that is what Richt will be measured against. Hope.
DawginLex
October 4th, 2010
1:57 pm
You know, outside of some of the totally delusional Dawgs, most of us realize that Richt has brought this upon himself.
Dooley won 6 SEC titles in 25 years and averaged 8 wins per year.
Richt has won 2 titles in 9 years.
Richt raised the bar and the level of expectation.
That coupled with the fact that Florida stunk in Dooley’s day and now they have Meyer, has caused this furor.
Richt deserves another chance but he won’t get it short of a 7 game run.
kreedham
October 4th, 2010
1:57 pm
Well I think Bobo is probably gone as OC but may be retained as QB coach. Richt still has games left this season to keep from getting axed but some asst coaching will be changed.
Douglas
October 4th, 2010
1:58 pm
Donnan had the program going in the right direction? You’ve got to be kidding..he had a lot of talent but he couldn’t beat Florida, Tennessee, etc. and the team was not improving — it stayed the same. If Donnan is so great, why hasn’t anyone hired him? Even Dooley read the writing on the wall — his recruiting was dropping off — his offense was stagnant — and his time was up — he left at just the right time. Goff always had a good offense but his choice of DC’s was terrible. When you look at Richt’s team, where is the strength? Offense? Defense? Special Teams? Enough said.
jawga boy
October 4th, 2010
1:58 pm
You know, I’ve been taking this all in and I’m not a “dump Richt” alumni. I believe in him and what he stands for and I am as angry as most and feel “something ought to be done”. Mark, you are all over it…… Maybe McGarity ought to call him in and say ” Mark old boy, you have a job here and the job is “Winning”…..and you haven’t been. The team has gone “mediocre” and so is your paycheck. Cut his pay, get his attention. One can get fat and lazy…..then lets see what he does. If he quits…..then that is a sign “he really already has”. He stays and “fixes the problem” then his pay will be restored.
As an alum….I’m angry that I have to pay in more to keep my seats…..and I don’t get near the travel ticket allocation I used to. I’m not getting my money’s worth. And, I don’t go to games as much as I used to……I don’t like the product on the field.