Win or lose Saturday, can Richt ever again feel safe at UGA?
"Let's try that play where we jump offside. That's working!" (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
The label “must-win” has affixed itself to the South Carolina game, but a more precise description is “darn-well-better-win.” There’s a chance an 0-2 Georgia could still make something of its season. Say the Bulldogs win nine of their next 10: Wouldn’t 9-3 with a strong finish coming after 6-7 be construed as, ahem, significant improvement? That said …
Beyond simply saving himself for next week or next season, can Mark Richt ever again be truly safe in this job?
When the second game of any season is deemed, however inexactly, a “must-win,” matters have already deteriorated. When something is so far gone, is there any going back? The Georgia-Tennessee game of Oct. 6, 2007, was considered a “must-win” for Philip Fulmer, and he won it 35-14 and rose from 2-2 to 9-3 and led the Vols to the SEC East title (shading Georgia on a tiebreaker). Great recovery, huh?
Reality check: Philip Fulmer was fired in November 2008.
The Fulmer parallel is often invoked regarding Richt, and it’s apt. Both men won big for a good long while. Both took two SEC championships. (Fulmer even won a BCS title, a prize for which Georgia under Richt has never played.) Then they stopped winning so much. Fans noticed. Fans began asking: “Is he still the right guy?”
When enough fans ask that loaded question enough times, games stop being games and become referendums on the coach. This week a man who has a finger on the pulse of Bulldog Nation estimated Richt’s job-approval rating at five percent. Should Georgia lose to South Carolina, what might the approval rating be? Two-point-five percent? Zero percent?
We need to ask this, too: Even if Georgia wins this game, will Richt’s doubters again become believers? Or will they just doubt a bit less until he loses again?
A coach cannot serve for long at the displeasure of his constituency: This has always been true, but it’s truer than ever in a world where the athletic director has an e-mail address and anyone with Internet access can post on Twitter and Facebook and AJC.com. With so much money in play and so many seats to fill, can any AD wage a protracted fight against the wishes of his fans?
Loading ...When C.M. Newton was in charge at Kentucky and folks were upset that Bill Curry wasn’t winning, the AD advised the dissidents to go find another school to support. Even with such administrative backing, Curry wound up resigning. When you lose so often that the roar of discontent drowns out the huzzahs raised in any victory, you’re a goner even before you actually go.
Richt is treading perilously close to that tipping point. Losing to Boise State mightn’t have been so bad on its face — the Broncos arrived ranked No. 5 in the land and were favored by Vegas — but the manner of the loss was devastating. This disjointed performance didn’t augur a new beginning; this was merely more of the same, which made it worse than ever. You sign the Dream Team and can’t stay onside? To borrow from Steve Spurrier’s famous 1991 dismissal: “Georgia gets all these recruits, but I don’t know what happens to them.”
Should Georgia lose to South Carolina, as coached by the dastardly Spurrier, Richt won’t resign on the spot or be fired on Sunday. He might still win enough to keep his job. (For another year, anyway.) But here’s the bigger issue: Even a win over the Gamecocks won’t convince many folks that the 51-year-old Richt remains the daring young man who Finished The Drill way back when.
It might take another SEC championship to do that. It might take a BCS title. And if, after Boise, you espy such glory on the horizon … well, count yourself among that five percent.
By Mark Bradley
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594 comments Add your comment
Jordan
September 10th, 2011
10:13 am
http://isportsweb.com/2011/09/10/georgia-vs-south-carolina-preview/
BT
September 10th, 2011
10:18 am
Bobo’s offensive scheme and play calls are the problem. Plus, GATA on defense…be the attacker, not the attacked…
Homepage | MrSEC.com
September 10th, 2011
10:20 am
[...] Mark Bradley on Mark Richt: “The Fulmer parallel is often invoked regarding Richt, and it’s apt.” Board members are [...]
RedandBlackDAWG
September 10th, 2011
10:39 am
Running with the DAWGS,
Spuurier is not going to see a NC with the QB,s he has right now. Shaw, I think is turning out to be below par for the coach and Garcia is just one stupid move away from another incident. Maybe Shaw will develop in the future but I don’t see it happening this year, as he will not really get that much chance this year, because Stevie Wonder Boy has no choice but to stick with Garcia and hope he doesn’t blow up. Garcia looks good when there is a running game to carry most of the load for the team. Pressure that kid and all bets are off as to where the ball goes once it is in the air.
If UGA could get pressure on him, he would revert back to the same old Garcia where he panics and throws picks because he really thinks he is a decent QB. I am not sure that UGA can put that type of pressure on him. It is too bad, because that might be the key to their whole defense. Lattimore is going to get his yards, UGA just can’t give up 180+ yards to him. Somehow, our front line on D has got to put some pressure on them and force runs to the outside where our linebackers should pick it up. Providing the offense can actullay move the ball, the defense might stand a chance of making some plays. If they are out there all day again, S.C. will own the better part of the late game and defeat UGA. Can UGA substain any type of offensive rhythmn and not just expect the middle to open up again, like the red sea parting.
Come on DAWGS, give it everything you have and let’s make a game of it. CMR please consider having a lot more input into the game planning and calling and give your team a fighting chance. Thyat is not asking a lot from you and it would be more fair to the kids. I am sure Bobo is a nice guy and everything but he is not a DIV. I OC, and does not need to be coaching a team right now. I don’t know if he will ever grow into one, but he is not now and UGA is just not an inspiring team with him calling the plays.
GO DAWGS and GATA
Wagging the Dog
September 10th, 2011
10:53 am
Phil Steele, right in 86% of picks in 2011 (67-11) is picking UGA over SC THIS WEEK.
http://www.philsteele.com/Blogs/2011/Sep11/DBSep10.html
Jphn
September 10th, 2011
10:58 am
They should do it every year. They don’t. The fans expect it.
The fans have been constantly disapointed. The fans want the coaches head. He’s gone, you can’t stop it. Bet the coaching search has already begun – SECretly.
MLP
September 10th, 2011
11:30 am
I read read a phrase regarding UGA and their fair weather fans.
This oft-used phrase has plagued my senses for quite some time.
Isn’t everyone a fair weather fan? It’s a beautiful day today. As fair weathered as it has been in months. I’m going to spend time outside today because I’m a big fan of fair weather.
When it was foul weather and ice and snow covered the ground for a week, I did not bound outside and proclaim “That’s OK. It will melt eventually.”
In the dog gays of summer I did not stroll in the sweltering heat and say “It’s kind of warm, but it will cool off eventually”
That would be stupid.
Everybody prefers to win, don’t they? If they are playing well, well coached, and winning, I’m much more inclined to be a vocal fan. If the play poorly, look out-coached, and lose a lot, I’m not as apt to be happy go lucky and say “That’s OK, they’ll win more eventually.”
That would be stupid.
4:30 kickoff
September 10th, 2011
11:30 am
It’s hard to feel safe with the “evil genius” coming to Athens.
$750,000.00 Defense
September 10th, 2011
11:32 am
Can the defense hit real hard for a change?
17 of 20
September 10th, 2011
11:37 am
Georgia can’t block or tackle, therefore Coach Spurrier will win today’s game with the dogs.
nobody
September 10th, 2011
11:40 am
ever the naysayer… the perpetual purveyor of gloom and doom… never forget, Mark Bradley is a true-blue Kentucky Wildcat, first and last, and will do all that he can to sew seeds of dissent and desperation in our proud program…..if his suppositions prevail and our ship of football is in as dire straits as he suggests, who would possibly dare seek to become the Head Coach of such a program…go back to Kentucky Mark…leave the Dawgs alone…
somebody
September 10th, 2011
11:44 am
nobody, —- you are wrong.
darkdawg
September 10th, 2011
11:48 am
No way in hell Georgia wins this game if BOBO makes the play calling.
darkdawg
September 10th, 2011
11:51 am
No way in hell Georgia wins this game if RICHT is head coach.
Time
September 10th, 2011
11:57 am
@Troup County Dawg – “Murray doesn’t have any receivers that he can go to unlike last year where AJ and CD made plays happen.”
I think that is a incorrect opinion. He’s got one elite target, who according to many NFL types, is the #1 player at his position in all of college football. Orson Charles is a beast, and should be the top target in this offense. He would be under most OC’s. Under Bobo, who knows what that guy is thinking. To me, Bobo thinks it’s like 1995 and he’s playing Madden and just has to run 4 different plays. Charles is a mismatch nightmare for opposing D’s and should be seeing at the least 8-10 targets a game instead of the 2 or 3 he currently gets.
dawgfan75
September 10th, 2011
11:57 am
Wrong question, Mark. Can UGA ever feel safe with Richt, again?
LLUGA
September 10th, 2011
12:05 pm
Who cares? It’s UGA football…I’d rather watch paint dry.
BroncoBlue
September 10th, 2011
12:16 pm
Enter your comments here
BroncoBlue
September 10th, 2011
12:18 pm
No problems for Richt. The Dawgs beat the Gamecocks in Athens and all is well in the Dawg nation. South Carolina is simply not as fast and athletic as Boise State so the Dawgs should roll. The Dawg nation will be loving on Richt and calling for a NC run back through the Georgia Dome……maybe to play Boise again for the NC!
Xenophon
September 10th, 2011
12:34 pm
The problem for Richt is that his teams have been playing poorly for four years. What is this about? Why the one-sided losses? Why the inability to beat Florida? This relationship with Richt and Georgia is like a marriage gone bad. Time for a divorce. And can we have a Southern coach? We ARE a Southern state…right?
KEEP RICHT&BOBO PLEASE
September 10th, 2011
12:42 pm
RICHT AND BOBO DIDNT WANT CAM NEWTON PLAYING QB,AND GUESS WHAT? IT COST THEM DUMB@$$ REDNECKS A NATIONAL TITLE!
PLEASE KEEP RICHT AND BOBO
KEEP RICHT&BOBO PLEASE
September 10th, 2011
12:44 pm
RICHT PLEASE LET BOBO KEEP CALLING THOSE DUMB@$$ PLAYS,SO THAT THE ATLANTA AREA TALENT WILL KEEP GOING OUTTA STATE!
KEEP RICHT&BOBO PLEASE
September 10th, 2011
12:46 pm
TO ALL YOU REDNECKS THAT DONT WANT ATLANTA AREA TALENT PLAYING FOR UGA,SEE WHY ALABAMA,AUBURN AND FLORIDA KEEPS WINNING NATIONAL TITLES? THEY ARE GETTING ALL THE TOP TALENT THAT YOU REDNECKS DONT WANT AT UGA!
KEEP RICHT&BOBO PLEASE
September 10th, 2011
12:48 pm
STOP BEING SO EVIL REDNECK CRACKERS AND MAYBE THE TOP TALENT WILL COME BACK TO GEORGIA!
Optimus Prime
September 10th, 2011
12:57 pm
What a beautiful Saturday afternoon for the long, tawdry reign of Mark Richt to come to an end.
Steve Spurrier 35, Mark Richt 17.
Nail in the Coffin
September 10th, 2011
1:11 pm
I hope and pray the DAWGs lose and lose big – in an embarassing way – to Steve Spurrier and South Carolina and I hope that it puts the nail in the COFFIN with no hope of resurrection for Mark Richt…..I hope the moving vans show up at his house on Monday morning and we don’t have to see one more picture of him and his sanctimonious fake smile.
1eyedJack
September 10th, 2011
1:14 pm
Mynah bird sighting.
1eyedJack
September 10th, 2011
1:17 pm
“tawdry?” Disappointing maybe, unfulfilling maybe, but tawdry? Mark Richt? C’mon.
wreckmaniac
September 10th, 2011
1:18 pm
The coaches by the numbers review is a good one. I appreciate the earlier reference to it. The basic
reason, in this report, for the demise of the Dawgs is defense. Offensive problems were not analysed.
Fans do not seem to appreciate winning with defense. They want to win by scoring and, not only that, they want to win with 60 yard TD passes. Alabama and Auburn won over the past 2 years not because of Cam Newton or running backs but because of defense.
wreckmaniac
September 10th, 2011
1:19 pm
KEEP RICHT AND BOBO: If the Dawgs couldn’t win a nat champ with Stafford how could they have done it with Newton ? Makes no sense.
wreckmaniac
September 10th, 2011
1:23 pm
Phil Steele picks the dawgs ? We’ll, as a Carolina fan, I guess I’ll stay at home today. No point in even watching on the tube. Check out Steele’s dawg predictions over the past and you will find that he has been way off.
Fire Bobo
September 10th, 2011
1:27 pm
Fire Bobo!!! Fire Bobo!!! Fire Bobo!!! Fire Bobo!!! Fire Bobo!!! Fire Bobo!!!
PHIL FULMER
September 10th, 2011
1:37 pm
mark has nothing to worry about, look at me and what happened , he is in great shape..!@#$%^&*()_
Fan of the Game
September 10th, 2011
1:42 pm
I have always been told that there are two things that everybody thinks they can do and that is teach school and coach, whether it is football or baseball. These two occcupations have the most critics and you couldn’t get most people in a classroom in today’ schools and everybody thinks they can coach and they have never called a play when their job or livelihood depended on it. Once more many have never had on a uniform.
Numberwang
September 10th, 2011
1:47 pm
For arguments sake, what if we wax the floor with the Gamecocks today? We are suddenly 1-0 in the SEC and clearly in the drivers seat. What IF we beat Florida and Auburn and go 10-1? That’s significant improvement to me. Under that scenario there’s no way McGarity could fire Richt. I don’t think this team can go 10-1, but it is a scenario worth pondering. There are Mark Richt haters that wouldn’t even be satisfied with 12-1 season, they’ll still want Richt’s head on a platter. Those are the fans who never stepped foot on the UGA campus and have no clue where the town of Athens is located.
He Hate Gator
September 10th, 2011
2:05 pm
None of you have been paid $3 million a year to win games either…
Russ, the Temporary Mascot (can't keep my successors alive)
September 10th, 2011
2:19 pm
Richt safe? Richt? What about me? I’m sick of being kicked after every loss, and I’ve been getting kicked a lot in the past couple of years.
I don’t know what Richt’s going to do, but I’m putting on white side pads and a little white drop pad over my rear end (saves on the paint and protects the family jewels.)
Come onnnn, UGA VIII! One of you kids has got to be healthy. I want out of this place before these maniacs in the stands fire me too—and I mean real fire. It ain’t going to be pretty out there today.
Big Dawg
September 10th, 2011
2:23 pm
Greg,
I have to agree and slightly disagree with you, yes neither Martinez nor Bobo should have been promoted to DC anf OC respectively. But the big problem is that he has or had stayed with them too long when both have proved they were not cut out to be in those positions. Bobo should have been demoted after the 2009 season and a real OC hired. Martinez should have been cut lose after the 2008 season. In being a head coach sometimes you have to make tough decisions. Coach Richt is a good coach, not a great coach and a decent man and Christian. Bobo reflects Richt’s own tendency to become pass happy and throw the football and only runs it occasionally. His offense has no imagination and my 83 year old father can tell you with a pretty high confidence level what we are going to run in most situations. As far as the defense is concerned the jury is still out on Coach Grantham and his assistants though in my opinion anyway.
Go Dawgs
KakNiqueTree
September 10th, 2011
2:51 pm
So CM Newton basically told the Kentucky fans unhappy about Bill Curry ‘Go F%^& Yourselves’ Awesome!
Coastal Dog (SSI)
September 10th, 2011
2:57 pm
It is not must win. Neither was last week: not expected to beat #5 in country last week; not expcected to beat #1 in SEC East this week. Two wins in that span would have been unreal; one win in that stretch would be awesome. No wins in that stretch, while disappointing, is ok IF we can wind the next 8 or 9. I’m hopeful. My Auburn buddy Melvin thinks we’ll take the Gamecocks to the woodshed today. Peace.
Vinnie
September 10th, 2011
10:21 pm
Go to Hell Richt! Take your losing ways top africa or some other pathetic place and let them see how far you can drag them down! You need to ‘help’ other SEC teams like you nhave UGA! What an epic loser, failure! No ability to motivate, lead or mentor. Get out dodge before a dodge should run you over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LawDawg
September 12th, 2011
1:27 pm
…and firing Fulmer worked out great for the program, they got a hot commodity coach and immediately began winning national championships.
Just an FYI Dawg fans, losing Richt does not ensure winning. Anyone remember 1983-2001 other than me?
Southside Observer
September 12th, 2011
11:25 pm
Rodney Garner is the problem with this Georgia program. Rodney recruits “Characters” instead of Players with Character. Just look and see who was at Dawg Night and where they are playing today. Rodney lives by Rivals and Scout…..He does not want boys who grew up in this state dreaming that they would be a DAWG one day. He does not want former players son playing at Georgia. Rodney does not want Blue Collar players who may not have the “STARS” but they have the drive to be the best…..
Hey Rodney look at TCU and Boise….they red shirt…..not popular in the SEC but it works…
CMR we are behind you….take control of the ship….call your own plays….hire your brother-in-law to coach your QBs…..Get Former All American and NFL player George Collins class of 1977 to take over High School Coaches Relations…..Get Hugh Nall to become Recruiting Coordinator
John Godbee
September 13th, 2011
12:39 am
Edward C.,
As for the article in Coaches by the Numbers, I question the numbers. Dooley won 6 SEC championships, not 4 as stated in the article, in 1966, 1968, 1976, 1980 (National Champions),1981 and 1982. I believe Georgia’s overall total SEC Championship total is 12. That’s a basic error. One can’t take the other numbers at face value.
The bottom line is that Georgia has first rate facilities, revenues, recruiting base, fan support and pays top dollar to its coach. Since late September 2008 (three full years ago), it has been getting a mediocre return on its investment. That’s not satisfactory and if the trend continues through the end of the year (going 7-5 or even 8-4), not firing Richt would be foolish. They can do better. They need to win their next three and then get to the Vandy/Kentucky portion of their schedule. The next five or six weeks will sort it all out.