The Richt contract extension: What’s the magic number?
Checking to see how many more seasons he has in his pocket. (AJC photo by Jason Getz)
Georgia wants to keep Mark Richt and Richt wants to stay. What’s left are details. But details are important, contractually speaking.
Richt’s existing contract runs through 2013, so it isn’t as if he’s a free-agent-to-be. Presumably AD Greg McGarity will offer a raise and an extension, which brings us to the heart of those details. How many more years?
This is a concern not without nuance. Too short an extension sends one message; too long sends another. Here would seem the alternatives:
One more year: This wouldn’t so much be an extension as a very gentle pat on the back. It essentially would say, “We like what you did this season, but we want to see more.” Outsiders would interpret this as McGarity feeling the rise to 10-3 from 6-7 was less a function of coaching than scheduling. A one-year extension won’t happen because it would undercut Richt almost as much as no extension.
Two more years: This would push Richt’s deal through the 2015 season, which is a good ways off and, for recruiting purposes, would allow him to assure current recruits he has a measure of job security through their college careers. Unless, that is, they redshirt. And if they’re not good enough to plays as freshmen, who wants them? (Kidding!)
Three more years: This is the most-rumored extension, and it would make some sense. Five-year contracts are the industry standard. (Even Paul Hewitt had a five-year contract, the difference being that his never stopped being a five-year contract.) This would be a virtual mandate for Richt, but a virtual mandate might be overdoing it. Does one bounceback season override two lesser ones? Will a different schedule — Georgia is scheduled to play at South Carolina and Alabama next season, though speculation holds that SEC newbie Missouri will take the Tide’s place — yield a less desirable result? Is McGarity, who hasn’t negotiated with Richt before, prepared to make the statement: “This is the only coach we want or are ever going to want”?
Four more years or beyond: Too long for any coach, even one who has won his division four times in 11 seasons. Skeptics among us — and they still exist — would note that Richt hasn’t won the SEC since 2005 and has never taken his team to the BCS title game. (Got close a couple of times, though.)
Were I McGarity, I’d open with a two-year offer but count on settling for three. Richt is still a handsome commodity in an industry where big-name schools have been reduced to hiring the likes of Jim Mora (UCLA) and Charlie Weis (Kansas). There’s no reason to tick off such a bird in hand.
By opening with a two-year bid, McGarity would make the point that Georgia likes and supports this coach but wants him to consolidate the gains made in 2011 and have even bigger seasons soon. By settling for three, McGarity comes off as erring on the side of his coach, which is the side an AD needs to choose unless he’s about to fire him.
Georgia fans could and should be enthused by the developments of the past four months. A team that was losing almost every in-doubt game found ways to win 10 times running. That said, the Bulldogs did lose to the three best teams they played, and only one of those losses wound up being close. For as far as Georgia came in 2011, there’s still a ways to go.
The good news is that Georgia again has reason to believe Richt is the man to take it there. He deserves a reward. But a reward isn’t the same as a lifetime contract. The aforementioned Hewitt got one of those, and seven years later Georgia Tech had to pay dearly to make him go away.
By Mark Bradley
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561 comments Add your comment
Once since 2005
December 16th, 2011
2:09 pm
2010 BCS Flake………… Since the year 2005 (hence anything after 05) you won once at that was 2010. Simple math. How does this sound 7 of 11 for Richt and 5 of the last 6. He owns u!
NCCOACH
December 17th, 2011
8:10 am
SCDawg
@ Old Dog Do you not remember the years between Dooley and Richt. That was just bad. How many East Championships? How many SEC Championships? How many 10 win seasons? How many Top 10 teams? Here are your answers: 0,0,2,2 in 12 seasons 4,2,6,4 in 11 seasons under Richt…….
Lets look at this Nick Saban has two NC in the last 11 years at two different schools, Urban two NC within 2 years at Fla, Miles 1 NC on his way to another on one within 6 years……..MCR 0 NC in 11 years… Commmm on MAN
NeedAcoach
December 17th, 2011
8:24 am
CMR will never win a NC, It has been 11 years and he can’t do it with all the talent he has. Look at how many UGA players go to the NFL he has skilled players he just can’t coach them. People look around us other schools are hiring the right coaches and are winning. The SEC has played for the NC game the last 5 years LSU, FLA, BAMA, AUBURN, LSU……. UGA hasn’t won the SECC game in years, sorry to all the die hard CMR fans its time to get a real coach in here and play for the NC. ……. OH and before I forget for the ones that are going to reply how good of a person CMR is stop..think…. over the pass 5 years of how many players have been in trouble or arrested before I hear what he has done for UGA, ok 11 win seasons, but he also holds the most players arrested record also.
Ace
December 17th, 2011
10:44 am
Richt has been so loyal to Georgia. He could have gone to Miami last year, orPenn St or Texas A & M or North Carolina or a number of other place this upcoming year. He didn’t even let his agent talk to these people.
If McGarity doesn’t sign Richt to a 7 or 8 year deal, if he can’t see greatness, then McGarity needs to be fired. Immediately.
Mark Richt’s win % as a head coach is better than Nick Saban’s or Les Miles or Spurrier. 6 top 20 finishes at Georgia, 100+ wins, two #2 finishes. He’s a winner.
I’m not sure about McGarity. The longer he takes to sign Richt to a LONG term deal, the mroe I am convinced McGarity has poor judgment in regards to talent evaluation. If McGarity doesn’t lock Richt up to a long term deal, the backlash from recruiting, and the fan base, could be enough to get McGarity fired this month. I hope so.
Ace
December 17th, 2011
11:09 am
If anyone’s wondering about replacements for McGarity, I’d look to Stanford’s staff.
mars
December 17th, 2011
2:33 pm
Ace, your koolaid is piss. Fire McGarrity if he does sign our underachieving coach. He wins the games he’s supposed to, yes. In games that are considered to be a challenge, you can bank on a bet against Georgia any time. The difference between you and me is that I am a Bulldog fan, whereas you are a Richt groupie. Damn good looking man, huh?
duronimo
December 17th, 2011
3:29 pm
Georgia under Richt mirrors FSU under Bowden. As did FSU, we won a bunch when we had superior athletes and our opponents weren’t that well coached. When all of that changed so did the record. The important variable is the coaching. The record over the last 4 years prove the point. But will these facts be considered before committing to more of the same? Probably not.
lizard
December 18th, 2011
7:00 am
let the defensive coach run the show for a while——–how bad can it get??——Georgia hardly ever beats Florida anymore—–Glad Richt had a good year—but he got blown out in the SEC game. So –what gives??
RR
December 19th, 2011
8:14 pm
Richt to Penn State….. any word on that rumor, Mr Bradley?
jaxdawg
December 19th, 2011
10:46 pm
Is the issue dead? The latest news or talk was 12/15. Is the Coach going to get a Merry Christmas gift or after the bowl?
Columbus Dawg
December 20th, 2011
7:57 am
All of the UGA supporters I know are in favor of taking it slow with Richt’s contract. Yes, he won the East this year, but just as in years past, when he reached the SEC team that had to be beaten in order to actually win the championship he failed miserably. By that I mean getting blown out by the league leaders, such as the Florida game in 2008 after being ranked #1 in the nation to start the season. If a team is thought that highly of by the dips at ESPN going in then that team should not be a team that would be beaten that badly by any other team in the country, period. As embarrasing as the Blackout game was against Alabama, at least the Dawgs came back and made that game respectable.
Mark Richt has become the coach that can dominate the lower tier teams most of the time, but way too often gets embarrassed by the real national players in the nation.
Now word is that the linebacker Washington is leaving UGA. I do not know how the LSU’s, and Alabama’s, and Florida’s of our league get their top players to hang around long enough to actually wihn the championships that they were recruited to win, but they sure do it some how. UGA has more early departures from top players than anyone in the nation it seems, and thus UGA stays in a rebuilding funk constantly.
A lot of UGA supporters around Columbus are kind of up in the air when it comes to Richt’s contract, and are of the thinking that evidence of actually being in solid contention for the championship, not just being a pretender, is actually needed to garner their support, and if”UGA has to rebuild again before being in the hunt, then we might as well do it with a proven coach”, was the way one large booster put it in our conversation. He did not mean making another stupid assistant coach hire hoping that he would turn out to be a Head Coach someday, either.(Kirby Smart).
Richt had better hope that he has someone to plug in Washington’s spot, and that there is still improvement on the D in 2012. All we heard this time last year was Ray Drew this and Ray Drew that. It is time for him to live up to the very, very large amount of hype that surrounded him coming in. The thing that some of these older UGA guys worry about is the return of the ugliness in Athens if Richt is given this big extension and does not get it done. They are afraid that will result in the same kind of ugliness, and loads of empty seats in Sanford like the latter days of the Ray Goff era after he had been left in the job too long.