Florida in Jax: Big for UGA, it’s even bigger for Mark Richt
"Did you know my darn strong football team is 6-1?" (AP photo)
The surest sign that Mark Richt is miffed: He cites numbers. He did it back in 2006, when Georgia was 5-0 but coming off shaky victories over Colorado and Ole Miss. (Those Bulldogs would lose four of their next five games, FYI.) He did it at the end of the 2008 season, which began with Georgia ranked No. 1 but wound down with Richt trying to make 10-3 sound like a major achievement. He did it again Saturday night.
Responding to a question (mine, actually) about the possibility that the halting performance against Kentucky had been a function of focusing more on the Florida-South Carolina score than the opponent at hand, he stopped in mid-answer. “Know what?” he said, his voice rising. “I’m happy with the victory. We’re 6-1. That’s not bad.”
Know what? He’s right. Georgia is 6-1, and 6-1 isn’t at all bad. (It’s good enough for 10th place in the BCS standings.) But now comes Florida, and this game will do more than define the Bulldogs’ season — it will shape the remainder of Mark Richt’s tenure at Georgia.
Richt has been in place since January 2001. He has — here we cite numbers for him — taken Georgia to two conference championships and four SEC title games. He has presided over seven 10-or-more-win seasons and seen his team finish in the Associated Press top 10 five times. Twice the Bulldogs under Richt have come close (in 2002 and 2007) to playing for the BCS title.
That said, his greatest successes came early, and not since 2007 — Richt’s seventh season — have the Bulldogs given their fans reason to believe the long-sought national championship is within reach. Thus have significant achievements come to be taken with a grain of salt. Winning the SEC East in 2011 was nice, but how nice is a season that features losses to the four best teams on the schedule? Being ranked No. 10 in the BCS is not nothing, but 17 days ago the Bulldogs were ranked No. 5 in the land, and not much good has happened since.
The question for Georgia and Richt is no longer about winning mere games; it’s about winning games of consequence, the games this program has ceased to win. South Carolina has become such a game, and the Bulldogs were embarrassed in Columbia on Oct. 6. Florida is another such game, though technically Georgia beat the Gators last season. But now the repellant reptiles are roaring again, and the Bulldogs under Richt still haven’t whipped a first-rate Florida team. (Richt’s three victories in Jacksonville have come against Gators who would finish 7-5, 9-4 and 7-6.)
If Georgia loses Saturday, it won’t repeat as SEC East champs. Given that the Bulldogs were picked to win the division in preseason, that would be a major disappointment. It would make last year’s return to prominence seem an aberration, not the new normal. Even worse, it would fuel the loaded question: If the 2012 Bulldogs, who came equipped with a bunny schedule and a seasoned quarterback and what seemed a mighty defense, couldn’t play for a conference or a national title, what Georgia team will?
Mark Richt is 52, which is considerably younger than Nick Saban or Les Miles, but a 10-2 season that doesn’t yield at least a division title would not play well among the noisier precincts of his constituency. That doesn’t mean Richt would get fired: There’s no way those in power would move to dislodge a coach who’s again winning 10 games a year. Still, the quality of life for Richt’s remaining seasons as Georgia’s coach would surely be lessened. The emphasis wouldn’t be on the many games Georgia has won but on the magnitude of the games it hasn’t. (No victory over a Top 10 team since 2009, et cetera.)
That the Bulldogs looked awful against South Carolina and awfully unimpressive against Kentucky could benefit the cause. Richt’s biggest victory over Florida — the Gator Stomp of 2007 — came when Georgia wasn’t expected to do anything except its usual Jacksonville flop. Now Florida, picked No. 3 in the SEC East, is ranked No. 2 in the BCS standings. Now this is considered Florida’s game to win.
But make no mistake: This is a game these Bulldogs and their coach need in the worst way. There have been breakthrough victories for Richt over the past 11 1/2 years — Tennessee in 2001, Auburn in 2002, Auburn again when Georgia had lost those four of five in 2006, Florida in 2007, maybe Georgia Tech in 2009 — but none lately. If Georgia wins, Mark Richt won’t need to invoke the record to remind us how good his program is. The record will again speak for itself.
Further reading: If you missed today’s Heat Check, it can be found here. (Georgia is mentioned.)
By Mark Bradley
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608 comments Add your comment
DarthDawg
October 22nd, 2012
4:39 pm
Everytime Goldberg shows up the home team loses! Goldberg was on the big screen in Turner Field for the Wild Card Game!
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:40 pm
bEAR bRYANT HAD 0 TOP 5 FINISHES AFTER 11 SEASONS.
RICHT’S HAD 2 IN HIS FIRST 11 SEASONS.
CM
October 22nd, 2012
4:41 pm
CMR should take his team over to the cement pond to display some of his awe- inspiring dives.
Go Dougs!
Smitty
October 22nd, 2012
4:41 pm
I guess if Dawgs win on Saturday there will be no one to blog on this site but me.
Contractor
October 22nd, 2012
4:42 pm
Fred, you’re the reason so many people hate Georgia fans. The delusion and BS you throw out there is so far from reality that it damages an entire fan base. Everyone with any college football sense knows Nick Saban is the best coach in college football, and I would put my life on it that Georgia would take him in a second if they got the opportunity. The guy is a proven winner and has his best years ahead of him in Tuscaloosa where he is conducted a well oiled machine. Keep having to defend your fairy tale thoughts and I’ll continue to watch Nick Saban win Championships and watch Mark Richt settle for mediocrity. In golf terms, Saban will win your argument 4 and 3. Look it up if you don’t know what that means.
GTBob
October 22nd, 2012
4:42 pm
How many top 10 finishes did Saban have after 11 seasons? 3. How many does Richt have after 11 seasons? 6. 6 = 2x more than 3.
Nick Saban took over a Michigan St team that was pretty much in shambles and got them back on track. His job at the start of his career was much harder then what Richt has had to deal with. I would love to see Richt attempt to turn a program around.
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:42 pm
If UGA’s so bad
And Florida’s so great
why is Florida favored
by just 3 points?
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:42 pm
Florida’s offense:
#108 in total offense
#54 in scoring
About the same as 2011.
FLA DAWG
October 22nd, 2012
4:43 pm
The Dawgs are incapable of beating UF this year. It is an impossibility. Not because we don’t have the talent but precisely because of Richt, Bobo and Grantham.
Amazing that our talented guys will lose BECAUSE of their coaches.
We could’ve had Muschamp a couple of years ago as HC.
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:44 pm
What you meant to say was Nick Saban has nwever stayed at 1 school for 12 years like Richt.
Saban goes in to a setup position, wins, and gets out.
Meyer too.
Not Richt.
smithyred
October 22nd, 2012
4:44 pm
You Georgia fans are never happy. You complain about when Georgia loses and when they win who cares if it by a touchdown you are still not happy. Cool your heels!!! It is just a game and get off Head Coach back. He is doing a good job.
Ga can win
October 22nd, 2012
4:45 pm
I’ll be here. I have said all along we have the talent to win, but the effort seems to be lacking. I hope to be proven wrong, but the USCe game did not temper my honest concern.
Stinger2
October 22nd, 2012
4:45 pm
Sorry UGA fans your team cannot win every game while the play in the SEC. Move to the ACC and try your luck.
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:47 pm
FSU had 1 top 5 finish before richt joined their staff.
They had 14 top 5 finishes in a row while Richt was on staff from 1987-2000.
Richt left in 2000
FSU has never had a top 5 finish since Richt left.
Mexdawg
October 22nd, 2012
4:47 pm
Just BEAT the gators baby!
old dog
October 22nd, 2012
4:47 pm
LSU, ‘Bama, now S.C. and Florida are all legitimate contenders….Miss. State is coming. The Petrino fiasco crushed Arkansas, but w/o that, they were coming too. We, on the other hand, have peaked. Does anybody out there think we are tops in the SEC??? We are where we are going to be. Until we: 1.Get serious (and successful) at o-line recruiting
2. Realize that we cannot win w/o a good line in the SEC, we are as far as we can go.
No. 1 Braves Fan
October 22nd, 2012
4:47 pm
UGA 24 UF 10.
TrailerParkTed
October 22nd, 2012
4:49 pm
FLA 44 UGA 10, Time for Richt to Go and Take BoBo with you!
SoCal Dawg
October 22nd, 2012
4:49 pm
It’s no so much about wins and loses as it is about potential.
DarthDawg
October 22nd, 2012
4:50 pm
Only about 10 minutes of negativity left people. Hurry and get your anti-UGA comments in before COB!
After 5 PM Eastern on Monday it’s officially Cocktail Party mode.
Win or lose, this is the most special week of the college football season for UGA and UF. UGA and UF have ruined each other’s seasons many times in history and this year will be no different. This is good times that most other programs do not experience.
Forget Florida!
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:50 pm
CBS just optioned to get the UGA-Ole Miss game.
Seems people figuring out this might be the year for UGA.
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:51 pm
Bobby Bowden had no top 10 finishes in his first 11 seasons.
rICHT HAD 6.
Fred is Smoking Crack
October 22nd, 2012
4:52 pm
Nick Saban at setup postiions? Are you crazy? He took over an awful Mich. State team that had not finished with a winning record since 1990. He then took over a a crappy LSU team who had been terrible and low tier in the West, and won a Nat’l Champ in 4 years. He then took over a Bama team that had been in shambles for a decade. You, sir, are a moron, if you would take Richt’s years over Saban’s. 3 NC’s vs. O???? Come on…
Ben an SEC fan
October 22nd, 2012
4:52 pm
To Mark’s defense; If you ask “what do you think of Spurrier”, you get the answer “he’s a great coach” (assuming you are a fair minded UGA fan like me.) If you ask “what do you think of Richt”, you get the answer “he’s a very good man” which I agree with. Get the point?
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:53 pm
Richt’s career win % is better than Saban or Spurrier.
Fred is Smoking Crack
October 22nd, 2012
4:53 pm
Richt, on the other hand, came into a team with loads of talent, but lack of coaching, unlike any team Saban started with.
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:54 pm
Bama wasn’t a set up position?
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:54 pm
Anyone can float around and time it up to win like Saban and Meyer.
Richt takes a program that hadn’t done anything in decades, and turns it into 100+ wins in 10 seasons.
Fred
October 22nd, 2012
4:55 pm
Richt’s 1 of 7 coaches
IN NCAA HISTORY
TO win 100 games
in first 10 seasons
Fred is Smoking Crack
October 22nd, 2012
4:55 pm
Again, Spurrier took over a worthless Fla team made it a juggernaut. He then took over an even worse program and USCe and made it respectable. How is this even comparable? The single statistic you fail to address – ZERO NC’s for Richt.
Fredie, Fredie, Fredie
October 22nd, 2012
4:56 pm
all those coaches you keep talking about have one stat that CMR does not have, a team that was ranked #1 at the end of the year. some even have 2.
Fred is Smoking Crack
October 22nd, 2012
4:57 pm
Bama was not a setup position. They were terrible, no talent, scandals with coaches, etc. How can you say Bama is a setup positiok, but UGA wasn’t?
DarthDawg
October 22nd, 2012
4:57 pm
LSU is 11th all-time in wins. The reason most teams hire a new HC is because the previous one retired, moved on to something bigger and better, or couldn’t get the job done. Guess why LSU needed to hire Saban? Same goes for Bama. Bama is one of the best programs ever when they aren’t hindered by probation and that’s not meant to be a jab, just the truth.
Saban did not invent success at LSU or Bama.
Mr.SEC
October 22nd, 2012
4:57 pm
Winning against unranked teams is nothing to brag out. Alabama and LSU never brag about winning against cupcake teams.
Fredie, Fredie, Fredie
October 22nd, 2012
4:58 pm
or 3
GTBob
October 22nd, 2012
4:58 pm
Richt’s career win % is better than Saban or Spurrier.
Richt started his career with a team that had finished in the top 20 four years in a row before he got there. He was basically given a super talented team and told to have fun with it. Once again, I would love to see Richt take over a team that has been struggling for a few years and see what he can do.
Go For 2
October 22nd, 2012
4:59 pm
Georgia Fans: Your team is not relevant in the Natl Title chase. Question is whether you want to accept being 3-5th best SEC Team. Remember: Georgia continues its streak (despite great fan base, resources, recruitiing reach) as not being in the Natl title hunt after October since the Dooley years…think about that for a minute.
SoCal Dawg
October 22nd, 2012
4:59 pm
Fred is either an 11 year old kid or some troll getting his kicks off of making outrageous statements.
Dr. Henry -- Augusta
October 22nd, 2012
5:00 pm
PREDICTION – - – We will lose a close one to Fla…We’ll play better than we did in Columbia but still lose by 7 or less…..Then, we’ll win the rest of our games and get in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl or some such and lose to N C State or some such and be spun the rhetorical crap about 10 – 3 being a good season and our coaching staff will be returning for another season of the same – - O well!!!!
Douglas
October 22nd, 2012
5:01 pm
Richt and his team will get destroyed Saturday. And yes, I’m a UGA grad. What pisses me off is that we hired McGarity to be a BOLD AD — all he has done, is boldly go no where with UGA athletics except take the job, get a salary and a raise.
DawgNole
October 22nd, 2012
5:02 pm
But now comes Florida, and this game will do more than define the Bulldogs’ season — it will shape the remainder of Mark Richt’s tenure at Georgia.
________________________
As true as true can be.
Red Stick
October 22nd, 2012
5:03 pm
I think Richt’s future may very well depend on beating Florida. The Dogs will have to play to much better than they have the last 2 weeks to have a chance.
The Gators are on a roll and will be tough to beat.
Geaux Tigers
Dum-Bass
October 22nd, 2012
5:03 pm
It’s amazing how much the season so far, the coach, the quotes, etc. of the DAWGS parallels that of the Braves. Almost daily I see something out of their situation that reminds me of the Braves. What is really ironic though is that none of the writers would never even think about calling for Fredi G’s head, but won’t hesitate to “lower the boom” on one Mr. Richt at every opportunity. Wonder if UGA was in Atlanta that would make a difference, or if at least one of them was a “Hog-Rider Buddy” with MR? As for the DAWGS and the BRAVES, it’s SOSDS (same old story, different sport).
DarthDawg
October 22nd, 2012
5:03 pm
Has UGA had a player like Vince Young, Jamarcus Russell, Tim Tebow, Trent Richardson, or Cam Newton since Herschel? We’ve had several guys on the next tier down but not superstar quality offensive players who can take over game after game.
Only a few teams have won a MNC with just solid overall team play. Most champions have featured a Heisman caliber player (i.e. someone finishing in the Top 5 in voting if not out right winning it). UGA features too many future NFL talents and not enough great college players these days. We need guys who peak in college, not the NFL!
GT Dude
October 22nd, 2012
5:03 pm
that UGA photo on the front page of sports is hilarious!!!
from left to right
Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and Dumbo
UGA cannot beat the good teams!
October 22nd, 2012
5:04 pm
Main problem with Richt’s teams last few years, is that they have underachieved. Cannot win the big games against top-ranked opponents. He has done well over the years, but something seems to be lacking in getting to the top of SEC. That is why many UGA fans are frustrated, and hope for more. Team this year is always a mystery each week as to how they will play. It goes back to the coaching ultimately.
DarthDawg
October 22nd, 2012
5:05 pm
GTBob,
You mean like the 2011 UGA team?
RTR22
October 22nd, 2012
5:08 pm
Fred, take your meds or just sleep it off….. stupid is as stupid does sounds appropriate.
SoCal Dawg
October 22nd, 2012
5:09 pm
DarthDawg we could of had Newton but our wonderful coaching staff told him he wasn’t good enough to be a QB but he would make a great tightend. lol
Under The Bleachers
October 22nd, 2012
5:10 pm
6-1 will NOT get you fired, however winning 6 games against opponents who are NOT very good and losing continually to Top 25 teams WILL!.
Every Year the same thing gets said about Richt and UGA?
Can UGA win the big game?
Does Mark Richt have control of his program?
Does Mark Richt have the discipline in his players to keep them out of trouble and keep them off the newspapers, ESPN headlines?
Are the Coordinators and assistant coaches doing enough to get the team to the next level?
Does Mark Richt have what it takes to get his team to play at a championship level for an entire year?
How many Top NFL players does it take for Richt to win a title?
With Top Recruiting classes year in and year out, what will it take to win a championship.
Is Mark Richt tough enough to take this team to a title?