I was in Augusta Wednesday night for the Georgia Bulldog Club tour stop there and found coach Mark Richt to be calm and typically laid back. Other than his pointed comments on Washaun Ealey, the meeting was generally warm and fuzzy and it came and went without much controversy.
That wasn’t the case in Macon last night. According to my old friend Michael Lough, who covered the meeting for the Macon Telegraph, Richt got a little feisty with one particularly whiny fan. In the question-and-answer session, one man apparently droned on and on about Georgia’s poor running game last season and his apparent dissatisfaction with offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and running backs coach Bryan McClendon.
That apparently lit a fire under Richt.
“I see your frustration, I understand your frustration,” Lough quoted Richt as saying.“I wasn’t born yesterday, I’ve coached football for 25 years, so I know what the hell I’m doing, OK? . . . I appreciate your passion, I appreciate your support for this football team. Everybody can just calm down and know that we’re in good hands. . . . And Bryan McClendon is a hell of a coach, he’s a hell of a recruiter. And I’m glad we got Bryan McClendon.”
Richt’s remarks, Lough reported, elicited a strong ovation from the crowd gathered at the Walnut Creek Shooting Preserve.
Not surprisingly, the normally-chaste Richt apologized a short time later for using the word “hell.” But he also reiterated his disappointment in the tailback situation and the fact that none of the lettermen have stepped up and seized the position in anticipation of Isaiah Crowell’s arrival later this summer.
So what do you think? Glad to hear such passion come out Georgia’s sometimes staid head coach? Disappointed with his word choice?
595 comments Add your comment
DawginLex
April 29th, 2011
12:25 pm
shutup tide roll. Nobody cares about your racist agenda. I guess according to you Grambling and Southern have better offensive lines than UGA? Yours is ranked behind ours now by the way by Rivals. Smoke that.
You have never answered how you bammers are going to justify keeping saban around with all this talent and you lose 3 games again just like 2010??????????????
The Greatest Game Ever Played
April 29th, 2011
12:25 pm
It’s obvious that CMR hasn’t gotten over that evening in November 2008 when the YellowJackets utterly flummoxed his mighty Bulldogs 45-42. Can you blame him?
D-Dawg
April 29th, 2011
12:25 pm
Always is Give…always is…either way it’s always a good battle.
GIVE ME A BREAK
April 29th, 2011
12:26 pm
Hope the dawgs can keep up.
chubie
April 29th, 2011
12:26 pm
Inbreeders, football games are won by great game planning (which has become as intricate as the development of the star wars defense system), great game adjustments to scheme (because the coach is aware of what is happening and how to counter when needed), and who has the best athletes (recruiting). Emotion derived from a coach lasts about 15 seconds or until you get cracked in the mouth on the first play.
Enjoy your drink and emotional ups and downs in the stands and leave the complicated stuff that you dont understand to the professionals.
DawginLex
April 29th, 2011
12:27 pm
The Greatest Game Ever Played
I thought that was the 1919 US Open? You know that movie with shia Lewhatshisface??
GIVE ME A BREAK
April 29th, 2011
12:27 pm
Looking forward to seeing Crowell.
DawginLex
April 29th, 2011
12:27 pm
chubie,
go on a diet.
D-Dawg
April 29th, 2011
12:28 pm
Me too… basically, the QB is either going to keep it, or toss it to the back… Hope we can figure that out. Just look back to Nebraska’s film from the 80’s…we should be OK.
Don
April 29th, 2011
12:28 pm
I understand this fans’ frustration, too; especially with regard to Bobo. However, I would not like to know that my job was trying to extract any kind of performance from the half-wits these coaches have to put up with daily. The collective I.Q. has to be somewhere in the 32 range. Still, were it not for their dismal 2010 performance, this stuff would not come up. Point man takes the first shot.
Hop Along
April 29th, 2011
12:29 pm
Let’s say Richt leads the SEC in passing, will that translate to winning the SEC?
2006 Kentucky
2007 Kentucky
2008 Georgia
2009 Arkansas
2010 Arkansas
No. You don’t even win your division, much less the SEC.
D-Dawg
April 29th, 2011
12:29 pm
His name is Goof Lebouf, DawginLex
dawgster
April 29th, 2011
12:31 pm
Amazing….that everything Coach Richt says or does is analyzed, I mean every word…Whether you support Coach Richt or not, do we have to try and spin everything he says…Most of the comments on here have been supportive of his remarks, but you have the same few who are never going to be happy with any move that Coach Richt and our AD does….No one at this point knows what next season will turn out to be….You can’t base it on what happened this past season…If we do then lets award Au the NC again and not play the season…I read many comments on here about, well the guy is getting paid this much money to produce…that is correct…but no one on here can argue that our program as come a long ways from where it was in the 90′’s and I don’t anyone can argue that Coach Richt has not had a superb record at UGA, but sadly for many it won’t be enough unless we wins a NC…I would be careful what you wish for because the next coach may not be our savior as many of you think…go dawgs
GIVE ME A BREAK
April 29th, 2011
12:32 pm
Crowell should smoking by Nov. Hope Tech’s D has it figured out by then.
red&silver
April 29th, 2011
12:32 pm
I don’t care what kind of offense you run. When you can’t stop anybody on defense you are going to lose. How many 80 yard drives actually end up scoring points? Look that up you selective staticians.
GIVE ME A BREAK
April 29th, 2011
12:33 pm
Left out ” Bee .”
ray
April 29th, 2011
12:33 pm
I just love the dawgs and think that the football program that is here is the best one in the state, along with Ga. Tech’s. Go dawgs and wreck!
what of it?
April 29th, 2011
12:34 pm
If he knows what he’s doing why didn’t he just explain how the problem has been fixed rather than making a self-serving, derisive comment.
Now that he has his recruits, it’s time to put up or shut up. How many years have we been rebuilding/underperforming?
Papadawg
April 29th, 2011
12:36 pm
KICK BUTT COACH RICHT AND SHUT THE HELL UP MALL YOU WHINEY ASS FANS
Einsteindawg
April 29th, 2011
12:37 pm
Good for you coach! Now let’s see you display this same passion in preparing our team to win the SEC this season…the players, coaches, and game plan.
Chris
April 29th, 2011
12:38 pm
The problem is coach-that alot of us dont think you know what your doing. Case and point- 2 years ago you leave joe cox in as your starting qb all year because you want to show him loyalty, when everybody in the southeastern conference knows he shouldnt be on the football field. Aaron murray could have been getting some snaps that would have given him some experience going into last year. Yes coach some of us question whether you know what your doing
DawginLex
April 29th, 2011
12:39 pm
Chris,
This has been debated ad nauseum. Murray was hurt and could not play until 7th or 8th game of the year. By then, we were out of the race and Richt didn’t want to blow a redshirt year.
D-Dawg
April 29th, 2011
12:39 pm
I hope he isn’t smoking anything, Give.
AltamahaDawg
April 29th, 2011
12:40 pm
Well no, he didnt ask another question. If he followed that up with a question, that would have been his first. “waa waa waa, bobo” is not a question.
Cujo
April 29th, 2011
12:40 pm
Fire Richt already! Geez
dawgfan
April 29th, 2011
12:42 pm
I do not understand what is so controversial about questioning Richt’s coaching after we just went 14-11 the past two seasons. I do not understand what is so controversial about questioning the running game after we just finished 10th in the SEC in rushing. If I had been there I would have given the standing ovation to the brave gentlemen who asked these questions, not to coach Richt. My allegiances are to University of Georgia Football, not to Mark Richt. No one man or coach is bigger and more important than the program as a whole. Most unfortunately, it appears that most UGA fans don’t agree. They view any criticism of Mark Richt as criticism of UGA football itself. This is the same attitude that Germans had when Hitler was in power. That is a very dangerous and destructive mentality.
Thanks.
GIVE ME A BREAK
April 29th, 2011
12:43 pm
I hope not either. But I’m not taking that bet.
D-Dawg
April 29th, 2011
12:44 pm
How come when I tell my girl “I know what the hell I’m doing!”, she just laughs?
GIVE ME A BREAK
April 29th, 2011
12:46 pm
Sometimes reality is painful.
AltamahaDawg
April 29th, 2011
12:47 pm
Chris I suppose he just didn;t want to trade Murray’s BEST year in his UGA career, for a few games in his WORST year. Ironically you made the best argument to RS a QB.
Timbodog
April 29th, 2011
12:49 pm
Just as I suspected…Richt could have said ANYTHING…
And the Mark Richt-worshiping Dittoheads purporting to be Bulldog fans would say “right on Markie.”
You guys are such sycophants.
Some guys had some real concerns, and Richt just goes off on him, embarrassing him in front of everyone.
Way to keep a cool head Richt.
BullDawg Rick
April 29th, 2011
12:50 pm
Hell Yeah, I love the passion of Coach Richt
Josey
April 29th, 2011
12:50 pm
Pressure reveals character.
Richt goes 6 & 7, and turns into a cussing guy.
Intriguing.
Vols Rulz
April 29th, 2011
12:51 pm
Our 6-7 coach is more pasisonate than your 6-7 coach.
Timbodog
April 29th, 2011
12:52 pm
Agreed entirely, dawgfan.
Too many here claiming to be Bulldog fans put Richt above the program.
MM
April 29th, 2011
12:53 pm
I always thought the preacher “golly gee leave it beaver” thing form Richt was an act, now that he has a couple of lame seasons, we see his true colors come out. Kind of funny to watch the real Richt come out.
katie04886
April 29th, 2011
12:53 pm
Lex – you tell me. Would you rather rebuild now with a decent coach or spend the next 5 years watching other SEC teams take the title? Seriously – that bowl game was a DISASTER. How much more can you take, because I was done 2 seasons ago.
Timbodog
April 29th, 2011
12:57 pm
The point is you have a fan here (who pays Richt’s salary, by the way) with legitimate concerns who asks Richt some questions.
And Richt basically responds with contempt, like he is above even having to take the question seriously. He goes so far as to mock the man, saying you are “obviously close to an expert.”
When things are tough, people’s true colors come through. This totally changes my opinion of Richt. I think he needs to apologize for this immediately.
Blackberry Cobbler
April 29th, 2011
12:57 pm
CMR’s problem is that he’s good at saying something or trying to convince fans of something when the facts are the complete opposite.
He can preach all day that he knows what he’s doing when results on the field prove that, in fact, he doesn’t. A lot of talent has been wasted by him and his coaching staff.
I’m glad to see the fire in his attitude but it’s too little too late. If UGA doesn’t win the SEC East this season, CMR is history and he knows it.
Christian Baggett
April 29th, 2011
12:57 pm
It is good to see Richt fired up…Kirby Smart is in the wings.
AltamahaDawg
April 29th, 2011
12:59 pm
I think it’s to offset the predicatable automatic bashing, no matter what he says, on the other side.
Timbodog
April 29th, 2011
1:00 pm
Richt sure is a tough guy, taking out his frustrations on a soft-spoken UGA fan.
GATA
April 29th, 2011
1:00 pm
oh hayull yeah – that’s the equivalent of Bob Knight throwing a chair across the basketball court.
red&silver
April 29th, 2011
1:02 pm
Kirby Smart is a puppet!
Doyle Rainey lives
April 29th, 2011
1:03 pm
Hell yes the man has a pulse…..now GATA next season and prove me wrong. I’d like nothing more.And no I’m not sorry for using hell.
Timbodog
April 29th, 2011
1:03 pm
It’s more like the equivalent of a man who can’t get ahead at work and gets frustrated so he comes home from work and verbally abuses his small children because it makes him feel like a big man.
the obvious
April 29th, 2011
1:03 pm
That fan scored a direct hit. Good 4 him
Saban
April 29th, 2011
1:05 pm
Did Richt really throw his purse at that guy?
Wow Choakdwage will be throwing boxes of krispy Kreme`s at opposing field gold kickers this year.
What is the world coming to.
Boise State 50 Dawgs 8
astrouga
April 29th, 2011
1:05 pm
Now if we can just get Richt to write some columns here…or better yet, sign on in the forums and tell most of you knuckleheads to shut it.
AltamahaDawg
April 29th, 2011
1:05 pm
The only thing worse would be if he talked a big game in a sports blog.