ATHENS — Georgia coach Mark Richt is looking forward to a rare opportunity to spend some time with his oldest sons this week.

Jon Richt
As the Bulldogs enjoy their first off weekend since preseason camp opened on August 2, Richt plans on attending his son Jon’s game for Mars Hill College on Saturday afternoon. Jon Richt, 21, is a junior quarterback for the Lions (6-1, 4-0 South Atlantic), who are playing Lenoir-Rhyne (3-3, 2-1) in an important conference game. Mars Hill is ranked No. 24 in Division II.
“It’s a big deal,” Richt said. “Right now Mars Hill is undefeated in league play, which is big. And Jon is doing well.”
Jon, who began his career at Clemson, has passed for 1,514 yards with 16 touchdowns as the Lions’ starting quarterback.
Richt’s second-oldest son, David, also will be performing this weekend. David sings and plays keyboards and piano in several Christian rock bands. On Sunday evening at 6 p.m., he will be one of the musicians performing in the “Jan Smith Student Showcase” at the famous music venue Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. General admission is $13 or $25 with a meal combo and proceeds will benefit the Melissa Carter Transplant Fund.

David Richt on the cover of his CD debut.
“He’s in a couple of praise bands,” Richt said of David, 16, a junior at Prince Avenue Christian School. “In this one in particular, he’ll be playing the piano and keyboards and be singing. He does some of that. So I’m looking forward to that.”
Mark and Katharyn Richt have two other younger children, Zach, who is 15, and Anya, 14.
Meanwhile, most of the Bulldogs’ players are getting out of town and heading to their respective homes for the weekend.
Richt said he felt like Georgia’s open date was coming at just the right time. The Bulldogs (5-2, 4-1 SEC) play Florida on Oct. 29 in Jacksonville.
“We all needed it,” Richt said. “You’ve got camp, then you have seven straight games. I think everybody was tired. I think everybody was maybe a little cranky. I don’t know, it may have added to what happened at the end of the [Vanderbilt] game, quite frankly. If you’re a little sleep deprived or worn out and beat up and tired and all that kind of stuff, sometimes that can affect you. So I do think it was a very good time for a break, physically and mentally.”
– Chip Towers
148 comments Add your comment
funny...
October 22nd, 2011
3:18 pm
some of you are a post away from a restraining order.
Also willing to bet those of you going WAYYYY too far with the Richt criticism neither donated to or even attended UGA.
I would love to see some of you live your job in the news. Most of you couldn’t handle a day of it.
Bunch of insecure, juvenile, sissies in this blog
BWG
October 22nd, 2011
3:45 pm
GO DAWGS! Let’s CRUSH the Gaytors.
FLA DAWG
October 22nd, 2011
4:03 pm
I hope Richt enjoys the weekend because no matter how bad UF is we almost always find a way to lose.
Man oh man, would a victory over UF taste good during this Down Dawg Season!
Bring it on and let’s play some ball!
Marybelle Ecclestone-Riveras
October 22nd, 2011
4:45 pm
This is not sports news. Nobody cares one whit about Richt’s kids.
Gatormeat
October 22nd, 2011
5:01 pm
richt will have alot more than a week off after the Gators wipe the field with his team next week. Come on down and bring your dirty football with you dogs, we are going to give you the beat down you deserve
hotdawg
October 22nd, 2011
6:08 pm
Ha ha! Gus Malzahn weird offense doesn’t work to well without Scam does it? Go LSU!!! Go Hurricanes!!!!
61-39-5 vs Tech- 47-40-2 vs Florida
October 22nd, 2011
6:24 pm
[ wonder if Muschamp is taking the weekend off?
Sambo 4 Rambo
October 22nd, 2011
7:01 pm
Do you think we will get into the top 25 BCS standings even with a bye with a few ranked teams losing?
tell me again
October 22nd, 2011
7:37 pm
Florida and Auburn have talented teams ~ they have recently been smacked by teams that are at this moment head and shoulders above almost everyone else. Florioda and Auburn are both capable of beating the Georgia team we have been watching the last 5 weeks – conversely., we are capable of running the table as well. If Richt pulls off a run to end the season almost everything being said on these boards against him will seem absurd. We’ll just have to wait and see – it’s time for these Dawgs to hunt! Go Dawsg!
tell me again
October 22nd, 2011
7:38 pm
And as for Tech – BRUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! # 12 in the country – TELL ME WHO WAS DRINKING THE KOOL AID ON THAT RANKING, MY FRIENDS????
evil empire
October 22nd, 2011
9:09 pm
was anyone else concerned that LSU’s special teams would actually kill an Auburn player before games end?…that was an impressive performance…
(STILL) 2-10 Against Ranked Teams
October 22nd, 2011
10:04 pm
People don’t believe me when I say this. But I truly believe Richt is a great man. I just don’t believe he is a great coach. I hope after this year…..he will have all the time in the world to spend with his wonderful family.
terry.harrell
October 22nd, 2011
10:05 pm
45 LSU –Auburn10 Got tails whip bad ha ha ha ha ha ha
SLC Dawg
October 22nd, 2011
10:36 pm
didn’t he take the weekend of the boise state game off?
Tubby
October 22nd, 2011
10:48 pm
I’m about to show these Okies how we do it down South!
Brainiac(Dawg for life/Richt fan for life)
October 22nd, 2011
10:56 pm
I’m with you @just a fan. Morans AND Morons.
Brainiac(Dawg for life/Richt fan for life)
October 22nd, 2011
11:02 pm
Gatormeat: How’s those 3 straight losses looking to you? Better get use to it. Florida’s time in the limelight is slowly(or rapidly) fading away. You will be luky to finish above .500
TampaDawg
October 22nd, 2011
11:08 pm
funny…
October 22nd, 2011
3:18 pm
some of you are a post away from a restraining order.
Also willing to bet those of you going WAYYYY too far with the Richt criticism neither donated to or even attended UGA.
I would love to see some of you live your job in the news. Most of you couldn’t handle a day of it.
Bunch of insecure, juvenile, sissies in this blog
————————-
Best blog post maybe of all time
fan
October 23rd, 2011
12:26 am
I met Aaron Murray tonight in Tallahassee. He is a really good kid. I’m glad to call him a bulldog.
James K Polk
October 23rd, 2011
2:50 am
I love having good kids that are players, and I love having good men coaching. But, sooner or later we simply need good players and good coaching. I like Richt personally, but he has done less with more talent than anyone in the history of college football…and that is not an exagerration. Red Dog may indeed accept a few 10 win seasons and an Outback Bowl as good enough for him, but do not expect me to do the same. I’m not in this for Outback Bowls. $3.5 million, people…3.5 million.
Joey
October 23rd, 2011
8:02 am
Wish Jon Richt’s dad was coaching him at Mars Hill . . .
Thomas Brown
October 23rd, 2011
8:24 am
I don’t accept a few 9 win seasons, either.
Of course, you are right that we need good coaching, good players and we need to quit being satisfied with in 14-game seasons for the top teams, us having 9 wins a season. 9 wins a season is way passé in 2011, isn’t it ?
Florida has no quarterback. Florida has zero offense. Florida gets zero pressure on opposing quarterbacks, and Florida does not return punts well. Florida does not intercept passes and Florida does not get fumbles when they are there to be had. Florida does have a defense. Florida is better against the pass than against the rush. Florida’s offense is miserable. Florida’s offense fumbles and throws interceptions. Florida has a fiery coach on the sidelines, who prefers that Florida continue to play the game in JAX. Duh. If I were a Florida person, so would I. Gives them an extra home game with all the tickets not designated for UGA going to Florida, which includes the number allotted to Florida and ALL the local tickets including all sky boxes. It is where the Gator Bowl is played. I have no problem admitting that we are unable to beat Florida, them with an off-week before EVERY WLOCP, and us showing up half a day before kick-off trying to acclimate to the differences in weather. The last several nights here have been 38 degrees. It will be nearly 90 at kick-off. We have been playing around, going swimming, watching high school football games and doing everything except taking any team on our schedule seriously. Why should we ? There is not 1 good win by 1 opponent on our schedule.
Auburn beat South Carolina. That is the only win by anyone on our schedule all season long.
With the teams losing who are BCS Top 25, we will back into the BCS Standings today. Georgia tek will drop out. Washington will drop out. Auburn will drop out. Truth be told, both Georgia and South Carolina have 2 of the easiest schedules in the nation. Today’s events just made that all the more abundantly clear.
Choke-la-homa. Ha ha ha. What are they going to try to tell us now that the Big 10 has some great team with Wisconsin losing too ? I don’t think so. And, the PAC-10 is it PAC-12 yet ? The PAC-10 is trying to say how great Oregon is. Only 1 problem with that, they lost by 2 Touchdowns to LSU. Oh, Stanford is great ? Really ? Like us, and everyone on our schedule all season long, Stanford has not played anyone who has beat anybody.
Illinois lost. So, on an off-week UGA backs into the BCS Top 19 or so. Without a single team on our entire schedule who has beat anyone.
This is all so sad. Had we not given away the game to South Carolina, that loser program would not even be in the Top 25.
How much fun is this again this season watching all these teams ahead of us ALL LOSING and us backing into the BCS Top 25, not even playing 1 team all season long who has beat anyone ? All because we GAVE AWAY the South Carolina game. Gave it away. Thank you Aaron Murray.
Did I say that I was not satisfied that Mark Richt called his own Scholarship Recruit, a DUMB*** ?
red&black
October 23rd, 2011
9:12 am
hope you’re ready Tech………….cause it’s comin’……………
Hit A Single
October 23rd, 2011
9:44 am
Joey- I wish you were a fan of Mars Hill.
Ruta Lee
October 23rd, 2011
10:31 am
Q: Who really gives a rat’s ass about what Richt’s kids are doing?
A: Nobody
Dolcetta
October 23rd, 2011
10:35 am
Florida 27, Georgia 17
Have a nice looooooooong miserable drive home!
Joey
October 23rd, 2011
11:02 am
Hit A Single, me too. But I am a die-hard Dawg fan, and have been since a kid in the early 70’s, jump started by my UGA-alum dad. He had a class with Tarkington and Jimmy Orr, both future NFL legends.
Being a Dawg fan does not require a blind love of the head coach. Just because I desperately pull for UGA (and Richt) to win every game, doesn’t mean I have to like Richt. I for sure don’t hate him, but I happen to think something is wrong when UGA has had the #2 football program in the nation in recruiting in the last decade (Scout.com).All of that talent, yet since ‘05 have failed to win even the SEC East.
Even when you look back to ‘07 and the players from that team who are thriving in the NFL, how on earth did Richt manage to lose to two inferior teams (SC and UT)?
Do you have NO doubts about his ability?
edawg
October 23rd, 2011
11:12 am
Alabama, LSU Clemson sure dont look cranky or sleep deprived.
FLA DAWG
October 23rd, 2011
11:14 am
UF is down but has some talent.
UGA is down but has more talent.
The Dawgs are capable of beating The Gators but we always seem to blow it even when a gift is given to us (Garcia couldn’t have handed the SC Game to us on a bigger silver platter and we blew it).
I’m not as impressed with Muschamp as I thought I would be but it’s still very, very early for this new HC to be judged.
This may be one of the few times Bobo can outsmart a D playcaller (well, maybe).
Weiss is a good OC and with better talent his O would be in the hunt for The SEC East – but not this season.
Everything points to a Dawgs win in this Annual Florida Home Game but I just get the sense our Dawgs will lose it by 7.
I’ve been wrong several times this season (I though MSU & UT would beat us) but never so happy to have been in error. I hope I’m wrong this time too. The Dawgs have the talent to beat UF but I don’t think they will.
1969 Graduate
October 23rd, 2011
11:24 am
Thomas Brown, glad to see you decided to break things up with a few paragraphs. Your stuff would be better still with even shorter paragraphs; reading on the computer is a lot easier if no paragraph is longer than 3 or 4 lines.
Yesterday’s games across the nation were very interesting. For one thing, it was obvious that a team playing up to the level of its competition, and its ability, has a decent chance of beating any team. Texas Tech proved that.
Did Oklahoma play down to the level of its competition? Especially, did it play down to what it perceived the level of competition to be, thus being badly fooled? Perhaps. At any rate, the old adage of any team being able to beat any other team showed its merit.
It was fun watching a game without signs of bad sportsmanship, where both teams played the entire game, and where both teams could be proud of the effort they made and the way they represented the game and their school. I’m speaking of the MSU vs Wisconsin game, which was a real classic.
As we head into the annual reminder of Jacksonville’s geographical location being a lot closer to Gainesville than Athens, I wonder what the perception of our coaches and our players is, and I wonder if our players will represent UGA well, and I wonder if we’ll play a complete game.
Do we think playing the Florida Gators means we should play up to a higher level or play down to a lower level? How do the Gators see the Dawgs in that respect?
If we think the Gators are going to easy for us to beat, I’m afraid we may have another thing coming. True, the Gators are not looking like a good team. We’re not either! Will the Dawgs remember that we barely escaped losses to several teams which were probably not as likely to beat us as the Gators are?
Our coaches and players may be beat up, and they may need some rest, and enjoy a bit of relaxation, but they sure don’t deserve any.
My guess – knowing our coaches and our team – is the UGA football program is busy beating its chest, and strutting about, and feeling confident, forgetting that the historical odds favor Georgia finding a way to lose to Florida.
Joey
October 23rd, 2011
11:55 am
“The Dawgs have the talent to beat UF but I don’t think they will.”
**************************************
FLA DAWG, when have the Dawgs NOT had the talent to beat UF?
I think UGA had more talent in ‘02, ‘03, ‘04, ‘05, ‘07, ‘10.
UF had more talent in ‘06, ‘09.
Equal talent in ‘01,’08.
So, Richt has gone 1-7 vs UF when the two teams had equal talent, or UGA had the the most talent.
Anyway, that’s my opinion.
ugab
October 23rd, 2011
2:50 pm
I understand MR is a Father. He is also a Head Coach. He is paid 3 Million dollars a year to coach. Would Saban take off the weekend before the LSU game? UGA pays MR to use every minute of the football season to the University. By the looks of the Vandy game, we need to be practicing mentally and physically. What is Muschamp doing? I understand MR is a father.
ugab
October 23rd, 2011
2:51 pm
If MR keeps his job this year: He needs to hire a special teams coach.
dawgfan
October 23rd, 2011
2:52 pm
According to ESPN, Georgia recently surpassed California as the third most talent rich football state in the nation behind Florida and Texas. Yet, we are 19-14 dating back to the beginning of the 2009 season and have beat only one ranked team during that time. It just defies logic how absolutely pizz poor the past few years have been for UGA football. We should not be struggling like this. Something is severely wrong.
I just wanted to throw that out there. I’m not naming any names or calling for anyone to get fired. Those are just the facts.
Thanks.
ugab
October 23rd, 2011
2:55 pm
MR is going to do what he wants to do anyway. He won a bunch of games with other coaches players and now he is the man.
ugab
October 23rd, 2011
2:58 pm
Ur right dawgfan. We get maybe one 5 star from Ga after other out of state schools take their piks. We end up with a bunch of 4 and 3 star players. We need to recruit linemen 1st.
ugab
October 23rd, 2011
3:38 pm
So MR took the team swimming again!!!!!WTF is going on? We are supposed to use this off week to get ready for the Fl game. MR is going swimming and taking a Weekend off??????
ugab
October 23rd, 2011
3:39 pm
Fla is alot better than Vandy!!
Magnolia, Tx Dawg
October 23rd, 2011
5:41 pm
Richt will be back next year. He is too nice to fire. You can’t fire nice people.
Hit A Single
October 23rd, 2011
6:27 pm
Looks like LSU will play in the BCS game. They seem like they are destined with all their off the field problems. Seems like that is the type of programs that play in the game. It should be called the Bowl Corruption Series Championship Game.
dawggie dawg
October 23rd, 2011
8:07 pm
South ga dawg.U r pathetic.If that is all u have to post then go stick your head in the sand.What a jerk.
SWDAWG
October 23rd, 2011
9:15 pm
Anybody still wish we had Mullen or Muschamp? Not me. We have the classiest coach in the SEC, and a group of young players on their way to dominating. His leadership is seen in their growth already. A couple more years with Mitchell, Bennett, Drew, Rome, and Crowell?!! GO DAWGS !
Dawg48
October 23rd, 2011
9:20 pm
@SWDAWG
Muschamp looks like he is constipated on the side lines!!!!!
phil
October 23rd, 2011
9:48 pm
Thomas Brown – seek immediate help from a licensed professional….anyone who writes that much nonsense is afflicted in a very bad way….
phil
October 23rd, 2011
9:49 pm
Mars Hill would probably play us close…sigh.
Bobby
October 23rd, 2011
10:30 pm
If a person spells the word moron, m-o-r-a-n, does that make them a …?
Valdosta Dawg
October 24th, 2011
12:41 am
Coach Richt enjoy your family, I hope Johns team won! Go Dawgs!
Joe Cox
October 24th, 2011
1:14 am
hey ajc why let people post on an article about coach’s private life? man i hate the internet. man i love the dogs