Judging from the comments on this here blog, the bloodletting has continued among Georgia fans since the Liberty Bowl, and isn't showing much sign of stopping. I understand the frustration, and feel free to keep venting. That's what the Internet is here for. (Well that, and porn.)
Bill Shanks, not quite on Mark Richt's Christmas card to begin with, speaks for a lot of you in his column on Sunday. He believes Richt is a lame duck heading into 2011.
The fans have now turned on Richt. They are caring less about how great of a person he is and how he carries himself off the field. That’s nice. But the bottom line is fans want to win, and if he’s not the coach to do it, they’re going to want him gone.
There is no reason to believe Richt can turn this around. The talent level is so far off that even Central Florida looks far superior to Georgia. Georgia is, at best, the seventh best program in the SEC right now, and that’s just not good enough. And there’s nothing to show it’s going to get better overnight.
That's just an opinion, of course. Having spoken to Greg McGarity a number of times, and also based on his comments Saturday to Tim Tucker at the AJC, I'm confident that if the powers-that-be feel Richt isn't the man for the future, they'd make a move now. The decision to go forward with Richt in 2011 was made months ago, and there's no sign that's changed.
Here's my Sunday follow on the game, which looks ahead to next year. a
Richt is 96-34 at Georgia, but the Bulldogs have declined each of the past four years: from 11-2 in 2007, to records of 10-3, 8-5 and now 6-7.
The man who hired him, the legendary Vince Dooley, pointed out during the season that Richt had always enjoyed “a charmed life” as a coach. It’s charmed no more, as Richt figures to enter the 2011 season on the hottest seat in the SEC.
- More good news for Georgia: Its arch-rival Florida is on the verge of a huge hire, Charlie Weis as offensive coordinator. Here's the Kansas City Star report.
Weis may have been arrogant and churlish as a head coach at Notre Dame, but no one disputes his abilities as an offensive coordinator. This is quite a coup for Will Muschamp.
In other news:
- TCU won the Rose Bowl to finish undefeated, and some people, like Thayer Evans of Foxsports.com, want AP voters to crown the Horned Frogs national champion.
As I've stated before, I'm supposed to be an impartial journalist on most matters and cover things on my beat even-handedly. But on some you have to step up and recognize there's no middle ground. College football's lack of a system that crowns a true and undisputed national champion is just stupid. And no, the BCS is not undisputed.
I don't know if TCU could beat Auburn or Oregon, but it's a shame we can't find out.
- Ohio State Terrelle Pryor was cleared by the NCAA over his use of loaned cars. I'm sure, like with all these issues, it was a simple misunderstanding. Yup, move along, nothing to see here.
- Finally, this hasn't been a happy blog post, I'm sure, for Georgia fans. The last few haven't been. So let's finish on a happy note, at least something that always makes me smile:
Jon Hamm and Michael Buble' from SNL, about a year ago. It always cheers me up.
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38 comments:
Sounds like Weis was also arrogant and churlish during his year with Kansas City. Will Muschamp, a rookie head coach, will have both Weis and Urban Meyer to deal with. That's funny.
With regard to the Dawgs, I wish someone would ask Coach Richt why he said his players were not lacking "effort" or "fire" in Liberty Bowl performance, when both the AD and the players themselves indicated otherwise. There is a major disconnect there, and he should be asked about it.
Happy New Year!
When I lived in Macon I always thought Bill Shanks was the only honest critic of Richt to begin with. He didn't get caught up in the "he's a good Christian man" crap and was honest that he was and is an atrocious gameday coach that made his bones when the conference was down. Shanks was also one of the few people I ever heard that was honest that Donnan got a raw deal was was a much better x's and o's coach than Donnan.
When we went into auburn in 06 and beat the #5 team, the x's and o's were there. Same for 05 when we beat lsu in the championship.
I think Shanks is silly for thinking Donnan was a better coach...period. Give me a break.
No doubt Richt has '11 to get it going or he is gone, but don't give me the shanks and donnan junk.
On the field Donnan was not a better coach and off the field it's not even close. You can pull the arrest sheet or scooter incidents etc. but.... Donnan is Really fortunate that the internet was not there to follow the team he had waited all his life to coach or it would have been a circus ride.
Gatriguy,
I believe the fact that Richt is a 'good Christian man' and the fact that he lead UGA through the best stretch of winning football the Dawgs have ever experienced is why he is being given the opportunity to right the ship. The ship is taking on a lot of water and his job is getting tougher by the day it seems. I'm hoping he can turn it around and we'll have a great season next year but I'm afraid the split in the fan base is going to have an impact on this year's recruits (which won't really affect next years record but whoever is the coach in 12 will feel the effect).
Also, you say Donnan got a raw deal but you want to fire Richt for having the same record over the last 5 years. So would it be a raw deal to fire Richt too?
I really hope that the Dawgs can get back to their winning ways primarily because I want Georgia to be sucessful and also because Richt is a 'good Christian man' who has led the Dawgs to great sucess in the past.
Go Dawgs!
Thanks for the attempts at cheering us up, Seth. This season has been an entire disappointment, and I won't even blame the players.
I am afraid that Georgia football is doomed to mediocrity under Mark Richt.
I only played one year of football, ans certianly don't pretend to know enough to analyze whats wrong with the Dawgs, but I've sitting in Sandford Stadium for 44 years, and have seen it all. 6 and 6 in 74, 5 and 6 in 77 then starting 79 by losing to WAKE FOREST in Athens! Everybody wanted Dooly's head. you know what happend the next four years when Walker and Hoage came in. Now Dooly's in the hall of fame
Chizik has a awful record at Iowa, everybody thinks Auburn was crazy to hire him, now he is a brillant coach. Maybe Richt needs to visit Bobby Bowden or something, but I don't think he has forgotten how to coach. Lets support the team, the coaching staff, and get a great recruiting class in Athens
You bunch of Bozo's who continue to support a coach who makes 3 mill. and the program continues to go down are ridiculous. Coaching is a business. If u owned a company and hired a manager to run it but each year the profit margin got less and less and the books showed no promise for next year, you would continue to do things the same way? NO and if you did "you" would be the one filing for bankruptcy.In business the bottom line is profit, in coaching it's winning.
It seems each year we continue to have more and more players leave early for the pros. Do they see the handwriting on the wall of a program that continues to worsen?
And to tell it all is the fact that now we are not getting the top recruits in GA. We are getting subpar athletes and it will continue to get worse under Gardner. He is a below avg. coach who needs to go.
I also wonder why GA. does little to recruit the white athlete. I've heard from former coaches that Gardner is all about recruiting the black athlete and does very little to recruit white players?
Before you start the -racist crap- Just to let you no I care nothing about the political correctness police and BS. How about the truth? Just wondering when was the last time Ga. started a white LB, DB or for that a DL or DE - No Pollack was recruited as a FB - TCU finds them,Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, ND.even ALA finds them, but not GA. Again, check the roster over Gardner's tenure as recruiting coord. and prove me wrong.
UGA needs to hire Mike Leach. He would win multiple national championships with his offense. Look what he did at texas tech, and just imagine what he could not with the talent in this state. Bring the Pirate man to athens.
2-8 against Florida.
18-14 against FBS opponents since blowout by Alabama in 2008.
12-11 in SEC games since that game.
Whatever magic Richt once had has been gone for nearly three consecutive seasons at this point. We haven't just lost, we've lost badly. (We've looked bad in WINS, too, no less.) We look undisciplined, uncoached, uninspired. I can't think of a single reason Richt will "right the ship" next season. Any progress he made in building the program from 2000-2007 has long since disappeared. The program is in WORSE shape than it was when he inherited it in 2000. He has wasted the talent of the best receiver in Bulldog history. He wasted an offense that included Green, the #1 NFL draft pick QB, and a first round NFL draft RB. That offense, in case anyone forgets, failed to score a point and managed just TWO first downs in the first half of that blowout loss to Alabama in 2008. Bobo's terrible offense which was run by THREE future NFL first round draft picks (and a solid NFL reciever in Massoquoi)was much to blame as Martinez' ineffective Defense.
Even if Richt fires the ENTIRE offensive coaching staff--a good start--there is no reason to think he will hire solid replacements. Other than Van Gorder (the real reason for Richt's early success) Richt has shown himself to be a poor judge of assistant coaching talent. Richt hired (and retained year after year) Martinez, Bobo, Fabris and Searels. What possible reason would anyone have to think he'll make the right hires this time?
I like Richt as a person and wish that he was successful in the long term. If he sticks around as he apparently will, no one will be happier than me to see him succeed next season. But it's just not going to happen. Georgia needs to make a move before Richt damages the football program as badly as Felton damaged the basketball program.
Before Alabama came in and emasculated Richt on our home field in 2008 some bulletin board material surfaced on the internet. One of the Bama coaches was on mic mocking Georgia's upcoming "Blackout." He said, "You know why Georgia's wearing black to the game? Because they're going to a FUNERAL." Even he had no idea how right he was.
Let's try a logical thought process. Let's start with some generally accepted facts:
1. Georgia football has underachieved and had disappointing results for (at least) the last 3 years.
2. The Georgia football program has had off field issues with arrests and other disciplinary problems over this same time span.
3. After each of these last three seasons, Mark Richt has promised to make the necessary changes to fix both the on field and off field disappointments.
4. Despite these promises, there has yet to be any bottom line improvement. In fact, one could argue that things have gotten worse.
Now, let's go forward with some opinions that I think are generally shared by all of us.
1. IF Mark Richt returns next year, he would be expected to engineer a significant turn around or else he should not be brought back for 2012.
2. IF we could all look into the future and see that Mark Richt was going to have yet another disappointing year in 2011, then it would be best to go ahead and get rid of him now.
The logical conclusion from the basic facts seem to show that there is no reason to expect a better season in 2011. There is NO evidence that Richt will be able to turn things around.
Refutation of common arguements:
1. Richt deserves another year based on his past success. His past success occurred in seasons in which the SEC was down, in seasons with weaker coaches on the opponents' sidelines, and largely with Donnan's recruits. With the exception of a strong finish in 2007, Richt has simply not been impressive in the last five years since these conditions have changed from the early part of the decade.
2. Richt will right the ship. Why? There is no reason to believe this. He has failed repeatedly to improve the team since we've been calling him to right the ship. There is no reason to believe that he will be able to do it this year. Richt's supporters using this argument border on having a religious faith the man's abilities. After a couple of failures the facts suggest that he is not capable of righting the ship.
3. Georgia was bad in the late seventies and then they won the national championship in 1980. Do you really think this is a logical argument? This is one example of a team making a drastic turn around. It stands out because it is an exception. There are many, many more examples of teams that were bad and continued to be bad. Maybe if Georgia lands the next Herschel Walker, then Richt will turn things around. Of course, so would practically any other head coach.
One last question to ponder is from the coaches/players recent statements about changing the culture and bringing back leadership and winning attitudes. If the coaching knew how to fix this, then why haven't they already done it? They've had the same problems for the past three seasons and haven't been able to even make an improvement in the team's culture. It seem obvious that they either can't or don't know how to make the changes necessary. If we can all agree that a culture change is necessary, then isn't the quickest most effective way of accomplishing this to bring in a new coaching staff.
Let's try a logical thought process. Let's start with some generally accepted facts:
1. Georgia football has underachieved and had disappointing results for (at least) the last 3 years.
2. The Georgia football program has had off field issues with arrests and other disciplinary problems over this same time span.
3. After each of these last three seasons, Mark Richt has promised to make the necessary changes to fix both the on field and off field disappointments.
4. Despite these promises, there has yet to be any bottom line improvement. In fact, one could argue that things have gotten worse.
Now, let's go forward with some opinions that I think are generally shared by all of us.
1. IF Mark Richt returns next year, he would be expected to engineer a significant turn around or else he should not be brought back for 2012.
2. IF we could all look into the future and see that Mark Richt was going to have yet another disappointing year in 2011, then it would be best to go ahead and get rid of him now.
The logical conclusion from the basic facts seem to show that there is no reason to expect a better season in 2011. There is NO evidence that Richt will be able to turn things around.
Refutation of common arguements:
1. Richt deserves another year based on his past success. His past success occurred in seasons in which the SEC was down, in seasons with weaker coaches on the opponents' sidelines, and largely with Donnan's recruits. With the exception of a strong finish in 2007, Richt has simply not been impressive in the last five years since these conditions have changed from the early part of the decade.
2. Richt will right the ship. Why? There is no reason to believe this. He has failed repeatedly to improve the team since we've been calling him to right the ship. There is no reason to believe that he will be able to do it this year. Richt's supporters using this argument border on having a religious faith the man's abilities. After a couple of failures the facts suggest that he is not capable of righting the ship.
3. Georgia was bad in the late seventies and then they won the national championship in 1980. Do you really think this is a logical argument? This is one example of a team making a drastic turn around. It stands out because it is an exception. There are many, many more examples of teams that were bad and continued to be bad. Maybe if Georgia lands the next Herschel Walker, then Richt will turn things around. Of course, so would practically any other head coach.
One last question to ponder is from the coaches/players recent statements about changing the culture and bringing back leadership and winning attitudes. If the coaching knew how to fix this, then why haven't they already done it? They've had the same problems for the past three seasons and haven't been able to even make an improvement in the team's culture. It seem obvious that they either can't or don't know how to make the changes necessary. If we can all agree that a culture change is necessary, then isn't the quickest most effective way of accomplishing this to bring in a new coaching staff.
Well, look at the bright side. We're either going to be A LOT better next year or it will be the last season that we have to put up with this crap.
At least the pro team in Georgia is winning division championships. Atlanta Falcons are the only football team I can stomach to watch. I am sick of watching Georgia lose. I am sick of watching Mark Richt on the sidelines. I have no hope for this team to get any better... :/
Seth,
Hamm and Buble is awesome. The constant shilling for a playoff system isn't. It's easy to grab at low-hanging fruit like "settle it on the field" but a lot harder to come up with a system that pleases all the stakeholders (including the fans!).
And before you start, Dan Wetzel's 16-team tournament ain't it. Sure, SOME people "love Cinderella stories"... some of us want to see championships won by the best teams. Any playoff system that includes FIU and, yes, UCF is clearly flawed.
Anon 12:41,
Richt-0-File Richt Apologist,
If Mark Richt is so great on X and O in 2006 when he beat # 9 Final AP Poll Auburn, why did he lose 4 games 2006 season ?
If Mark Richt is so great on X and O in 2005 when he beat # 6 Final AP Poll LSU, why did he lose 3 games 2005 season ?
Jim Donnan if Mark Richt is so much a better coach, why did Jim Donnan lose 19 games his 5 years here when Mark Richt has lost 21 his last 5 years here, with Jim Donnan also a better winning percentage as Bulldogs’ Coach in his 5 years than Mark Richt his last 5 years here ?
Anon 12:41 if Mark Richt only has motor scooter incidents off the field for his 17 Suspensions 2010 alone, why did he in 2010 throw Zach Mettenberger off the team for 2 guilty counts of Sexual Battery ? Why did he also throw Montez Robinson off the team 2010 after he beat up his girlfriend for the 3rd time, at McWhorter Hall repeatedly picking her up and throwing her to the floor ? And, why did he throw Michael Lemon off the team after he beat up a student at an apt just because he was talking to a lady who said she was not even dating Michael Lemon at the time, so disfiguring him that he will have scars for life ?
When you are # 2 off the field in Fulmer Cup after the 2005 season through today and # 23 on the field after the 2005 season through today, you can spare me the you are not a Richt Apologist with this weak defense of him.
Army Dawg,
Good Christian Man doesn’t have one Damn thing to do with what he is responsible for, which is Not having his recruits arrested / suspended off the field and for Not having his recruits lose on the field.
Jim Donnan was fired for losing 19 games in his 5 years here.
Mark Richt has not done as well his last 5 years here.
In fact, Mark Richt has a Worst Win Percentage his last 5 years than Jim Donnan did in his 5 years here, and Mark Richt has lost 21 games his last 5 years, not the 19 Jim Donnan did.
It is worse than that.
Ray Goff was fired in 1995 after putting up 21 loses his last 5 years here, ending in 1995.
Mark Richt equals that with 21 losses his last 5 years here.
“Also, you say Donnan got a raw deal but you want to fire Richt for having the same record over the last 5 years.”
Mark Richt wished he had only lost 19 games the last 5 years.
CSA,
Sir, we pay Mark Richt more than the Atlanta Falcons pay Mike Smith.
BuLLdawg,
How many SEC championships did Goff and Donnan have? Feel free to combine their totals if you want. I'll wait while you tally them all up.
Last Five (5) Years :
55-9 Ohio State
56-12 Florida
60-5 Boise State
55-10 TCU
54-15 Oklahoma
52-15 Virginia Tech
51-14 Southern California
50-15 LSU
50-15 Texas
49-15 BYU
49-16 Wisconsin
49-16 West Virginia
49-16 Utah
49-18 Alabama on the field
48-16 Oregon
48-18 Missouri
47-18 Penn State
46-18 Auburn
46-22 Hawaii
45-20 Cincinnati
45-21 Boston College
44-20 Texas Tech
44-21 Georgia Mark Richt last entire 5 years
53 years since we lost 7 games in a season, way back in 1957.
BuLLdawg,
I don't usually agree with you, because your posts usually consist of statistical dribble that I don't really care to read through. Not only is it annoying, but most people just don't even care. Anyway, I am pretty good at tuning you out.
You mention that Mike Smith is paid less than Mark Richt. Mike Smith will be offered a big ol contract after this season's successes. But based on Richt's production (or lack thereof), he is far over-paid.
Anon @2:11 PM: So you're saying you think the greatest RB to ever play the game is likely to join our team next year?
Lets all be honest about Dooley's legacy. But for *ONE* extremely fortunate recruit (Herschel), Dooley was a mediocre coach who would been nothing special.
If that's what you are hoping for, a miracle recruit who is one of the best players to ever play college football, I think you're a little out there.
Muckbeast....1965 & 1976 have two things in common...two of the most memorable wins in UGA history....EVER! The great Vince Dooley, without Herschel Walker, knocked-off defending national champion Alabama and the great Bear Bryant. Six SEC titles does Dooley own...he is far from mediocre. Now let's be honest!
If you under invest in a business vs. competitors, eventually competitors will catch up with you. ESPN reported recently that UGA is not in the top 20 of spending on football. It looks like we're spending half as much as Alabama. Why? Largely because more senior leadership than Richt has decided that football is not as big a priority at UGA than at other programs. They'd rather use the money generated by football for other uses. If you disagree, you need to try to get leverage in the form of awareness and pressure on Adams and McGarity and others.
I really can't believe how fast everybody has turned on Richt. He can learn from his mistakes people. He isn't a moron. Give it time. Everybody just keeps saying how bad next year is going to be and if Richt turns it around and we win the east it's almost like you people will be disapointed because Richt will still be here.
College football has become such a "what have you done for me lately" sport that it's sad. Dooley had bad years too and had terrible years in the late 70s. We gave him time and everything worked out pretty nice if you ask me.
Changing your coach over and over shows how unstable a program is and won't help right now. All of you people think you could do a better job and you don't know what you're talking about. You sit on your couch eating chips and drinking beer and don't have a clue what goes on behind the scenes. Its pathetic!
We had a new defensive cordinator this year and a few of the games we lost were all the defenses fault. Quit acting like a bunch of children and support your program!
Richt's proven he can turn a season around fast. Look at 2001, then 2002. Again, look at 2006, then 2007. There's no conjecture, Richt's proven he has the skills.
Anon 2:11 I completely agree with you!
Things can change pretty quickly. This season was bad but things change.I have been a fan of much worse teams than this Ga team and my devotion stayed the same. It's not blind devotion. Now I do voice my opinions in different ways then most of you guys when I have a problem though.
Reading through most of the post here I really have to question the football knowledge of some of you guys. You guys throw out stats and records that do not make you all look as smart as you think they do. Things are not as simple as you guys make them out to be.
If I truly felt that firing Richt was the right thing to do I would say it. Looking at it logically our best shot at winning next year is to keep Richt and even Bobo. Now i think Bobo is more the problem right now than Richt but with Murray being in this system for two years it wouldn't do us any good to switch it up on him.
I know he had a bad bowl game but Murray could possibly be the best QB to come through Ga by the time it's all said and done and I don't think we should ruin his time here in the middle of his career.
No matter what happens next year even though I think we will be pretty good I will support this team, all the players, and even the coaches. I am a Bulldog fan for life and Mark Richt has given me personally the best years i have ever seen at Ga and i am not ready to give up on him because of two bad years. He has at least earned that right for me. I was with him when we were winning our first SEC championships in like twenty years and I will be with him through a couple of tought years.
Yes Richt has proven in the past to turn things around but he also has that one stupid hiccup to blow the season to be a national contender.
Hey chrisdawg... just because some fans are wanting Richt to go doesn't make us any less of a dawg fan pal. Go take your almighty loyalty and channel it to UGA gymnastics!
Anon 2:14 you are badly mistaken on your analysis of recruiting. We get great talent but don't seem to get much out of it.
I know the star system (Scouts - Rivals) has flaws but it is the only way to compare recruiting.
Check these numbers out - they represent the composit average of stars over the last five years.
UGA 3.6
South Carolina 3.0
Arkansas 2.7
Miss St. 2.8
Colorado 2.7
Tenn. 3.3
Vandy 2.3
Kentucky 2.6
Florida 3.9
Auburn 3.2
Georgia Tech 3.0
UCF 2.3
Only Florida has recruited better.
Anon @ 8:47, thank you. Post claiming we should support the team are the worst. We bitch because we do give a crap. These are the same people who call people unpatriotic if they have any criticisms about our government or leaders.
As for whoever said firing a coach is a sign of instability, Richt is the most tenured coach in the SEC by at least 2-3 years. It doesn't show instability, it shows we are serious about winning. For what it's worth I think he should get one more year.
There is a great divide in our coaching staff. It appears that Serrells has stopped coaching the line and spends his time being the associate offensive coordinator; game planning."Time for a change".
Make him coach the line to be the baddest ass guys on the fields. NO MORE leaning on the defense. Blow then off the line. Make then fear lineing up against GEORGIA.
Under 3 minutes in the bowl and a defensive stop was follwed by coach Grantham trying to get Richt to have an all out attempt at a block on a punt................ESPN CAMERAS CAUGHT HIM blowing off our head coach as he was told NO!
Gardner has a protypical nose guard in the Gathers kid.....but no attempt to coach him up and since a big play in the opening game stuck in limbo? What happened here. Rodney has to go. Not getting the best recruits...Not coaching up the line at all.
Mike Bobo!?!? looks like he is afraid to step outside of the shadow of Coack Richt.
Coach Richt, good man. But I never met a good man who could shed his top coat and get under the skin of a bunch on 18 - 21 year olds. A grab of the face mask, a poke in the chesh plate, a little spit in an ear hole and a few raised voices gets a ball players attention. It got mine.
I know we a politically correct now BUT IT IS FOOTBALL!!!
Wake up Apologists, its about "winning" not "whining".
Since you like Mullock Richt so much you can go with him when he leaves.....to www.mulluckricht.com and make a burnt offering.
Rumor has it Coach Searls is going to Florida.
The guy who said earlier that our senior administration has decided football isn't as important at UGA as it is at other schools is DEAD ON. The numbers prove it. We don't spend near as much on football as the schools we (the fans) think we should be competitive with.
Don't listen to anon 10:04. The rumor is that CW is bringing his old ND line coach- Viducci.
Well, here's Monday, still no word on Richt's retirement/firing/etc.
2011 will be another year of mediocrity, Dawg fans.
Its time to run these clowns out of Athens !
Boy have I been catching Hell today at work about Central Florida...... well back to the ole grind.
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