Georgia Is Sticking with Mark Richt, Still Waiting for the Breakthrough

ATHENS, Ga. — Mark Richt, the football coach at Georgia, has not won an SEC championship since 2005, but he never seems to be under serious siege. There is no conflagration of angry boosters and no mob at his doorstep. There are the usual rants on radio when the Bulldogs follow a significant win with a loss, but Richt has not completely polarized the Georgia fans. There are still many more with him than against him.

How can that be?

The state of Georgia is one of the most fertile recruiting bases in the nation, yet the Bulldogs have not won a national title since 1980, when freshman Herschel Walker led a perfect season. UGA has a throng of support (92,000-plus for home games) and plays in one of the best stadiums in the country. It has resources to pay assistant coaches, and it has boosters with deep pockets. If Alabama, LSU, Florida and Auburn can win national championships in the time Richt has been a head coach, why can't Georgia?

Since the start of the 2011 season, Georgia is 10-11 against ranked teams. Some would view that as underachieving relative to assets available.

Season	W-L	Bowl
2001	8-4	Music City Bowl-L
2002	13-1	Sugar Bowl-W
2003	11-3	Capital One Bowl-W
2004	10-2	Outback Bowl-W
2005	10-3	Sugar Bowl-L
2006	9-4	Chick-fil-A Bowl-W
2007	11-2	Sugar Bowl-W
2008	10-3	Capital One Bowl-W
2009	8-5	Independence Bowl-W
2010	6-7	Liberty Bowl-L
2011	10-4	Outback Bowl-L
2012	12-2	Capital One Bowl-W
2013	8-5	Gator Bowl-L
2014	10-3	Belk Bowl-W
2015	4-0

But to think in terms of what Richt hasn't done is to glide right past some obvious reasons he remains the kingpin in Athens. As you watch the eighth-ranked Bulldogs line up against No. 13 Alabama on Saturday, think about it in a less antagonistic way, said Greg McGarity, Georgia's athletic director.

For starters, there are those 140 wins in 14-plus seasons and a winning percentage that is seventh-best (.745) among active coaches with at least 100 wins while playing in the best conference in the country. Richt's teams average almost 10 wins a season and have won five East Division championships.

"Think about all the coaches that have gone through the 12 SEC schools, excluding Missouri and Texas A&M, in the time Mark has been at Georgia," McGarity said.

Indeed, there has been abject failure at some notable schools in the last 14 years, and there has been coaching change after coaching change. The Bulldogs have avoided being Alabama, circa 1997-2007, an unholy stretch of four coaches. They have avoided being 2010-14 Florida or 2009-15 Tennessee. They are better off than South Carolina and Missouri, not to mention Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

Nationally, Richt's program has avoided being Nebraska, Penn State or Miami, proud programs that have descended on the field or have been caught up in scandal. Have you checked out the plague with the Texas Longhorns or the disarray at USC since Pete Carroll left for the NFL?

Look at all the resources at Michigan and the craters left behind by failed coaches in Ann Arbor. Has Virginia Tech been relevant lately?

Measuring yourself against the failure of others smells like an alibi. College football, after all, is all about bottom-line existence, win or else, no excuses, but Georgia has been pretty good at the bottom line under Richt (140-48, .745). Nick Saban is at .750. Richt doesn't have to make excuses.

"Mark has been relevant over a period of years, Georgia has been relevant, and we have not experienced that real low," McGarity said. "He's had the one losing season [2010, 6-7]. We haven't reached the mountaintop, but we have been right there a number of years."

Georgia is one ill-advised firing away from the downward spiral that has gripped many of the best, most-moneyed college football programs in the country. See the list above. Do you really want to make that call and start over with recruits when you have a .745 winning percentage? Do you want to take three steps back to take two steps forward when you are already on the doorstep with no guarantees the next guy is going to do better?

Yet it is tough to ask for patience when there has not been an SEC championship in 10 years and the state is teeming with high school talent.

There is one more statistic to consider.

Bobby Bowden, the Hall of Fame coach, was head coach at West Virginia and Florida State 23 years before he won a national championship. UCLA's John Wooden went 17 years before he won a national championship, then he won 10. Vince Dooley, coach of Georgia's 1980 national champion, took 16 seasons to win a national championship.

Make no mistake. McGarity has a trigger finger. He has fired head coaches in other sports since he's been at Georgia. He will fire Richt when tickets go unsold because fans no longer trust the coach. The institution comes first, McGarity said. Always.

What McGarity covets about Richt is consistency, a lurking in the rankings, and being a player or two, or a play, away from a breakthrough. Georgia came up five yards short in when it lost to Alabama in the 2012 SEC Championship Game (32-28), and it's a good bet the Bulldogs would have beaten Notre Dame in the national championship game.

David Goldman/Associated Press

"There is an ability to have this team in the conversation year after year," said McGarity, who graduated from Georgia in 1976. "If you knock on the door enough, those doors are going to open.

"I know this. If you're not relevant, those doors are never going to open."

McGarity is so steadfast behind Richt, he envisions a breakthrough that will erase what talk there is of replacing his 55-year-old coach.

"I believe his best days are ahead of him," McGarity said.

McGarity reads those letters from boosters and fans pleading with him to make a change. Of the top 100 money-givers to the program, McGarity said there is only one significant donor who wants Richt out immediately. If that number were to suddenly swell, you can bet the athletic director would take heed.

Here is what would get Richt fired in a hurry: If he allowed a player back on the team after being arrested as part of the robbery of a student (Alabama), or had players who required security at their off-campus apartments (Auburn), or had a player who robbed a gas station (Tennessee), or welcomed a player accused of assaulting a woman (Alabama, Baylor), or had players who damaged private property (Florida State). Georgia is always faster at dealing with those issues than other schools.

There is impatience; it has reached into the Georgia roster. Richt's players are as anxious as fans to win a big game and win a title.

Four days before Georgia played Southern University and a week before this week's Armageddon with Alabama, Malcolm Mitchell, a Bulldogs senior wide receiver, took a deep breath because of a question he was asked and afraid to answer. When he finally answered, it was slowly and deliberately as if hoping the right word would come to him by the time he spoke.

Have Georgia fans simply gone long enough without glory, Malcolm? Has it just been too long between national championships (35 years)?

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

"I would say..." and he paused and exhaled and said, "Yes."

Mitchell is a Georgia native (Valdosta). He was recruited by Alabama, which wins national championships and SEC championships, but he chose Georgia because of state pride and the culture of the program.

"I'm upset if we don't win," Mitchell said. "For me, not thinking a fan, or alumni, is not upset [after a loss] would be me being oblivious to how things operate. Any UGA fan should be upset."

But when they get upset, and frustrated, Georgia fans should roll the names of the vanquished off their tongues: Will Muschamp, Mike Shula, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley or any number of coaches at programs with resources, like Georgia. A trapdoor opened under those programs and it didn't close right away, or still hasn't closed.

Ten wins doesn't seem so destitute after all.

Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report.