Mark Richt Feeling The Pressure at Georgia

The Georgia Bulldogs are going through rough times this season in Athens. 

With a 3-3 record the Georgia faithful are talking under their breath.

Head coach Mark Richt was lured away from Tallahassee in the winter of 2000 after serving Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden for 11 seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

The Bulldogs lost to Tennessee 45-19 in Knoxville this past weekend and suddenly there are hot seat talks about the head coach. They are 2-2 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

This year the team is bound to struggle with the losses of three key offensive players.  Quarterback Matthew Stafford was picked number one overall, running back Knowshon Moreno was the 12th pick and wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi was taken in the second round.

Quarterback Joe Cox completed only 33 passes in three seasons prior to getting the starting job this season.  There is no way that a senior quarterback with limited game time experience is expected to enter a hostile environment in Stillwater in his first start of the year and play lights out.

Cox went 15-for-30 for 162 yards a touchdown and an interception.  The Bulldogs lost 24-10 to No. 11 Oklahoma State.  His career game was against Arkansas in a high scoring affair, a 52-41 win where he threw for 375 yards and five touchdowns.

They almost upset the No.4 LSU Tigers at home in a heartbreaking 20-13 loss October 3rd.  At Tennessee the Bulldogs never settled in and lost their third game of the season.

It is fascinating how Richt was praised as the team’s savior when he arrived at Georgia eight seasons ago but now fans are not pleased with how Georgia is doing. 

It is difficult to understand how these fans are upset at a guy that made them a better team in such few years than what they had done before he took the head coaching job.

The Boca Raton-native always waited his turn to be successful.  When he enrolled at the University of Miami he was poised to become the signal caller in charge of making the Hurricanes a prominent program, but it was Jim Kelly who would be responsible for that.

Although he would not become a success at the quarterback position his knowledge of the game made him an offensive guru.  In his time at Florida State they won two national championships in 1993 and 1999 and he coached two Heisman Trophy winners, Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke.

Before Richt’s arrival the Bulldogs’ successes were far and few.  The team’s last SEC championships came in 1982.  Since its inception in 1992, Georgia did not participate in the SEC Championship Game until 2002 when they defeated the Razorbacks 30-3 under Richt.

In only Richt’s second season the Bulldogs won their first SEC title 20 years played in the Sugar Bowl and captured a 13-1 record.  For a team that had yet to play in Atlanta for the SEC title, under Richt they have played for the SEC title three times and won the crown twice.

For a coach that is “supposedly” on the hot seat many quickly forget that he has brought Georgia back to respectability.  The fans must have forgotten where the team was pre 2001. How far the program has turned forward.  In five of his first eight seasons the Bulldogs finished the regular season ranked in the Top 10. 

Not since Vince Dooley was the head coach, from 1964 to 1988, has there been a coach at Georgia that has lasted as long as Richt.  Ray Goff coached from 1989 to 1995 and had a 46-34-1 record while Jim Donnan lasted from 1996 to 2000 with a 40-19 record.  Richt’s record through nine seasons stands at 85-25.  85 wins is almost double the wins Goff had and more than double the amount of wins Donnan had.

In his first head coaching job Richt has brought back passion to a program that spent the 1990’s playing second fiddle to their rivals from Atlanta, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, who won a championship 1990 under Bobby Ross.  With George O’Leary as head coach the Jackets were in the media spotlight for their close battles with Florida State.

Richt’s great coaching has been proven time and time again.  In 2006 the team lost 51-33 to Tennessee at home and things seemed to unravel for the coach.  Losses to Vanderbilt, Florida, and Kentucky followed and put the program in a tough predicament at 6-4 before reeling off three consecutive wins including a come-from-behind win against Virginia Tech. A bowl game they trailed the Hokies 21-3 at the half before they came back to win the Chick-Fil-A Bowl 31-24.

He’s known as disciplinarian but knows how to inspire his teams when times call for it.  Against the Florida Gators on October 27, 2007 the “Florida celebration incident” took place when the entire Georgia team rushed into the end zone to celebrate after Moreno scored the game’s first touchdown.

Richt told his offense beforehand to celebrate the first touchdown of the game until they get a penalty.  This came on the heels of an uninspiring win against Vanderbilt where the team jumped up-and-down at midfield after the 20-16 win.

 Although he faces difficulties in the best football conference, with Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Les Miles they have won four of the past six national championships.  Richt needs to continue at Georgia where with some changes to his staff can continue to build a successful program in Athens.

In 2001 the head coach had a decision to make about who would be the starting quarterback entering the season.  The battle was between David Greene, D.J. and Shockley.  The selection of Greene worked and began the Richt era at Georgia.
In his nine seasons at Georgia Mark Richt truly is the “Top Dawg” in Athens and it is a shame that people are beginning to call for his head at a team that was nowhere for 20 seasons.  Richt is a class act and although his team has lost three games in six total games played he will rebuild a team he made good.