University of Georgia Bulldogs: How to Get Mark Richt off the Hot Seat

It'll take more than a large bucket of icy Gatorade to pull Mark Richt off the hot seat that's been getting more intense with every passing week.  A 27-13 win over Ole Miss Saturday doesn't necessarily help matters much.

The Bulldogs entered the season ranked inside the Top 25 on both the AP and Coaches' preseason polls.  Consecutive losses to Boise State and South Carolina—both ranked teams—effectively knocked them out of the rankings and will likely keep them out for a while yet.

Those losses took the burner from a medium setting, to just under boiling.

We'll be fair here. Neither of those losses were horrific blowouts. The margin of loss against Boise State was 14 points and the margin of loss to SC was only three points. They weren't necessarily embarrassed in either performance.

Still, they didn't win, and an opening victory over the Broncos would have gone a long way toward cooling Richt's trousers.

A 59-0 route of Coastal Carolina was nice, but expected.  I mean, it's Coastal Carolina.  If they hadn't won big, Richt might already be scouting the unemployment line.

Saturday's 27-13 victory over the Rebels looks convincing enough. At various points, the Bulldogs led by 17-0 and 24-7. Aaron Murray was efficient, completing 17 of 26 passes for 268 yards, a pair of touchdowns and an interception.  Isaiah Crowell carried the ball 30 times for a very respectable 147 yards.

However, also keep in mind that—if not for a block in the back, negating a kick return for a TD—Ole Miss nearly brought the score to within seven points late in the fourth quarter and made the outcome look far less comfortable.

This is Ole Miss we're talking about too. This is the team that dropped to Vanderbilt last week 30-7 and whose only victory thus far is against Southern Illinois.  This was nowhere near the toughest SEC opponent the Bulldogs are going to face this year.

Next week, Georgia returns home to take on Mississippi State, who was only recently knocked out of the Top 25, and could return fairly quickly with a solid showing over Louisiana Tech (and a little help from the current Top 25). 

Then, it's a pair of road trips to Tennessee and Vanderbilt before coming back home to take on No. 15 Florida.

Right away, Richt's Bulldogs have to win their next three games and need two of them to be convincing victories. A team that has expectations of being both ranked and relevant within the SEC, has to win solidly against the more mediocre opponents on their schedule.

Following Florida, the Bulldogs have New Mexico State, Auburn and Kentucky, all at home. Again, they need to win at least two of those (NMSU and Kent) and they need to be convincing wins.

That leaves the Florida showdown, Auburn and the season-ending match at No. 25 Georgia Tech.

This is where Richt can save his job.

Sweep those three and there's no justifiable reason to fire Richt just yet. Win two of the three—as long as Auburn is one of them—and play competitively in the third, and there could still be an argument for retaining him.

However, if the Bulldogs can't defeat at least one ranked team, and finish in the top three of their division, then fans have a reason to expect Richt to be gone.

That's not what they signed up for year-after-year. They expect more, and deserve more.

The fire under Richt is getting awfully hot.

If he wants to save his job, he's got to show that this is a team capable of going toe-to-toe with ranked teams and coming out on top.

Anything short of that is below Bulldog standards.