Georgia Football 2011: The Top 5 Replacement Candidates for Mark Richt

I think Georgia’s Mark Richt is a heck of a coach and he’s got the track record to back that up, but that doesn’t change the fact that fans have begun to call for his job and I guess that means we have to speculate about who could possibly replace him.

Starting off the season 0-2 certainly didn’t deter Richt’s growing number of critics, but the Bulldogs have since rebounded to win three straight games, which has helped calm the storm a little bit.

Still, it sounds like Richt could be coaching for his job from here on out and if the team falters down the stretch, there’s a good chance he could finally get axed.

If that does happen, here’s a look at five coaches that the school could look at to replace him.

Kirby Smart

Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart is going to be one of the hottest coaching names this offseason and he appears to be the next Nick Saban disciple who’s going to hit it big.

Smart’s Alabama defenses have consistently been ranked in the top five in the country and he’s one of the best recruiters in college football.

The 35-year-old coordinator graduated from Georgia back in 1998 and he was an administrative assistant with the Bulldogs back in 1999 and a running backs coach in 2005.

If Richt gets canned, Smart would likely be the school’s top choice.

Urban Meyer

Urban Meyer has been successful at every stop of his coaching career, whether it be at Bowling Green, Utah or at a big-time school such as Florida.

Meyer’s spread offense made a legend out of Tim Tebow, and the coach guided the Gators to two SEC championships and two national championships during his six years in Gainesville before stepping down due to health concerns.

His 104-23 career record is absolutely impeccable and if Meyer does decide to return to coaching after spending a year at ESPN this season, he’ll be the undisputed top target of the offseason.

Most have linked Meyer to Ohio State, but he’s developed some strong SEC roots and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him head back down south.

Rich Rodriguez

I’ll admit, I would have loved to see what Rich Rodriguez could have done in the SEC with his vaunted spread offense and I almost got my wish at the end of the 2006 season when he was offered the coaching job at Alabama.

I know I probably shouldn’t have said that, since I was a freshman at West Virginia at that time.

During my time in Morgantown, I saw what Rodriguez had built the Mountaineers into and I couldn’t help but appreciate it.

Georgia got a first-hand taste of what Rodriguez is capable of when West Virginia shocked the Bulldogs in the 2006 Sugar Bowl.

I thought Rodriguez got a bad rap at Michigan, because it was obvious that there were going to be some growing pains with that type of transition. He should have at least been given one more year.

He recruited a bunch of talent to Ann Arbor and Brady Hoke can’t thank him enough for that.

Rodriguez has proven that he can recruit and develop a program and I for one would certainly be interested to see how he fares in the SEC.

Gus Malzahn

Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn is one of the most innovative offensive minds we have in college football right now, and we saw exactly how powerful his attack could be when Cam Newton stepped in and carried the Tigers to a national championship last season.

Malzahn is a bona fide quarterback guru and he’s proven that when he’s calling the shots, offenses flourish.

He honed his craft at the high school level and proved his worth at places like Tulsa and Arkansas before Gene Chizik hired him at Auburn before the 2009 season.

He was one of the hottest assistant names this past offseason, interviewing for vacant positions at schools like Vanderbilt and Maryland, and he’ll surely have a few more interviews lined up this winter.

Mike Leach

Don’t forget about Mike Leach.

It seems that the former Texas Tech coach has almost been blacklisted since he was unceremoniously terminated from Texas Tech at the end of the 2009 season, amid allegations of player abuse.

If you put aside his sometimes cantankerous personality, it’s easy that Leach is one of the smartest offensive coaches in the country.

Leach’s high-powered Air Raid passing attacks put up huge numbers when he was leading the Red Raiders, but the only problem was, he could never get his team to take the next step in the Big 12.

Leach may be a long shot but he’s definitely going to get a few feelers from some schools this offseason.