Home > Furman Bisher > Archives > 2008 > August > 22
Friday, August 22, 2008
Richt not bothered about Georgia’s hype
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens — Mark Richt is basically a calm man, not that crazy guy who sent his whole traveling squad surging on the field like a bunch of wild warriors in celebration after Georgia scored its first touchdown against Florida last season. He still apologizes, in a way:
“I just meant the offensive team,” he said. “The rest of them ran out on their own,” not that he’d like to have it done any other way now. “It cost us a 15-yard penalty, then half the distance tacked onto that. We’re probably the only team that ever started a game kicking off from the seven and a half yard line.”
He had noticed something missing in the loss to Tennessee, which was more than a loss — a solid butt-kicking. ” Passion,” he said. “I realized it after the Tennessee game and we went to work on it.”
Not so fast there. First, there was Vanderbilt to be dealt with. The Bulldogs were on the ropes, the Commodores on a drive near Georgia’s goal line when their tailback fumbled. The Bulldogs recovered and eventually kicked the winning field goal, and they were off on a seven-game winning binge that ended in the Sugar Bowl. Little did they realize that what they were doing would have such implications on the season ahead.
“No. 1 in the Nation!” The trifecta! Coaches poll, Associated Press, Sports Illustrated! Everybody’s No. 1 but Playboy, the magazine, whose polling standards vary somewhat from popular football tradition. For instance, Amos Alonzo Stagg would never have been its cover boy.
Usually, coaches react restlessly, shush all that talk and downgrade such a flood of exposure. Not Mark Richt. “We talk about it,” he said. “We’re excited. That means they’ve got respect for us. With such a ranking comes responsibility, and that means that’s up to us.”
Expectant fathers don’t carry on with such poise as did Richt, the expectant coach. He realized this situation was far more to be desired than had he been engaged in the career he’d have chosen if football hadn’t come his way. “I’d have been a builder, either that, or in real estate. My dad was a carpenter before he got into electronics,” he said, “and that sort of rubbed off on me when I was young.”
Actually, it had been Richt’s plan to become a great quarterback. The coach at Boca Raton High School in Florida had him pointed in that direction, Roger Coffey. The Richts originated in Nebraska but moved to Florida when his father’s company transferred him. Mark was about 13. He had gone out for baseball, but the baseball coach’s son was the rival at the position he played, and he never saw the light of day. Enter Roger Coffey: “Come with me,” he said, “I’ll show you the ropes, and I promise you’ll play college football.”
Baseball was his real love, but he took coach Coffey at his word, and sure enough, he became a quarterback at the University of Miami. Unfortunately, a kid named Kelly, from a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania, also played quarterback at Miami, later in four Super Bowls, and Jim Kelly is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Surely not having as much fun as Richt now.
“It’s a challenge for us all,” he said, speaking of the surge to No. 1. He could have been speaking of the Georgia schedule, which appears to have been put together by a mad masochist. Check it: South Carolina at Columbia, then Arizona State in Tempe, followed by Alabama and Tennessee, with Vanderbilt next, then crunch time: LSU at Baton Rouge and Florida at Jacksonville, then Kentucky, Auburn and Georgia Tech, not exactly whipped cream and cherry on top.
“If being ranked high can motivate, then we’ve got all the motivation we need. Use it. Go a little harder,” Richt said.
He’ll have his own family gallery cheering him on. He’ll be surrounded by a chorus of Richts. His mother now lives in the region. So do a brother and two sisters, one wed to Brad Johnson, the Super Bowl quarterback now with Dallas. And, his father has joined the fun and now lives nearby. (His parents are divorced.)
How do you get to be No. 1 before the football has even been pumped up? (Georgia’s previous preseasonsí best has been No. 3.) “Well, I guess it’s how you finished, who you have leaving and who’s returning to fill the holes, and star power. It gives you confidence when you have a Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford, and a lot of impressive receivers. Other than that, I can only tell you what I tell my wife before a game: ‘I hope we can make a first down.’ “
Permalink | Comments (54) | Post your comment | Categories: UGA/SEC
Services »
