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DEL.ICIO.USRicht wins with faith, character
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Athens — To be a football coach, you don’t have to have a chaw in your jaw, a whistle around your neck and the salty vocabulary of a mule driver. Or wear a pair of canvas knickers and a sweatshirt and walk around in cleated shoes. Nor do you have to be as ethically inclined as Mark Richt. But it appears to have worked pretty well for him. Even so, when a lady named Sharon K. Stoll came around offering a program called “Winning With Character,” he agreed to have it installed for his Georgia football players.
Not that he felt Georgia needed it, but it sounded as if anybody could use it, including the whole student body. It had a theme, about helping players “reflect on who they are and to provide a forum to discuss how they should make decisions.” A member of the athletics staff, Bobby Langford, recommended it to Richt, and now Georgia is one of six major college programs where the course is ongoing. In fact, in its fifth year here, though just to be rather calloused about the thing, I doubt Richt needs any outside influence other than the One he deals with on a daily basis, his Lord and Savior, in his words.
Richt’s ascension to the faith he now represents was a long haul, from the time he found out he was not going to be the University of Miami’s starting quarterback. Jim Kelly was. “I was crushed,” he said. “Then I began to realize what a shallow human I was, and what was left of me wasn’t very appealing.”
Down through the years he wrestled with his conscience, trying to get a grip on just what Christianity is, worried about what his friends might think if he went public, so to speak. “I still wanted to do what I wanted to do, not what God wanted me to do.”
You’ve read of the penalties imposed on some of the Georgia players: suspensions and, in some cases, dismissal. Not always were the penalized players from underprivileged homes, but from both sides of the track. One was a minister’s son, and another continued his wayward life into the NFL.
“Things are going to happen, and it hurts to impose some of the disciplinary things, but it’s like correcting your children,” Richt said. “You discipline them because you love them.” And the truth is, he didn’t necessarily feel that Georgia football needed Ms. Stoll’s program, but if it might help, give it a try. It was his view that Georgia was already trying to “win with character.”
“Can morals be taught?” he was asked.
His reply was swift. “Of course morals can be taught. It’s something we work at daily. That’s what we try to do at Georgia, to help develop the mind, body and spirit. You do all that, you build a better team.”
Back to Richt and his own personal wrestle with himself. “I was not without my own personal experiences. I’d been a hell-raiser. Then I began to think about giving my life some purpose. I really wasn’t sure just what Christianity was. I thought you had to be perfect, and I wasn’t ready for that. I thought maybe if I followed the Ten Commandments I’d go straight to heaven.”
When he was an assistant at Florida State, the message came through in violent form. One of the football players was shot dead, a tackle named Pablo Lopez. It was a grim Bobby Bowden who called a staff meeting the next morning and looked his coaches in the eyes, then delivered the shivering challenge:
“If that had been you last night, where would you be spending eternity?” he said.
That was it. “I’d been wavering, wondering all that time, but that was the culmination,” Richt said. “It was time to give my life to Christ.”
You wonder if such a commitment has its disadvantages in his line of work. Handicapped in recruiting? Do you do anything it takes to get ahead? How does it affect what a college football coach has to do to land the hot prospect, to win the big game? Where do sin and honor above all collide?
He doesn’t need Sharon K. Stoll to be his guide. It’s Mark Richt’s design to “win with character” every day of his life.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment | Categories: Furman Bisher, UGA / SEC
Comments
By earl
August 27, 2006 12:10 AM | Link to this
cmr is a perfect example of being able to balance both worlds. his faith allows him to be the kind of coach and the kind of man that brings out the best of all the folks around him. he is a credit to our university and an a shinning example of how to keep your pryorties in your life in the proper order.
By richard
August 27, 2006 02:04 AM | Link to this
no matter who you are. no matter where you came from. There are some of us who believe the family structure still works with GOD at the head
By Buck Cochran in the NW
August 27, 2006 05:55 AM | Link to this
You may remember a couple of years ago, SI did a big story about Ga. and the way MR lived a FAITH BASED LIFE. I took the magazine to church and it was passed around for people to read. Up here people are very reserved about things like that. If the HC at Washington, in public, was like MR people would be all over him. Everyone at my church thought it was neat but I was asked that very question about “doesn’t his way of living cause him problems with the public”? It made me feel very good to be able to say NO! I, too, spent 40 yrs. in the desert and can relate to MR.
By Jimmy
August 27, 2006 06:00 AM | Link to this
Who wouldn’t want their son to play for a leader like Mark Richt? In these days it is so refreshing to see a person who has faith in God and is not afraid or ashamed to share it. No wonder parents of recruits see quality and character in UGA’s football program…. You Go Mark!!!!
By Steve
August 27, 2006 07:46 AM | Link to this
Winning With Character is a great program that we as fans can contribute money. My wife and I thought it beneficial to help out where we can. College Coaches are having to be more than a coach. In many cases, a “dad” as well. This program helps teach basics that many of us take for granted, and many of us need. My prayer is that for the short time Richt has them as players, he can teach them how to be real Men with Character, something our society is severly lacking.
By Pago Pago
August 27, 2006 11:02 AM | Link to this
Very nice…..but, we still NEED to beat the Gators!!
By Carew Rowell
August 27, 2006 11:27 AM | Link to this
Mark Richt is an example for us all, not just the players. I’ve heard him speak live. He is one of the most genuine people I have ever seen. And he speaks about Jesus Christ in a most natural way in public. I find this very hard sometimes. Jesus is so controversial. It is easier to talk about God in general than Jesus Christ. Isn’t it strange when Jesus Christ’s name is spoken in public it instantly requires a decision of the listener. Either you accept or reject him. I think it is that way for a reason.
Thank you Mark Richt for showing us all how to express our faith in a way that is real. It takes a true man of character to pull that off. That is what I aspire to be!Thank God I don’t have to be perfect, because I would be in serious trouble. Jesus Christ changed my life and I will not be ashamed anymore to say He is my Lord and Savior too!
Carew Rowell
By Carew Rowell
August 27, 2006 11:31 AM | Link to this
Yes, I agee. We do need to beat the Gators and get the universe back in alignment.
By Buck Cochran in the NW
August 27, 2006 12:20 PM | Link to this
Yes, touching on the secular, beating the Reptiles would be helpful. Very Very Helpful!!!
By Robert
August 27, 2006 03:03 PM | Link to this
Coach Richt is the best thing that has ever happened at UGA in it’s history. He has personally changed the lives of so many of his players already in a short time and the whole student body feeds off of that success.
Sorry, but it’s not about just winning football games at any cost. Our kids actually do have to go to class to get a diploma unlike some schools we all know about!
Georgia will win a lot of football games under Richt but that is not what matters here. What matters is the way Georgia is doing it with class, honor and integrity.
All Georgians should be proud of Mark Richt and what he stands for. I would be proud for my son to play for him one day.
By Tuscaloosa Dawg
August 27, 2006 04:38 PM | Link to this
Do you ever wonder if that constant collision of worldliness and Godliness will one day be the force that causes Coach Richt to step away from coaching?
More time for God…church…family…ministry?
By TiftDawg
August 27, 2006 09:01 PM | Link to this
Shoot me if I ever forget that life is about more than winning football games (for that matter, life is about more than life.) I’d love for one of my son’s to spend 4 or 5 years in CMR’s program.
By scapsinger
August 27, 2006 10:03 PM | Link to this
Let’s not forget that Richt IS doing God’s work, he IS in the ministry for all the players that Georgia is fortunate enough to recruit. Richt is in the right place at the right time. If from nothing other than experience, Richt understands the mind of a player, knowing what guidance is needed in programs like this.
He definitely knows where he can continue to serve the Lord, that’s why he keeps extending his contract.
By Dawgs2006
August 28, 2006 02:12 AM | Link to this
The Gators? They will choke at some point this season. They always do. If Georgia does not win the east, I hope it is Tennesse or South Carolina. Anyone except for those nasty, dumpster diving, Gators.