Richt faces outside pressure with inner strength

By Steve Hummer

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATHENS – Restlessness is in evidence everywhere.

In Sanford Stadium, where the big pregame question was how many fans would even bother to take their seats on a golden Saturday against a Homecoming pigeon?

(Answer: More than cynics would suggest, the place 90 percent full).

Out on the tailgate trail, where the party talk can quickly alternate between playful and pointed. “I’ve got to be red and black – I can’t change colors,” said Athens’ Ryan Chandler, between courses before kickoff against Tennessee Tech. “But they’ve got to do something about the defensive coordinator position.”

In the new media, where from behind the wall of their screen names, faceless snipers are plinking Mark Richt and his staff.

And even a reliable old medium is turning nasty. Bulldogs radio voice Scott Howard told the story last week of his drive home from Jacksonville and the Florida massacre. As he passed a vintage barn standing near Georgia 15 in Middle Georgia’s Wrightsville, Howard looked for the supportive message that was always on its weathered flank.

This time, next to the Georgia “G” there was painted in large letters:

“Assistant Coaches Needed – Apply 90 Miles Ahead.”

Bobby Bowden, the FSU coach who turns 80 today, had a healthy chuckle when told that one.

And then, during an interview late last week, one of Richt’s major influences went off on a homily about how to handle the restlessness of a down season.

“It pops up every time,” he said. “First the coach gets criticized. Then it’s, ‘You got to let so and so go.’ I thought Lou Holtz always had a good answer for that. He always said if you’re driving and you have a flat tire you don’t fix it by firing the driver. You fix the flat.”

He and Richt say the same thing, just in different ways. Not surprising given the powerful connection between the two. Richt worked for Bowden for 15 seasons, beginning as a lowly grad assistant, and peaking as his offensive coordinator. On a deeper level, Bowden was a guide when Richt went looking for his faith.

Now they’re even sharing the experience of fan discontent (Bowden’s being the significantly more severe case).

Bowden is homespun: “If you listen to those fans up there [in the seats] you’re going to end up sitting with them. So, don’t listen to them.”

Richt is a little more circumspect: “These people love their team,” he said last week. “They sometimes live and die with their team and they get emotional about it. Some of them get mad. Some of them get sad. Some of them just want to know what’s going on. Some of them want to help.

“I’m not shocked by the fact they are passionate about it or the fact they want answers and they want answers right now. Sometimes they think the answers are simple.”

But the point is the same. Bowden is going through great turmoil in Tallahassee, his proud program slipping into mediocrity. Richt is one defeat away from the losingest of his nine seasons in Athens. And each is going to deal with those troubles in a single-minded fashion.

Consider the coaching tree from which Richt fell. It’s rooted in one concept – loyalty.

“When I first met with my coaches here in 1976 [pre-Richt], the first word we learned was loyalty,” Bowden said. “I said, ‘Men, this is the No. 1 thing, we have to be loyal to each other because when difficulties occur, we’re not going to get it from the outside.’ It’s always been No. 1 in the military and in coaching but, boy, outside of that where has it gone?”

When his long-time defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews announced last week he was retiring at the end of the season, Bowden tried to talk him into returning for one more year. There’s a clue the old coach isn’t ready to give up his whistle just yet.

So, can anyone be really surprised when Richt resists all the outside static about retooling his staff, much centering on his defensive coordinator, Willie Martinez?

When asked if there is any such thing as being too loyal, Richt answered in the same vein as when asked, as he often is, if he is too nice for this job.

“Loyalty is not the worst thing you can be accused of.”

Richt has to know it is bad out there. Like every other head coach in existence, he says he tunes out the babble on radio and the worldwide web. Wouldn’t read a sports section if it was pinned to his shirt.

“You got to choose what you want to put in your mind, you know,” he said.

Yet the very funk of this Bulldogs season is on the air he breathes.

The first caller to his radio show last week read a prepared statement of grievances, as if calling a Tea Party to order.

At church, the more people come up to Richt and tell him how much they are behind him, the more he knows the dissatisfaction over the Bulldogs’ sloppy play and defensive lapses is building.

“Someone will say, ‘I’m praying for you,’ and I’m like, ‘Man it must be pretty bad out there,’ ” Richt said with a small smile.

Still, to you, the unhappy Bulldogs fan, Richt is always going to say pretty much the same thing. He will thank the messenger without necessarily embracing the message.

Just the way Bowden does it.

The two coaches haven’t spoken this season, choosing not to chew over common troubles. “We’re both too busy heading in the other direction,” Bowden said.

Not like they have to. Whatever the old coach would say to the young one already has been imprinted on Richt.

As Bowden sees it, there is only one way Richt can deal with a season like this.

“I think he’ll handle it as good as you can handle it because of his faith,” he said. “He’s got tougher faith than anybody I’ve been around. I always tell coaches, ‘Don’t let football be your god.’ ”

The way Richt sees it, the best, the one way he can react, no matter the signs of restlessness, is to not change a thing. On any level. Not now.

His vote, the one that matters, is for consistency.

“I talk to the team all the time about integrity,” he said. “Are we going to act one way when we’re winning and then when we’re not winning, we act another way?

“If you have an idea how you want to operate as a man and you change that based on whether or not things are going well for you, I don’t think that’s right. My focus is to keep my integrity through the bad times. When things are going great, I don’t want to take myself too seriously. When things are going poorly I’m not going to allow what I do to become who I am to the point that it destroys me as a person.

“My goal is to behave in such a way that No. 1, I honor God, and No. 2, I try to stay true to who I am.”