The coach whose Georgia Bulldogs were, in December 2012, five yards from the BCS title game is again a flashpoint. If you criticize Mark Richt, you’re an opponent of decency. If you defend him, you’ve subsidized failure. The rhetoric has become so overheated that Richt’s post-Florida smile, directed toward his son, has been cited as The Reason Georgia Will Never Win Anything Under This Coach. (Because Nick Saban never smiles!)
I confess that I’m struggling: I’ve always considered Richt a good coach, but there have been enough what-the-heck losses — Florida was about the worst — to give me pause. That’s what I’m doing today. I’m thinking (and rethinking) out loud, albeit via print.
1. Is Richt too nice a guy? This one I reject out of hand. Just because he's gracious in defeat doesn't mean he cares nothing about the result. Just because he hasn't won a national championship at Georgia doesn't mean he doesn't burn for one. Not everyone is a grump like Saban or a nervous Nellie like Urban Meyer.
This sentiment is, I submit, a function of talk-radio/ESPN blather: That never winning it all is tantamount to winning nothing, that the absence of a title is somehow a character flaw. If Georgia had lost to Notre Dame on Jan. 1, 1981, would Vince Dooley’s 25 years at Georgia have been a failure? It’s nice to be the champ and all, but championships in college football have been a function of timing. Richt’s Bulldogs went 13-1 in 2002 and didn’t play for the BCS title; Saban’s LSU went 13-1 in 2003 and won it. Richt’s Bulldogs went 11-2 in 2007 and didn’t play for the BCS title; Les Miles’ LSU went 12-2 the same year and won it.
2. If Richt is such a nice guy, why do so many of his players get in trouble? This has long been the disconnect. Earlier in his career, he coddled guys who weren't worth the effort. That has changed — he's much quicker to dump players now — but still: Todd Gurley just became the second big-name Bulldog in five years to be suspended four games for selling his signature.
Some apologists insist that Georgia players are victims of an overzealous Athens police force or a vindictive NCAA, but that’s silly. Too many Bulldogs continue to mess up. It drives Georgia fans crazy to see Nick Marshall, dismissed by Richt after a dormitory theft, playing quarterback for Auburn, but the Bulldogs have guessed wrong on too many guys to be extended the benefit of the doubt. And it does undercut the image of this as a program that’s Doing It The Right Way.
3. Can we say that Georgia football has become a mediocrity? Only if being ranked in the Top 10 each of the past three seasons has become the definition of mediocre. Can we say that, relative to recruiting rankings, Georgia has underachieved? Yes. But if, as Steve Spurrier has noted, recruiting rankings were everything, then hasn't Alabama — which finishes first every signing day — underachieved?
The Bulldogs do excite their fans only to let them down. (They aren’t alone in this, but they’re among the worst offenders.) Georgia could have beaten Alabama for the 2012 SEC title and didn’t. Last year the Bulldogs were ranked No. 6 after a difficult September but crashed, due in part to injury, in October. As of Saturday morning, the sports book Bovada rated Georgia the second choice to win the College Football Playoff, whereupon the Bulldogs lost 38-20 to Florida. Did we again get ahead of ourselves? Was the Clemson victory really so impressive? Was a team with a new quarterback and a new defensive coordinator — and lately without the nation’s best player — really a champion-in-waiting?
Is it Richt’s fault if outsiders overvalue his team? Or are his shortcomings the reason Georgia never seizes its moment? This is tough one, but I’ll make no excuses for losing to Florida. That shouldn’t have happened. Still can’t believe it did.
4. Does Richt need to change with the times? A famous football man noted Wednesday that five other SEC teams have quarterbacks from Georgia who fit the mobile mode, but that Richt sticks with dropback passers, such as Hutson Mason. I'm not sure that one big game by Joshua Dobbs of Alpharetta, who led Tennessee to an overtime victory at South Carolina, constitutes a trend, but the greater point remains.
Dual-threat quarterbacks — Marshall of Pineview is one of the best — are the rage. When it had Marshall, Georgia deployed him as a cornerback. Georgia’s offense plays in 2014 the way it did in 2001. The defense collapsed against Florida, but the defense ranks higher nationally (22nd in yards allowed) than the offense (43rd in yards gained). Then again, the offense hasn’t had Gurley for three games. And this offense looked mighty spiffy when the dropback passer was Aaron Murray. Let’s file this under “food for thought.”
5. Are we to the point where Richt gets no credit for success, only blame for failure? We are indeed. The 34-0 victory at Missouri without Gurley has been forgotten; instead we recall the first-and-goal fizzle at South Carolina and Saturday's Gator Flop. That's the nature of the business, but it underscores how antsy some Georgia fans have become. They want a national championship. Nothing else will suffice.
6. How many Georgia fans fall under that heading? It's tempting to suggest that some of the most strident Bulldog voices didn't attend the school, that those who hold Georgia diplomas are more circumspect about the role of football in the grand scheme. But the cold truth is that everyone who roots for the Bulldogs is starved for that ultimate victory, and it's the one thing Richt hasn't delivered. Unless/until he does, we'll be asking these same questions. Maybe someday he'll shut us all up. Maybe.
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