Georgia coach Mark Richt had become pretty good friends with Mike Smith over the last few years as they coached the two highest-profile football teams in the state. So Richt was saddened to learn that Smith had been dismissed as the head coach the Atlanta Falcons on Monday.
The Falcons’ move came at almost exactly the same time Richt sat down to address media at a news conference for the Belk Bowl at BB&T ballpark. The game will be played at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
“I’ve spent time with him and exchanged text messages and things of that nature,” Richt said of Smith. “I’ll reach out to him eventually.”
Richt reserved his feelings about the actual decision. “I don’t think it’s appropriate right now to make any kind of comment,” he said.
Georgia’s coach is not being sought for the Falcons’ position or any other NFL job. But Monday’s developments prompted a Charlotte television reporter to ask Richt if he had any interest coaching at the professional level.
“No, I like coaching college-age guys,” Richt said. “Obviously there’s plenty of competitive juices going on in our league and in the teams we play as far as football is concerned. There’s a lot at stake and all that. So the football part I think is as exciting as anything you could be a part of. But I also like dealing with the young men in this age group and try to be a blessing in their lives as they go through college.”
As Richt was speaking, former Falcons coach Bobby Petrino was addressing reporters on the other side of the room in the press box area of BB&T Ballpark. Smith succeeded Petrino after Petrino quit as the Falcons’ head coach to take over at Arkansas with three games remaining in the 2007 NFL season.
As one might expect, Petrino was unwilling to address Smith’s dismissal or the Carolina Panthers’ win that helped prompt it.
“What I’m really worried about right here is our game and our team,” Petrino said when asked about the Falcons’ developments. “We’re going to go about our business and playing Georgia. I don’t want to take anything away from the Belk Bowl and the University of Louisville playing the University of Georgia.”
