AUGUSTA — Georgia coach Mark Richt was ushered through a crowd here at the Julian Smith Casino to an area out back where some local media had assembled to hear from him.
“It’s nice to be back here in Augusta,” Richt said to no one in particular. “We are in Augusta, right?”
He was only half-kidding.
It’s that time of year in the college coaching business. It’s the chicken-and-green-beans tour, when coaches everywhere travel around to visit with their most passionate fans on the home turf. For Georgia, it’s known as the annual Bulldog Club meetings.
And it’s old hat for Richt. He is making these rounds for an 11th time. But this is the first time he’s doing it after a losing season. The Bulldogs were 6-7 last season, with a lackluster loss to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl bringing it to the close. That followed an 8-5 season, so the Bulldog Nation is not happy about it.
But you wouldn’t necessarily know that Wednesday night as about 400 red-and-black clad fans filed into an expansive banquet hall on the banks of Lake Olmstead. A line ran nearly the length of the building to get Richt’s autograph. He received a standing ovation the first time his name was uttered from the dais.
“The reception has been great,” said Richt, who also has spoken at meetings in Jacksonville in Savannah this year and will be in Macon on Thursday. “This time of the year, everybody’s excited. There might be a few people who have a question or two. But I’ve done a few of these, and everybody’s just excited about the future.”
One question had to do with the future of running back Washaun Ealey, who at various times has been injured and suspended.
“Washaun Ealey has a long way to go to prove to me he deserves to be part of this team,” Richt said.
Scott Edwards, president of the Augusta chapter of the Bulldog Club, said ticket sales for this event were “slow” and “slightly down.” But he said some of that could be attributed to being “a school night and a church night” and the threat of inclement weather.
He acknowledged that last season’s performance record “probably didn’t help.”
The focus Wednesday mostly was on the future. Many of the questions were about the so-called “Dream Team” recruiting class and what impact they might make this next season.
“They definitely love to talk about the new guys coming in,” Richt said. “After seeing the spring game they want to talk about Big Kwame [Geathers] and they want to talk about Alec Ogletree and some of the walk-ons like Connor Norman and [Taylor] Bradberry, guys that made plays. And they tend to want to ask about the two guys that came in at the midyear, [Chris] Conley and [Christian] LeMay.”
Assistant basketball coach Philip Pearson was filling in for coach Mark Fox and also received a standing ovation. Fox, who led the Bulldogs to a 21-12 record and their first at-large NCAA berth since 2002, is expected to receive a contract extension and salary increase during a specially called athletic-board meeting Thursday.
That was news to Pearson, or so he claimed.
“That would be good news, but I haven’t heard it,” he said.
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