Michaux: Richt is one of best coaches in nation
By Scott Michaux
ATHENS, Ga. — It’s as regular as a high-fiber diet – the anti-Mark Richt sentiment that pours in after any Georgia football loss.
The emails from the same parties fill my inbox. The vitriol heats up the message boards.
The general themes are always the same – Richt can’t win the big one ... outcoached again ... too nice ... bad kids ... inane play calling ... poor clock management.
Funny how these emails never seem to show up after any of his average of almost 10 wins per season – a school-record .737 winning percentage.
The frustration is certainly understandable after the Florida debacle. Georgia got run over 38-20 by a Gator team with a head coach seemingly destined to be fired at season’s end. For the record, Will Muschamp was one of the most common names many of the Richt-bashers wanted to helm Georgia (his alma mater) a few years back.
It was certainly a bad loss – as bad as they get. It cost Georgia control in the weak East division of the Southeastern Conference. It ended any legitimate hope of qualifying for the new college football playoff. Even ignoring the fact that Florida’s defense is arguably better than Georgia’s to begin with, there’s no denying that the Bulldogs’ failure to stop the Gators’ one-dimensional rush offense was galling. Makes you realize how other teams must feel when they can’t stop Georgia’s one-dimensional rush offense this season.
But the Pavlovian response by the anti-Richt campaigners is both sad and laughable.
“Those aren’t real fans,” said Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason of the naysayers.
It was the same in September, when a grossly unfair critique of Richt appeared in Rolling Stone magazine after the shootout loss at South Carolina. The story dubbed Richt the Charlie Brown of college coaches who keeps teasing but never kicks the football, citing his “stunning ability to lose crucial games by the narrowest of margins and at the worst possible times.”
This apparently is a skill exclusive to the Bulldogs coach. It’s obvious that no other coach has ever had his team suffer such tough losses. When Nick Saban endured November defeats in both 2011 (LSU) and ’12 (Texas A&M), the Tide was still lucky enough to get invited to the BCS title game. So those obviously don’t count. Same applies to Florida losses in 2006 and ’08 or LSU’s in 2003 and 2’07.
No one is suggesting Richt is Saban (who is?), but he’s one of the best coaches in the nation and the best to ever don the whistle between the hedges.
Yeah, that’s right – better even than Vince Dooley and his 201 wins and 1980 national title. Take away the Herschel Walker years and it’s not even close. In the 16 seasons before Walker arrived and delivered Dooley’s only national title (let’s not get into the dubious Litkenhous title for the 8-1-2 campaign in 1968 that ended with a 16-2 Sugar Bowl loss to Arkansas), the Bulldogs averaged 7.56 wins per season (.672). Dooley’s Dogs (.715 all-time) only had to play six SEC games a year and once even ventured as far away as Houston for a rare non-conference road trip.
In 13 previous seasons at Georgia, Richt has taken the Bulldogs to five SEC championship games (winning two) and remains in contention for a sixth. Only LSU (4-1) has been to the championship in the Georgia Dome since 2001 as often as Georgia, and only Auburn (3-0) has won more SEC titles in that span. But since Richt never took Georgia to a BCS title game, the Rolling Stone writer contended “no one respects (him) as a competitor.”
Wow. Guess how many active coaches have won “national titles?” The answer is eight – Saban, Les Miles, Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Jimbo Fisher, Larry Coker, Dennis Erickson and Steve Spurrier. Miles may be the best comparison, since his 13-1 title team in 2003 lost to 8-5 Florida – identical to UGA the year before without a BCS invite.
So by that absurd standard, Richt is tied with all the other Division I coaches as a miserable failure? Richt’s Georgia teams are consistently loaded with talent, but no more than Alabama, LSU, Auburn and Florida. They came within a few yards/seconds against heavily favored Alabama of getting a title shot at Notre Dame in 2012. They got bumped (without losing) from the No. 2 spot in 2007 after getting out-lobbied by a comparably two-loss LSU. They got aced out by undefeateds Miami and Ohio State in 2002.
If the current four-team playoff had existed all along, the Bulldogs would arguably have been invited to three (maybe four) of them and been in the conversation until the very end in two or three more. Georgia has finished the season ranked in 10 of 13 years – pretty good considering below-average Joes (Cox and Tereshinski) started two of them at quarterback. Nearly 50 percent of those 13 seasons resulted in top-10 finishes, including a second and third.
Is that really a record worth considering a coaching change? Did I mention Richt is 3-2 vs. Alabama, 8-5 vs. Auburn and 4-4 vs. LSU – the West’s elite?
No, he hasn’t won the big one – yet. It took Dooley 17 years. It took Bobby Bowden 19 at Florida State. It took Tom Osborne 22 at Nebraska. In college basketball, Hall of Famers Dean Smith (21 seasons), Jim Boeheim (23) and Roy Williams (17) needed a little seasoning at storied programs to get the ultimate ring.
Perhaps what bugs Richt critics the most is his personality. Some folks were apoplectic that he was pictured smiling with his arm around his son walking off the field after last week’s loss. They would have preferred tears or bulging veins. But as important as championships are, Richt has always seen coaching as more than just the sum of the wins.
That he has taken a disciplinary stand that exceeds other coaches might have cost the Bulldogs wins and title shots. Richt suspends and dismisses players for transgressions that would get overlooked at other schools. How much better might this Bulldogs defense be with Josh Harvey-Clemons (never arrested) and Tray Matthews in it instead of awaiting eligibility at Louisville and Auburn? What impact might Nick Marshall have had in Athens instead of the Plains?
Critics who blister Richt for player misconduct really wish he was better at sweeping it all under the rug instead and keeping those athletes in silver britches every week.
Those eager to throw Richt out should be careful what they wish for. Ask Tennessee how happy they’ve been the last six seasons since they jettisoned Phil Fulmer. How awesome was that decade at Alabama between Gene Stallings and Saban? Last week notwithstanding, how’s it working out at Florida these days? Or Texas? Michigan? Penn State?
Maybe Kirby Smart really is the next great thing. Or Chad Morris. Or maybe they’re the next Ray Goff and Jim Donnan.
Richt erased 20 years or relative irrelevance when he took the reins in 2001. Are his critics really willing to roll the dice that the next guy won’t set them back?
Just make sure he’s a great clock manager.