re: Richt vs Kirby after 3 years

SummerOfGeorge. I may be looking at different recruiting rankings than you did for your numbers. I have listed the 247 composite ranking for the classes, where they were in comparison nationally, the conference, and the East. Kirby is recruiting at a completely different level than Richt did his first few years (as stated). This holds true for where we sit in the recruiting rankings compared to the SEC East and compared to the conference as a whole.

The SEC is a Jimmy and Joes and line of scrimmage league. Richt inherited SEC offensive and defensive lines from Donnan, Kirby didn’t and has re-built our lines from scratch. Richt followed the Bowden blueprint and always thought of the offensive line as a plug and play system. Our o-line variance in performance over his tenure shows that. Sam Pittman's O-line is completely different philosophically and recruiting wise than Richt ever had for his o-line. The conference was evenly distributed with talent when Richt took over. Today Bama is sucking all of the oxygen out of the room and has the national championships to show for it.

I do agree with Seth on the difference in Administrative support. There is a night and day difference today compared to what Richt saw at any point in his tenure. Another point in his article is VanGorder was considered the hammer to Mark Richt's nice guy tactics. When VanGorder left we replaced him with a overmatched coordinator in Willie Martinez. I don't think that is going to be a issue under Kirby because he is the hammer. If anything he may have to hire the nice guy coordinators to offset his style.

I was very excited back in the early Richt years for the potential at UGA. Looking in the rear view mirror it's plain to see Richt's failings as the UGA coach. He did not value the trenches like Kirby does, he struggled at closing out recruiting classes, and the roster management was beyond sub-par. Looking at Kirby's teams none of these concerns are there anymore and I think as a program we are in a completely different spot entering year four than we were under Richt. The crazy thing is I didn't realize it at the time with Richt but I do now seeing how Kirby has built this UGA team.

Recruiting ranking 247 composite
Richt
2001 (LSU, UT, AU, Ark, UGA) 10th Nationally, 5th in SEC, 2nd in East
2002 (UT, UGA, UF) 9th Nationally, 2nd in SEC, 2nd in East
2003 (UF, LSU, UGA, UT) 9th Nationally, 3rd in SEC, 2nd in East
2004 (LSU, UF, UGA, UT) 7th Nationally, 3rd in SEC, 2nd in East

Smart
2016 (Bama, LSU, OM, UGA, AU, UF, UT) 7th Nationally, 4th in SEC, 1st in East
2017 (Bama, UGA, LSU, AU, UF) 3rd Nationally, 2nd in SEC, 1st in East
2018 (UGA, Bama, AU, UF, LSU) 1st Nationally, 1st in SEC, 1st in East
2019 (Bama, UGA, TAMU, LSU, UF) 3rd Nationally, 2nd in SEC, 1st in East