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As an outside observer, the difference between Richt and Smart isn't much (and that's not an insult -- half your fanbase acts like you weren't any good under Richt when you very much were most years. He just ultimately failed at getting UGA a National Championship).

Richt also just had a longer tenure to produce mediocre seasons/disappointing teams. If Smart stays around as long he'll have some of those too. I think the question for UGA is whether or not Smart can bring home a national title where Richt couldn't.

There's definitely a chunk of fans that kind of dismiss Richt a little too flippantly, but he wasn't fired for not winning a national championship... He was fired because his best years were clearly behind him. His first 5 years in the SEC were about as strong as you could ask for and no one wanted him gone. From there it was a constant struggle for him to effectively manage the roster and generally a series of disappointing finishes involving losses to teams that frequently shouldn't have happened. If 2012 hadn't gone down the way it had, he'd have likely been let go sooner... But in hindsight, it's clear that in the back half of his tenure, our LOS recruiting had dwindled to the point that we simply weren't going to be able to break into that elite level on any consistent basis.