I’m one of those “haters” everyone wants to talk about today. I am happy that Mark Richt is no longer with
UGA. Whether he was fired or he resigned
I do not care, I’m just glad he’s gone.
I’ve not been a fan from the beginning and I’ll admit to that. I have read with interest comments from
others today and a common thread connecting many of them is that we can now
expect ten years of mediocrity. I laugh
that someone would say that. All that I
have to do to find mediocrity is look behind me. The last championship season that UGA
football had was in 2005. And that was
the year that Bobo started doing the play calling, so he gets the credit for
that one. So be mad at me if you want,
but the numbers do not lie.
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2008:
Season overall 10-3. SEC
6-2. They finished 2nd in the
East.
-
2009:
Season overall 8-5. SEC 4-4. They finished 2nd in the East.
-
2010:
Season overall 6-7. SEC 3-5. They finished 3rd in the East.
-
2011: Season
overall 10-4. SEC 7-1. They finished 1st in the East, but
lost the SEC Championship to LSU 42-10.
-
2012:
Season overall 12-2. SEC
7-1. They finished 1st in the
East, but lost the SEC Championship to Alabama 32-28. And for the record, that game was lost 100%
due to poor coaching. Nothing else to
say about that.
-
2013:
Season overall 8-5. SEC 5-3. They finished 3rd in the
East.
-
2014:
Season overall 10-3. SEC
6-2. The finished 2nd in the
East.
-
2015:
Season overall 9-3. SEC 5-3. I’m not 100% clear on their standing in the
East, they are either tied for 2nd or firmly in 3rd
place.
Again numbers do not lie.
If you are concerned with mediocrity, there’s your mediocrity. And Prior to 2008 with the exception of 2005
it is no different, just more of the same.
So in my mind we’re looking at 15 years with one Championship season,
2005 and no more. If you want to look at
these 8 seasons and pick out the best of those, one would tend to migrate to
the 2012 season at 12-2. And true enough
that is an 85.7% winning percentage. Is
that good enough? If we were talking
about a basketball team winning 85.7% of the time I would say is pretty
good. But we are not talking about a
basketball team. We’re talking
football. And in college football today
to be successful a team needs to be as close to undefeated as possible; either
being undefeated or loosing no more than 1 game. Once a team looses a second game there’s just
too many teams out there that finish with only one loss, having two loses will prevent
you from being in contention for championship consideration. So to answer my own question, is 12-2 good
enough? No, it is not. But in 8 seasons that is as good as Mark
Richt could give us. Yeah, it’s time for
him to go…………. Overdue I would say. I
encouraged his firing in 2013, again in 2014.
So yes, I had encouraged his firing already in 2015.
I wish him well. I
absolutely believe he is a good man, a good Christian man. He’s just not a good coach. I give him credit when due. I understand he has the winningest record
over the course of his tenure at UGA, and I congratulate him for that. But I point out again it has been good, just
not good enough. I wish him well. I fully expect him to be hired this year and potentially
coach against the Dawgs next year. I’m
okay with that too.
I much prefer to focus on the positive and there is plenty
of positive to focus on. I hope that the
young men that have committed to UGA will still honor their commitment, and I’m
excited that if the right coach can be found that we can begin now to build on
what we already have and have a team in contention next year. I believe it’s possible. Good days are ahead folks. I believe. Yes oh yes I do.
