Georgia Would Be Stupid to Fire Mark Richt

In SEC Football by Blake Lovell

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This isn’t the first time that Georgia Bulldogs fans have wanted head football coach Mark Richt fired.

It seems that every year the Bulldogs, A. don’t win the national title or B. don’t win the SEC title, fans are calling for his head.

Cue the 2015 edition of this stupidity. Georgia is currently 5-3 on the season, having lost three of its previous four games. The good news is that the remainder of the schedule – home games against Kentucky and Georgia Southern and away games against Auburn and Georgia Tech – are all winnable.

That would put the Bulldogs are 9-3, with a possible double-digit win season on the horizon for Richt.

It’s not easy to keep track of how many of those Richt has at this point. Luckily, Google is our friend.

Richt was hired in Athens back in 2001. Since then, he’s amassed nine double-digit win seasons in 15 years at the helm. That’s ridiculously good.

But the problem Georgia fans have is that expected more SEC and national titles during that span. The Bulldogs have only won two of the former and zero of the latter under Richt.

However, these fans forget that Georgia has won only two national titles (1942 and 1980) in the program’s history. This isn’t a program that has traditionally won a national championship every single season.

Yet that’s what these fans seem to think that they’ll get with a new coach. It’s as if they think Bill Belichick or Nick Saban is going to come walking through that door.

Newsflash: They aren’t.

The Georgia job is certainly an attractive one. In fact, you could realistically place it up there in the top five among college football head coaching jobs.

But let’s not act like there are a lot of resumes out there that pack the punch that Richt’s does. He is a proven winner and has sent Georgia to a bowl game every single season. He hasn’t had a losing season, and he’s also set to bring in perhaps the nation’s top recruiting class next year.

Does that sound like the type of guy you would fire if you were in charge of running a company? Of course not. It’s pure idiocy.

Has Richt’s teams underachieved at times? Sure they have. But guess what? So has Saban’s. So has Belichick’s. You cannot win the national championship every single season.

“But Blake, Georgia hasn’t won a single national championship under Richt!”

Again, you’ve won two since you started playing football in 1892. Georgia isn’t entitled to a national title in football. Get over it.

If Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity and president Jere Morehead decide to fire Richt, most Bulldog fans will view them as heroes.

Until of course they realize that finding someone with the credentials of Richt will be a tall order.

Which prompts this disturbing nugget from Dan Wolken of USA Today:

“Multiple people told USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity that McGarity has a very high opinion of Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen from their time together at Florida.”

Dan Mullen! Fire Mark Richt for Dan Mullen? Are you kidding me? He’s been solid at Mississippi State (one 10-win season and only one losing season in six years), but he’s no Richt. Trading Richt for Mullen would be a joke.

I get it, Georgia fans are tired of Richt and want a fresh face. They want to see if someone else can get them the national championship every other season that they crave.

Same thing happened with Tennessee Titans fans when Jeff Fisher was pushed out the door.

Same thing happened when Nebraska got rid of the wildly entertaining (and obvious winner) Bo Pelini.

So go right ahead, Georgia. Take the plunge and send Richt packing. But just be careful what you wish for.