The Richt era

So...where to begin?

With the exception of last year, Mark Richt's tenure at UGA has been an incredible success - no matter who's measuring & how they measure.

Wins? check.
here are some stats taken straight from http://www.markricht.com/....

* 90-27 in 9 seasons (not a math major, but I believe that comes to precisely 10-3)
This is the 6th best winning % (.769) among active coaches
* 2 SEC titles, & 4 SEC East crowns
* 2 time SEC COY (02, 05)
* 3 Sugar Bowl appearances & 2 wins
* 7-2 in bowl games
* 33-6 record in opponent's home stadiums - that is amazing.
* 39-4 vs non conf opponents - also amazing.
* finished the 2007 season ranked #2 (11-2)

Enough stats - we know the man can coach & he wins games with regularity.

Now the hard part - how much longer will he be the head coach in Athens?
Looking at the above, the logical answer would be "for as long as he wants to be there". Big time schools in Big conferences are all about the W's, & we all know it.

Then why bother asking the question?
Because of the continued trend of arrests, transgressions, mistakes, etc by his players - that's why.

As most of us know, Richt is a passionate, dedicated Christian man. In fact you could almost say he's 50% coach & 50% minister. Few coaches preach the word of God more & thump the bible harder than MR.
He's open about it & proud of it & good for him.
If I was a regular church-going kind of guy - I am not - he is precisely the kind of man I would want looking after my son for 4 yrs.

But take away his Christian beliefs for just a second. By all accounts he & his wife are wonderful, generous people regardless of their faith. They spend good chunks of the off-season volunteering in impoverished countries (most of which are not Christian countries), helping bring medicine, clean water, educational materials, etc to kids in desperate need of these things.
They are not trying to convert these kids, or show them "the path to Heaven". They are helping those in need & those less fortunate than they are. Plain & simple.

Richt is basically an older, wiser, much less annoying version of Tim Tebow.

This is where it gets tricky.
For all of his amazing on & off-field traits, accomplishments, etc, why do his charges continue to drive drunk, get in bar fights, brandish weapons, get charged w/sexual assault, etc. etc?

As Mr. Emerson has pointed out previously, we are all guilty of jack-ass, knuckle-headed deeds - especially in college.
I cringe when I look back & think of some of the things I did/said while in Athens. It's not pretty.
A friend & I once spent an entire evening pretending to be bouncers, sitting in chairs outside of a bar, checking (and confiscating) ID's & only letting in hot girls. I did not work there, I did not even know anyone who worked there.
We were just really drunk & thought it would be fun - which it was.

(For the record, I never brandished a weapon or assaulted any women. As for the rest, I plead the 5th).

See: houses, glass.

Certainly we see this behavior at dozens of other schools - large & small.
Despite the reputation of Athens being "a drinking town with a college problem", it is not just a UGA thing or an SEC thing...it's pervasive across the sport & across the country.

See: University of Southern California, University of North Carolina.

The hard part is figuring out "why"? Why so many UGA players? Why every year? Why are the same mistakes made over, & over & over?
Well some would say that if the former AD, Mr. Damon "I don't know how those panties wound up in my lap" Evans exhibited this behavior, how can we expect 18 to 20 yr old kids (and yes they are kids. Do not think otherwise for even a second) to be any different?
Too easy, I say.

Getting back to Richt, if he leaves or is asked to leave anytime soon, it will be a huge step backwards for our program. I don't care if he's replaced by Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer, Mack Brown - whomever.
He cannot be replaced. Perhaps his win/loss record can be replaced & even surpassed. But it is near impossible to find someone with his combination of coaching prowess & character.
Lou Holtz maybe? Mack Brown?

But why, Mark? Why do your kids keep screwing up?
It's sad to think about but could it be that you are too nice? Too forgiving? Too willing to give a 2nd chance? Maybe but I think it goes deeper.

Yes I know you booted Zach Mettenberger (great call), suspended Washaun Ealey (good call), & have generally dealt w/these transgressions well. That is not the point.

The point is why? Why do the same problems arise year after year? Why does it seem like the new crop of recruits have goldfish-like memories & cannot recall what happened to their peers 6-9 months earlier?
Why do these kinds of kids "slip through the cracks" & make it to Athens?

Now w/the LeMay situation, is it even worth bringing the kid to Athens when he will have gone a year w/out playing in a game?
I say no. Pull his scholarship & give it to another kid who, while he may not be as talented, is also not as stupid.

At some point, if this trend continues, the only common denominator is you - Coach Mark Richt.

We want you to stay, we know you're a good coach & a better father/husband/man.
But coach - come on. Do something before the decision is made for you. It won't be this year or even next unless things get even worse. But despite your consistent 10 win seasons, & BCS bowls, & top NFL draft picks, the scrutiny will only intensify unless things get better soon.

Please do not misunderstand me people. By no means am I advocating for a coaching change, even if we could get Saban.
The last thing we need is some Woody Hayes-like prick, or a slimy Barry Switzer type, or just a plain old asshole like Kiffin.
No sir. We need Mark Richt.

But we also need more accountability. We need you & your staff to do a better job of recognizing & identifying potential problem kids before they are "in the pipeline".

We don't expect perfection or anything close - we just expect improvement. There will always be kids who say & do all the right things, have great GPA's & all kinds of accolades. Then they arrive at UGA & discover that they are placed on a pedestal - or at least on a step stool - because they wear shoulder pads on Saturdays.

Hell it happened to Stafford....remember the keg hoist pics at Talladega? (Frankly I think the more egregious error in his case was not the fact that he was half in the bag, lifting 40 lbs of beer over his head while under-age, but that he was at a NASCAR race...in Alabama).
At least his obligatory "bonehead move" was off campus, off-season, & did not result in an arrest.
The fear here is that unless you reverse this behavioral pattern in your players & recruits, that the unthinkable may happen.
That a giant of a program like UGA, in the most difficult conference - bar none, will replace their coach, & not because he didn't win games.
This coach will have an avg of at least 10 wins per season, multiple conf crowns, & multiple BCS bowl wins.
That he will be shown the door despite winning more than 3/4 of his games.

That he will be forced out because he was not willing or able to handle the problem kids before they became "UGA problem kids".

Don't let it come to that.

Christian LeMay

Alright...so the next big name at UGA is Christian LeMay. He is the next big QB recruit for the Dogs.

Come to find out he will not be allowed to play his senior season at his high school. Why? Hmmm...strange. He has been suspended for misconduct. Rumors allege (and all but confirm) it's because of a sexual act witnessed by school officials, yadda yadda yadda.

Now...we're all superior when it comes to what we did in the past. We brag about our misconduct back in our youth. We dismiss our own shitty behavior when it comes to the mythical, "good ol' days". Right? It was OK when we did dumb stuff, but we're judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to "kids these days".

The answer is yes. Sorry. But it is yes. The stakes are higher in this day and age. So is the scrutiny. If you are a major recruit at a major sport for a major college and you've been deemed such a shithead that you can't even play your senior season at your high school...then perhaps the college that recruited you should pull the offer.

Not Georgia. We are standing behind the kid.

Wow. Really?

We can find great athletes elsewhere. Seriously...let this one get picked up by Florida or Alabama. Leave it alone. We've got tons of recruits fighting for top arrest headlines next summer. Why pursue one?

I wish LeMay the best of luck in getting his life together. I'm just confused at our willingness to stand behind a recruit that is in trouble a year before he gets to Athens.

Shocker

Wow. A real shocker today. A Georgia Bulldog football player got arrested.

Will someone please tell Washaun Ealey that arrest season is already over? We are well into injury season now. If you are a starter for the Dogs, it's time to blow out your knee...not hit and run.

Anyhow...at least his crime did not involve a weapon, drugs, alcohol, or an "accuser".

Richt did the right thing in suspending Ealey. Let's move on. But for crying out loud...can we please...please...please...pretty please have a frickin meeting about being a dumbass in your daily life?

I'll say it yet again...we are all dumb in our daily life. We were all dumb in college. We all do stupid shit. No judgement there. But...if I got a full ride and played a high profile sport at a high profile program, then I would realize that the rules aren't fair....either way.

You get some free shit and attention that other students don't. The cost is that you get agitation and scrutiny that far exceeds normal students. Take it or leave it, dude.

21 Days

21 Days to go. Almost time for "Saturday in Athens". Can't wait.

In the meantime, I believe talented, professional and otherwise reputable writers and broadcasters let their minds wander to ridiculous places. They get so hyped that they have preseason prediction shows and basically conclude that there is no reason for them to actually play the season out.

During the World Cup (which I love) I got all tensed up that one of the deciding factors in case of a tie was an old fashioned coin flip. A coin flip!? Then it dawned on me that my favorite sport is decided by voting. Huh? Try explaining that to someone from outside our college football culture. "Yeah...a bunch of biased coaches vote...then a bunch of biased writers vote..then we feed it to the magic computer..TADA!!".

The point of mentioning this is that the results of these votes make it too hard for some teams and make it too easy for others. Start at #13 or above and you're in the race. Start below that and people actually believe that it's a REAL assessment of your talent despite evidence on the field. As if this team should have to work harder because they were voted lower.

Anyhow...Georgia is somewhere around the low 20's in preseason rankings except for one organization called College Football News dotcom who has the Dogs at...wait for it...#3. Do what? Number 3?

Come on, man. I love the Dogs as much as the next guy but when you conclude that there are only two teams in college football better than us it's just downright off base.

In conclusion...I vote Georgia number one for all time. There. Take that.

Look if we have to rely on freakin voting let's at least wait until AFTER game #5. As it stands, we may as well open up the phone line and let folks vote American Idol style and forget the rest.

TEXT "Go Dogs" to 57733.

Vote Dogs.

ps- I made that number up. Text to it at your own expense. I love the enthusiasm though.