Why Keep a Mediocre Coach? The Mark Richt Story.

Why do teams keep coaches that don't perform?  The most obvious answer is that they don't have the resources to pay a new coach.   Sometimes, it is more complicated than that, as we see here.  Let's take a look at a chronic under-performer: Mark Richt. 

Mark Richt has been the coach of the Georgia Bulldogs since 2001.  He has amassed an impressive 96-34 record,  in the always tough SEC.  The record loses a bit of luster when we look a little bit closer.  His SEC record is 53-27.  That means he loses just over 33% of his SEC games.  He loses one out of three games in conference.  He has won 2 SEC titles.  But at a school in the SEC East, the weaker of the two SEC divisions, all you really have to do is beat Florida to have a shot at an SEC title.  That brings us to the biggest strike against Richt.  He is 2-7 against the Florida Gators.  That is a 22% winning percentage; and a 22% is only a passing grade if you play football for Auburn. Georgia is a school that has some of the best football resources in the country.  The University of Georgia generated the second highest revenue, a reported $67.05 million, in college football this year.  They trail only Texas and come in just before Alabama.  Georgia has great financial backing, a wonderful and supportive fan base, the recruiting hotbed of Atlanta, and some of the best facilities in the country.  They are a plum job and a prime location.  They should be in the national title hunt every year.  How do you not succeed with these sort of resources? 

Some Georgia Fans have a lot of excuses why they don't want Richt fired.  Let's shoot down a few of them:   

Excuse 1: The SEC is the toughest conference in the nation.

Shot Down: Florida seems to be able to run the SEC East with regularity.  Alabama, LSU, and Auburn seem to be able to run the much harder SEC West without a problem.

Excuse 2: Georgia wins 9-10 games a year what more do you want? 

Shot Down:  Georgia wins against anyone not named Florida or from the SEC West.  You are paying championship level money for a second tier team.  If you are happy being Florida's whipping boy, fine.  But are you really happy with that?

Excuse 3: Georgia has they toughest schedule in college football.  

Shot Down: No they don't.  Not even close.

Excuse 4: Mark Richt gives us top 10 recruiting classes.  

Shot Down: Yet he still manages to get beat with all that talent.  This should tell you something.

Excuse 5: Mark Richt is a great Christian man. 

Shot Down: You pay him to win games and beat Florida, not to be a role model. 

The truth, and biggest reason Mark Richt has not been fired: Georgia is afraid the next coach may be even worse.  They are cowards.  Every Georgia fan who says this line "Who are we going to get that is going to do better?" is, by definition, a coward.  What if Alabama had kept Mike Shula?  He was having winning seasons and Alabama was going to bowl games.  But, because he couldn't beat Auburn or get to an SEC championship, they fired him. The next coach took only three seasons to have them playing for, and winning, a national title.  No one in the administration of Georgia athletics wants to be the guy responsible for firing Richt.  Richt is a good man and is loved by a lot of Georgia fans.  If the next guy doesn't come in and win immediately, then whoever fired him would have their own job at risk.  

The argument that there are not good coaches out there is another ridiculous excuse.  Off the top of our head, we can name three men with all the qualities necessary to take Georgia to the next level.  The first and best choice would be Kirby Smart.  Smart has coached the Alabama defense for the entire tenure of Nick Saban.  He has created a monster in Tuscaloosa.  A defense that shut down Tim Tebow and destroyed the Florida Gators at their high water mark.  A defense that last year had 9 players go the NFL.  Creating 9 NFL level players means you are running an NFL caliber defense. On top of all this, Smart is a Georgia man.  He played defensive back for Georgia during his college career.  Another option would be Gus Malzhan.  It would be interesting to see Malzhan's high flying trick offense stack up against a Will Muschamp defensive during the Florida-Georgia game.   Finally, if you want to go with a complete dark horse, look at Kerwin Bell. Bell is head coach of the Jacksonville University Dolphins.  He has taken a NO scholarship team and turned them into juggernauts in the lower division.  Imagine what he could do with all those resources at Georgia.  All three of these men have shown a drive to win that Mark Richt just doesn't seem to have.  

 

So what did the Georgia Athletic Director, Greg McGarity, do this year after coming off a 6-7 season?  He took away some of Richt's duties and power.  This is a move that has been practiced by cowardly athletic directors and owners in sports for years.  If you are too much of a coward to fire him, take away some of this duties as a punishment.  It never works.  You just make an impotent coach more impotent.  You say you are "taking things off the coach's plate" so that he can focus on winning more.  But, in effect, you are demoting him to half a head coach.  The only thing this will lead to is another meeting and another decision next season.  

In the words of English poet George Herbert, "You must lose a fly to catch a trout."  Georgia seems happy to keep their fly. The Bulldogs have an uphill climb next season.  A schedule similar to this year's, minus A.J. Green.  Good luck Richt , you're gonna need it.