Sigh.
… That said, these two men do occupy the hottest seats in the SEC. One might be hotter than the other, but if you look at the hottest in the East and hottest in the West, Richt and Miles are on top.
It’s a sad world we live in when somebody can compare the current resumes of Steve Spurrier and Mark Richt and conclude with an apparently straight face that Richt sits on the hottest seat in the SEC East.
… So If UGA belly-flops in 2010, might boosters stop writing checks? Might Sanford Stadium be overrun by rival fans? If so, Richt’s bosses might be forced to take action.
If, if, if. I’ve got a proposal for everyone who wants to indulge in this tiresome hot seat speculation: tell us what the 2010 belly flop will be and why. Otherwise, you’re just jerking our chains.
Get The Picture 
PRECISELY!!! I get tired of Georgia being the only “if they go 7-5” target. What if Bama goes 8-4? or the Gators? Is that acceptable given THEIR talent load?
If a frog had wings………..
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Finebaum says a team other than Alabama is headed for a fall. I’m shocked.
Spurrier is certainly closer to being heaved out of Sakerlina than Richt is being kicked out of Athens.
I get that there are degrees of heat on coaches. I would put forth, however, that Richt was able to satiate a good bit of the seat warmers by eliminating the points of contention with the fan base:
1) Willie
2) Fabris’s incomprehensible love affair with directional kicking
3) The downward spiral of the linebacker position
The only thing that remains is Florida. Richt has winning records against Georgia’s rivals, with the exception of Florida. And, honestly, Florida isn’t really a deal breaker. If Georgia goes 11-1 and loses to Florida, it’ll suck, but if they make it to the SEC championship game despite the loss to Florida like in 2003 and win it like in 2005, then he’ll hardly be on the brink of losing his job.
So, Richt might have been on the hottest seat in the East before making staff changes, but I don’t think the majority of the fan base considers his job in jeopardy at this point… not to mention Georgia is tied to Grantham for the next three years making a change at head coach that much more unlikely.
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for you
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Spurrier’s seat will never be hot. South Carolina has no culture of winning so their fans are satisfied with breaking even.
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In the linked column Barnhart says nobody in the SEC is more controversial than Finebaum. I bet Finebaum got all aflutter at that & shined himself up. There’s a difference between being controversial and trying to generate controversy.
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That’s not correct – the writer (John Pennington) made the statement about Finebaum. The Senator linked to Pennington’s article, which digs into the viewpoints of Finebaum vs. Barnhart.
The link is a bit misleading since it’s an article by Pennington but there’s a huge pic of Barnhart there, as if he’s the author.
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I stand corrected, but my bigger point is that Finebaum probably considers it a compliment to be called controversial, and there’s a difference between being controversial and trying to generate controversy.
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I honestly don’t know how anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to UGA during the Richt years can buy this. 2002, 2005, and 2007 all were brilliantly coached teams, especially 2007, when he turned around an underachieving squad into arguably the best team in the country by year’s end. Does the man’s entire body of work count for nothing, only the last 2 years?
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I still think ’03 was his best job. To get that team, with no running game and a sieve of an offensive line, to the SECCG was impressive.
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2003 was very good. I personally think 2006 was his best year. Though it was tough to lose to Vandy and Tennessee, the decision to stay with Stafford led to the successes of 2007, and the victories over Auburn, Tech and Virginia Tech were a thing of beauty.
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Not only that, but if Billy Bennett doesn’t eat his Chokies the morning of the first LSU game, then a 1-loss UGA team plays Ole Miss in the SECCG. There were no undefeated teams in college football that year.
Of course, [Kirk] it’s a BCS rule that teams with a bad offensive line can’t play for the BCS Championship.[/Herbstreit]
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I think 2010 is going to be his best job.
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Ridiculous. Living in South Carolina I hear this crap all the time.
“The message boards have Richt on the hot seat”. – Yep, they do…all the boards except Georgia’s.
“If Richt doesn’t win the championship this year, the UGA faithful will have him gone”. – Um, who exactly are the “UGA faithful” and can we just ask them?
I will give you this, if Richt has consecutive seasons like last year (a big if), THEN he might be on the hot seat. I can’t think of a single realistic scenario where he get’s fired after the 2010 season. If you are not in danger of getting fired, then you are not on the hot seat.
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Living in SC as well I’m around Gamecock fans all day every day. I don’t visit their message boards but from what I hear on a regular basis no fan base in the SEC is grumbling more about their coach than USC (can I say that?). Whether or not that puts Spurrier on the “hot seat” I don’t know. I just don’t see where all this talk of CMR’s job being in jeopardy is coming from. Had he not got rid of Willie, Fabris and Jancek then I could see where this meme (do I owe any royalties for using that?) would be coming from.
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“I can’t think of a single realistic scenario where he get’s fired after the 2010 season. ”
Adam James could transfer to UGA.
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$$
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I guess it must be the UGA fans in Montana who are all up in arms about this.
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Don’t be silly. Everybody knows there are no UGA fans in Montana.
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Richt is on the hot seat. The belly flop would be the continued trend of our team to be woefully unprepared for 3-5 games per year and lose 1-2 games we have no business losing. Richt has done it every year.
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He’s done it every year? Really? Every season in the 9 he’s coached? Puh-leeze. Look, I recognize the last few yrs haven’t been his finest work, but let’s not embellish the negatives simply to support your view. I think there’s some warmth under his seat, but it’s hardly “hot”, IMO.
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So does every other coach out there. See: Carroll, Pete; Saban, Nick; Meyer, Urban.
[/obnoxious faux-dictionary reference]
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Meyer? I presume you are referring to Ole Miss in ’08. Ok, Florida should have won that. Care to name another?
In ’05 Florida was very thin in multiple positions, and in ’07 thin on the entire defense. I hardly think losses there count as “no business losing” (and except for Bama in ’05 all were quite competitive.)
As soon as Meyer loses multiple times to bad teams then you can include him.
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I hate to agree with a Gator, but I have to in this instance.
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Meyer’s teams don’t always lose, but they have phoned it in a few times under his tutelage. They should have lost to Arkansas last year, but were saved by the herd of zebras. Mississippi State and Ole Miss always seem to pop up when least expected. And, Auburn.
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You do have to look hard but other than the Ole Miss loss the only two “bad” regular season losses for Meyer are the 2005 loss to Bama 31-3 and the loss at home to an unranked Auburn team in 2007.
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I beat Michigan in 2007. Someone else didn’t, though.
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You don’t hire a new coordinator and sign him to a 3 year deal if your coach is on the hot seat. Why would we guarantee Grantham 3 years if we thought Richt might not make it that far?
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I think the meme takes root because of the recent history of coaches like Tuberville and Fulmer.
I know there are all sorts of differences between these coaches, but what do they have in common?
They’ve been at their schools around 10 years and that seems to be when coaches these days hit a wall.
I think, unfortunately, the “what have you done for me lately” mindset takes over and ADs and supporters try to get ahead of the curve and try the next hot thing.
On the other hand, with coaches like Tuberville and Fulmer, it does appear that their intensity wained over their last couple of years.
Anyway, I like Richt and hope he stays at Georgia a long time.
Have a good day,
BD
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Once again, we need to distinguish between memes and canards. A meme is something that’s generally true. A canard is something that’s essentially false that gets oxygen.
Tim Tebow wasn’t prepared for the pros is a meme. Mark Richt is on the hot seat is a canard.
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Who determines which is which?
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Irwin Meyers?
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The people in Montana….
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Anyone with a lick of sense.
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I think that most of UGA’s “check-writers” are not as unhappy with Richt as they are with night games. In today’s SEC, mediocrity, (and in many cases – above average performance) gets you a slew of night games every year.
To get more day games, a team has to either be “chicken salad” or “chicken $hit”. While we all prefer the former, I think we have a better chance of obtaining more 3:30 games with Richt at the helm, than risking our pocketbook on a coach who could blow up in our faces, (i.e. Lane Kiffin).
I am not always a fan of CMR, but I am a fan of his record and I am a fan of his character. Enough hot-seat talk.
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I am already tired of the night games. Living in Saint Simons, those night games lead to a brutal drive the next day…..
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Ahem. Let me be the first to say how sorry I am that you have to go allll the way back to freakin’ Saint Simons after the game. If only we were all that lucky, Rusdawg.
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Yeah, no offense, try living here and not having money (or making much), being single, and having a college education and JD. Then get back to me.
All there is down here is the beach. You may think that is awesome….and it is every once in a while….but when the beach, alcohol and rampant cocaine use is all a place has going for it….well….
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Don’t forget the golf courses and the women.
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“but when the beach, alcohol and rampant cocaine use is all a place has going for it….well….” the beach means you’re not in Kansas, you’re in Margaritaville.
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RusDawg,
I understand your situation. However, if you are leaving ATHENS before Sunday morning after a game (regardless of 12:30 kick or 8:00) to return to SSI and you are single and straight, you are thinking with neither head.
Been there, done that.
Mayor, the golf courses aren’t cheap around SSI.
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Neither are the women.
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True
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I don’t like the night games because it magically ties my favorite obsession (UGA football) with my favorite weakness (Knob Creek on the XXs). If I’m watching the game at home and I’m able to wait until, lets say 6:00 PM for my first cocktail, by the time a 9:00 PM kickoff rolls around I’m a drunk, nervous, barking fool.
It makes it hard for me to go to church Sunday morning. But the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob smiles on me anyway because he loves us Dawgs.
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For the guy who mentioned Tuberville and Fulmer, they both had losing seasons toward the end. Richt has never won less than 8. If he were to win 8 every year (Jim Donnan) then yes he would eventually be gone. But if he wins 10+ two out of every three years and 8+ the other year then his job is secure. If Richt wins 11/12 games this year and is in the hunt for the SEC title Finebaum will find something else to jump on to keep up his ratings and pretend he never said a bad thing about Richt.
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Good point.
I guess I was considering the loss of momentum / lack of discipline meme. 🙂
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In Donnan’s defense, if you throw out his first year (because the program was in disarray at the end of Goff’s regime) Donnan was 10-2, 9-3, 8-4, 8-4 for his last 4 years. Before Donnan showed up UGA was stuck on winning 6 or less games per year. Donnan actually turned the program around and set the stage for Richt to take the program to the next level. Donnan does not get the respect he should, whether you like the guy or not, for what he did for the program.
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Donnan’s problems were who he lost to, namely Tech, Tennessee, Florida, and occasionally Auburn. That doesn’t win you many friends, though granted, he was an upgrade from Ray Goff.
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It really is not that hard
Spurrier could win 8 games this year and USC fans are willing to continue giving him more time
If Richt wins 8 games, many more UGA fans will tell Richt that he either wins the East in 2011 or be gone
That is just the way it will be whether our fans delude ourselves or not
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Thank goodness the dimwit “fans” (like you) are not in charge.
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all of those naysayers are idiots …
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