As much as this offseason is likely to fill me with a sense of flatness and despair, it’s good to know that I can count on Mark Bradley for comedic relief. His utterly predictable take on Mark Richt’s worst season in Athens I won’t argue with, but, as usual, Bradley sees that merely as a starting point for singing the praises of the best in-state coach around.
Georgia and Georgia Tech each finished 6-7 after being ranked in the preseason Top 25, but that’s all the programs have in common. Tech lacks players. Georgia lacks coaching. All things considered, you’d rather be Tech.
There’s a chance Paul Johnson, stylized offense and all, can sign enough players to lift Tech to another ACC title.
Insert Dumb and Dumber clip here.
Richt, for all his flaws, is now 2-1 against the Genius of the Flats. To Bradley, that’s simply a confirmation of which program is in better shape.
… Tech’s issues are of a different sort. Johnson cannot simply seek to outflank everyone all the time. When you’re as clever as he is, you tend to rely on cleverness, but we saw Nov. 27 the limits of that approach: Johnson outcoached Richt all ends, but Johnson’s team lost…
I still get a kick out of the spin that Johnson’s maneuver to let Georgia score late so that his team could try to forge a tie with its 119th-ranked passing game was more an act of tactical brilliance than desperation, but I digress. It’s Bradley’s take on where the two programs presently stand that’s the really silly part.
… The trouble with Tech is that its talent base has slipped into the ACC’s lower half. The trouble with Georgia is that its coach has been rendered substandard. Would any updated ranking of SEC coaches put Richt in the upper half? The upper two-thirds? Add it up: Three of the coaches who lost to the Bulldogs in 2010 are no longer employed; the other three include two first-year men and Johnson. And now you’re saying, “Doesn’t that mean Tech is in worse shape than Georgia?”
Er, no. For Tech to rise again to the top of its conference, Johnson has only to find new players. For Georgia to rise again to the top of its league, it will have to find a new coach.
In the end, if Richt has to go, which do you think is more likely to happen – Greg McGarity makes a decent hire with a successor, or Paul Johnson suddenly discovers how to recruit successfully? Yeah. Me, too.
Get The Picture 
McGarity hires friend and former employee Urban Meyer in 2012. (Talk about an internet rumor)
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Boy, I hope not. It would really be hard to pull for a prick like Meyer.
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Good heavens no. All the stuff I’d have to claim I never said.
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If we’re going to start wild rumors, I hear Pete Carrol is unhappy in Seattle and misses coaching college players…
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Senator, just imagine how good the Air Force Academy would be if only……they could recruit better, Georgia Tech. Tech if you can just get the wizard of oz to grant your wish.
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it’s all so clear to me now. Bradley is under the assumption that his own paper can actually sway opinion. He figures if he can degrade the Georgia ‘brand’ it might help Johnson get some recruits.
In all seriousness, I look at it this way. Johnson probably is a better in-game coach. But I’d contend Richt is much better at preparation, although even that has to be questioned this year. I think if we can get our defense running halfway decent next year, we’ll be ok.
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I guess recruiting isn’t that important a role for a college head coach. I guess whether your QB ever gets to throw the ball isn’t that important in recruiting QBs.
I guess if you have talent on Duke’s or Wake Forest’s level you can still overcome it every time you play Florida State, Georgia, and Virginia Tech if you are smart (and smart-assed) enough. Getting players, like Bradley and Johnson will surely tell us, really don’t matter at all when you’re a genius.
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Georgia and Florida are headed to a different place in the SEC. Meyer has the passion to coach but lost both his health and enjoying his kids childhood while doing so. In Mark Richt’s case his passion is gone and the game may have just passed him by.
The best HC in college football are in the SEC. They are driven, and single minded. When the win column starts to have more single digit numbers than acceptable HC’s will start to sacrifice assistant coaches to mollify the fan base to give them some assurance that things are on the upswing once again. Most of HC’s do not know when to quit…and they almost never go out on top.
Urban and Richt completely rebuilt stagnant programs. Meyer did it faster with a huge assist from Tebow, but Richt was never quite able to reach the same level his own reclamation project. Richt’s teams were great for about a six-year period and he enjoyed the Dawg faithfuls good will because of it.
However, Mark Richt’s no longer enjoys that goodwill . Relieving Mark Richt is no longer a laughable suggestion. While SEC Championships and 95,000 seat stadiums are not a result of chance, Spurrier did say that 10 years is long enough for any coach to coach at an university. Urban left after his 8-5 season. Winning two SEC championships and two national championships while going out on top on his terms. I’d be surprised if Mark joined him. Mark may choose to ignore the history of coaches being fired after failing to bring home the crystal ball.
Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
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Yep…Dooley should have left after his first 10 years too. What did he ever accomplish after that?
Meyer’s run was fast and amazing. If he’s the standard for hiring a HC, just who, exactly, do you think we’re going to get to meet the level of that bar?
The OBC can’t replicate his run anywhere. Saban and Miles have done very well, but let’s see their 10 year records at their current locations. Mack Brown I guess is washed-up under these standards, and Carroll left just in time.
I totally disagree that CMR does not have the passion. I will agree that the game may be passing him by (or really, his ability to relate to this generation of kids), but if you are looking to have multiple MNC’s in Athens within the next 5 years….well, good luck with that.
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The football world that Dooley coached in yesterday and the one Mark Richt coaches in today are worlds apart sir.
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Familiar with differences, but if you are suggesting that HC turnover needs to be every 5 years to stay “current”, I repeat…good luck with that.
We’re all frustrated, and CMR may no longer be the solution, but he will be the coach in 2011 if he so desires, and if Corch is the only standard of success we, or any other top program will accept, you are sure to be disappointed. So let’s start with some basic questions:
Can CMR win the SEC East next year? Possibly yes.
Can CMR get UGA into a BCS Bowl in the next two years (like Arky this year)? Possibly, yes.
Can CMR win the SECCG in the next three years? Again, possibly yes.
If you can agree on the “possibly yes” answers above, I’m not sure firing Richt makes sense…because who else is going to achieve those goals in the timeframes noted above?
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I hear ya! And I would rather you be right than me. But no coach has sustained a ten year level of success in the SEC in a while. At some point last years 8-5 becomes a rebuilding 8-5 which becomes this year 6-7 melt down and at the end of the day you look up and wonder where it all went. There is a reason why Coach Richt is the Grandfather of SEC coaches……. maybe he can be Mack Brown…. and continue to win .. and win and win.
I just ain’t feeling it.
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BCS wins, all-time
Mark Richt- 2
Any human being who has ever coached at an ACC school during the BCS era, including Paul Johnson- 2
Number of those wins that didn’t involve Mark Richt- 1
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Let’s not forget that Johnson is 0-3 in bowl games at Tech, 2 of which the Jackets were gutted.
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Wait, what?! Why would you rather be Tech? Let’s say everything he says about the teams and coaches are true. We hire an average coach and go through some growing pains and then our talent brings us back in the upper half of the SEC.
PJ and his staff somehow magically grow a personality and learn to recruit. They would still have to endure two of the years of mediocrity, probably worse, before it ever made a difference. And even then they will probably never win a bowl game. And yet you would rather be Tech in this situation?
I understand Tech doesn’t have the greatest athletes, but they have much better athletes than Air Force, and they run the same offenses. Yet PJ got beat. Maybe Mark should have jumped on the AF bandwagon.
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Just so much here. 1) Bradley’s fascination with Johnson and the ‘genius’ of it all, I don’t get. The option is an admission of less than top talent, an ‘equalizer’ if you will. So over the course of 3 seasons, what has Johnson done to level the playing field? He’s 1-2 against UGA and that during a tumultuous time to say the least. ACC Championship? I wouldn’t think even Tech would celebrate that one too much. And there is a significant downward trend.
2) I agree that Richt isn’t the guy to right our ship and have very little issue with Bradley’s criticisms of CMR. But on what planet is it harder to replace a coach than get better players?
3) From where I sit Paul Johnson seems like a d-bag. Just an observation.
I’m guessing even Tech fans read this and scratched their heads.
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@Toom
Here’s another: A few months ago, I crossed paths with him on the NATS campus. He refused to acknowledge my smile and hello. I was just being polite. What a crab.
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Did you have your Bulldog gear on?
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G-nats. “Gnats.” As in bugs, not baseball teams based in Washington.
🙂
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NATS… as in North Avenue Trade School.
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D’OH!!! Thanks, Senator!!!
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One wonders what the AJC response would’ve been if CMR had said what CPJ said after the UGA/GT game last year.
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Bradley’s serial dislike of Richt is bordering on the same hysterical Palin-hatred you see in politics.
Bradley’s unnatural fondness of Johnson borders on the pornographic. Just sayin’….
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I just plain old fashion hate Mark Bradley. He should be considered unfriendly and unwelcome to attend all things UGA. I knew the AJC was saddened to see T. Moore go with his powerful football commentary but MB simply decided subscribe to his methods of debasing the best institution in the state to seem controversial, sad really.
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He doesn’t play that strategy, I don’t think. Instead he just gets an idea and does everything he can to publicly reinforce its rightness. Just like he did from 2003-2008 re: Richt’s greatness.
He’s no Furman Bisher. Just a meme-maker a little too caught up in his own perceived influence.
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(not that I like him or anything, ’cause I don’t, ya know. Just sayin.’)
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bingo
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Bradley and Schultz do more to tear down UGA than any negative recruiting by teams coming in to Georgia to pick our players. True Dawg Fans have one clear way to show we do not approve. Do not click on AJC links attached to these guys.
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The 7-6 plaque is an example of piling on, IMO. However, I thought Schultz’s piece on what a difference Crowell would make at UGA was some good recruiting juice. The kind of thing other papers in smaller towns get all the time.
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