But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct and the roads… what has Mark Richt ever done for us?

Yes, times have been lean as of late and there have been plenty of reasons to express frustration, but sometimes in doing so it’s easy to lose some perspective of the man’s overall track record.  Like this, for example:

… But even for some of the best teams over the past 20 years, stringing together 10 wins every year has been rare.

Under Steve Spurrier, Florida won 10 or more games for six straight seasons from 1993-98. That’s the longest such streak since the league expanded in 1992 and split into divisions.

Georgia did it for four straight seasons from 2002-05, and Tennessee also won 10 or more games from 1995-98.   [Emphasis added.]

Even LSU, with all of its success the past decade or so, has never had more than three straight seasons of 10 wins or more since the 1992 expansion. During Saban’s five seasons at LSU, the Tigers never won 10 or more games in back-to-back seasons. They won 11 or more in 2005, 2006 and 2007 under Les Miles and remain the only SEC team to win 11 or more games for three straight seasons since the 1992 expansion.

Florida won 48 games in four seasons under Urban Meyer from 2006-09, but the Gators never went more than two straight seasons under Meyer with 10-plus wins.

Spurrier’s win streak is off the charts, especially when you consider it was compiled during the era of eleven-game regular seasons.  But that aside, Richt is in some pretty exalted company there.