If you have to use one word to describe Mark Richt’s coaching tenure, consistent is a pretty good one. Unfortunately, that encompasses this less than satisfactory trend. If 2014 is going to be a year in which somebody answers the knock, that’s a trend Richt’s team is going to have to buck.
And considering that Georgia comes out of the gate playing two ranked opponents, we’ll know soon enough about that.
Get The Picture 
That seems to be a little arbitrary. Some of the teams we beat were ranked at the time we beat them, but weren’t ranked by the end of the year.
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You mean they were Dawg-graded?
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Astute point, missed by most everyone. Most also mised when games were played, and who was healthy. The story behind the headline is always more interesting, and that works for us, and all teams, at some point in time
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The biased bastard adds up UGA, FU and Tenn to get a 15-55 record. Now if you only use UGA and FU, you get a 13-31 record which is much bet…..uuumm…. uh, I’m going back to do some more math and be back later.
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It is not who wins the game, it is more who sends good men out into the world, winning as much as the Bitchez allow.
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Oh so now we know way Reich recruit all those thugs!!!
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I want a football coach. When I want a preacher I’ll go to church.
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Thanks – we didn’t get it the previous 20 times.
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I’ve said that a lot more than 20 times over the past 5 years. People like you don’t like it because it’s the truth. We need a coach who puts the University and the team ahead of his personal ideas about religion and soul-saving.. That could still be Mark Richt BTW if he would just wake up.
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Richt has proven who and what he. He is not going to change. As a matter of fact, his personal agenda is only growing stronger and moving close to the forefront with each passing year. I applaud his agenda, morales and faith. But he is getting paid as a D-1 college football head coach.
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“But he is getting paid as a D-1 college football head coach.”
And many would say he does a damn good job at it.
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+14 – CMR is a DGD
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Our 7-15 record since 2009 speaks for itself, and reflects accurately on what we have been over those years – primarily, a team whose habit, and identity, is to beat itself.
We need look no further than the first game of that period – OkSt – and the last, Nebraska. That we were even in those games is worth noting, because with few exceptions, they typify all of our losses during that period, not just to ranked teams.
To me the good news, from that most frustrating period, is we established a bottom for Richt’s tenure. Because that’s about as bad as Richt teams (at Georgia) can be. IMO, we were headed to the lowest point of that run once again, after the Bowl Game. To me, it looked unavoidable.
But now, instead of more misery, there’s a chance to rid ourselves of that terrible stigma. Whether Richt was just fortunate, or whether he orchestrated the change, doesn’t matter now. It’s happening.
So we have a chance, starting now, to go back to being a solid football team again. And to the extent we do that, we’ll be successful. When it becomes ingrained again into our personality, we’ll be a very tough team for anybody to beat, and will win significantly more close games than we lose.
Richt is who he is. We all know that. And he’ll still be who he is when this thing gets turned around, as I believe it will if we keep heading in the right direction.
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No. People like us don’t like it because it is and always will be a non-issue, regardless of how much some want to harp on it. From his very first year, he has been quite straightforward about his beliefs. He was worried about religion and soul-saving in 2002 and 2005 as well, yet that didn’t seem to interfere with his success then. We’ve come pretty close to winning the SEC four other times. We’ve been in the national championship picture late in the season more than once. Many things might have gone wrong during some of the years to which you are referring, but to blame it on Richt’s religious beliefs is misguided. And this is coming from someone whom many on this blog would not call religious.
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Yep. Now I understand why we lost to Vandy, Missouri, and Nebraska last year…and squeaked by Tennessee.
Think most people will agree CMR’s UGA teams since that Sugar Bowl win have not looked and played like they should have. His program just has not been up to want it should be. There could be some fallicies in comparisons to other teams against rank teams, but the Dawgs have struggled in games they had in hand.
Most recently at SECG with the Tide and last year at Auburn. Winning those 2 games [beating Vandy and UF like we use to on a consistant basis] would go a long way for CMR and his program.
CMR’s goal should be a championship in SEC and a national coaching honor this year. He has his work cut out for him because he lost some very good players who never played like they should have.
And just maybe this staff has the right make up to get that to go this season.
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Yep. Now I understand why we lost to Vandy, Missouri, and Nebraska last year…and squeaked by Tennessee.
yeah injuries
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My initial impression, strictly from my admittedly bad memory, was that we tend to need time for our teams to build momentum. Certainly, we lost to OK State, Boise and Clemson. The marquee opener has not been kind to us. And South Carolina is always a toss up. But then I went back and looked at the schedule. While it’s true the 12/13 season, where we built a nice winning streak during the first half of the season was certainly our best, in general our losses tend to be spread around the schedule. The thing that really stuck out upon going back to look at the actual results was just how bad 10/11 really was. That sucked.
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Lately, that’s true about the opener. We beat Clemson to open ’02, hammered the Tigers in ’03, crushed Boise in ’05, and manhandled Ok State in ’07 in high profile openers (and the WWL talking heads put us on upset alert for every one of them except ’02). We lost to Ok State in an opener where our QB was sick and the Big 12 officials gift wrapped a late TD to make margin double digits in ’09. Boise beat us in ’11 – hands down. Clemson needed a mishandled field goal snap to beat us by 3 last year in their place.
Also, you’re saying the appearance in Atlanta in ’11 was bad? Yes, we lost to LSU (who should have split the national title with Bama), but any regular season that ends in Atlanta can’t be described as “bad.”
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LSU was the 2011/2012 season. In 2010/2011 we lost to UCF in the Liberty Bowl.
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Sorry, I misinterpreted your comment
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We knew soon enough last year, but that did not end so well.
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It burns me when I hear local (Austin) sports talk refer to our season/rankings/expectations, etc. “Georgia will underachieve again”…but I really don’t know how to refute that comment either.
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“Georgia will underachieve again”…but I really don’t know how to refute that comment either.
Let’s face it, until we can get into the playoff hunt and make some impressive runs for all to see, we’ll continue to hear that stuff. Nobody outside Bulldog Nation cares about the unusually high level of injuries, the bad calls, the bad luck, the bad apples, etc. To them, it’s just whining. To them, it’s a zero-sum game: You’re Georgia, and you should be winning far more.
Well then, let’s start winning far more.
There, that was an easy. Now it’s on to solving other world problems.
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Call them and say Texas is maybe the most underachieving football program of the last 40 years with the built-in advantages that the ‘Horns have. Then ask them what time is it in Texas?
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They told me when I called that they didn’t know what time it was in Texas. When I informed them it was still ten to freakin’ nine, there was the sound of some rather loud wretching in the background. Then I heard someone say, “Aw, don’t worry, it’s just Freddy Akers.”
It didn’t help when, in my best Lindsey Nelson voice, I shouted, “Lastinger, touchdown!”
More wretching. And then a profanity. Then the line went dead.
On to something else.
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LOL…the real beauty is the “sports commentator” was Jeff Ward, Longhorn kicker that day who scored UT’s only points, but missed two field goals that would have won the game. He’s since become one of the most interesting and listened-to libertarian talk radio hosts in Austin.
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I’ve said it before, but when BVG left it created a giant void and we still haven’t recovered. With the exception of Lilly and Friend – who are mediocre coaches at best, I think the nucleus of assistant coaches we have now will lead to great things – IF we can keep the group together.
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Absolutely agree. And I like your terminology, as it is very descriptive and accurate. But we may be recovering now. Looks like it to me.
~~~
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Just look at CMR’s history at UGA, and you can see why some of us fans are not 100 percent on his bandwagon, but the CMR koolaid drinkers think he’s the greatest that ever lived, he’s a good man, he’s a good coach, and a great recruiter, but, he is not on same coaching level with CNS, but, he will win 10 games a year for you, if that’s good enough for you, fine, but not with me, I want to UGA to win a MNC !
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Actually I think they were being kind. Looking back at the seasons, we have a 7-16 record against ranked teams since 2009.
The last two years have not been too bad 4-5. But ’09 (1-3) and ’10 (0-4) were terrible.
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I wouldn’t get too caught up in it. It really comes down to Qb’s. Richt’s win % (67%) until 2009 vs ranked teams was #2 in the SEC and would be today.
But he ran into a couple of Qb’s who just didn’t win enough games vs ranked teams in Cox & Murray.
Hopefully, it was a bump in the road and not a trend.
But the coaching all around at Bama, Auburn, LSU, Texas A/M, Mizzou, South Carolina is much better than it was 5 years ago. The East is much more competitive. Spurrier still has even won an SEC Championship–he los to Tenn last year, could be worse.
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Ok, Richt was good against ranked teams until the “Lost Years” (aka A Murrey 2010-2013).
But, until you finish in the top 3 in the conference rushing vs ranked teams, not winning the SEC by passing it.
Richt’s better suited for one of those conferences that like to pass it all the time, doesn’t win SEC Championships.
Will never win a BCS as long as Richt’s here.
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To be fair to Richt, legends like Bear Bryant didn’t win a BCS Championship in their first 13 seasons either.
Heck though, we’ve only played in 1 BCS Bowl in the last several years (what is it 5 years now?).
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Starting in 2009, we’ve only finished in the top 15 once in 5 years, so I wouldn’t project Richt inside of the top 15 until he earns it.
With this defense, no way this year is a big season. How will a poor defense stop Clemson, South Carolina, or Auburn? 3 losses right there.
Not counting Missouri, Florida, which could easily be 2 more losses if the offense sputters or has a few more injuries..
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BTW, how did we do with 1st year starters at Qb in Greene, Stafford, Cox, and Murray? Never won more than 8 reg season games. Hutson has almost zero experience at Qb. Who knows why Richt didn’t rotate him in last couple of years to get him ready for 2014–poor planning.
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I see you left out Shockley’s 2005 season. Cause it did not fit your agenda?
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No, it’s because he was the outlier, a dual-threat Qb, and had been rotating in a lot with Greene.
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Why did you mention the 1 of 5 times Richt had a good season with a 1st year starter at Qb, what’s your agenda? Didn’t work out 4 of 5 times, did once of 5 times. Odds on my side.
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You left out Joe Terishinski, must have an agenda.
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I question Richt’s policy of kicking guys off the team for first offenses. Where’s the grace? He seems like a fundamentalist caught up in his own high and might ideas of right and wrong. He seems to like to try and elevate himself morally above the other SEC Coaches, he’s very caught up in publicizing how he “appears” morally (see PO Foundation, Camp’s, Richt’s condescending lectures on how his rules are tougher than all the other coaches, etc.).
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What first offense? Whiuch players are you talking about? The ones who stole from their teammates? Yeah, I can see how they should be given a pass.
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Google mark richt policies holding georgia back….you’\ll find other’s feel Mark Richt’s self righteoussness is hurting Georgia. Sports Illustrated agrees with me.
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Self righteoussness, is a feeling you are morally above others, Richt has policies higher than the SEC requires, he has created his own holier than thou self righteousness standard.
Check out Richt’s colorful past at Miami, he was no Saint.
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Richt’s been loaded with talent, several top 15 ranekd recruiting classes, and more guys playing in the NFL now than any program, yet ZERO BCS Championships, and 1 top 15 finish in the last 5 years?
Can’t use the “No talent” excuses, looks like coaching to me?
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Thomas Brown you old motherF your site not doing too well eh. Back over here for some fun trolling. Just STFU and go home.
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Well done, sir!
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Well, shit happens; the team that stuffed Carolina last year and ran the ball down their throats for the final 8 minutes of the game, the team that beat LSU, was not the team that lost to Vandy & Nebraska. I’m happy with a team that never gives up, that fights to the end. I’m tired of hearing about us against ranked teams, none of them expect a cake walk when they play us.
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No. They just expect us to lose.
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my god man, chill
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