This is the most succinct postmortem of Mark Richt’s downfall I’ve read yet:
The skinny: In 15 years at Georgia, Mark Richt posted 10 10-win seasons. Ten. You know how many 10-win seasons Missouri’s had since it started playing football in 1890? Seven. Yet, 10 10-win seasons and a winning percentage of .740 wasn’t enough to convince UGA that Richt was the right man to lead the Bulldogs into the future. Richt could collect talent. He could win games but not the right games. Only nine teams in the power conferences won more games than Georgia last year – Clemson, North Carolina, Oklahoma, TCU, Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa, Stanford and Alabama – but only two scores really mattered for the Bulldogs last fall. Only two scores sealed Richt’s fate:
Alabama 38, Georgia 10Florida 27, Georgia 3
With a chance to earn a place at the big boy table in the SEC, the Bulldogs were outclassed in their two biggest games.
Hard to argue with any of that.
Get The Picture 
10 wins last year with schedule is like being the tallest midget..who give a shit
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There’s no joy in beating Auburn, Tech or South Carolina. None. It’s meaningless. Shouldn’t have even shown up for those. Who cares?
There are probably people who suffered through 4-7 seasons and 5-6 seasons and 6-6 seasons where we lost those same games, who simply did not care that we lost them.
Remember beating Tech to go 6-6 with a last second field goal in 1995 to qualify for a bowl? Me neither. Couldn’t have cared less.
Remember beating Auburn in 4OT’s in 1996 which was one of 5 wins that year? I don’t either.
As you so eloquently put it: “who give a shit”
Like you, I become a Georgia fan only after win 11. Well maybe 10 if the schedule is really tough.
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Oh, but you can bet USCe, GT, and Auburn would have counted as “big games” had UGA lost! Just as USCe and LSU in 2013 don’t count as “big wins” because….well, because we won those games so it doesn’t fit the narrative!
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+100
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+1000
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Amen
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I love this comment.
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anon, you achieved the rare feat of making Dreck look sensible.
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Hog.. Quite a feat making Derek look sensible.
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I didn’t even read what he said honestly (still haven’t). Too many words, blah blah blah.
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Literacy is a bitch ain’t it?
Words…who give a shit
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So you comment without reading here?
That explains it.
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I read you. Not so much others.
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So. Tired.
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Thaaaaank yoooouuu.
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You’re welcome.
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I think Emerson also puts it well with this:
“The undoing of the Richt era was silly mistakes that cost them close games, but also real ugly losses – like Alabama and Florida last year.”
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I’m not sure I agree with the article it wasn’t 2 losses. It was more than that, it was blowing chances when the team was on the cusp of moving from good to great. It was not fixing persisting problems.
OT against Ga. Southern while technically a W, did not do him any favors. The ’14 WLOCP further compounds the critical losses. The alums were getting impatient and there was a threat that Smart would go to S. Carolina. All a perfect storm to get Richt fired.
I still think Richt would be in Athens if Smart wasn’t reportedly heading to Columbia.
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Otto – +1.
While I think Smart’s interest in USCe certainly did play a role, there was enough smoke from the remains of ’14 season (Richt retiring? Richt fired? Bobo leaving) that the situation at the conclusion of the ’15 season was fluid (Schotty’s offense, QB situation, Pruitt & the mutiny). I do wonder if CMR would have left of his own accord for Miami.
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Agreed Pruitt turmoil further fuels the fire. Someone that writes a little here 😉 thinks McG wanted Pruitt gone. How do you fire him? or get someone else to pay him more.
All in all a perfect storm. We will never know if Richt would have jumped ship to Miami on his own. My opinion is he would have stayed.
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Pruitt’s actual salary is less than when he was at UGA.
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Yes and No. Alabama signed him to a $1M salary the first couple of years, but UGA has to make up the $300k a year difference for those years, so he’ll still collect $1.3M each year. In the third year when his UGA subsidy ends, Pruitt’s salary increases to slightly higher than where his UGA salary was at the time he left. My guess is they are intentionally paying him less in years 1 and 2.
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Exactly
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CMR always said he intended to finish his career at UGA.
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“I still think Richt would be in Athens if Smart wasn’t reportedly heading to Columbia.”
Agree (h/t Spurrier loses 52-20; takes revenge by getting CMR fired)
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“Outclassed”
What a stupid word. They were losses. All that matters is Wins, Losses and Strength of Schedule. Everything else is nonsense.
I hope we learn that, but it seems like a lesson that no fans of any team in any sport ever learn. Sigh.
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Honestly, I don’t know how you can brush off what happened in Jax as just another loss.
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Why? We’re we certainly more outmanned against Alabama. The breakdown that cost us 7 vs. Bama can be more directly related to coaching than Reggie’s drop. Our defense matched up much better. We had sony out for a lot of the UF game and of course no Chubb. Against Bama we had both.
UF was frustrating in the sense that Faton struggled and either wouldn’t take advantage of his athleticism or it was never really there to begin with, but while losing to UF is never pleasant I would say I was
more frustrated by the 2014 wlocp than the 2015 version. I was also more frustrated with our qb situation during the Bama as I still had hope. By the time we got to jax, we knew the qb situation was really, really bad. Moreover, I can’t see how anybody could suggest that starting lambert would have changed the outcome. Maybe it’s not 27-3, but it’s still a L.
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You said you read my posts. Recall what I had to say about the decision to start Bauta without giving him all the first team reps in the two weeks leading up to the Cocktail Party?
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and because they opened the competition and then gave it to Bauta, it’s “not just another loss?” Because it’s pure speculation to suggest that he would have performed any better having received ALL of the reps, I won’t speculate that there would have been criticism that had Bauta gotten all the reps and flamed out that there would be some saying: hey, why not share the reps and make one of them earn it!
In the end I just don’t see how the UF loss is somehow different in character than many others. If I was going to grind on bad losses, UT in 2007, USC in 2012 and UF in 2002 would be at the top of my list.
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Well, hell, then, why give him any first team reps at all? Just throw him out there and let him wing it!
The coaches didn’t have a clue about how to approach that game and set Fauta up to fail. YMMV. So be it.
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In case there was any confusion, my mileage varies. Whether Faton should have been tabbed the starter is certainly debatable given the performance. However, we all know that each of the three had issues. Making the judgment that CMR and Co., should have named Faton the starter on Sunday after the Mizzou game, is a fine opinion, but it doesn’t make it so. Moreover, having rewatched much of the game, the idea that they didn’t try to give Faton a game plan that utilized his abilities is just false. It’s a myth. You can go play by play in the first half and disprove that as a theory. The fact is that some of the plays that Faton was moving were his worse plays. That’s on Faton it seems to me.
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I’m not talking about the game plan. There were noticeable timing issues that plagued the offense the entire game, not to mention that Bauta made several poor reads throughout the game. If you don’t think more reps would have made a difference, okay.
And if you’re arguing that Bauta wasn’t up to the task, then why did the coaches elect to start him in the first place?
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Lack of acceptable options?
My suggestion after the game was that:
1) Faton set a good example for others due to his work ethic
2) as bad as lambert was throwing it, they didn’t think it would get much worse anyway
3) if Faton would tuck it and run picking up a few cheap first downs, that’s an improvement over Lambert.
That’s my theory.
I’ve been clear since the spring of 2015 that Ramsay should have gotten the job. I could call the failure to go along with that coaching malpractice, but since I can’t know what they knew, I understand that it’s just an opinion.
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I don’t see how Ramsay was a clear #1, he made bad reads resulting in INTs as well.
I can see how Lambert looked good in practice. He looked good whenever he wasn’t threatened with an opposing defender planting him in the ground.
Faton always put in the work. I was for Faton going into the season. he may not have the best arm but with reps and film study, I believe he would have been a solid QBs. Ramsay had the best arm of the group but the constant complaint was he didn’t put in the film study.
I think many of us are baffled by the QB decisions last year, and why Richt didn’t take play calling and more authority back from his struggling OC.
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Bauta had no arm strength. It doesn’t matter how much you do with reps and film work … If you don’t have good arm strength, you aren’t going to be successful as a pro style QB.
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Otto,
You’ve missed out on Rule #1: Always make sure there’s someone else to blame. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/cris-carter-told-nfl-rookies-to-get-a-fall-guy-in-case-they-get-in-trouble
Schotty was the fall guy. Of course you could conclude that he’s been hired to coach the highest paid player in all of football because he’s awful. I just don’t buy it.
Something tells me that Luck will perform better in 2016 than our 3 QB’s did in 2015. It won’t be because Schotty learned how to coach in the off season.
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Starting Faton without adequate prep is just another completely bonehead decision by CMR in a long line of completely bonehead decisions. Look, I really liked CMR as a person. Even now I still think he runs a good program and overall has a good offensive football mind. But game planning and game day decision-making are clearly not his strong suits. His teams sometimes completely fail to show up for the biggest games and he frequently blows games that should have been won with the stupidest end-of-game decisions imaginable. IMHO the UT loss was actually worse than the FU loss and the Bama loss last year. Georgia had a 21 point lead with 5 minutes to go in the first half and lost the game to a team with inferior talent and an inferior Head Coach. At least Bama and FU had good personnel and coaches. I am glad CMR is gone. I just think the cheapskates at B-M blew it by not hiring a big-time experienced HC. I’m praying that Kirby Smart is the real deal but everything everybody is saying about Kirby those same people were saying about CMR 14 years ago. Kirby Smart is basically a D version of CMR–a career assistant who worked for years under a legendary HC. Hiring the assistant is NOT the same as hiring the legendary HC. UT found that out the hard way and the Vols are still recovering from that. The one thing you can count on: B-M always does it on the cheap. It is cheaper to hire the assistant than to hire the real guy, so that’s what they do.
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If I’m following the logic correctly, Faton didn’t get more reps because McG is a cheapskate. That also explains the squid kick v Tech, Reggie Davis returning punts, attempting FGs into 35 mph crosswinds, getting pants on fake FGs, etc. All those tactical, strategic, detail oriented, in-game decisions that direct lead to losses stem from McG being cheap.
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Exactly….the interweb was a buzz during the 2 weeks leading up to UF that Bauta should not only play but start. Richt in all his wisdom knowing that none of the interweb posters had never been in the arena threw Bauta to the wolves to prove his point. Cost him his job. That was the last bone headed mistake he would make. If Kirby goes 12-2 all these Richt lovers will finally stfu……
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If Kirby wins 12 with Lambert I will STFU.
If Kirby wins less than 10 with Lambert will you?
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I think it’s a moot argument because if Eason isn’t the starting QB by the end of September, we’ll have bigger problems to worry about. Lambert and Ramsey all have issues as everyone has pointed out and limited upside potential at this point in their careers. Eason is inexperienced, but clearly gives us the best chance of success, so we need him to get up to speed as fast as possible if we want to win at least 9 or 10 games in my opinion. Hope I’m wrong, but not sure our defense will be able to keep it close like they did in some of the games last year.
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Eason will start from day one. Will be nice to not hear you cry about Richt
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Yes, my post above cries about Richt repeatedly, I even mentioned his name zero times. I’m looking forward to the future, Unlike the backwards thinking idiot you appear to be.
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If Eason his Kirby’s qb from day 1, then how does one compare anything to last year or the year before for that matter? I’ve been saying for two years that we don’t have a qb but one is on the way. I thought CMR would win big with Eason. I expect the same from Kirby. Going 12-2 with Eason throwing dimes all overview field won’t prove anything. Winning with lambert or Ramsay? That would prove something.
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It isn’t the easiest to take advantage of athleticism if the playbook expect the QB be in the pocket or handing the ball off. It isn’t like he was given the call to run much read option.
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You can watch the tape if you like. I tried to stomach it recently. It’s a made up fantasy that he didn’t run read option and wasn’t on the move and didn’t have options to run. Watch the tape.
On one read option I watched, he pulled it and lost two. First, he misread it and he should have handed it off. Second, there was zero indication on that play that he had a chance to get away from UF’s DE. That is not something you see from an athletic qb who would be able to out run or juke a defender of such size. Instead Faton lost two.
If you watch the tape, the opportunities were there. Faton either wouldn’t or couldn’t do it.
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I would put it as wouldn’t given the history of the 2 OCs he played under. Murray scrambled much less than we would have thought we signed, and then the game was often on the when he did (UT and Auburn
)
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The 2014 and 2015 WLOCPs sealed Richt’s fate. If we win both or likely even 1 of those 2, CMR still lives and works in Athens. Coaches survive ugly wins like GSU, Missouri and tech and losses where it’s clear you’re outclassed like Alabama. Coaches don’t survive losing the games consistently that matter and losing them in a head-scratching manner. Ask Jim Donnan what losing 3 in a row to inferior tech teams does. Ask Mark Richt what losing to 2 UF teams we should have beaten does.
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Exactly, it is that simple…smoked two years in a row in Jax, time to move on.
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“That’s so Georgia”. It’s comical. Top 10 in the nation for a decade but just doesn’t have the juice to beat the top 4, or Florida.
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It’s almost like being ranked 3rd nationally but still 3rd in the SEC.
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10 straight years without a championship (conference or national) didn’t help either. I think that actually sums it up better.
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Richt won 10 games after Bobo left him with zero qb talent. He also had a brand new OC, and lost arguably the best rb in the country in week 5. It blows my mind how you can constantly throw shade at Richt, and simultaneously stand firm in the assertion that Bobo was one of the best coordinators/recruiters in the country. Was last year a great year? No, but most P5 teams would kill for 10 wins in a bad year. Maybe the brass made the right call dumping Richt for Kirby, but Georgia hasn’t won a game under Smart yet. I agree with 90% of the posts on this blog, but count all articles in the above category among the 10%.
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Interesting how I’ve gotten slagged on both sides of the Richt argument in this comment thread.
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Just goes how divided the fan base is on Richt.
I disagree there was Zero QB talent. I am not a Bobo fan but In My Opinion Schott could never develop a college QB thanks to not narrowing the field and likely he couldn’t adapt to the limited time of a College QB vs a NFL QB.
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Most people don’t like reasonable. They only will accept their own kind of unreasonable.
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It’s simple Senator. Some of your commenters are really stupid.
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Richt is gone because McGarity is a cheap SOB.
Bobo should have been the highest paid OC in the league, revenues fro football should have been reinvested in football at a rate that put us in the top 2 or 3 in the SEC (we were in the bottom 2-3), OL coach should have been making what Pittman is making now so we don’t have to hire wet behind the ears off the turnip truck OL coaches (btw, Searles, nor Friend, nor Sales were first choices, and not to mention Blomgren could have been had for less than Schottinthederriere except McGarity vetoed that too.
And lest we forget, Indoor IPF cr@p.
Hate it for Richt and hate it for us. What goes on Behind the Hedges got Richt fired as much or more than Jacksonville.
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Yep. It is mindboggling, the extent to which this — certainly among the biggest factors in Georgia’s recent lack of championships, possibly THE biggest overarching factor — is minimized, misunderstood, and/our ignored outright.
Good luck to Kirby (or any head coach) overcoming all that.
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“Richt won 10 games after Bobo left him with zero qb talent.”
Just when I think the butt hurt couldn’t get any more ridiculous…
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We’re going to win so much — win after win after win — that you’re going to be begging me: let us lose once or twice. We can’t stand it any more. And I’m going to say: No way. We’re going to keep winning. We’re never going to lose. We’re never, ever going to lose. Believe me.
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Build the Wall!!! Recruir Linemen. We need big bodies 14 feet tall. We’ll have the biggest wall!!!!!
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We’re gonna win like the New Jersey generals!!! Trump never loses. Never fails. He will do to America what he did to Atlantic city and the New Jersey generals. He did wonderful, tremendous things. Everyone says so. Before trump: 14 wins and 4 losses. With trump: 11 wins and 7 losses.
That’s TWO number ones for those counting. Just incredible, incredible success at winning. Just trust him.
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Richt left richt with no qb talent and he left it that way before Bobo left town. Of course he was just about to address that glaring deficiency. Oh well. If we recruit better, and it looks like we are, and we can run a program we can be proud of, and so far were doing well on that account, we may well have traded up here.
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Excellent argument. Well thought it.
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What’s there to argue with? You’re blaming the assistant coach for the head coach’s failure. And then you say in the next sentence that the same assistant coach not being there last year is one of the reasons why the team struggled. It takes a special kind of crazy to think that makes any kind of logical sense.
You would have been better off just writing “it was everyone’s fault but the head coach”.
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Perhaps the concept of shitty followed by shittier is too complicated for you? If you think it’s crazy then refute it. People who hate Richt can’t stand logical explanations.
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So Richt hired and put up with a shitty offensive coordinator for 8 1/2 years and then turned around and hired an even shittier one? This is your attempt at praising this man’s head coaching ability?
And that’s without getting into the defensive coordinator sagas with Willie Martinez and Todd Grantham.
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It’s possible that Schottenheimer was even shittier, but I think it’s hard to judge him being that Bobo left him with a stable of quarterbacks that were apparently worse than a kid that we snatched off of Virginia’s bench. I’m not saying Mark Richt is without blame, but you can’t criticize last season without acknowledging what he was working with. 10 wins without a viable option at QB and having lost Nick chubb is it really as bad as everyone was making it out to be.
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Richt was working with what he was working with last season b/c it was his own damned fault. It was year 15 of his regime, not year 1 or 2. He had mediocre-at-best (and usually worse) QB play in 2014, which was bad enough. Then he follows it up with an even worse year of QB play last year. You act as if Bobo was working in a silo and Richt had no control over this aspect of HIS team. You’d also get a little more leeway if Richt wasn’t a former QB, former QB coach, former offensive coordinator, and mentor/tutor to Bobo.
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Yeah, I forgot about how Richt hired Bobo at CSU and personally tore up Chubb’s knee. Like I said, there was plenty of reason to blame/ get rid of Richt, but the idea that Richt needed to go, but Bobo deserves consideration as a head coach in the SEC is stupid. Firing Richt after 10 wins puts a lot of pressure on the next guy. Let’s hope Smart can surpass the expectations.
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No one would argue that Richt was successful in Athens. He reenergized the program and the fanbase in his first 2 years as head coach. 2001-2005 were the most exciting times as a fan since the early 80’s. However, 2006 thru 2015 were painful at times and down right maddening at others. Increased coaching talent in the SEC, recruiting practice from SEC programs not name Georgia, player attrition, roster management short coming, assistant coaches/coordinators leaving, poor hiring practices, an inability to focus on every detail, a change of heart, institutional barriers…whatever the reason, the program took a nosedive. If we are being honest with ourselves, the change should have been made following the 2010 season. The Florida game the last 2 years and the Bama game from last year sealed the deal.
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He took his team to the next two SECCGs and came within a whisker of playing for the national title in 2012. Honestly!
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A whisker, I say 150 yards, that is what Bama put up in rushing numbers in the 4th quarter. Plus not grounding the ball and giving Murray the chance to get a play called and read the D for the win. More reason for a change, a whisker no, stoopid coaching and unable to stop the run when it counted yes.
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Why is giving Bama a chance to strategize the thing to do there? Is it because we lost?
Had Aaron thrown to the wide side of the field, as he should have, and we won, wouldn’t ensuring that Bama didn’t have a chance to do anything but go with base have been called brilliant?
Btw: who stopped bama’s running game when it counted in 2012? Perhaps everyone they played had “stoopid” coaches.
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You put Murray in the situation he does best, read the D and make the play did it twice against UF for TD’s.
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So your answer is let saban/smart pick his d and let Murray sort it out at the line of scrimmage? Sure.
Given that he should have known to throw it left and not right and, had he we probably would’ve have won right there, i don’t think additional discretion to 11 was the answer there. We were marching and they were on their heels. Again, throw it left and we likely win right there. Given that, how can you question the decision?
Watch the play again if you can. TK is one on one with nothing but one defender and a lot of green space. The nearest other defender is in front of the goal post. That’s 6 with any sort of throw. I know it’s easy to blame the coach for the loss, the national debt, syphillis, the certainty of both death and taxes but sometimes the kids playing the game play a role in the outcome. Maybe just every once in a while….maybe???
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1.) Alabama had a time out left, so “on their heels” my ass. They could have stopped and regrouped at any point they wanted to. Saban/Smart trusted the personnel they had on the field.
2.) The play design was for the quick out to Malcolm. TK might have be left all alone, but I doubt they even had a read over there. Go back and watch it: it was essentially a single read play: the stop-fade to Malcolm. 99/100 it’s either a touchdown or incomplete pass. That it got tipped/caught was truly just freakish bad luck.
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“Freakish bad luck” – the slogan of Georgia football for the last 35 years
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Bullshit:
“Georgia ran a play called “Stout,” which called for Murray to throw a fade route to either senior Tavarres King on the left side or sophomore Malcolm Mitchell on the right. When the Crimson Tide showed press coverage on the right side, Murray tried to throw to Mitchell.”
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8700268/alabama-crimson-tide-georgia-bulldogs-play-all-time-classic-sec-championship-college-football
To be fair, they were in press coverage left too.
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But Kirby may not be ready yet?
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McG simply believed Richt either didn’t know how, or couldn’t get an edge back to the program to beat Alabama or Florida. Add to that the fact that there is evidence that there was a real mutiny attempt within the staff last year and it simply looked like Richt didn’t have control of his own ship.
I ultimately think 2014 UF was the canary in the coal mine game. I 100% do believe that had Richt lost the Belk Bowl McG was pulling the trigger. He had made up his mind as to what he had.
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McGarity doesn’t have the authority — or the balls — to make such decisions. You think firing Richt (including when to fire Richt) for Kirby was his call?
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Georgia deserves what is coming.
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I couldn’t agree more.
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Winter is coming.
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and Bama has Tyrion
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The anticipation of this season make my head swim.
There seems to be a basic received wisdom out there excepted by many that includes these major basic elements:
1) Richt was good, but not great in his 15 years at Georgia.
1a) A “great” coach in his position should have been winning the big games and putting Georgia in position to play for NC’s
2) Smart was an excellent recruiter and DC at Bama, but the jury’s out on whether his experience/gifts will translate into the outrageous success that most Georgia fans hope for and/or expect.
2a) So far he’s receiving good grades on his recruiting and leadership
3) It is hoped that Smart will succeed where Richt did not because in recent years Richt was perceived of as being progressively “aloof”, while Smart has a reputation for paying attention to details and blah blah blah.
For the record, I loved Richt and didn’t think the way he and UGA parted ways was the best for Richt or UGA. That being said, I think Smart was the best choice to replace him among all available options.
But my question is this: What the hell kind of cosmic conflagration is there going to be if, say, Richt wins 10 games and takes Miami to the ACCCG and Smart only wins 9 and doesn’t make it to the SECCG?
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I have a strong feeling Richt’s record at Miami this year is going to be better than Kirby’s at Georgia.
And as you say: oh, the humanity when that happens.
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Do you have a strong feeling because you logically think that is what is probable, or because you (like me) are so accustomed to WTF moments as a Georgia fan? lol
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I saw a bowl prediction article that has UGA playing Miami in the “tax slayer” bowl. What if Richt delivers a spanking to UGA and Kirby. The squealing will be epic. Epic.
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you have faith in Richt winning a game in Jacksonville?
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Quote:
“But my question is this: What the hell kind of cosmic conflagration is there going to be if, say, Richt wins 10 games and takes Miami to the ACCCG and Smart only wins 9 and doesn’t make it to the SECCG?”
Not the point of my comment. I was trying to say that if Richt wins more games than UGA or makes the ACCCG game and UGA doesn’t make the SECCG and a cosmic conflagration ensues, imagine what would happen if Richt were to win a head to head bowl game.
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I think you may be right, but that will be more of a function of Richt (arguably, a pretty solid coach – big game face plants aside), inheriting a talented team, and playing in a weaker conference. The number of gimmes Richt will get will put his margin for error much wider than Kirby’s.
Kirby has a talented team as well, but a much tougher conference road ahead and weaker QB situation (that is until Eason can come along and be ready to take the reins).
I don’t put the two situations as exactly the same. I hope that both coaches excel.
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So what your saying is, “it has to get better”…..,right?,…… because our wizards of wise(read that as Greg McGarity) have done such a superior job in all their previous hires. It’s got to get better ..it just has to…..I need ,I need.
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“The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.”
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Well as I have stated before UGA has suffered forever because of the Georgia Way. UGA has been playing football for over 100 years, we have not hired a coach with Division I A head coaching experience since before I was born in the 1940’s. Only Jim Donnan had HC experience but that was at the Div I-AA level. In the whole history of UGA football there have been only 6 or 7 head coaches that had any HC experience. We have been training Div IA head coaches for 100 years. Now we are going to start to train another assistant coach to be a head coach. Kirby knows how to recruit because he has been doing it for so long. You can tell he can recruit. We should hope that being in the mere presences of greatness works out better than with Goff and Richt because when they tried to duplicate Dooley and Bobby Bowden, it didn’t work. We should know pretty quick if he can coach enough to make a team that is not as big or as deep as Alabama play winning football. If he screws up because we ain’t Alabama quality I don’t want to hear a sound. I’m too damn old for another 10 years of OJTing a head coach. Saban’s coaching tree is not the greatest in football as far as I’m concerned. DD and Will were disasters and I pray that Kirby learned by watching their train wrecks. If the definition of insanity is doing the samething over and over again and expecting a different result UGA has been crazy for a long time.
Now get the hell off my lawn.
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Excellent post 69.
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It’s worse than that. I don’t think we’ve ever poached a head coach from a major team. Like you said, Marshall was second tier when we got Donnan from there. Goff, Dooley, Griffith, Butts, Hunt, Mehre, and Woodruff were all either assistants or former players. Stegmann had coached at Beloit and Monmouth College, as best I can tell not considered major at that time (though Beloit did have a tie with Notre Dame around the turn of the 20th century, and Monmouth could go toe-to-toe with Cornell, then a major power.) Cunningham, (who should be on UGA’s Mt. Rushmore btw), was the baseball coach at Gordon down here at Barnesville when Sanford awarded him a contract. Before that, we had 13 coaches in 18 years, and the only one worth mentioning was Pop Warner who made his coaching debut with the ‘Dogs. I bet there are very few other P5 programs who have swiped no head coaches from major teams like that. I guess it’s the Georgia Way.
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Richt better coach than Dooley, Herschel made 80-83 special.
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Dooley won the SEC 3 times in his first 15 years – all before 80-83. Richt won it twice – once without Jim Donnan’s players and not at all after Brian Van Gorder left.
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Scuse me, that was quite a different SEC when Dooley was coaching!
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Yes it was. All Dooley had to face was Bryant and Jordan and Dodd (for a short time) and Dickey and Vaught and Battle. The SEC in the 60s and 70s was no slouch.
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And it was quite a different state of Georgia that he was recruiting from too!
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We had Glen Mason for about a week. Just sayiin’…..we tried to hire a coach with prior HC experience.
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Good point. I almost brought up ol’ Glen, but my post was too long already. Maybe he’s the exception that proves the rule. A curse perhaps?
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I’m 37 years old, and I agree wholeheartedly with your comment. The Georgia Way, as embodied by the consistent history of hiring only assistant football coaches, is at the heart of the program’s inability to win championships.
Under Richt, they came maddeningly close, but due to a variety of factors which don’t exist at rival schools (frugality to the point of self-defeat, hostile local law enforcement, an athletic department which preemptively punishes its programs and then bends over rather than fighting the NCAA, a now-infamously unique drug policy, etc., etc., etc.), it’s been impossible to fully break through.
Newsflash: those factors still exist under Kirby, a rookie head coach whose coaching tree has thus far yielded one success and at least three failures. I’m not optimistic about Kirby somehow magically elevating the program beyond what Richt built — which was the most successful run in the program’s history.
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BOOM!
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All I gotta say is, I enjoy the Don in Mar-a-Lago posts just for the humor.
Go Dawgs!
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Richt.
Richt won the comments section again.
Geez people.
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I do not understand why folks just cannot move on to the new Coaches…did CMR deserve 10 more years?
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He didn’t deserve the last five
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God this is tiresome. This article is written like last year is the only reason CMR got canned. Obviously the last 10 years of bad calls and showing up unprepared in major games…or getting owned by Spurrier the last 6 years…had nothing to do with it.
Poor Richt…nobody would let him be a hands in coach. Poor Richt….they wouldn’t let him have an IPF (until a first year AC got it done). Poor Richt….other teams don’t recruit fair so we have a partial roster for years. Poor Richt….mean McG didn’t treat him nice.
Poor Richt…it was Bauta…it was Grantham…it was mean Pruitt…it was was Schotty…it was everyone else’s fault but poor Richt.
Even if we don’t win but can manage not to lay a big steaming pile on national TV again it would be an improvement.
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Best post on this thread Squatch!
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Sums it up nicely. That’s a really small target for Kirby to hit, but I’m optimistic.
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We need a Lexicon term – Poor Richt’s Almanac – for future use to save time.
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I am not trying to be harsh, but we could expect a faceplant – an unexpectedly bad game – a year from CMR.
In 2001, it was the Music City Bowl.
In 2002, it was Florida.
In 2003, it was Florida and LSU. We win that first one against LSU, and we’re facing Ole Miss in the Dome. That would have been a win.
In 2004, it was Tennessee. Florida. And I would argue that the drubbing we got from Auburn was a faceplant.
In 2005, the Sugar Bowl.
In 2006, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
In 2007, South Carolina and Tennessee. There’s no way in hell we should have been down by 28 to that UT team.
In 2008, Georgia Tech. How did we blow a 16 point lead to that team?!? And the degree to which we lost to Alabama and Florida constitute faceplants.
In 2009, it was the smashing we took against UT, and the loss to Kentucky.
In 2010, it was Mississippi St. and Colorado. COLORADO.
In 2011, we had bookends. Getting housed by Boise State in our own state and then losing to SC at the beginning, then getting blistered by LSU and blowing one to Michigan State at the end.
In 2012, how the hell did we lose 35-7 to South frickin Carolina?!?
In 2013, it was Missouri, Vandy, and then a loss to Nebraska highlighted by a 95+ yard pass where our DB was so far out of position all he could do was wave at the MFer.
In 2014, it was SC, Florida, and Tech, none of whom we had any business losing to.
In 2015, it was letting a 21 point lead go. Twenty one. Against Butch f’in Jones. Oh, and a drubbing by Florida in the worst coached game that I can remember in that series, and I remember a LOT of bad coaching in that series.
It was due. I don’t care if Richt is a good man. I don’t care how much of a Christian he is. He wasn’t getting it done as the Georgia coach, period. And this year would have just been more of the same old same old. Maybe, just maybe, with this new coaching staff, we’ll have a year without a faceplant. If so, it will be the first time in a long damn time.
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