The Georgia Bulldawgs should fire Mark Richt today! Don’t get me wrong I haven’t always been a Richt hater, in fact, I supported Richt before this season began. However, there was also a time when I hated Richt even more than I do right now. Between 2008-2010 I would have personally slapped Richts pink slip across his face. But then Richt did something that was uncharacteristic of him, he fired his pal “soft” Willie Martinez. Although, he hired Todd “I can’t stop the run” Grantham, it was still an upgrade. Then Richt provoked dawg nation to start believing even more when he stole Jeremy Pruitt away from the National Title Seminoles. And then Richt got every dawg fan aboard the “We’re back” train when he got Mike Bozo to believe that he could actually be a head coach, and hired a legitimate offensive coordinator in Brian Schottenheimer. And then……we played Bama and got dumpster humped out back, even though we were favored by 2 points and everyone in the nation had proclaimed the Tide dead. And then……we went to Rocky top and looked like a mediocre high school team against a Tennessee team that has become the laughing stock of the whole nation. Don’t get me wrong, what has transcribed this season isn’t all Richts fault, when you are handed a QB that doesn’t know the difference between a sneeze and a wet fart there’s not a whole lot you can do. Oh yeah, but Richt recruited all these QBs, I guess it IS all his fault!!!
Richt hasn’t always sucked, and he doesn’t suck at life. The demise started in 2008. For all the Richt supporters out there I’m going to give you a run down memory lane. In 2008 Richt had a roster that could compete in the NFL right now, literally. Let’s go through it one-by-one. Our starting QB in 2008 was Matt Stafford, he is now the starting QB for the Detroit Lions and the Lions all-time passing leader. Our starting running-back was Knowshon Moreno, who was often injured in the NFL, but helped lead the 2013 Denver Broncos to the super bowl after rushing for over 1,000 yards. One of our starting receivers was A.J. Green, who is the starting receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals now and has been selected to the Pro Bowl every year he has been in the league. Our starting left tackle was Clint Boling who is now the starting left guard for the Cincinnati Bengals. Our starting left guard was Cordy Glenn who is now the starting left tackle for the Buffalo Bills. Our starting center was Ben Jones who is now the starting center for the Houston Texans. Our starting receiver opposite A.J. Green was Mohamed Massaquoi, who never became a real contributor in the NFL, but nonetheless played 4 seasons for the Cleveland Browns and caught 118 passes for 1,745 yards. Our starting defensive tackle was Geno Atkins, who is the starting defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals, has been selected to 3 Pro Bowls, and is arguably the best defensive tackle in the NFL. One of our back-up defensive ends was Justin Houston, who is the starting defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs, led the NFL in sacks last year, and has been selected to 3 Pro Bowls. Our starting Middle Linebacker was Dannelle Ellerbe, who is now the starting linebacker for the New Orleans Saints. Our starting strong safety was Reshad Jones, who is now the starting strong safety for the Miami Dolphins, has led the team in interceptions, and racked up 94 total tackles in 2013. Our starting kicker was Blair Walsh, who is now the starting kicker for the Minnesota Vikings, has been selected to 1 Pro Bowl, and set the NFL record for most points by a rookie. For those of you that count, that’s 11 NFL starters off of one team, and 9 players who are significant contributors to their respectful NFL team right now. In 2008, the Dawgs went 10-3 including a bowl win. That year we lost to Alabama by 11, Florida by 39, and GA Tech by 3. If this roster doesn’t prove to Richt supporters that he should be gone, then there’s nothing else that will and I rest my case .
Now I will talk to those Dawgs fans that say, “Well, you know….I don’t want to end up like Tennessee.” There’s two points I want to address here. First, Tennessee was left in a state of despair when Fulmer left. The cupboard was bare and Fulmer was losing because he was losing the recruiting battle. Secondly, Tennessee must go out of state to recruit. Georgia doesn’t have to go out of state if they don’t want to. Georgia could recruit a team with Georgia players only and compete with anyone in the nation. Enough said!
I think Mark Richt is a good man. I think he has done a tremendous job in bringing Georgia back from the Donnan years, which were arguably the darkest years in UGA football history, but it is time for him to move on. I think Richt would make a hell of an Athletic Direcotor, motivational speaker, consultant, or even a head coach somewhere else, but we need new blood at UGA. Imagine if Michigan would have said, “well, Brady Hoke is a good guy and he needs a couple more years.” Michigan wouldn’t have Jim Harbaugh, they wouldn’t be 5-1, and they would be no more relevant than Miami.
Now I will address those fans that say, “but who would we get?” First of all I believe UGA is a top 6 coaching job. The only programs ahead of us as far as being ready to win immediately are USC, Alabama, Ohio State, and LSU. UGA is loaded with talent right now, we have 3 former 5 star RBs on the roster, a defense that is loaded with NFL talent, and the #1 QB in the country enrolling in January. Any decent coach could come in with high energy and have us looking like Michigan in no time. But, I know dawg fans are visual people so I’ll give you a run-down of my top 5 candidates to replace Mark Richt.
5. Kyle Wittingham (Head Coach Utah)- First of all I think it will be extremely hard to pry Wittingham from Utah, especially if they keep winning. Wittingham played for BYU and he’s been at Utah forever, so needless to say he’s a Utah man. However, he is a hell of a defensive coach and has proven that he can win with inferior talent.
Advantages- Tons of HC experience, wins with inferior talent, high intensity guy
Disadvantages- No SEC recruiting ties
4. Tom Hermann (Head Coach Houston/ former OC at Ohio State)- This guy is an offensive mastermind. Remember when Ohio State’s offense was making Alabama’s defense look like kindergarteners? Well Ohio State no longer has him and we all see what their offense looks like now. It would take some time for him to get the right personnel in at UGA for his spread offense, and I’m not a fan of spread offenses, but if you can’t beat them join them. Or….maybe it won’t take long for him to win considering he’s 5-0 at Houston right now. Could you imagine Jacob Eason, Sony Michel, and Nick Chubb in this offense?
Advantages- Offensive guru, runs spread that beats Bama every single time, hell of a recruiter
Disadvantages- Could take a couple years to get personnel right, must have a good defensive coordinator
3. Jeremy Pruitt- Pruitt is one of the best defensive minds in the country, especially against the up-tempo spread teams that are popular right now. Pruitt has yet to get all the tools he needs at UGA to dominate on that side of the ball, but it’s coming. This one would be ultra-risky considering he has no HC experience, but it will be better than what we have, especially in the short term.
Advantages- One of the best recruiters in the country. He’s already in the system and could keep recruiting the guys he wants without batting an eye. He doesn’t take mediocrity!
Disadvantages- Has never been a head coach at any level. Struggles against the power run of the SEC.
2. Gary Patterson (Head Coach TCU)- This hire would look a lot like the Tom Hermann hire, however, Patterson is a defensive guy. As long as he could bring his offensive staff with him, Patterson would shatter skulls with UGA talent. Jacob Eason would break passing records in his offense, and his defense would play with their hair on fire. Plus he would yell the entire game, something we haven’t seen in 15 years.
Advantages- He yells loud, high intensity, wins with inferior talent, and is a defensive guy
Disadvantages- Would need to bring his offensive staff with him, has little SEC recruiting experience
1. D.J. “The F’ing Man” Durkin- Most readers won’t know who this guy is, but don’t worry grasshoppers, I will fill you in. Remember when Auburn fans were ecstatic that Will Muschamp was being hired as defensive coordinator? Have you seen Auburn’s defense this year? Why do they suck so bad? That’s because Will Mushcunt wasn’t running the damn defense at Florida. Who was? D.J. “the F’ing Man” Durkin!!!! These days D.J. is patrolling the sidelines at Ann Arbor where the Michigan Wolverines haven’t surrendered a damn point in 12 consecutive quarters. When’s the last time UGA held 3 consecutive teams scoreless……..NEVER!! Who won the Rivals 2012 recruiter of the year? D.J. “the F’ing Man” Durkin!!! Where did he win it at? The university of Florida. How did he win it? By stealing recruits from Mark Richt!! But where did this guy come from? D.J. got his start at Bowling Green university coaching linebackers and defensive ends. Who was the head coach at Bowling Green? Urban Meyer!! D.J. then moved on to Stanford to coach defensive ends and special teams under who?…..Jim Harbaugh. Then D.J. moved to Florida to join his ol buddy Urban Meyer and win National Titles, as the linebacker and special teams coach. Guess who D.J. Durkins defensive coordinator was when he was at Florida under Urban Meyer……none other than the Falcons Head Coach Dan Quinn. Yes, the same Dan Quinn who was defensive coordinator at the Seattle Seahawks, coached one of the best defenses to ever touch a football field, and won a damn Super Bowl!!!! Now he’s at Michigan breaking faces and taking names. If UGA don’t hire this man right now, somebody will, and write it down……he’ll win Titles. He’s only 37 years old and full of fire. I’ll leave a little article right here that speaks to the kind of man Durkin is. Hire this man NOW!!! http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2015/10/14/dj-durkin-drives-um-d-with-a-motor-like-no-other/73962248/
Advantages- Read above
Disadvantages- NONE
TheSlopChute 
It just amazes me of how knowledgeable you are…. instead of venting on FB, you should head to Athens, tell MR to step down, and you take over the program. Georgia don’t need a coach from another school, shoot , we have you to lead us out of the wilderness…Go coach-less DAWGS…
Robert, thank you for your comment and your time in reading this article. Instead of offering up hypothetical dreams-where I somehow dethrone Mark Richt- how about offering up some reasons why you support Richt? I’m willing to bet 90% of those reasons have little to do with how the game of football is actually played. Unless your just thrilled with consistently being mediocre I don’t know what your reasons could be, but hey…..i’m all ears. You see I don’t need to go to Athens and coach the football team. I offered you a mostly fact based, somewhat opinionated article. However, one of the main points of the article is who I would like to see replace Mark Richt, I actually gave you 5 really good options…..needles to say, you don’t really need me to coach. As for venting on FB, I don’t own a FB account so I’m not sure how that would be feasible. Thanks again Bob!
agreed Richt should leave . i would love to see TCU’s HC come to Athens. But why go out and get another OC. Schottenheimer would do just fine. he needs a QB with real talent. this defense is fine and we got plenty of depth. a QB is all we really need and if the reports are correct we might be recruiting him as we speak. Richt will last this seaosn and probably next. after that who knows
Seriously? You want to switch from running a pro-style offense to the spread? Your best “can’t miss” hire is a DC with zero head coaching experience? What I don’t get is that you listed Pruitt as your third choice, which suggests you think he’s better than Richt to run the program and admit he has no HC experience, but then with Durkin the lack of experience isn’t considered a liability?
The most problematic issue I had with your regurgitated rhetoric is that it seems incredibly short-sighted. Two years ago, we had a new DC and almost complete turnover of the defensive coaches. Last year we lost most of our offensive guys — but the recruiting hasn’t missed a beat. If you fire Richt today, say goodbye to Jacob Eason and most of this year’s recruiting class, and hello to another five years of mediocrity. This is the worst of all possible times to consider the sort of move you’ve suggested.
John, thank you for your comment and your passion, I can see you’re a true Dawg fan. I’ll try to address most of the things you commented on. First of all I never said I prefer going to a spread offense over a pro-style. I listed Tom Herman as the 4th best option. I also stated in my post that I am not a fan of the spread offense and switching to the spread offense could take some time. However, I do believe Tom Hermann will win wherever he goes, and while I do think there would be an adjusting period, it would ultimately work. In 2008 the Auburn Tigers ran a version of the pro-style offense and they went 5-7, in 2009 Gus Malzahn was hired as the offensive coordinator, and switched to a spread offense. In Malzahn’s first year as OC Auburn went 8-5, the next year they went 14-0 and won the National Title. The same can be said for the Clemson Tigers. Under Tommy Bowden Clemson ran a pro-style offense, when Dabo Swinney took over they switched to a spread offense. The Clemson tigers did struggle their first two years under Swinney (2009 & 2010), but since then have had 4 consecutive season of 10+ wins and have won their last three bowl games against Oklahoma, LSU, and Ohio State. I would argue that we have just as much talent as both Clemson, and Auburn at this very moment, so to act like it just can’t be done is a little imprudent on your part.
As far as the experience battle between Jeremy Pruitt and D.J. Durkin are concerned I believe this is like comparing apples to oranges. Jeremy Pruitt was a high school coordinator as recent as 9 years ago. That gives Pruitt a total of 9 years as a college football coach. Your also slightly misguided in saying that Dukin has zero head coaching experience, he was Head Coach for Florida in the bowl game last year….and won! And let’s face it, Will Muschamp wasn’t running Flordia, D.J. Durkin was. What Durkin has done with the frivolous talent he was handed at Stanford, and Michigan speaks for itself. Pruitt coached a FSU defense that won the national title, a defense that has had 7 starters drafted in the NFL. So to say that Pruitt did a good job at Florida State is like saying, “man, Eric Spolestra sure did a good job coaching Lebron and D-Wade.” There’s the difference between the two my friend. Pruitt hasn’t proven that he can do anything with inferior talent, while D.J. Durkin consistently has. But either would be an upgrade from what we have.
Now, to address your comments concerning the recruiting and Jacob Eason. UGA recruiting reminds me a lot of these stories where you see the guy win millions of dollars only to blow it within 10 years and wind up flat broke and busted. UGA gets a lot of big time recruits under Richt, they come to UGA and play mediocre, and then they go to the NFL and become superstars leaving UGA nothing to show for them. Jacob Eason committed to the Dawgs because of Mike Bozo. The clown is now at Colorado State and Eason is still committed. I find it hard to believe Eason is committed to UGA just because of Mark Richt. There’s a lot more to Athens and the UGA football program than Mark Richt.
When is a good time to hire a new coach John? Two years from now when we have squandered Eason’s talent and have nothing to show for it? I’ve heard this song and dance before. All Richt needs is his QB. In comes the #1 QB in high school football, Mathew Stafford, UGA is left with a boatload of draft picks, zero SEC championships, Zero SEC east championships, and zero National Championships. I’m not willing to sit around and watch it happen again.
The NFL player argument is such a bad one, for a number of reasons. But, if we want to use it, the Alabama team that was a loss in 2008 had 22 NFL draftees on that team, including 8 future 1st round picks. So that loss should have occurred by your theory. That Florida team had 33 players either drafted or sign NFL contracts. So, again, Georgia should have lost, and bigger, using the NFL player theory. And they did.
Hey, thanks for your comment. I agree that using the NFL player argument is a bad one, but only if you simply look at how many players were drafted. If you peel back that onion a little bit and get into which players are: 1)Still playing in the NFL, and 2.) Which players are actually starting for their respectful NFL teams and are contributors you start to paint a better picture of the overall talent of a given team. As I mentioned in my article I only pointed out players from the 2008 Georgia Football team that were either starting on their respectful team or have been contributors. As my article stated there are currently 9 NFL starters from the 2008 UGA football team. One of which was the 2014 NFL sack leader, one is the all-time Detroit lions passing leader, and one is possibly the best defensive tackle in the NFL. Now, I like that you mentioned how talented Alabama and Florida were in 2008. I agree that these teams were talented, but once again when you dig a little deeper you start to get a little feel of how much more talented UGA was. The 2008 Florida Gators were possibly one of the best college teams ever, but if you just look at who was drafted off that team it will fool you. Out of the 17 players that made NFL rosters on that team only 8 of them became real contributors, and that is including Aaron Hernandez. Only 5 players are now starting for NFL teams (Pouncey twins (both injured), Percy harvin, Major Wright, Joe Haden, and Caleb Sturgis), and I’ll give you Hernandez because he would probably be starting if he didn’t kill 2 people, so say 6. It Looks like the UGA team has that one beat. Now let’s move on to Alabama. 14 Players from the 2008 Crimson Tide team made NFL rosters at some point and time. Out of those 14, only 6 are still playing in the NFL, and only 4 are NFL starters (Julio, Andre Smith, Rolando McClain, and Rashad Johnson). Again UGA wins! That is looking at the 2 deep depth chart of both teams. Thank you for your comment as it further justifies my argument why Mark RIcht must go. As I pointed out in this rebuke it looks like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer maximize the talent of their recruits while their actually enrolled at the university instead of letting the talent float by and be maximized in the NFL. Thanks again!!
I’ll give you one reason Richt isn’t leaving. You keep talking about Eason coming in, well fire richt I promise you there’s no Eason and we would lose more than just that talented recruit
As far as your thoughts I don’t totally agree or disagree you make very valid points but Eason coming because of Bobo and sticking even if Richt left I don’t agree him and his father both talked to schotty when hired and said they liked him because” he’s pro style and they were in as long as Richt remains”
No Kirby Smart?!?!?!?
Matt Stafford is just a big arm. As far as being “THE ALL TIME LEADING PASSER AT DETRIOT” really..lol. Who has played qb at Detroit. I’ll tell you noone.If he didn’t have a 6’5″ reciever named Megatron to throw to you could take away half that yardage.
I guess you should talks half of montana’s yards back too, you know, considering he was throwing to jerry rice
Big difference chief. Montana has a lot of hardware on his hands. Pick a better argument
I guess we should take half of Andy daltons yards since he was throwing to AJ Green. Or Dante Culpepper because he was throwing to moss
Other than 2011, the Lions have followed Stafford into mediocrity, or worse. His passer rating last season was 79.8 — 22nd in the league — and the Lions were 4-12. His passer rating this season is 83.6 (21st) and the Lions are 7-8. He leads the league in just one category: fumbles (12).
Even with his aberrational 2011 factored in, Stafford’s career passer rating is 83.0. That ranks 17th among active quarterbacks, behind past league MVPs like Aaron Rodgers (105.2), Peyton Manning (97.0) and Tom Brady (95.8); and behind Super Bowl-winning QBs like Drew Brees (95.0), Ben Roethlisberger (92.8) and Joe Flacco (84.3); behind a fellow former No. 1 overall draft pick like Cam Newton (86.5), a second-rounder like Andy Dalton (86.4), a third-rounder like Matt Schaub (90.1) and a fourth-rounder like David Garrard (85.8). Behind even an undrafted free agent like Tony Romo (95.8). And Shaun Hill (85.8).
Those are just some of the quarterbacks who have graded out higher than the bust the Lions took with the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009.
The lions were 11-5 last year and made the playoffs. Not sure where you got your stats on that.
However, I agree that stafford isn’t a top 10 NFL QB. He is talented enough to start for an NFL team and the most talented QB richt has ever had. Richt has nothing to show for it.
Spurrier said it best when he said, “how is it that UGA signs all the best players before the season but then when we play each other we have the best players?”