Mark Richt in the SEC Pressure Cooker & Double Standards on Coaches
By Kyle Kensing
From
, to rampant meme-ery, Georgia head coach Mark Richt is a frequent target. His Bulldogs won 10 games and represented the SEC East in the conference championship game last season, yet ESPN.com reporter
Travis Haney tops his “coaches under pressure to win” list with Richt
.
Richt and hot seat has become an unavoidable summer tradition. The two are as synonymous with one another as peanut butter with jelly; Batman with Robin; bowling balls with liquid centers. Yet a quick glance at CoachesByTheNumbers.com reveals that Richt has the No. 15 win percentage among current head FBS coaches. Some of those ahead of him have minuscule sample sizes, like Northern Illinois’ Dan Doeren, West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen and Stanford’s David Shaw. Richt leads SEC notables Les Miles, Steve Spurrier and Gary Pinkel.
As consistent with Richt as hot seat babble is winning. But it’s not enough winning, or so is the criticism against him.
Georgia has played in four BCS bowls under Richt’s direction. The 2007 team was arguably the nation’s best by season’s end, but did not have the opportunity to prove it because the Dawgs failed to qualify for the SEC title game. Therein exemplifies a regular lamentation of Richt’s critics.
UGa has had a propensity for losing games either it shouldn’t, or routinely coming up short in slug fests. The Dawgs’ defeat at Tennessee in 2007 was head scratching, and fit the former. The 2005 team was likely not going to play for a BCS championship with Texas and USC mud-stomping opponents en route to the Rose Bowl. Then again, the Bulldogs were five points shy of running the regular season table and creating a real controversy.
Tack on another three points’ difference to Georgia’s loss ledger, a 38-35 bowl game loss to West Virginia, and a split championship is not a far fetched hypothetical. Particularly so after the SEC snub a season before caused an uproar around college football.
Alas, we’re dealing in near-misses. Boisterous fans are not content with close. They also have short memories. The last of Richt’s four BCS appearances was five years ago, a veritable lifetime in the sometimes thankless world of coaching. And when the measuring stick for success is no longer greatness, but rather the absolute pinnacle, success is virtually unattainable.
Keeping up with the Joneses is a common theme among football programs. It’s led to Pac-12 programs erecting monuments to football, and it’s set absurdly high expectations on coaches in the SEC. The conference has produced the last six national champions, but none of those crystal balls have taken up residence in Athens.
The lack of a championship exacerbates what is the primary rallying cry against Georgia football and Richt at present: discipline. There have been no shortage of Dawgs in hot water off the field. Transgressions have thinned the Georgia roster to a number of scholarship players better suited for the Southern Conference than the Southeastern Conference. Isaiah Crowell’s recent dismissal has garnered the most attention.
UGa. legend Vince Dooley commended the decision and foresees it bolstering the Bulldogs’ chances in 2012, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Still, it was another high profile disciplinary action against a significant contributor from the 2011 team. Georgia is without talented defensive back Baccari Rambo the season’s first four games, inspiring Spurrier’s above noted crack at playing Richt’s team in September.
Of course, none these cases would be high profile were Richt not taking action. The NCAA leaves drug testing and punishments to individual university’s. Richt could turn a blind eye to an All-American like Rambo violating drug policies, but instead took an authoritative stance. Rambo returns for the Sept. 29 game against Tennessee, a contest in which it would benefit the Dawgs to not have the star shaking off field rust.
Placing a divisional, rivalry game ahead of the rules might cool Richt’s hot seat, but that isn’t his tactic. It’s hypocritical to condemn Richt for taking action just a year after Jim Tressel was chastised for withholding violations. And while the 400 some days since Tressel’s ouster at Ohio State may be eons ago in the dog years that are football memory, the current uproar emanating from alleged cover-ups at Penn State is fresh.
Richt punishing a safety for eating pot brownies and Joe Paterno being accused of covering up Jerry Sandusky’s crimes are light years apart, make no mistake that I am alluding otherwise. There is however an underlying theme of the masses wanting transparency and adherence to rules.