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‘Fire Mark Richt’ chatter based on unrealistic expectations by Georgia fans

By Michael Collins

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Mark Richt was fired by the internet…again…after Georgia’s 38-31 loss to Tennessee on Saturday, and the gathering of internet zealots calling for his head doesn’t seem to get the reality of the situation for the Bulldogs.

RELATED: Georgia loses Chubb, Game and Confidence to Tennessee

Fire Mark Richt.

It was everywhere after Georgia’s loss to Tennessee. It’s as consistent as Old Faithful. Every time Georgia loses a game, Mark Richt’s job is in jeopardy and he’s lost control of his underachieving program.

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Stuff and nonsense.

Perhaps its because Mark Richt is such a good guy that people in the media want to give his teams every benefit of the doubt and help the Georgia Bulldogs along their way. I said in the preseason that I felt Georgia’s No. 11 ranking was probably too high, and that the expectations of championships weren’t very realistic.

While Georgia has (had) a lot of great pieces in place, the number of key players leaving the program after the 2014 season was simply going to be too much to overcome in just one season. Still, the Bulldogs were anointed by the media as favorites in the SEC East and a strong contender to win the conference title.

Anything is possible when you have some of the weapons Georgia has in the backfield, but to think this team — led by a quarterback (Greyson Lambert) who was a downgrade from someone who was merely efficient (Hutson Mason) — could compete on a championship level was unrealistic.

The Bulldogs are also adjusting to a new offensive coordinator, and are only in the second year of their defensive coordinator (combined a with a lot of young players on that side of the ball).

The truth of it is, Georgia fans are so desperate for a championship that they are willing to hang the banner of “this is the year” on any team the Bulldogs field with a few decent players. So when things don’t work out the way fans think they should — realistic or not — the blame automatically shifts to Mark Richt.

That’s the unfortunate truth of college football. Fans are never going to really lay blame on players, because they’re college students, not paid professionals, and so the default point of incrimination goes to the coaching staff, usually landing squarely on top of the head coach.

Yes, Georgia blew a 21-point lead this week, the largest lead they’d blown during Mark Richt’s 15-year tenure as head coach.

It was hardly Richt’s fault.

Truthfully, they were lucky to have that lead at all. They lost their best player, Nick Chubb, to a knee injury on the first play from scrimmage. They were playing on the road against a Tennessee team desperate for a win. 14 points of that lead came from a fumble recovery and punt return, as the offense had been largely ineffective the entire game.

It was the inability of the offense to generate anything against both Alabama and Tennessee which caused the defense to spend far too much time on the field against massive offensive lines and powerful running backs and quarterbacks. Without Chubb this week, that became even more visible.

Georgia needs a quarterback, and they’ll likely be getting a future great one next season in the nation’s No. 1 recruit, Jacob Eason. For now, they’ll have to work with what they have and sit through some painful throws from Greyson Lambert and Brice Ramsey. It’s just the reality of how this particular season has developed.

The feeling among those who crow about the need to replace Richt always come up with the same argument – the Bulldogs underachieve under his coaching.

But do they? Do they really underachieve?

Georgia Bulldogs
Georgia Bulldogs /

Georgia Bulldogs

This was never going to be a championship year, not with all the downgrades this Georgia team saw during the offseason. Richt may yet guide them to a 2 or 3-loss season, and another nice bowl berth. Those who look closely and analyze what’s happening can probably look at that as a win for Richt, but much of the Bulldog nation wants more.

That’s just not realistic.

Keepers of the “Fire Richt” banner point to the tremendous recruiting job that Richt does, followed by less than expected results.

While that’s an easy trump card to throw on the table, the reality is that those recruiting rankings are very subjective, and it only points to an overall class grade. Sometimes those supposedly great classes have some busts, or may not have players stacked at certain positions that unexpectedly turn into positions of need.

Richt isn’t going anywhere, and all the tweeting, re-tweeting and memes in the world aren’t going to change that fact. A head coach who just secured a sizeable raise for himself and his coaching staff and convinced the athletic director and university to invest millions of dollars in a new practice facility is not in danger of losing his job.

GridironNow.com’s Tony Barnhart stated it best when he said:

"“If Georgia football under Richt was a stock and I was your broker, I’d tell you to buy and hold. I can’t promise you how much you’ll make on the stock this year. There are too many games left to play and too many questions to be answered. But if you’ll hold on, you’ll be glad you did.”"

The masses will continue to howl for his firing, and the “hot seat” talk will probably shift in Mark Richt’s direction over the next couple of weeks.

Just white noise, nothing more. If you’re a Richt supporter (we know you’re out there) you have nothing to fear. He’s one of the top coaches in college football, and the people who sign his paychecks are fully aware of that fact.

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