Georgia’s recruiting and lack of spending: Start with the lack of an indoor facility, which was a big deal and put Richt and his coaches far behind the top SEC programs. When UGA finally increased the recruiting budget to more than $1.3 million – Georgia’s main recruiting rivals were all spending significantly more in their recruiting efforts. A big portion of that goes to off-field staffers who do a lot of the tedious recruiting work, allowing the full-time coaches more time for evaluation and in-person recruiting. The Georgia administration finally agreed to raise their recruiting funding to a higher level, but by then it was too late for Richt.
Richt was 145-51 at Georgia, a .7398 winning percentage that is the best ever for a Bulldogs football coach.
Only Bob Stoops and Barry Switzer at Oklahoma and Tom Osborne at Nebraska won as many games in the first 15 years as a head coach, according to NCAA records.
As I posted in another thread: Dabo Swinney took over the Clemson Tigers during the 2008 season with 7 games remaining and won 4 of those game while losing 3. In his 2nd year, he led the Tigers to a 9 and 4 regular season. But, in his 3rd year, his record was 6 wins and 7 losses. During his first 4 years, he lost 3 of 4 bowl games. The usual suspects were screaming that Swinney be fired immediately and listed a mountain of reasons why he is such a terrible coach. Yet, today, Swinney is considered a God-like figure in Tiger land.
Mark Richt is a top flight human being and the same can be said of him as a head football coach. No one knows better than Coach Richt that significant change will be required over the offseason. Sometimes it is not the play (or scheme), but the actors (players). Yet, when one fairly grades the current QB’s and offensive line it doesn’t seem that to greatly improve the football team will require a Stephen Hawking type of solution.
My bet is on Mark Richt…a true Cane
