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Richt under fire at Georgia

By Lew Gilliland
The Times-Journal

Published November 7, 2009

Two years ago, Georgia coach Mark Richt was a genius, the toast of the SEC.

He ordered his players — all of the them — to rush the field and draw a celebration penalty after scoring their first touchdown against rival Florida, and the inspired Bulldogs rolled to 42-30 victory.

A few weeks later, he dressed his team in black jerseys and called for the fans to black out Sanford Stadium for a rivalry game with Auburn. The fans complied, and the Bulldogs bulldozed the Tigers 45-20.

Georgia finished the season with seven straight wins and a No. 2 ranking.

The Bulldogs had two of the SEC’s rising stars — quarterback Matthew Stafford and running back Knowshon Moreno — returning for 2008. They were the preseason pick to win the national championship.

Richt and his team were poised to take over the world … right up until Sept. 27, 2008.

Richt called for another blackout, this time against Alabama. The fans complied, but Alabama responded by giving Georgia a black eye. The Tide built a 31-0 halftime lead en route to a 41-30 victory, and the Bulldogs haven’t been the same since.

Heading into today’s game against Tennessee Tech, the Bulldogs are 4-4, having been blown out by Tennessee and Florida over the last month.

And Richt, the genius of 2007, is quickly becoming the coach on the hot seat for 2009. He’s also the latest example of how fast a coach’s fortunes can change in the SEC.

Terry Bowden went 20-1-1 in his first two seasons at Auburn but quit five years later with his team standing at 1-5. Mike Shula led Alabama to 10 wins in 2005 and was dismissed a year later.

Tennessee’s Phillip Fulmer won the national title in 1998 and received a pink slip in 2008. Tommy Tuberville led Auburn to a perfect season in 2004. Like Fulmer, he also called it quits after a 5-7 campaign in 2008.

In the SEC, today’s failures overshadow yesterday’s accomplishments.

That’s why Richt’s situation bears watching. Over the last eight years, his teams won 10 games or more six times and claimed a pair of SEC titles.

Those accomplishments should give him enough street cred to survive this season, but he’ll almost surely have to make staff changes when the year ends. And, if things don’t improve in 2010, he could quickly become the latest SEC success story gone bad.

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