This past Saturday was a pretty good day. Like any day there is good and bad, but overall it was a good day. I got to play golf with my little brother( he whipped me pretty good) and then that evening I got to spend with my family celebrating my Memommie's 84th birthday. Now the bad. I had to unfortunately watch the Georgia Bulldogs play what had to be the worst game I've ever witnessed against the Tennessee Volunteers. Since the debacle in Knoxville, there have been articles written and talk show lights lit up over what went wrong and who is to blame. One of the comments written and said is that the school should look at a change in the head coach. Now that got me thinking. I thought, people, really, calm down! The first sign of adversity and people want to go to the extreme. Changing the head coach is not the answer, that should be the last thing anyone thinks, especially the decision makers in Athens and most certainly the fans.
I thought this would be a great time to remind people just how good the University of Georgia has got it when it comes to the head coach of the football team, Mark Richt. A little background, Mark Richt came from Florida State as the Offensive Coordinator for Bobby Bowden. He was the OC for 10 years there. On his watch the offense was consistently in the top ten in the country. They lost only two games fives times in his OC tenure and never more than that. They were never outside the top five in the polls too. Since he left FSU, they have won 10 or more games in a season just once and have lost at least three games every year. In his eight seasons as the head coach of Georgia, they have had SIX seasons with double digit wins. His win/loss record is 82-22 for a .788 winning percentage. I tell you all this for three reasons. First reason, the two previous coaches at Georgia, Ray Goff and Jim Donnan had a combined record of 86-53-1 for a .614 winning percentage. Do the fans really want to go back to that? I don't think so. Second reason, the coach that Richt cut his teeth with, Bobby Bowden, was 71-26 or .732 winning percentage his first eight seasons at FSU. In his ninth season, the one Richt is in now at Georgia, he was 7-3-2. I think FSU has done pretty darn good since. As a side note, Bowden went 4-7 in his ninth season at West Virginia and then went 9-3 the next season before heading south to Tallahassee. My third and final reason for all this is to compare him to who a lot of people consider the greatest Georgia coach of all time, Vince Dooley. Now, I am not trying to say Mark Richt is better than Vince Dooley or ever will be, only time will tell where Richt will line up next to Dooley. I am just comparing where they stack in the same amount of time both have coached. Coach Dooley was 59-24-4 for a winning percentage of .678. In his ninth season, he went 7-4. I think if fans keep this in mind, they won't think they have it so bad after all. There is going to be some rough patches and sure some changes need to be made, but changing head coaches is not the answer nor the change that needs to be made.
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