Mark Richt’s support is beginning to crumble, and here’s hard evidence
Mark Richt probably has no bigger supporter among the Atlanta area media than me. I refuse to budge, like the stubborn Irishman I am, and to give in to the hate.
Hate leads to the dark side, and the dark side wears orange.
But I can’t help but notice the huge swing in opinion among the stalwart Atlanta media members who have always stood by and said “No, he’s still got more in him”.
Eegads…even the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Bradley and Jeff Schultz have now been flipped like an FBI informant when it comes to Mark Richt, saying it’s time for Georgia and the embattled head coach to go their separate ways.
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“In years past, I’ve asked if Georgia could get anybody better than Richt. I now think it could — because I no longer consider Richt a top-shelf coach. He was once, but that was then.” Bradley says in his latest column, with Schultz stating “I never understood the Georgia-will-always-be-Georgia narrative. I also never bought into the Richt-can’t-win-a-national-title refrain. Until now.”
I stand practically alone – me and my rose-colored glasses, my kool-aid, if you will – among the many who cover the Bulldogs in this town. I still believe, silly as it may seem, that Richt can get the job done.
I won’t say there haven’t been disappointments along the way, but I still firmly believe that the expectations for this season were way off. This was never a team that should have been looked at as potential champs, even in a weakly East Division. The loss of Nick Chubb didn’t help.
Georgia Bulldogs
The biggest mistake Mark Richt has made during his 15 years as Georgia’s head coach is the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer (yes, even worse than the Grantham hire), and it may be the mistake that costs him his job in the end unless he owns it as a bad hire and goes a different direction.
With or without Schotty, my timeline is simple. If within Jacob Eason’s second year (assuming he still comes), the Bulldogs aren’t running wild on the SEC East, looking better than anyone in the West, and being mentioned by Herbstreit as a playoff contender, then I’ll cash in my Richt chips, and call it a nice run for a great coach.
But for now, and in the foreseeable future, I don’t think Richt is done. He’s got more in him. There’s still some fight there. Maybe having his support crumbling will be what brings it out in him, and his team.
You say you love your coach, Bulldogs? Well, now is the time to step up and help save him from ever…EVER…wearing orange.