In
September 2006, I was interviewed by the publisher of the Colorado Rivals.com site. During that interview, I outlined to him
the source of my confidence in the UGA program at that time. I said:
"With the exception of Auburn...every time Georgia laces them up, I expect us to win IF we show up prepared and ready to play. We rarely *lose* football games anymore. We beat ourselves via coming in flat or just stone cold wetting the bed...like when we enter the Jacksonville City limits.
...We just have to focus on blocking, tackling, passing and catching. The basics. If we make the plays that our talent level suggests we should make, we win.
Georgia doesn't have to do anything super human to win games with its talent, team work and conditioning.
Auburn is the ONLY team that we play that is just as tough. Just as well coached. Just as deep. Just as talented. And they are the only team that TAKES victory from us without us giving it to them or nutting up.
That's a very good place to be as a program. (PWD - Sept. 2006)"
That article was written before Urban Meyer really got things cooking at Florida. Before Saban turned Bama around. Before Miles really established himself at LSU. Before those three coaches combined to raise the standard of play in the SEC. Just as importantly, it was also before Georgia started the slow erosion of many of those areas of my confidence listed above.
Mark Richt's FutureI don't want Mark Richt to leave. Damon Evans doesn't want Mark Richt to leave. Mike Adams doesn't want Mark Richt to leave, and the vast majority of the lucid, Hartman contributing portion of the Bulldog Nation doesn't want Mark Richt to leave.
Just as importantly, Mark Richt doesn't want to leave. He has moved about 30 friends and family members to Athens. This is his family's home. All of those factors are why he's not going to leave.
But that doesn't mean that Mark Richt or any of the other folks listed above are happy with the current state of affairs. Nor should they be.
In the wake of the UT and LSU losses, there's a lot of talk about play calling, talent level, penalities, turnovers, etc. Those are
symptoms. They aren't root cause problems. In my opinion, the
Top 3 Core Issues are:
1. Lack of a Sense of Urgency -- This is a by product of Coach Richt's eight year deal and his enormous buyout. That contract and his track record of averaging over 10 wins a season have created a comfortable existence in Athens. Comfort has arguably lead to complacency and stagnation. The flip side of the argument -- Richt's contract promotes a level of stability that helps us recruit at a very high level.
2. Lack of a Transparent Meritocracy -- Sport is the ultimate meritocracy. The best move up. The weak move down. When the meritocracy breaks down within a program so that friendships, past relationships and/or seniority within the coaching staff or depth chart are favored over excellence or pursuit of excellence, everything falls apart. Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll have a relentless pursuit of merit among their players and coaches. If you're not good enough, you don't play or you move on. Knowshon Moreno would never redshirt for Pete Carroll. Bacarri Rambo would never be second string for Nick Saban, and our kick coverage would never be so un-special under Urban Meyer...not for this long.
3. Lack of an Attack Mentality on Every Down -- On Sunday, Blutarsky said we have
a crisis of faith. He explained that by saying:
"It's a systemic doubt: the coaches lack faith in the players to execute and the players lack faith in the coaches' ability to deploy them efficiently and effectively."
I agree with him; although, I'd use a different phrase. I'd say we're coaching and playing scared. Scared of failure. Scared of giving up the big play. Scared of freshmen mistakes. Scared of everything. In the LSU game, we had Logan Gray fielding punts at mid-field in an obvious designed fair catch where we also didn't attempt to block the punt. That's as passive and submissive of a coaching move as you'll see. We're not attacking on special teams. We're not consistently attacking on defense. We're not consistently attacking on offense. We're not making the other guy uncomfortable.
The good news. All of this is fixable. And all of it is fixable by Mark Richt. In 2001, that's the kind of coaching staff and program he was building. But somewhere along the way things just sort of slipped.
How do you fix those issues?If you fix #1, then #2 and #3 would fix itself.
If you fix #2, then #3 would fix itself.
The problem is...it's all fixable, but not without introducing new personalities into the mix. Something will have to change on that front, and Richt will have to make moves in the off season to address the issues.
Naming names and calling for specific heads to roll at this point does nothing. It helps nothing because Richt is not going to make a move mid-season. Nor should he. And Damon shouldn't start saber rattling either. Damon's private message to Richt should only be, "I'll give you the financial resources to do what it takes to make the staff excellent when the time comes. You can count on me."
Beyond that, Richt has to decide. How many more times does he want to feel like he felt Sunday morning? It's up to him.
PWD
