While Les Miles Kept His Job...Mark Richt Wasn't So Lucky, and UGA Fans Are Pissed
AL – After 15 years, nine 10-win seasons and two SEC championships, Mark Richt is out as the Bulldogs’ coach.
Alabama coach Nick Saban shared his thoughts on the news during a teleconference Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t know what the world’s coming to in our profession,” Saban said.
“Mark Richt’s been a really good coach and real positive person in our profession for a long, long time,” Saban said. “I think when you win nine games, that’s a pretty good season, and especially with the body of work that he’s been able to put together there for however years he’s been there. …
“I hate to see people that have the character and quality and ability to affect young people in a positive way like Mark Richt not be a part of our profession.”
“It’s a miserable time of year in this profession because there’s a lot of great coaches [getting fired] that have done great things at the different places they’re at,” Florida coach Jim McElwain, who was Alabama’s offensive coordinator from 2008-11, said during the Sunday teleconference. “Let’s celebrate what [Richt] has done. He’s had a great career there.”
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145-51. 83-37 in the SEC. Nine 10 win seasons. Two SEC championships. Top 10 in the AP six times. A 9-3 record this year after their star running back and Heisman candidate shredded his knee. Annnd…goodbye!
“It was a bunch of different emotions,” former quarterback D.J. Shockley (2002-2005) told Bleacher Report. “I was mad. I was angry. I was kind of pissed off. Emotionally, I can’t even describe how it feels to hear that Coach Richt was gone. I was kind of sad and disappointed, and in a funk.”
“It was very unexpected,” former tight end Aron White (2007-2011) told Bleacher Report. “I didn’t even believe it at first. I thought ‘no way, not after we beat Georgia Tech, going to a decent bowl game and possibly getting 10 wins this season.’ Once I read it, I was in disbelief.”
“It ain’t right. Ain’t no Georgia football without Coach Richt,” Jenkins said, according to Seth Emerson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Just the way he dealt with everybody up here. And the way it went down just don’t sit right. Just from what we’ve been hearing.”
This one I think we all saw coming, and for a lot longer than the torrid one week Les Miles saga. The Alabama game was basically the nail in the coffin (and Saban kills yet another coach…no wonder he’s standing up for him so much, guilt is a motherfucker). Yeah a 9 win season is great, but those 3 losses are to your main SEC competition…again…including the 28 point shellacking vs. Bama and a 27-3 drubbing from Florida. No SEC Championship in 10 years and never playing for a National Title. That’s the kind of stuff that will ease you out the door in the SEC, especially after 15 seasons. It ain’t fair, but it’s life.
Richt is a class act though, had a great run and he’ll land on his feet pretty much immediately and make a shit ton more money, so don’t cry too hard for him.