The following piece was written by Jeff Schultz and published on October 11 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Mark Richt is facing more doubt about the direction of the Georgia football program than he has since arriving in Athens in 2001. So it follows that he may have to deal with situations he never has encountered before. Two in particular:
1) Deciding whether to fire (or significantly demote) one of his top assistants, specifically defensive coordinator Willie Martinez and/or offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.
2) If Richt remains fiercely loyal to Martinez and Bobo, how does he react if athletic director Damon Evans mandates change?
It might seem like this is getting a little bit ahead of the situation. Evans hasn’t indicated he ever would dictate coaching matters to Richt. And I suppose there’s always the possibility that things suddenly click for the 3-3 Bulldogs and this whole subject goes away. But let’s consider a few things:
-There are six games left on the schedule: two likely wins (Vanderbilt and Tennessee Tech), one likely loss (Florida) and three games that can go either way (Auburn, Kentucky, Georgia Tech). A sweep of those last three seems unlikely. So at best Georgia probably is looking at a 7-5 season and a lower-tier bowl game.
-The Bulldogs rank 75th nationally in total defense, 97th against the pass and 100th in scoring defense. In four SEC games, opponents have scored 37, 41, 20 and 45 points and totaled 1,752 yards, an average of 438 yards. This follows a season in which Martinez took a lot of heat for collapses against Alabama, Florida, LSU and Georgia Tech.
-The offense has failed to produce a touchdown in 10 of the last 11 quarters – the exception being two late scores in the loss to LSU – and ranks 97th overall and 74th in scoring. Richt expected a productive season even with the losses of Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and Mohamed Massaquoi. Why? Because the offensive line was supposed to be signficantly better than a year ago. It isn’t.
Richt and Evans both are extremely competitive. But it’s always important to note in situations like this that Evans did not hire Richt.
Two other things are worth mentioning: The two appeared to be on opposite sides on whether to have the Georgia Dome rotate in as a venue for the Georgia-Florida game. (Evans was against it; Richt supported the concept). At one point, Evans also said, “Some people may say Florida is beating us because we’re in Jacksonville. I’m not an excuse guy.” (Stating the obvious here: Evans was referring to fans, not Richt.)
Evans also has sought to increase Georgia football as a national brand, leading to more difficult non-conference opponents. But Richt can’t like the fact that Georgia played Oklahoma State and Arizona State in the first four games this season, while Florida played early games against Charleston Southern and Troy, while Alabama faced Florida International and North Texas.
Regardless, this will be an interesting situation to watch.
Do you have any thoughts on how it might develop?
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