Image by Jim Hipple
Pardon the ramble. But I waited a week to post this...
Those of you who want to get rid of Richt and are using the SC game as their catalyst to suggest change NOW really need to think about where we are, who we are and where we are going.
1. Mike Adams is not going to Fire Mark Richt. Not with his retirement looming in June 2013. Period. If Mark lost the rest of his games, he would STILL not get fired by Mike Adams, and the BOR can't/won't do it without Adams. Adams is going to coast out and leave this issue on the doorstep of the next President. That's just who he is.
2. We aren't going to lose the rest of our games. We are likely going to win 10-11 games including the bowl. No one is firing their coach for winning 10 games. Even NFL teams who play 16 games in a season and go through coaches like socks rarely fire coaches for winning 10 games. No successful college has done it.
3. Raising hell on message boards about Richt is therefore pointless. And therefore solves what?
4. If Richt isn't the answer, then incrementalist improvement won't cut it. Greg McGarity has done absolutely nothing at UGA to suggest he's capable of or willing to make a big important hire or making massive, decisive sweeping changes. He came into a massive pile of dysfunction left over from Damon, and (to his credit) he made a check list of the dumbest crap we were doing and slowly worked his way through the obvious items on the list. He fixed issues like not having a nutritionist or playing football games AT Louisville. But the big issues like the dumpster fire of the S&C program or the Baseball Team's head coach and facilities were dealt with incrementally or not at all.
If we want to "out Bama" the Tide, we're going to need an AD, President and Coach ready to invest about $3 million per year in Football Operations, Football Analysts and S&C personnel. We're going to need to invest another $2 million a year in coaching salaries across the board. Then we're going to need a bigger compliance staff to keep those 20 new staffers in compliance.
That's more than a money issue. That's a culture change regarding what we invest in. Those personnel investments could be happening RIGHT NOW. And they aren't. And why? This isn't 2008 where Richt didn't get the S&C dollars he asked for because Damon didn't trust CVH to do anything with the money. This is McGarity saying that he doesn't believe Bama's org chart is street legal...and rather than work with the NCAA to end their staffing practices OR adopt the same practices in hiring and staff growth...we are in this passive aggressive purgatory of not doing the new best practice AND not forcing the other guy to stop it.
We're also going to need a world class coach. Those do not grow on trees, and there is nothing to suggest that Kirby, Mullen or anyone else is going to be that guy.
But I digress.
Just remember the greatest lie ever told was "it can't get worse" related to any situation. It can always get worse.
If we beat UF...all of this will be in the rear view mirror. If we don't....nothing is going to change. Richt will still be the coach in 2013. Thus, the headline. Staying the Course because there's no other option.
PWD
BTW -- I'm not afraid of change if that's what it takes down the road. But, I am completely skeptical that we have the organizational competency to fix this if Richt isn't the answer. Here's hoping he is, and here's hoping that what we saw vs. South Carolina was simply a by-product of the hole CMR dug himself being far larger than most folks realized in 2009.
