Rhetoric the Problem for Mark Richt?

Prior to this season, speculation roared out there that Georgia Coach Mark Richt was on the "hot seat." Indeed, the past two seasons at UGA have not lived up to expectations. Of course, a lot of that is Mark Richt's fault in the way that he talks about his team. Many of us saw last weekend what we suspected all along: South Carolina has good team this year. However, all offseason, Spurrier was dogging his team and Steven Garcia. As a result, South Carolina was not ranked for whatever reason going into the season. Now they 13 or 16, depending on the poll, and have proved they can win the East.

However, the opposite seems to be true with Richt. He and the team always talk about how they have some chip on their shoulders and how this season will be different. Going into last season, all we heard was that Bryan Evans found a home at safety and special plays would be called for Logan Gray. The defense was going to be a lot better and there would be less penalties. Oh yes, and the o-line would be the strength. Well, Richt was 0 for 5 on those predictions. The only one of those that made the slightest improvement was the o-line, and that was just the last four games.

See, my feeling is one that people probably haven't thought of much. Listen to Spurrier, Nick Saban, and Urban Meyer. They are constantly challenging their teams. For better or for worse, the criticisms fire up their teams. Their players strive week in and week out to get better. That's why they have a national championship or championships and Richt will never win one. His players always look unmotivated. They look like they were told that it's okay to take a game off here and there. Every year, UGA gets blown out of a big game. Afterward, UGA faithful listen to what went wrong. Well, I know what's wrong!

Every offseason, the UGA staff comes out and says how much better this team is from the previous year. Yet, the three years at least, that has not been the case. Fundamentals are clearly lagging. The strength, conditioning, and mental preparations are terrible. Those boys get rocked physically and knocked off the ball every game, even by inferior opponents. Of course, I don't blame the players entirely. Richt makes remarks each week about how sluggish practice looks on any given day. Well Coach, it is your job to challenge those boys and to make them line up and run the drills properly! That's what champions do. They put forth maximum effort and do it right. Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, and even Boise State now do all of that. That's why those teams win their respective conferences or are at least in the hunt each and every year now and UGA is not. 

This Saturday will reveal the character of this Mark Richt team as they attempt to do something that UGA football hasn't done in three years: WIN A BIG CONFERENCE GAME!! Saturday, the Dawgs will play Arkansas in Athens. This is the type of game Richt easily won in his early years but has lost a lot of in recent years. Personally, I don't think UGA has a chance if they play the way we have witnessed since 2008. Winning at home for Richt is harder than winning on the road. Sanford Stadium has a reputation of being one of the quietest stadiums in the land. Yet, what scares me the most is that I don't see any sense of urgency from this team. Granted, I have not seen practice this week, so I don't know. I highly doubt though that we will see much difference this week against Arkansas. Sure, we are told the playbook will be opened up more for Aaron Murray. Does that sound familiar? See above! I guess we will see one more play-action pass than last week. 

Look, I like Coach Richt and I think he is a excellent and passionate coach. However, the UGA faithful are clearly tiring of all this talk and no walk. The Dawgs are a loss away this weekend from having their season all but over. That is unacceptable to any team, especially UGA! If Mark Richt and this team really do have pride and motivation, then they show up to both practice and the game this week, play as hard as they can on every play, and show the nation they are not going away this season.

There is the challenge boys!