Is Mark Richt Too Nice?

I have a lot of respect for Mark Richt as a person. On and off the football field Richt has handled himself with class and is somebody who has gone above and beyond the call of duty for his fellow man. He and his wife Katharyn adopted two children from Eastern Europe (one of which had a facial deformity) whose parents had abandoned them. Richt spends time in the off-season traveling to impoverished areas (this year he traveled to Honduras) and giving his time and his money to help their cause. Mark Richt is clearly a good man and he’s a man that I would want to coach my children and to be part of their lives (if they were athletically gifted enough to play major college football).

There is a point where you have to separate Mark Richt as a man and Mark Richt as a coach. Don’t worry this isn’t going to be a “fire Mark Richt” article. Mark Richt has a competitive fire. You have to in order to coach big boy SEC football. But sometimes I think Mark Richt is just too good of a guy. This came into the picture in Georgia’s most recent bowl loss to Michigan State. Georgia’s defense made a huge INT in the first OT on Michigan State’s first possession and it set Georgia up to win the game with any type of score. Instead of being aggressive and trying to get as many yards as possible to set up a FG (or even try for a TD), Georgia immediately went conservative and called on struggling kicker Blair Walsh to win the game with a 40+ yard FG on third down after taking a knee on second down. In my eyes, this was Richt giving Blair Walsh the chance to redeem himself with one kick. One big kick to win the bowl game and a lot of his failures this year would be forgotten. He would be redeemed.

Was this an example of Richt giving one of his players an opportunity to “right” himself instead of giving the team the best opportunity to win or did he really have the confidence that Walsh would hit that kick (after his woeful season) and believe that this was the teams best chance to win? After the two, yes two, fourth down TD passes against Florida I have to believe that Richt was giving his guy the opportunity to redeem himself. Would he have made this same call if the game was more meaningful (i.e. an SEC or regular season game)?

While that is just one example, there are more if you look for them. Keeping coaches on staff longer than their performance dictated and not being quick enough to fix issues (on and off the field) around have been a couple of problems over the last few years. Mark Richt’s belief in people is one of his biggest strengths as a human being and as a person. But as a football coach, it can also be a detriment if you have the wrong people. I hope Mark Richt is the Head Coach for Georgia for a long time but if he wants to get Georgia to the next level he needs to become a little bit meaner and reach down and bring that competitive fire to the forefront on the football field and behind the scenes at Georgia.