Mark Richt: Does He Have to Beat Tech to Stay?

Mark Richt enters Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate with an 8-3 (5-3) Georgia Bulldogs team. Does the head coach of UGA have to beat GT to keep his job in Athens?

Tensions are high again surrounding Mark Richt and the Georgia Bulldogs football program. Though UGA can still win 10 games in 2015, after having to go to overtime versus Georgia Southern at home on Senior Day is not sitting well with many factions of Dawg Nation. While Richt’s Georgia Bulldogs have won three straight games, is he still on the hot seat and does he have to beat Georgia Tech to remain the head coach of UGA next season?

2015 was another year of high expectations set for the Georgia Bulldogs football program. Many believed that with RB Nick Chubb and arguably the deepest pass rushing group in football that UGA could offset sub-par quarterback play and contend for a College Football Playoff spot.

As it turns out, this was a down year for the SEC as a whole, with bad quarterbacking almost everywhere but Starkville. So its okay for Georgia to have a bad year under center when the same thing applies to most of the SEC. Yet, consistently underperforming, given the amount of talent Georgia recruits annually, has made many sour about Mark Richt as their head football coach.

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Georgia’s three losses in 2015 are against two teams bound for the SEC Championship Game in Alabama and Florida, with the other being to a Tennessee team that hadn’t beaten UGA in six years. Those aren’t exactly bad losses, as all are bowl eligible, but UGA doesn’t have any marquee victories. Auburn and Georgia Southern are bowl eligible, but that’s even pressing it.

Essentially, the 2015 Georgia Bulldogs are one of the better mediocre teams in the SEC in a down year for the conference. Only Alabama and Florida have a shot at making the playoff and after Ole Miss, who is the fourth best team in the SEC? In all honesty, the top halves of both the Big Ten and the Pac-12 are probably better than the top half of the SEC this season. So Georgia picked a good year to have a bad one.

However, that doesn’t aid in changing the mixed perception of Mark Richt and his control, or lack thereof, the UGA football program. Dawg Nation sees a Nick Saban-led Alabama Crimson Tide team, who is always nationally relevant and feels envious. A 35-year title drought will do that to you.

Interestingly, if we were to take out Saban’s Tide from the equation the last ten years, the two most consistently strong programs in the SEC were Georgia and LSU. Ironically, both LSU HC Les Miles and UGA HC Mark Richt are the two head coaches in the SEC feeling the most pressure as the 2015 NCAA season comes to a close.

To bring it all back home, does Mark Richt have to beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets down in Atlanta on Saturday if Georgia wants to keep him on as head coach? A loss to 3-8 (1-7) Georgia Tech is impossible to ignore for so many reasons.

Mark Richt is 12-2 in his 14 career meetings with the Ramblin’ Wreck in Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. His Dawgs are 7-0 in their last 7 trips to Bobby Dodd Stadium. UGA has never lost back to back games versus GT in the Mark Richt Era. A loss to a 3-8 team, regardless of it being a rivalry game on the road, isn’t tolerable. It would stand as one of the worst losses in Richt’s 15 years in Athens.

Next: Georgia Bulldogs: It's Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate Week!

While I’m certain that Georgia Southern is the better triple option team in the our great state this year, Georgia Tech has absolutely nothing to lose in Clean, Old-Fashioned, as they are not bowl eligible and UGA is their bowl game. If Richt and his Dawgs come out flat on The Flats, then he may have sealed his fate at Georgia. Let’s beat Tech. Go Dawgs!

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