Georgia Bulldogs Poised to Win Bowl Game For Richt

The Georgia Bulldogs, though in the midst of a head coaching search, should win their bowl game regardless of opponent for their departing coach, Mark Richt.

With the chance at another 10 win season for Mark Richt at the University of Georgia, many of Dawg Nation certainly didn’t think that 2015 was his last after beating in-state rival Georgia Tech on Saturday, 13-7. By late Sunday morning, UGA AD Greg McGarity met with Coach Richt and told him that he would not lead the Georgia Bulldogs after this season. The Mark Richt Era of Georgia Bulldogs football lasts one more bowl game.

Many in Dawg Nation are understandably outraged at the firing of their head coach of the last fifteen years. Under Mark Richt, UGA was a perennial 10-win team competing for a chance to play for an SEC Championship in Atlanta. Despite losing the program’s best player mid-season in Sophomore RB Nick Chubb, 9-5 (5-3) was not a strong enough record for Coach Richt and McGarity believed it was time to make the head coaching change.

I though UGA picked a good year to have a down season. The SEC is the weakest it has been in over a decade, with awful quarterback play almost everywhere but Starkville. The perceived Top 5 teams in the SEC, which would theoretically include 9-3 Georgia (26th in most recent AP Poll), are not better than the Top 5 in the Big Ten or the Pac-12 in 2015. The Big Twelve has four good teams and the ACC is the ACC.

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However, this was supposedly a long time coming with McGarity wanting Richt out as early as last bowl season, a year where went 10-3 (6-2), clobbering Louisville in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte and finishing No. 9 in the country. There isn’t a nicer, more well-respected head coach in all of college football than Mark Richt, so hopefully Greg McGarity knows exactly what he’s doing with this new coaching hire.

So what is Mark Richt to do now that he’s out of a job at the end of bowl season? He’s not on the recruiting trail with the rest of his staff and will certainly weigh his options about what his next move is. Richt could return to Georgia in some capacity as a goodwill ambassador of sorts with the athletic department, though the nature of that role is still unclear at this team.

Mark Richt said during his firing press conference that he misses coaching quarterbacks hands-on and calling plays. He had to give that up to former OC and current Colorado State Rams HC Mike Bobo nearly a decade ago. With all this idle time, Mark Richt has nothing better to do at the moment than the get his Georgia Bulldogs ready one last time for their much-anticipated bowl game.

Unlike so many of Georgia’ bowl games in the past, this upcoming one doesn’t fell like a consolation prize after a disappointing season, but rather the final chapter in the proud legacy of the Mark Richt Era in Athens. Dawg Nation would likely show overwhelming support for their coach one last time during their southeastern bowl game.

Next: Mark Richt Fired, Will Coach Bowl Game

The players who wanted nothing more than to win a National Championship for Mark Richt will have one last opportunity to win the big game for the Georgia Bulldogs under their beloved coach. It doesn’t matter if Georgia plays a ranked team like Michigan or Northwestern or a team with a worse record than UGA like Miami or Penn State, the Georgia Bulldogs will find a way to win the final game of the Mark Richt Era. There is literally nothing left to lose. Go Dawgs, Sic ‘Em!

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