The End of an Era
It’s a fickle thing, the world of sports.
And on the morning of November 29, 2015, Georgia fans learned this the hard way; when news broke that Mark Richt had been fired as head coach of the University of Georgia. Many of the first reports coming out reported that he had been fired. Then around 11:30 CST/12:30EST, the official twitter account of UGA Athletics tweeted out that he, Richt, and AD McGarity had been in talks all morning and had come to the agreement that it would be best if Richt resigned instead of being fired. (Although, in my mind, being forced to resign is essentially the same thing as being fired).
I have been a Mark Richt fan for as long as I can remember. I respect the fact that he has gone about running the Georgia football program the right way, “The Georgia Way” as he likes to say. It speaks to his character, as a person and coach, that while he cared about winning, he also cared about preparing his players for their lives post graduation/football. He cared about shaping the young men that came into his program into even better men. That’s why he ran one of the strictest, if not the strictest, programs in the country, let alone the SEC. And for that I respect him.
Many people in Bulldog nation have been upset with him because he hasn’t been able to win “the big one” and he hadn’t won an SEC title since 2005, even though the Dawgs have been favored coming out of the East every year for as long as I can remember. And we can’t forget about 2012, when we played in what was essentially the national championship game and were only 5 yards away from going to Miami to stomp Notre Dame. With that being said, I understand why many people wanted him gone, because at the end of the day, to most people, it’s just about the wins and losses, not about what else a coach does off the field and that’s unfortunate.
It’s rare, in the world of sports, nowadays to see coaches like Richt. Not only is he a brilliant coach, he is a man of high character. And that is something to be respected, whether you like him or not. He consistently put up winning season after winning season, all the while, not ever turning his back on his values. Why that can’t be respected in a world that’s dominated by teams and coaches who go about winning the wrong way, is beyond me. In recent years, he has overcome tremendous adversity and yet has still managed to have winning seasons. Yes losing Marshall two years in a row hurt, so did losing Gurley last year, and then Chubb this year. But all the while, he managed to overcome it and still produce winning seasons.
I think Nick Saban said it best in his press conference. He himself has changed the standards of what it means to be successful in college football and that he’s worried what will happen to him when he loses 3 games. “I hate to see people that have the character and the quality and ability to affect young people in a positive way, like Mark Richt, not be a part of our profession,” Saban said. “And people don’t realize the importance of some of the other things that go into college coaching, whether it’s helping develop young men as people, helping them develop careers off the field by graduating from school.” (quote taken from AJC article)
I’m not sure there’s much more I can say that hasn’t already been said except for thank you.
So thank you Mark Richt. Thank you for everything that you have done for the University of Georgia, the football program, the Bulldog nation, and most importantly what you did for all your players past and present. Thank you for shaping them into outstanding young men who will go out and change the world for the better, whether they’re playing in the pros, somewhere coaching, or even if they’re not involved with sports anymore. I can only hope that one day, my future children will have the good fortune of playing for a coach of your caliber.
Until next time,
Katie
