Coaching changes are coming at Georgia amid the Bulldogs’ disappointing season, and a report says even head coach Mark Richt is on the hot seat.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Dawg Nation says the sentiment surrounding the Bulldogs changed after the team’s poor October. Specifically, losing 27-3 to SEC rival Florida led many program supporters demanding answers for the bad play of late. The Bulldogs failed to score a touchdown in three of four October games, a month in which they went 1-3. The offense’s struggles have first-year offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer on the potential chopping block. Even defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt is said to be on the hot seat, as is Richt.
Via Dawg Nation’s report:
There is general dysfunction and dissension not only within the team but also within the football staff.
Richt has been issued a directive to fix it, according to several sources familiar with the situation. His ability to do that over these final four weeks of the season — as the Bulldogs play Kentucky on Saturday and Auburn, Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech after that — will determine not only the futures of some of the coaches on his staff, but Richt’s as well.
Firing Richt would be a huge — and risky — move for the program. He has greater success than almost any coach in the program’s history. He has won double-digit games in a season nine times out of 14, and he still has a chance to get there this season, though that may be unlikely. Richt is also due $4 million a season through 2019 thanks to his past success.
This seems like quite the overreaction to what most should have realized was going to be a shaky season. Even with Heisman Trophy contender Nick Chubb on the team, Georgia was so uncertain at quarterback they opened the season with Virginia transfer Greyson Lambert under center. Lambert, mind you, lost the starting job at Virginia, playing in the weaker ACC. Then after Chubb went down against Tennessee, fans should have adjusted their expectations accordingly.
Maybe some changes to the coaching staff are called for, but getting rid of Richt amid one season that isn’t going as well as hoped seems like it would be shortsighted, even despite Richt’s reputation for struggling in big-time games.
