Georgia Football Coach Mark Richt Too Nice To Win The BCS?

I was listening to ESPN talk radio and they were interviewing Coach Richt from UGA.  Now you football nuts out there know that I’m a Bulldog, I bleed red and black and will never deny it.  So you have the right to take everything I say concerning Bulldog Football with a grain of salt.  But anyway, I digress.  On ESPN, during the interview they brought up the idea that has been thrown around that Coach Richt is “too nice”  to win a BCS Championship.  They even asked Richt his thoughts on it.

The bottom line is that the ESPN analysts and Coach Richt himself both discounted the notion.  The ESPN guys said that it was absolute nuts.  Coach Richt’s comments were basically something to the effect that “Well, Tony Dungy is a pretty nice guy and he hasn’t done too badly”.  And I agree with all of the above.  I don’t think Richt is too nice a guy or that it will prevent him from winning a championship.

If you ask any of his former players (and by the way, he’s put quite a few into the NFL), they will tell you that he is quite serious and hard when it’s needed.  They almost laugh at the idea that he’s “too nice”.

Now part of this discussion, I’m sure, came from the huge expectations that the Bulldogs failed to live up to last football season.  But even as a fan, I questioned the logic of giving a team with almost all freshman starting on the offensive line a preseason #1 ranking.   But after a rash of injuries and a disappointing season,  some of this “nice guy” talk started up about Coach Richt.

As I said, I don’t believe the “nice guy” label is a problem.  Coach Richt is a fine, Christian man AND an excellent football coach in my opinion.  He has rebuilt the University of Georgia program back into a national contender after a number of floundering years in the “post Vince Dooley” era.  But is he good enough to win a BCS title?

Well that remains to be seen.  I personally believe that he is.  Is there anything that might hold him back?  At this point,  I only see one thing that might. And it’s not the “nice guy” thing in my opinion.  Now, first let me say that I really love Mark Richt.  And I want to see him stat at UGA for a long time.  But one thing that I do think is a strength of his that could turn into a potential weakness is his loyalty.

Now loyalty is a good thing.  Just ask Joe Terashinski,  DJ Shockley, or Joe Cox.  All played behind long time starters, waited their turn, and Richt gave them their shot at the starting role at quarterback.  So what’s wrong with that?  Nothing.

But loyalty can become a weakness if taken too far.  As in the case of Defensive Coordinator Willie Martinez.  There are a lot of Bulldog fans who believe like I do that Martinez is the weak link in the Bulldog staff.  Now last season was not Martinez’s fault.  But at the same time, our defense didn’t play to it’s potential, was very undisciplined, and was very slow to adjust. And that’s coaching plain and simple.

Now after the end of last season, a lot of people thought that Coach Richt might make a change at defensive coordinator.  I personally was really hoping that he would.  But he didn’t and a lot of us fans were disappointed.  At that point, I really thought the loyalty thing might end up biting him in the butt.

But then in a quiet move in March, Richt named Linebackers coach John Jancek as co Defensive Coordinator. I haven’t seen a lot written about this and I don’t know exactly why Richt made the move.  But I’m encouraged.  And maybe, just maybe, Coach Richt is positioning his Bulldogs to take a run at a National Championship in the short term.