After UGA’s loss in the SEC Championship game, some Bulldogs fans, along with sports reporters such as ESPN’s Bill Connelly, felt compelled to tweet out comparisons between coach Kirby Smart and former UGA coach Mark Richt after their first four years on the job.
Richt posted a 42-10 record with one SEC Championship after four years, while Smart is now at 43-12 with one conference title.
(Note: This story resumes underneath the poll)
ESPN’s Connelly tweet served as additional purpose, as he openly lobbied for Smart to hire former UGA offensive coordinator Mike Bobo in the same position for the current Bulldogs. Connelly pointed out that Richt waited seven years to relinquish play-calling duties to Bobo, while Smart could do it next year in his fifth year at the helm of UGA.
In fairness to the team’s current offensive coordinator, James Coley, he’s a big part of the problem with UGA’s current offense, but there’s plenty of blame to go around. Quarterback Jake Fromm has struggled mightily over the last five games, and has suddenly lost a ton of accuracy that made him one of the nation’s top freshmen quarterbacks in 2017. UGA also had to rebuild its receiving group after the NFL defections since last season.
But back to the Smart and Richt comparisons: It’s a comparison that some UGA fans love to make, unfairly or fairly. It was clearly a viral topic after Saturday’s SEC Championship.
With all due respect to Richt, it seems that Smart would be ahead of Richt by good measure due to the fact that Smart led the Bulldogs to an appearance in the 2017 national championship game. Smart has also recruited at a level never seen before at UGA.
But I may be wrong. Thoughts? Please post below.
