Posts tagged MarkRicht at FanHouse

As FanHouse previews each BCS conference, the college football songbook will cast an unflattering light on each conference in the only way we know how. Next up the SEC.




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Photo Credits:

*Super special thanks to Losers With Socks for the use of their photoshop brilliance. *

Big thanks to Georgia Sports Blog as well

Every Day Should Be Saturday

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Unsportsmanlike conduct... seventy counts of too many men on the field... penalty is 1050 yards, or 10 and a half touchdowns for Florida... repeat the down.

In the history of human conflict as we know it, the one unifying constant isn't violence, it's escalation. You can start a blood feud without a single shot; you can't start one without deliberately trying to piss the other side off. That's a fact that Mark Richt and Urban Meyer are both well aware of these days as anticipation builds for the 2008 iteration of the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.

Recall, if you will, the scene above, as the Bulldogs celebrated their opening score with a giant dance party at the goal line. Better yet, watch the video:



Yes, that's Richt openly admitting to encouraging that behavior. As you might imagine, Urban Meyer is less than amused.

Sophomore defensive end Michael Lemon has run his last wind sprint, lifted his last weight, and punched his last eye socket as a member of the Georgia Bulldogs, it seems. Coach Mark Richt announced today that Lemon has been dismissed from the program:

"He's been dismissed as a result of some poor decisions and conduct that is not in line with standards we have in place at Georgia," head coach Mark Richt said in a university release. "I have had discussions with Michael and he understands the decision."

Richt goes on to say that Lemon would like to return to the program, but that decision is a long, long way away, and we're not holding out hope.

Lemon's dismissal is likely the result of a battery charge from earlier this month, when he punched a fellow student's face hard enough to cause a blowout fracture to the eye. What's a blowout fracture? Glad you asked!

According to medical Web sites, a blowout fracture occurs when the eye suffers significant blunt force trauma, typically from being hit by a baseball bat or getting kicked in the face.

In other words, OWW OWWW OWWWWWWW. The incident took place at a barbecue at a local apartment complex; we can't think of anything worse to accompany fresh grilled food than getting your face shattered. Except maybe Sun-Chips.

The fact that Georgia is getting lots of love this offseason as a potential BCS contender doesn't impress coach Mark Richt, who was quoted recently saying preseason rankings "[don't] mean jack, because if you lose your first SEC game, preseason doesn't mean nothing anymore." Of course, I'm sure Richt doesn't mind any extra national attention from the media and potential recruits that a top-five ranking brings--although it does hurt the "us against the world" mentality that coaches like to cultivate. It's also much easier to position yourself for a BCS championship starting the year at number five than, say, number 15.

But Richt's right; preseason rankings are pretty much meaningless. And if you need proof browse though the stats at Stassen.com (they keep up with these things). There's goodies like the preseason consensus (of which UGA is currently a member, and though it's early, I'd expect them to stay put).

Even more interesting is the comparison of preseason and final polls. In the last 10 years exactly half of the teams that started as a consensus top-five didn't end the season there. And the fall can be dramatic: 12 teams since 1999 have had double-digit drops from the preseason top 5 to the year's final AP poll, and six of those fell out of the top 25 altogether. Unfortunately, this is a topic I know a little about, as my beloved Tennessee has the distinction of having fallen from preseason top five to unranked twice--in 2002 and 2005--a feat no other team has managed. Yay.

Mercifully this cannot be blamed on the usual bogeymen: global warming and President Bush

"In our league, more and more people are spreading out (on offense), and I think it's happening pretty much around the nation," [Georgia coach Mark] Richt said. "The more (offenses) spread, the less (defenses) play their Sam linebacker. You could play Sam and play a certain team and play maybe 15 snaps or something. And then if you have two Sams who are ready to play, you are splitting time like that."

When offenses spread out their formation, defenses have to replace the Sam linebacker with a defensive back, a player who is expected to be faster and better in pass coverage. With a linebacker in the game against a spread offense, Martinez said, quarterbacks and offensive coordinators know the defense will be playing zone defense, giving the offense an advantage.

"They know a linebacker is not going to play man (coverage)," [Georgia defensive coordinator Willie] Martinez said. "He's going to play zone."

Cry not for the SAM backer, Argentina. We're talking evolution here, not extinction.

From now on, the head coach said, Georgia's strongside linebackers will have to be able to either play defensive end in passing situations or play more than one linebacker spot to ensure themselves playing time.

"You are going to see us more and more where that guy is a jack of all trades," Martinez said. "No doubt, it's a special kind of guy. You want the strength, you want the power, you want the size, but at the same time, you don't want that guy out there in space, trying to defend the spread."

Just the same, the position's changing and wise high school coaches, parents and players will adjust accordingly. This is the trickle-down from the change in the quarterback position at the college level.

Exit question: how long before these changes in the college game manifest themselves on the pro level? The NFL is stuck in its one way of football and has been for the better part of 30 years. Can it continue to resist the changes happening at the college level?

(H/T: Get The Picture)

Georgia has upped the salary of football coach Mark Richt $800,000 to $2.8 million. Here's guessing Georgia's athletic board was willing to pay him much more, but sent a bit of a message with this raise.

Note the coaches ahead of him in pay: Nick Saban, Les Miles, Urban Meyer and Tommy Tuberville. Three of the four have won championships and Tuberville arguably fielded a championship team in 2004.

Now don't get me wrong, Richt is revered around the state right now for making Georgia a consistent top-10 program and few can criticize what he's done. But the pay level is veeeeeeery interesting you gotta admit. I'm no brain surgeon but I think there was a bit of a friendly message sent to Richt here - deliver the goods and we'll pay you like a champion.

His boss, Athletic Director Damon Evans almost admits as much:

"There are some institutions out there that have coaches who have won a national championship, and when you get to that level, that is a different level,'' Evans said.

He'll have that shot this year, with a team expected to be either preseason #1 or #2 in the fall. In the meantime, you can bet he's thrilled with the $2.8 million in cash. He's one of the SEC's true good guys and you won't find many people blinking at this news.

Previously at FanHouse
Recruiting: Mark Richt, Ping Pong Master
Michael Adams' Stupid Playoff Plan is Stupid
Sorry, No Photos

Few things in life are as heartwarming as a lifelong bond between father and son. Playing catch in the backyard. Going fishing. Hell, getting a little homework help. But then young men eventually grow up and gain independence and make decisions that take them away from their fathers.

Nowhere is that more public than in the recruiting game. Many times a player will stick with his father (see Luke Bellotti playing at Oregon for his father Mike Bellotti or quarterback Cody Hawkins heading to Colorado to play for his old man). But while blood may be thicker than water, sometimes blood doesn't have the pull it should.

Last year, Georgia coach Mark Richt's son Jon Richt pledged to play quarterback for Clemson over his fathers' Dawgs. No doubt a tough decision for a closeknit family like that. The separation continues this year as it is rumored UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker's son Kevan, a receiver prospect, will not stick with dear old dad at UCLA but instead play for the Oregon State Beavers.

The upshot to all of this is that while recruiting is a competitive, sometimes nasty business, coaches recruiting a fellow coaches' son must tone down his pitch which can only help but improve relations between coaches.

The College Football Songbook is a weekly feature in which we'll be making as much fun as humanly possible of the most embarrassing moments in college football. Through words, music, and related video we'll leave a lasting memory implanted on the brains of the vanquished that they are not soon to forget.

No major upsets this week, and Phil Fulmer and the Vols just had to go ahead and win in overtime. So we bring you our thoughts on the world's largest outdoor cocktail party.



Hat Tips:
Special hat tip as always to Pete Holiday for putting the video together.
Getty Images
Bewaremerchandise.com
Flickr user luke_e_roberts
EveryDayShouldBeSaturday.com
NationalChamps.net/Helmet_Project

Previously on FanHouse:
College Football Songbook: Ode to Phil Fulmer and His Donuts
College Football Songbook: Tiger Fans Get Ready to Sing the Blues
College Football Songbook: Pete Carroll Can't Have This
College Football Songbook: America's Wang and the Tasty Tears of Upsets
College Football Songbook: Steve Kragthorpe Had Better Start Looking for a Job
College Football Songbook: Losing to Croom Can Get You Fired
College Football Songbook: You Paid That Cupcake to Come in and Kick Your Ass

Football coaches can always be relied upon to hate all change -- they're more reliably conservative than Barry Goldwater -- but the widespread, horrified reaction to the NCAA moving kickoffs back five yards is really pushing the bounds of credulity. It's like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters. Joe Tiller donned a tutu before offering this alarmist opinion:

"So now they're moving back 5 yards so we can create more g-forces as these kids are running into each other," he said. "I'm not in favor of moving it back 5 yards. I think about the health and safety of the players, first and foremost."

I'm no physicist, but it seems to me that the force experienced by one college football player running headlong into another college football player at maximum speed is the exact same no matter whether that collision occurs at the 15 or the 20. I note that NFL kickoffs, which feature larger, angrier, faster men and have been taken from the 30 for years, don't tend to end with dismembered limbs cartwheeling into the crowd despite the incredible forces unleashed by five extra yards of running the same speed you were running at anyway. Unless Purdue installed a Vortex of Pillow Soft Downy Love inside their red zone, Tiller is just grumbling aimlessly.

Last week, Ryan Ferguson posted about which coaches in the SEC are most often blown out, based on an article at al.com. Pete Holiday also ran some numbers on SEC coaches, blowouts, and shutouts. Both posts got me thinking about a specific part of the equation: which coaches in the SEC most often win by blowout in games that are truly important? It seemed like something I could figure out, and thanks to Phil Steele, I had the last five years' worth of SEC results at my fingertips.

Because of the way some teams schedule, I needed a way to measure blowouts that really matter -- I don't especially care if you're blowing out Western Carolina every year. So, I've created my own arbitrary statistic: Valuable Ass-Kickings (VAK). To earn a VAK, you must win a road conference game, bowl game, or game against a ranked opponent by 17 points or more. Why 17? I told you -- this is arbitrary. But mostly because if you're down by 17 at the final gun, you weren't really in the game.

Interestingly, the man who gets blown out the least is also the guy who blows 'em out the most: Georgia's Mark Richt. In the last five years at UGA, Richt has racked up 12 VAKs, with seven of them coming against ranked opponents. Tommy Tubberville is second with 10 VAKs and Phillip Fulmer is third with 7, both of them have recorded 3 VAKs against ranked teams.

Of course, it occurs to me that those three have been around the SEC the longest, so of course they're going to have the most. So I averaged each active coach's VAKs, which you van see after the jump.