Some Georgia Republicans want Mark Richt to run for governor

Now, some Republicans in the state are trying to recruit him to run for governor in 2018, according to the AJC and WSB-TV in Atlanta.

Speculation is abounding about the future of Mark Richt, who will be leaving UGA as head football coach at the end of the 2015 season. And his friends say he has expressed little interest in politics.

He wouldn’t be the first head coach to try to make the leap. They are looking to fill current Republican Gov. Nathan Deal’s seat in office. His political leanings are also said to be to the right.

The most prominent example of a former football coach running for office is Tom Osborne, who was a Republic congressman in Nebraska from 2001-07 and embarked on a failed run for governor.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Tuesday that Miami had interviewed Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano and former Miami coach Butch Davis in addition to Richt. Tim Echols, a member of the state Public Service Commission who goes to church with the coach, said it’s more likely that Richt goes into full-time missionary work than start a political campaign.

Richt said on his Monday radio show that he has been contacted by five schools about coaching positions. “He doesn’t seem to have any interest in politics”.