Mark Richt out as Georgia football coach

The school made the announcement Sunday, a day after Georgia beat in-state rival Georgia Tech 13-7.

“Georgia was pretty much irrelevant before he got there”, Cranford said.

For the first time in a decade and a half, Georgia will begin a search for a new football coach. He won 10 games in nine of those seasons and won nine out of 14 bowl games.

We talked ourselves into Georgia firing Richt in November, and SB Nation’s Georgia blog, Dawg Sports, did not take that loss to Florida well.

Richt scheduled a meeting with his players on Sunday night. His last three teams failed to win the SEC East after being the preseason picks to do so. “Win the SEC and hopefully go beyond that”.

But as the flagship school in a state rich with talent, Georgia seemed to fall short its fans’ incredibly high expectations every season-especially this one. To say this news is surprising at this point in the season would be somewhat correct.

“That’s really unfortunate”, Walsh said. Nobody knows if he will be a great head coach but I’ll take anybody who has worked this long for Nick Saban. “I have been keeping him touch with Coach Ekeler and Coach Pruitt and they haven’t told me anything about their future”.

McGarity had praise for Richt, who was 145-51 with two SEC championships.

“Mark has the opportunity to remain on our staff at the University of Georgia, and would be heavily involved with outreach programs for our former football lettermen via the PO Network as well as other University and Athletic Association initiatives”. For those contributions, we are sincerely appreciative. Two-time SEC coach of the year (2002 and 2005).

His 2012 team was also five yards away from winning the SEC Championship in a 32-28 loss to Alabama. Once again, Alabama effectively ended Georgia’s season, crushing the Bulldogs in a 38-10 rout. “It’s about shaping and molding the lives of young men”.

Cranford said he was “torn” about the decision but said he understood the move if the Georgia administration had a plan for Richt’s successor.

After the same number of games, Coach Dooley’s career ledger stood at 133-57-6 after a 1981 victory over the South Carolina Gamecocks, giving the winningest head football coach in Red and Black history a career. They all but ran former Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo out of town and until this years futility without a QB and replacement Brian Schottenheimer, they never realized how good they had it…until they didn’t have it. In the last four seasons, Georgia’s worst finish was an 8-5 season in 2013. Obviously Georgia has a tradition of hiring successful head coaches to lead its athletic department, and with current AD Greg McGarity’s contract expiring in 2017, the Bulldogs could be grooming Richt as their next AD.