Conspiracy theories and Coach Mark Richt

Reports broke Friday afternoon that the Seattle Seahawks fired a “stunned” Jim Mora and have targeted Southern California’s Pete Carroll to replace him. Like a flash I spun up a great conspiracy theory about the whole thing and my mind quickly meandered to South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier and Georgia head man Mark Richt. Sorta weird I know, but stay with me here Reader.

As for Carroll, as soon as I heard the names of the principals involved I had an idea of what was happening. Later, when I heard NFL reporter Chris Mortensen confirm that Carroll was interested in Seattle as well and that USC was already making overtures to Oregon State head coach Mike Riley, I essentially closed this book in my mind as a done deal. Simply and quickly connecting the dots, I came to the conclusion that there is no way that the Seahawks would fire Mora after one season for “not winning enough” by producing a 5-11 record after Mike Holmgren went 4-11 just the year before. Not unless they had already traded up and had their replacement in hand in Carroll. The situation is primed for Carroll to leave USC with the NCAA sniffing all around the program and the exodus of assistant coaches in recent years, not to mention that it seems the Trojan underclassmen have seen the writing on the wall with Damian Williams and Joe McKnight announcing their intentions to enter the NFL draft on the same day the story breaks. The situation in Seattle currently offers Carroll the opportunity to have total control over football operations (in one form or another) just as he currently does at USC, something Carroll has long said would be a mandate if he were to ever consider returning to the NFL. Finally, later in the day when I heard Mortensen say he would be shocked if Carroll-to-Seattle does not happen, I was further convinced this is a done deal. Will it happen? I guess we will have to wait and see, but if it does I will enjoy the fact (in my own personal universe) that I decoded the master plan from jump. Well, at least as far as I am concerned.

Then I thought about Steve Spurrier and his departure from the University of Florida. When asked why he was leaving, Spurrier said that he felt it was time and 10 years at any place is long enough. Maybe this is yet another reason Carroll may soon be the head Seahawk (**as I finish this up I read that sources say Carroll has reached a deal with the Seahawks**). From there, my mind ping-ponged to the head DAWG and what he is currently doing with the football program at the University of Georgia. Mark Richt is not choosing to leave for greener pastures or walk away from the game to spend more time with his family. After averaging 10 wins a year during his nine seasons in Athens, Richt saw his program begin to slip and he has attacked the causes head on by choosing to bring in a new defensive coordinator and, from all reports at this stage, is looking to make that choice from outside his inner circle of friends. I believe Richt realizes that he needs someone that will bring a new and rejuvenated spirit to the Butts-Mehre offices and will be willing to challenge his decision making when necessary. This is not only good for a program, it is absolutely vital to maintaining the type of edge necessary to compete in a league that has produced the last four national champions, a feat never before accomplished in NCAA college football.

I was NEVER saying that I thought Coach Richt was thinking of leaving or that his job was or should be in any danger. If you have ever read my thoughts here before, you know exactly where I stand on Coach Richt and the program he has built at Georgia. To the contrary, I wanted to acknowledge Coach Richt for recognizing the issues within his program and taking the steps necessary to rectify them. Spurrier chose to leave Florida and it looks like Carroll is headed back to the NFL, but that is not who Coach Richt is. The Georgia head coach has made no secret of the fact that he will be at the University of Georgia as long as the DAWG people will have him and his actions this off-season prove that he is willing to do what it takes to make sure that the Georgia program maintains the level of success he is responsible for bringing to Athens…to finish what he started and has built. THAT is who Coach Richt is and I am glad he is our man.

ME, KIRBY AND THE GATORS

Kirby Smart was a four year letterman for our DAWGS from 1995-1998. I’m pretty sure you already knew that part. What you probably didn’t know is Smart and I shared our time at Georgia until I graduated from Grady in the spring of 1998. Now while I shared an afternoon bus with Mike Bobo three days a week in 1997, I had no such (meaningless) relationship with a young Kirby. Why does any of this matter? Well, 1997 was a nice year for the Georgia football team. It was Jim Donnan’s best Bulldogs team and Kirby was a major contributor to that squad. What’s more, the DAWGS beat Florida and Steve Spurrier that year 37-17 after entering the game as 20 point underdogs. This is relevant because I was at that game, my first Georgia/Florida experience, and it is justifiably my first, greatest first person memory as a DAWGS fan and Kirby played a big role in the win. Therefore, according to my bourbon influenced connectivity chain, Mr. Smart and I are eternally linked.

In 1997 a group of fellow Georgia fans and I headed south to the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party with more tickets to the game than we knew what to do with and no idea what we were in for. We spent the night before the game partying deep into the night and sleeping on the floor at a friend’s house in Valdosta only to wake early on game day feeling bouncy, bright-eyed and bushy tailed as if we knew it was going to be a great day. As soon as we got to Jacksonville and got parked for some alcohol-based tailgating we ran into some good ole boy strangers from south-Georgia and they readily offered up shot after shot of some libation I remember only as Hot Damn. Needless to say, by the time we wobbled our way to the stadium and found our seats, we were well oiled and wide open.

We cheered and body-surfed and talked trash to every Gator within shouting distance as Bobo threw to Hines and Corey Allen, Robert Edwards ran for touchdown after touchdown and…this is where Kirby comes in…the DAWGS picked three Gator quarterbacks off a total of four times in the game, of which, Kirby had two and should’ve had another. The Georgia defense was great that day coming up with big stop time and again and Mr. Smart played smart and was seemingly always around the action. Kirby would go on to lead the Bulldogs with six interceptions in 1997 and that was while sharing the same field as future NFL Hall-of-Famer Champ Bailey.

This is clearly the memory zenith of football fandom during my college daze and while it may not be the first thing I recall about that day, that game, that glorious victory over the HATED Gators or even that trip, Kirby’s contributions to the win absolutely rank as my favorite memory of the current Alabama defensive coordinator’s time as a DAWG.

That was then. This is now. Who knows? There may be a memory or two that have yet to be crafted by Smart at (for) the University of Georgia, just in a different role. I have no idea, but I will be keeping a keen eye on the goings-on in Athens in the coming days…just in case.