. . . and, again, you have a track record of decency that entitles you to the benefit of the doubt. I apologize if it came across like I wasn’t giving you the benefit of that doubt.

The five-year timetable you propose is reasonable. If Georgia hasn’t at least been to a national championship game by the end of the 2013 season, that question very well may be valid. I am fully confident that the point will have been rendered moot by then, but, if it hasn’t, then it may be a legitimate criticism and I don’t fault you for raising the question.

I do think it’s important to emphasize the mindset of mediocrity that gripped the program and the fan base when Mark Richt arrived. In 2001, Jim Tressel inherited an Ohio State program that had been to a Rose Bowl and two Sugar Bowls in the five years just prior to his arrival, posting 11-1 records in two of those campaigns. Urban Meyer took over in 2005 a Florida program that had won an S.E.C. championship as recently as 2000 and won a B.C.S. bowl game as recently as 2001. Even Steve Spurrier stepped into a situation in Gainesville in which he took charge of a team that had been ranked No. 1 five years earlier.

While such coaches as Mack Brown, Nick Saban, and Bob Stoops arguably inherited larger reclamation projects, Mark Richt broke a 20-year conference championship drought in his second season. Is that the same as Bob Stoops and Jim Tressel winning national championships in their second seasons? No, but, seeing as how the ‘Dawgs went 13-1 and finished ranked third in the country that year, it wasn’t too far off.

I mean no disrespect to Nick Saban, who is a fine coach, but I wouldn’t put him in that category. His career as a college head coach included stints at Toledo (1990) and Michigan State (1995-1999) prior to his arrival in Baton Rouge, so his first national championship (2003) came in his tenth season as a college head coach.

During his first nine years as a college head coach, Coach Saban led only one of his teams to a ten-win season (2001). (His final Spartan club went 9-2 under his direction in 1999 and won the Citrus Bowl under his successor, Bobby Williams, after he had departed for L.S.U.)

Coach Saban’s 1990 Toledo squad went 9-2 and technically claimed the M.A.C. co-championship, although the Rockets lost the head-to-head meeting with fellow co-champ Central Michigan.

Coach Saban’s Michigan State squads went 6-5-1 and lost the Independence Bowl in 1995, went 6-6 and lost the Sun Bowl in 1996, went 7-5 and lost the Aloha Bowl in 1997, went 6-6 in 1998, and went 9-2 and received a Citrus Bowl invitation in 1999.

Coach Saban’s first three Louisiana State squads went 8-4 and won the Peach Bowl in 2000, went 10-3 and won both the S.E.C. championship and the Sugar Bowl in 2001, and went 8-5 and lost the Cotton Bowl in 2002.

After nine years as a college head coach, Nick Saban was 69-38-1 overall, had won one outright conference championship and shared another, and had posted the following regular-season records in conference play: 7-1 in 1990, 4-3-1 in 1995, 5-3 in 1996, 4-4 in 1997, 4-4 in 1998, 6-2 in 1999, 5-3 in 2000, 5-3 in 2001, and 5-3 in 2002.

Nick Saban is an outstanding coach. His 2003 L.S.U. team came by its national championship honestly, just as his 2008 Alabama team has come by its undefeated regular season honestly. I take nothing away from him and I actually like the guy a good deal better than most opposing fans likely do. While he took over programs and improved them, though, he was never a coach who strung together ten-win seasons in sequence the way Bear Bryant, Vince Dooley, Phillip Fulmer, Mark Richt, and Steve Spurrier all have done.

Obviously, anyone who asked after Nick Saban’s his first eight years as a college head coach in a B.C.S. conference (1995-2002) whether he was an elite coach who would ever win a national title would have been asking a question that appeared valid at the time but became laughably silly shortly thereafter. Asking such a question about Mark Richt after his first eight years as a college head coach in a B.C.S. conference (2001-2008) also may appear valid now, and it may never appear as absurd as such a question now appears when directed at Coach Saban, but the evidence for Coach Richt today is better than the evidence for Coach Saban was at the same juncture in his career.

And thats why i dropped the question because really only time will tell. How long will that time be? Thats up to yall but im sure with every loss, this question will pop up until it is answered.

…i’m pretty sure this point was expressed recently with infinitely more depth and grace by the esteemed mr. hinton (but i’ll be damned if i can find the link to the article i am thinking of).