Mark Richt's Record Broken Down

by Year2 on Jul 1, 2008 8:51 PM EDT

Hello, Dawg faithful. I've been doing some coach record analysis lately, and yesterday I got to Mark Richt. If you want to see my whole analysis and interpretation it's here; if you get past some light ribbing near the beginning you probably won't have a problem with it.

But, the main deal is a table that breaks down his record by site, and another that breaks down his record by quality of opponent. Only games against I-A competition were included.

I give you the tables here if you want to provide your own analysis, though I think Kyle's well-documented fondness for him probably covers the sentiment pretty well.

By site:

Site	Wins	Losses	Totals
Home	34	7	41
Away	25	4	29
Neutral	4	6	10
Bowls	5	2	7
Totals	68	19	87

The neutral site games are the annual Florida game in Jacksonville and the SEC championship games Richt has been to.

Here is by tier of opponent. A first tier opponent is a team that finished the year with a winning percentage of .750 or better, a second tier opponent finshed from .500 to .749, a third tier opponent finished .250 to .499, and a fourth tier opponent finished .249 and below.

Tier	Wins	Losses	Pct.	Avg. Scored	Avg. Allowed
First	9	10	.474	24	21
Second	32	8	.800	28	18
Third	18	1	.947	28	13
Fourth	9	0	1.000	37	14

Not too shabby, eh? If I were a betting man (and if I was, I'm sure Richt would frown on me for it), I'd probably wager that he'll pass up Vince Dooley the coach by the time he's done.

See y'all in Jacksonville in November, and may you have the best season that the second place team in the SEC East can have.

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Hold on a minute . . .

. . . your math is a little off there.

Mark Richt’s record is 72-19. He’s 38-7 at home, 25-4 on the road, and 9-8 at all neutral sites (2-5 in the Cocktail Party, 2-1 in the S.E.C. championship game, and 5-2 in bowl games).

The overall portrait of the Mark Richt record you paint, though, is a pretty good one, once you allow for the possibility that a 9-4 S.E.C. team, while technically “second tier,” still can be a darn fine football team.

Nice job. Thanks.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 1, 2008 9:04 PM EDT 0 recs

You’re right about away wins; I had that off for some reason. I did not include wins over I-AA opponents, which is why my win total is 4 below yours.

A 9-4 SEC team is decidedly better than a 6-6 MAC team, but both are technically second tier here. It’s mainly meant as a high level view, which means some shortcuts had to be taken.

Either way, there’s dozens of coaches that would love to trade their records for Richt’s in a heartbeat.

by Year2 on Jul 2, 2008 12:39 AM EDT up 0 recs

Fair enough on not counting I-AA wins . . .

. . . but, if you’re omitting I-AA games, doesn’t that give Lloyd Carr’s numbers an artificial boost? :)

In all seriousness, your tier structure is a reasonable shortcut. As is the case with all breakdowns, some additional exegesis is required to delve deeply into the minutiae, but, as a shorthand way of examining a coach’s record and seeing how well he did against a particular level of competition, it’s a good way of looking at it.

I’m curious, though; since I know you’ve done this for more than one coach, I’d be interested to see how Mark Richt compares to other prominent coaches against first-tier competition. Obviously, I wish he had a winning record against top-tier teams rather than hovering just below .500, but I suspect that few coaches have dominant records against upper-echelon opposition. How does Coach Richt stack up in that regard? (Feel free to include links for us to follow to see the full breakdown; I’m sure I’m not the only one interested in this exercise.)

Thanks again for taking an honest look at an opposing coach.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Jul 2, 2008 8:32 AM EDT up 0 recs

Ironically, I can’t access my own blog right now because I’m at work (shh! don’t tell anyone) and Wordpress sites are blocked. I can access the syndicated Bleacher Report versions, so that’s what I linked to here. It’s all the same anyway.

So far I have gotten around to:
Tommy Bowden/Bob Stoops
Tommy Tuberville
Urban Meyer at Florida specifically
Les Miles at LSU specifically

Of the guys who has been around more than three years, Richt beats out Bowden and Tuberville but not Stoops.

The Tommy Bowden article also addresses the “starts slow but gets saved by finishing strong/beating FSU” theory about him, and the Tuberville article also addresses the idea that he suddenly turned a corner in 2004 and became a much better coach. In short, it’s almost a little startling to look back and see how thoroughly mediocre Tuberville was pre-2004 based on his recent success.

Another fun one is about the fact that through their first 10 years on the job, Mack Brown and Phil Fulmer have almost identical records.

by Year2 on Jul 2, 2008 9:46 AM EDT up 0 recs

Also to answer your question, about dominating the top echelon: Stoops is 17-10 against it, Les Miles is 7-3 against it at LSU, and Tuberville is 9-4 against it since 2004 (was 3-14 before 2004). There are some guys who do quite well against the top teams, though those sample sizes for Miles and Tuberville are pretty small. Meyer so far? Just 3-5, actually.

I’m planning on getting around to some of the bigger names around the country, and I suspect Tressel and Carroll have pretty good records against the top tier too.

by Year2 on Jul 2, 2008 9:51 AM EDT up 0 recs