Paul Finebaum start writing the Dr. Saturday column? Seriously, I thought the bloggers, even the big name ones, were supposed to leave the hyperbole to the guys like Terence Moore. This is the kind of stuff I started reading Hinton’s stuff to avoid.

but that “four years of also-ran status” thing was the one line that really kind of got to me. Because, yeah, 2007 was really a bummer, what with the BCS bowl victory and the #2 national ranking. And I know Matt knows better than to use the old arbitrary cutoff date bit.

Though I think that most of us can agree that the fact that this “Fire Mark Richt” discussion is not only going on, but that the likes of Hinton have taken note, speaks quite poorly of a certain element of the Bulldog fanbase.

… is that neither of the first two coaches will ever… ever… win a personality contest. No one would accuse Phil Fulmer of being a generous, nice guy in a press conference (unless it was to announce a new Krispy Kreme restaurant opening), nor could anyone say that Tommy Tuberville was an incredibly genial man to the general public or the media.

Simply by the manner in which he has run his program, Mark Richt has sown political capital that neither Fulmer nor Tuberville could ever dream of having. Georgia has more than its fair share of crazy people in its fan base, but thankfully, those crazies aren’t big-time donors, and don’t have the ear of Damon Evans or Il Duce Michael Adams. Mark Richt’s faith, honesty, and upstanding (and outstanding) moral values are valued too highly by the important people in UGA athletics to let one very disappointing season like this permanently tarnish his image. To further drive my point home, it’s a similar situation to the reason Ray Goff was given 7 years, while Jim Donnan was only given 5. Nobody really liked Jim Donnan, even when he was being carried off the field after the Florida win in 1997. He was more like a means to an end.

Pardon me for swearing, but Jesus Christ, I just wish I could punch the living (redacted) out of people who take this type of story seriously. I’m already more cynical than I should be about the world, but morons who point to a 3-3 start that was entirely predictable at the beginning of the season as reason to put Richt on the hot seat… I can’t imagine a more raw deal than that. I mean, I know I was in the minority, but I predicted that we would have a 4-3 record going into the Florida game. (Granted, I got the exact teams we won and lost to wrong, but the record was right.)

I know someone’s going to argue with me about what I just said… I probably should go have a drink before replying, to them. I might just say something that’ll get me banned. For now, though, I’ll just say this… lay off the damn coach, guys.

We can argue whether or not it is fair, but the reality is that if there’s no noticeable improvement before the end of 2010 Richt’s job is in trouble. Hopefully Richt can manage some kind of turnaround this season. If this season goes down the drain it’s going to be VERY difficult to find quality assistants. If you’re a great coordinator why would you go to a school with a coach in the hot seat?