The Mark Richt Victory Watch

Those of you who are new to the site have not yet had occasion to become familiar with our regular practice here at Dawg Sports following a gridiron victory by the Georgia Bulldogs. Permit me to explain.

At the time Mark Richt was hired as the Red and Black’s head coach, I was the co-host of a weekly local cable access television show called "The Dawg Show," which was about what its name suggests it was. Since Coach Richt was hired when he was 40 years old, and since he learned how to be a head coach from Bobby Bowden, my co-host, Travis Rice, and I reasoned that the program’s new skipper should coach at least until the regular retirement age of 65. If he averaged just eight wins per year over 25 seasons, he would reach 200 wins, just shy of Vince Dooley’s school record of 201 career victories.

Accordingly, we began counting down the wins en route to 201 in what we called the Mark Richt Victory Watch. This has continued from cable television to the blogosphere, and I am proud to announce that the Mark Richt Victory Watch now stands at 83. Coach Richt needs 118 more wins to tie Coach Dooley in the record book.

Mark Richt has been on the Georgia sideline for 106 games, making him just the third coach in school history to have lasted at least 100 games as the Bulldogs’ headmaster. Coach Richt’s 83-23 (.783) record is the best ever by a Red and Black head coach at this point. At the same juncture in their respective careers, Wally Butts was 78-25-3 (.750) and Vince Dooley was 70-31-5 (.684).

Go ‘Dawgs!