John "Avid Koolaid Drinker" Leonard strikes again...

Don't think you need to worry bout that.

This guy is a buffoon, and just another Richt apologist trying to maintain his VIP pass to the BM building.

Valiant effort trying to get a response out of this clown, but his article trying to compare a football coaches job to a journalists ability to win some unnamed award is asinine.

I have ZERO interest in how someone like this would respond to thriller's question. After all the disappointment and underachieving this football team has managed after all they've been given to work with, I have ZERO interest in anything anyone still supporting Richt has to say.

I'm finished listening to that sort of nonsense. I've heard that garbage for 7+ years and that is at least 6 years too much of it.

Mark Richt's record of regular season wins while achieving nothing of consequence and losing almost every time he plays a good team is a joke.
These lovely 9 win seasons are built on beating a crappy Kentucky team, a crappy Vanderbilt team, a been crappy for the past 8 years Tennessee team, a generally mediocre one trick pony Tech team, and 3 cupcakes with possibly a win against some other crappy mid level team in some crappy lower mid-level bowl game in an era when flippin 82 teams get to go some forsaken stupid bowl game. (Except for the times he has lost noted crappy mid-level bowl game).

The only thing he's been doing better than Jim Donnan over the past 8 years is beating Tech and having the good fortune of Assburn also being crappy 50% of the time. (But hey,, they've played for and won championships) He's been able to manage those astounding feats with a ton more talent in an SEC now divided up so he gets to play in the AAA level of it.

So I hope he puts forth an answer, but I'm not
going to waste my time reading it.

Believe it or not, he actually answered Thriller's question.


John Leonard says:

November 13, 2015 at 2:59 pm


An article won’t be necessary, Thriller — I can answer your question in just a few sentences.

My criteria for deciding the merits of making a coaching change are pretty simple: who will be the replacement, and what are the odds that the team will get better and not worse? Until Jeremy Pruitt was hired, I’ve always said that our problem is predominantly on the defensive side of the ball. To be honest, if Pruitt leaves after this year as has been speculated, then I’ll start thinking maybe we should make a clean sweep because both sides of the ball must excel to win a national championship.

That said, I’m far less concerned about Richt’s ability to fix the offense than I am recruiting and for the defense to keep improving.



DM<

Sorry, but as said before; Go look at the teams we've been able to beat the past few years and what happens when we play anyone decent.

Sorry John Leonard... but I'm pretty dang sure I can put together a list of about 30 names that could equal that, and they might actually win a few here and there against someone who actually finishes in the top 20.

We rack up wins against pretty bad teams, and no one else.

I'm sorry, but this argument of holding onto someone performing poorly out of fear you could do even worse just makes me sick. It's making decisions out of fear, and sorry but it's just a by-God fact that those that achieve the most are the ones who are not afraid to dare to be great, and who don't fear failure. If they try and fail, they figure out what they did wrong and try again.

I've seen it all my life in the business world, in sports, and in life in general. John Leonard's logic is a great recipe... for mediocrity. Playing it safe is why we are the way we are, and ironically it's a big part of the reason why Mark Richt is the way he is.

Little wonder that Leonard is a Richt man.. they are cut from the exact same cloth.

I just now saw Leonard's response. Here is mine:

Just saw your response, John, so that's why it's taking so long for me to respond.

After the debacle that was the Georgia Southern game, I am left to wonder if you really believe Richt can fix the offense. If he could, why not put up 50 against the Eagles? Lack of talent? Who is responsible for that? BTW - I don't think it's lack of talent. It's something else. That would be lack of COACHING.

I was just as much a Richt sycophant as you, only a year ago. I truly believed that he was a great college football coach. That's because I thought he had us set up for years with QB talent that would follow up behind Aaron Murray. I made the EXACT SAME lame excuses for every inexplicable loss.

So I will use YOUR criteria for "cleaning house".

Who will be the replacement? Right NOW, there are probably more GREAT candidates to take a head coaching job (at any school) than ever. My number one candidate for the job is Tom Herman at Houston. You want the offense fixed? Consider it DONE. Another candidate would be Justin Fuente. Maybe a little of the shine may SEEM to have come off the apple from a few losses, but remember WHERE HE IS COACHING. That's OVER producing. Another candidate of course would be Kirby Smart, even though I'm not convinced he would make a great head coach. He certainly deserves a shot. Another candidate would be Greg Pruitt himself. I look at the incredible job he has done so far and think HE should have a shot somewhere too. Then there is Chris Petersen - overachiever. He won at Boise State with less talent. Matt Rhule would be another excellent candidate - producing more with less.

But maybe YOU only like "BIG" names at established schools. I like Gary Patterson and believe the 3rd most profitable school in the NCAA could lure him away. Another would be Art Briles. Same thing - big name coach at a lesser school - we could have him.

But if you want YOUTH, and RESULTS and OVERACHIEVEMENT, then I say you get all of those things in Tom Herman. Recent losses mean less than overall direction of the program (according to YOU), so any one of those coaches qualifies.

You really only mentioned one "criteria" for what would change your mind, and I have addressed it. However, I'll go further. Obviously, a losing season deserves a consequence, and he has only produced one of those. But what else qualifies as "failure"? To me, consistent underachieving. Ask LSU about that. They have a higher standard than we do. Miles is about to get fired. You see, his most recent National Championship was way back in 2007 - what has he done for LSU lately? At LSU, the only thing that matters is WINNING. I wish that were true at UGA. When was Richt's last National Championship? Conference Championship? <crickets>

Unfortunately, John - YOU could never convince me Richt needs to stay. Only HE could do that. And he has been failing for a LONG time.

Thanks though.

My response would have been a bit more concise.

Not making a change and settling for mediocrity because you're scared of something worse than mediocrity is chickenshit.

As far as doing worse goes, if you look at who we've beaten, we could just about go on the field without a coach letting the players draw up plays in the dirt while they smoke a joint and accomplish the same.