Mark Richt Too Soft?

It's hard to have swagger when you don't have leadership. The leader on the O-line (Sturdivant) on the defense (Jeff Owens), his lieutenant (Marcus Washington) are all out for the season. And God love Matthew Stafford's talent and his grit, but in clutch, down-and-out situations he's shaky. He's had games like against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in 2006, and he's had games like against Alabama and Florida this year, or like South Carolina last year. Say what you want about David Greene's arm strength or his NFL prospects, but he could lead a team down the field and proved it with more fourth-quarter comebacks than any quarterback in Georgia history. Matthew Stafford has not proven that he can do that on a consistent basis yet.

So without that leadership ON THE FIELD...I mean, folks, you can blame Willie and CMR all you want, but they can't put on the pads and get out on the gridiron. You have to have great leadership (like David Greene, David Pollack, Buck Belue, Fran Tarkenton, Terry Hoage, etc) on the field in order to prevent a great team from stomping you that badly. We just don't have that this year, especially on the defensive sign of the ball, and it's due to injuries. This happens sometimes to potentially great teams. Time to suck it up. Winning a national championship is NOT a tradition at Georgia. Pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and holding our heads high is. Strapping it on and giving teams hell is.

Beating Auburn and Tech sure as hell is. Let's do just that, and let's warm up with Kentucky. GO DAWGS!!!

\"So you would have CMR act like the coaches we despise as respectable football fans. You know, your Sabans and Pete Carall. That's just rediculous. You do not need to humiliate the other team to get a swagger. If you do, your not doing it right. I do agree that to get it, it needs to come from the coaches. I have many ideas as do many others here on coaching. Acting like the scum of coaching though would be a the worst way to get it.\"

Those coaches that we despise, Saban, Caroll, Meyer, etc all have national championships. Some have more than one, and some of them appear to be about to get more than one. One thing that I've never liked about Richt's teams is that they never really play with heart or a sense of urgency. They act like they don't care. As the Atlanta Braves' consistent failures to win the big one show us, you cannot treat every game as \"business as usual\" and still expect to win the national championship. Georgia's teams have never had a killer instinct under Richt that the teams of all those other coaches we don't like have.

You can take Carroll out of the comment, if we played a cupcake schedule like they do then we wouldnt be having this conversation! As for Urban, he came into a good team (say what you want about Zook, but he could recruit) nottoo mention he brought Tebow with him who he had groomed since high school to be his QB! Yes they are more aggresive than us, but if I remember correctlly we werent havign this conversation last year, it one game one season! Time to move on and focus on Kentucky! Come guys and Gals! Go DAWGS!!!!

flyindawg, I couldn't agree with you more. Do we want CMR to become like the coaches we don't like or respect?

BTW, I've seen CMR in a players face before, even saw him grab the face mask and then put him on the bench the rest of the game.

Coach Richt is not soft. He just does not put on a show on the sidelines.

He controls his emotions so he can focus on winning the game. He has said this in numerous interviews.

Having said that, the team does reflect its coaches. The team needs an Erk Russell on the sidelines and in practice to get them fired up and foaming at the mouth ready to hit. Do we have an Erk Russell type in the coaching crew? I do not know.

Or, as dapolla said, a team leader that will fire them up. We sure need that.