A Brief Look at Mark Richt's UGA Turnaround

Following Georgia's magical undefeated season in 1980, the university's latest football national championship, the Dawgs have never been able to get its hands on another. They have had their fair share of close calls. The 1982 season saw the Dawgs lose to Penn State in the Sugar Bowl to prevent another undefeated season, or even the latest overtime loss to Alabama in 2018.

Georgia's heartbreaking loss to the Crimson Tide was the first time a Bulldogs team played for a national title in 36 years. The last team to do it was the aforementioned 1982 team. The retirement of legendary head coach Vince Dooley after 1988 would see the Georgia program plunge into mediocrity.

In the 11 years between Dooley and Mark Richt, Georgia would see both Ray Goff and Jim Donnan come through Athens and fail to return Georgia to the national-title discussion. Georgia had only two 10-win seasons under the two coaches combined. While there is no questioning that Donnan had some good teams, the timing was never on his side as the rise of Florida and Tennessee saw the two battle for the SEC consistently throughout the '90s.

Donnan was relieved of his duties following the 2000 season after Georgia finished 8-4. Donnan's firing resulted in athletics director Vince Dooley hiring Richt, the rising-star offensive coordinator from Florida State, where he coached two Heisman winning quarterbacks as the quarterbacks coach.

After finishing 8-4 in his first season as head coach in Athens, Georgia returned to the national-title conversation for the first time in decades under Richt. The Dawgs averaged 11 wins a season in the four years following an eight-win 2001 season. Richt also led Georgia to the first SEC Championship in school history since the conference championship game was created in 1992.

In 2002 and 2005, Richt's Georgia teams were playing some of the best football in the country, with the 2002 season seeing Georgia finish with a Sugar Bowl victory to cap off a 13-1 year with David Greene at quarterback. In 2005, DJ Shockley helped the Dawgs win their second and eventually their last conference title under Richt.

In his first five seasons, Georgia seemed destined to return to the national championship game. After a 9-4 record in 2006, true freshman quarterback Matthew Stafford got Georgia back to an 11-winseason that was capped off with an emphatic win over Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. That ended up being the last BCS bowl game Richt coached at Georgia.

Georgia never disappear from contention, as they were always producing teams capable of winning nine or 10 games a year. In fact, Georgia was just five yards away from going to the national championship in the 2012 SEC Championship game as quarterback Aaron Murray tried to lead the Dawgs on one final drive to defeat the Alabama in Atlanta.

Regulation time ran out on the Dawgs as Chris Conley caught a deflected ball from Murray, but unsuccessfully tried to get out of bounds before being downed as Murray and Georgia watched the clock run out. Murray described that as "the worst feeling in the world."

Richt's time with the Dawgs ended after being unable to make it back to Atlanta and contend for an SEC title. Then-athletics director Greg McGarity pulled the trigger on Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, who replaced Richt.

While Richt's time in Athens never resulted in a national championship as many hoped for with his hiring in December, 2000, he turned around a program that had been struggling to win seven games a year during half of the '90s.

The old saying in coaching has been and still largely is the goal of every coaching job to "leave the program better than you found it." There is absolutely no questioning that Richt left Athens "better than he found it."