Accept it UGA Fans. Mark Richt is a Good Coach.

Take your 10-11 win seasons, at least a New Year's Day bowl game (possibly BCS), and legitimate talks about your team making it to the championship game every year. Enjoy them.

As a fan, you never know how quickly success can come crashing down. Ask any Arkansas fan. Ask any Auburn fan. Ask any Miami fan. Ask any Tennessee fan. Ask any Texas fan.  Ask any Notre Dame fan how hard it is to get back to relevancy. Get the picture?

After the Bulldogs, lead by 12-year head coach Mark Richt, beat their archrival and undefeated No. 2 team in the country, Florida, in the team's biggest rivalry game, talk radio and papers in Atlanta radio have spent entirely too much time devoted to whether Richt should be fired or not.

Richt has run a clean and winning program, and what does he get from his "fan"base? No confidence and a place on the proverbial "hot seat" no matter how much success he has. Six reasons why Georgia fans' arguments are wrong and can give it a break.

1. "Richt can't win with blue-chip talent": Mark Richt has consistently brought in top-tier recruiting classes. He is helped by UGA's history and facilities, how former Bulldogs perform in the NFL, and ultimately his geographic location. The state of Georgia is the fourth best state for high school talent in the country, and Richt has had to fend off bordering state schools from intruding on his territory.

By Rivals.com's or Scout.com's standards, Richt almost all he can do as far as keeping his talent in-state and picking occasional five stars from bordering states. Bulldog fans argue that with this talent Richt should be winning title after title, a weak argument at best.

If you use recruiting as the only predictor of success, Florida State, Notre Dame, Clemson, and Virginia Tech should have been winning national titles for years.

2. "He will never win a national title.": I am sorry to break Georgia fans' hearts, but your program is not exactly used to winning championship after championship. The Associated Press has only awarded two national championships to UGA all time (1942, 1980). That's one more than Maryland and the same number as Minnesota. Let that sink in. Side note: Georgia also has two "Alabama" national championships -- the ones your program claims and no one believes.

The entitled thinking that Georgia should win be winning a championship at least every other year is a new concept brought about by Richt's early success, six 10-win seasons in his first eight years.

Richt should have gotten a shot at the BCS in 2007 when they were Bulldogs were "2004 Auburn"-ed and a two-loss LSU team got to the championship game instead. Georgia, led by Richt went to the Sugar Bowl and demolished Hawaii.

Vince with his star, Herschel.

3. "Dooley did it.": The almighty Vince Dooley did bring a national championship to Athens, riding the shoulders of one of college football's all-time greats, known simply as Herschel in these parts.

What is not as fondly remembered of Dooley is the start of his career. In his first 12 years, he had two 10-win seasons and a 4-5 bowl record. He also had three .500 seasons and compiled an 88-41 win-loss record.

Richt is in his 12th year. While he did have one "atrocious" season (6-7), a losing campaign capped by an Independence Bowl loss to UCF, he has two SEC Championships (just like Dooley) and has won 74% of his games with a win-loss record of 113-39 (better than Dooley). Richt is 7-5 in bowl games (better than Dooley).

Dooley's one national championship did not come until his 17th season at the helm of Georgia football. No way Richt can make it without one for another five years with this fan base, even with 10-win seasons.

4."Richt's players don't fear him.": Maybe they do not "fear" him in the same sense players at Alabama do Saban. However, no players love their coach more than the boys in Red and Black.

Just like Les Miles, Bobby Bowden and Pete Carrol, who have had pretty successful runs in college, Richt's players love to play for him. These coaches and others prove that you do not have to instill fear in your players in order for them to win.

5. "Richt has no control over his players":Put any group of 80, 18-23 year-old, young men in an enabling community that lets them get away with most anything because they play football. Now make said community Athens, with its unbelievable downtown atmosphere and tell me there will not be a few kids who get in trouble with the law. Not happening.

Add in UGA's toughest drug policy in the SEC and you have a mixture that looks like Richt has no control.

If a Bulldog violates the teams' drug policy once the player is suspended for 10% of the games, twice equals suspension for 50% of the season, and three times the player is dismissed from the program.

Only one other SEC school (Kentucky) has penalties for failing one drug test -- and you see how that program is doing. At Alabama, Florida and LSU it takes four violations to be dismissed. Gators who fail their drug tests for marajuana three times lose only 20% of their games. This is unfair approach is one Richt can no go backwards on. Instead he has to fight negative recruiting on this matter and push forward.

So it looks as if Georgia players are in trouble much more than other programs because the other programs are able to keep it on the hush longer as to why a player who appears healthy is not playing.

 6. My ultimate trump card, which leaves Georiga fans speechless, "Who are you going to hire that is going to be better?": Of the 124 schools in the FBS, only five (Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Oregon, and Kansas State) would not consider hiring Richt in place of their current coach not an upgrade. Why? Because he runs a clean program and is seems to always be in the hunt for a national title.

Also Bulldog fans must realize what Nick Saban is doing with "The Process" at Alabama is the only place like it in the county. He is the only person with such coaching talent  and there is not anyone out there close to what he does. 

Saban is Usain Bolt in a 100-meter race and the rest of college football is like Jared Lorenzen trying to catch up. There is only one of him and he is not leaving.

You had a $90 million football surplus last year to use for hires? Great. You are still not luring Saban away from Alabama. Not only that, there is no a coach with Richt's consistency and knack for winning available.

So on the behalf every college football fan, "Georgia fans, give it a break."

The Weekend That Was: "They Are Who We Thought They Were," Fighting Snyders, Willed to Win

We only get 13 Saturdays like this a year -- including your team's bye week and excluding bowl season. This one was one of the more boring ones I can remember. Every team in the top ten won (except for South Carolina who played No. 2 Florida), and there were hardly any nail-biters as they all do so easily. But enjoy them. The number of these precious Saturdays are down to four after this week.

Tough day for Connor Shaw and his Gamecocks

"THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE": As the season goes along, this phrase becomes more aprapos by the week. South Carolina made its way into the top 5 a couple of weeks on the road in some of the toughest SEC stadiums, their flaws were unmasked. Did anyone actually believe they were this good?

Their home win over Georgia was one of the most impressive of the year, but USC's inability to find a consistent run --or pass-- game with quarterback Connor Shaw leaves them with two losses in the league and a long-shot to get back to Atlanta. However, UGA, thanks to its weak schedule, has an opportunity to get back to the SEC Championship for the second year in a row with a win over Florida.

Florida, on the other hand, is a little better than we thought they were, as they have manhandled every team since their fighting out a win over Bowling Green in week two of the season. They have no aerial attack to speak of, but if the Gators can put together just a little bit of offense, their defense will do the rest.

Thanks to poor planning the SEC East race will be decided in this Saturday in the World's Largest Cocktail Party.

Sleep-depived Bill Snyder after Saturday's win.

 FIGHTING SNYDERS CONTINUE TO IMPRESS: Bill Snyder is 73 and coaching at Kansas State. He will win the national coach of the year because at the beginning of the season his squad was projected to win 7-8 games. Through seven weeks he is already there and ranked No. 3 in the BCS poll.

Kansas State rolled into Morgantown, West Virginia and layed a smackdown on the Moutnaineers, dominating in every phase of the game. They did everything right except for getting coach Snyder in bed before 9 p.m. Word is he was cranky all day Sunday. This was a team that was owned by Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl last year, but instead of letting their entire program go awry, as the Razorbacks have, they have responded and put together the season many thought the Hogs could have pre-April motorcycle ride.

"Seriously, I owe you for the Heisman."

Also of interest, Kansas State's Arthur Brown became the first player to intercept West Virginia's Geno Smith since December 1, 2010. Brown was also the first player to pick off former Baylor quarterback and Heisman trophy winner, Robert Griffin III.

While their schedule lines up nicely for an undefeated finish, the Wildcats must be careful to not become this years' 2011 Oklahoma State, who lost their next-to-last game at Iowa State and were kept them out of the BCS title game.

A WILL TO WIN: Notre Dame, Oregon State, and Texas Tech are what Skip Bayless would call "Tebowing" their way through this season. They are never overly impressive in their victories (minus TTU over WVU), but they just keep winning.

The Irish and the Beavers used fourth quarter touchdowns to secure wins this week, while the Red Raiders took No. 23 TCU to triple overtime before leaving Fort Worth as winners. At some point for these teams the luck has to run out.

One would think the Irish will have to have more than 17 points to defeat Oklahoma this week, Texas Tech will not be able to keep up with Kansas State's offense and defense, and Oregon State will have to get it together before traveling to Stanford in two weeks. Of course, those sorts of things have been said all season and these teams have delivered in unlikely situations over and over again.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

-Tennessee linebacker, and one of my favorites in all of college football, scored his sixth rushing touchdown of the year from the Volunteers' "Beast Package." While it was impressive, it is not the sort of performance you  want to see from your offense, seeing that it was the only touchdown on the night and the defense gave up 44 to Alabama.

The Ducks are flying high (too easy).

-Oregon could have literally named the number of points they wanted to score this week versus Arizona State. The Ducks offense has done this all year and luckily -- but unfortunately for fans outside the Pac-12 -- coach Chip Kelly has called off the dogs and not embarrassed too many opponents more than they should have been.

- Arkansas didn't lose this week. Sure, they didn't play but with the way the Hogs have played this year, you never know. They also opened as a 4.5-point favorite for Saturday's game against Ole Miss.

- Are you ready for a  Orange Bowl featuring Louisville and Duke? It is a possibility. What a great way for the BCS to say "goodbye" on its way out.

-Duke is bowl eligible after beating hated rival North Carolina in some pretty heinous jerseys. This came a day after their Midnight Madness for the basketball team. What a weekend for Duke fans.

The Weekend That Was: More SEC Domination in BCS, Heisman Favorites, Samford Homecoming

The season's first BCS rankings came out on Sunday, sending some of those outside of the South into a firestorm. The SEC has the top two teams, Alabama and Florida, and six of the top 12 (Alabama, Florida, LSU, South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi State). Haters gonna hate.

There have been other impressive teams around the country and no doubt the bottom of the SEC is much further down than normal. There are five teams which legitimately pose a threat to dethroning the Crimson Tide from its seat as champion. It is much more likely to see a team like South Carolina or LSU (even if their offense has struggled), but it not outside the realm of possibility to see a team like Georgia win out and find themselves in the championship game, as the SEC champion has done for six consecutive seasons.

That said, watching Oregon's offense take on one of the SEC big-boy defenses, like I have said before, sounds like must-see television. Before you cry to me about Auburn-Oregon 2010, this is Ducks coach Chip Kelly' best team yet. Check the stats.

One-loss squads like Oklahoma, with their thrashing of Texas, and Southern Cal are also still alive. The great part is we are only halfway to anointing two teams worthy of playing for the championship, and if you think it will happen one way the system is bound to throw a kink in your thinking.

HEISMAN FAVORITES- I, like 99% of people who give you their Heisman hopefuls, do not have a vote. Regardless, here are my favorites for the award of the "Most Outstanding Player in College Football," not the country's most valuable player:

This Clowney character is one bad dude.

1) Geno Smith (West Virginia)- He had a bad game this week in their first loss, but Smith still has 25 TDs to his no interceptions and 2,271 yards through the air.

2) Jadaveon Clowney (South Carolina)- Like Smith, Clowney lost this week but still has a shot at the national championship game. With 12 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks, he has made opponents look silly.

3) Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M)- The freshman leads the SEC in rushing (626 yards, 10 TD) and is third in passing (1,680 yards, 14 TD), and he still has prime time games on his schedule to display his talents.

4) A.J. McCarron (Alabama)- As long as he continues to not throw picks, manage the Tide to wins, and avoid getting hurt, his chances will increase.

SAMFORD ONE YARD TOO FEW- I was in Birmingham for the weekend to see my Bulldogs play the Moutaineers from Appalachian State. In typical "Samford-plays-in-a-big-game" form, the Bulldogs came up just short. This one was especially painful because it would have been the program's first win over national powerhouse, App State, but it was not meant to be.

Samford quarterback Andy Summerlin needed one
yard for the historic win.

With 2-and-1 on near midfield and less than two minutes left in the game, the Bulldogs only needed one yard in order to secure four more downs to run out the clock. Unable to get the 1 yard, Samford was forced to punt, leading to a Mountaineer drive which ended in a touchdown and win.

Though the game could have ended a little more pleasantly, it was one of the best atmospheres I have ever experienced in Birmingham. The quad was filled with tents, BBQ, and estimates of close to 10,000 people on the country's most beautiful campus.

Friends of mine who were not as fortunate to attend Samford, compared this tailgate to one at Georgia or Georgia Tech, saying it was small and not much to it. For those of us who were some of the first to set up tents on The Quad, it was a sight to see. Outsiders, think about it like this. Less than 5,000 people attend students and there were twice that number on campus on Saturday. If you take UGA's close to 50,000 students and compare it to the 100,000 or so who come to Athens for Saturdays, it puts it a little more into perspective.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

- Tommy Tuberville loves playing top-5 teams. Throughout his career, Tuberville has found a way to ignite passion within his ball clubs to go out and beat teams ranked in the top 5. He was the mastermind behind West Virginia's beat down this weak, as his Texas Tech squad held the potent Mountaineer offense to 14 points. The win pushed his record to 6-2 as the underdog against top 5 teams.

- I have been an Derek Dooley apologist before, but there is no getting around the fact that he is now 0-20 against ranked opponents. While Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, on the other hand, is having unprecedented success in Starkville. Both of these coaches will not be at their respective jobs too much longer but for totally different reasons

- Notre Dame escaped on Saturday. They won and you can not take that away from them but the more times you watch Stanford's Stephan Taylor give a second effort and hear no whistle the more convincing the Cardinal's case becomes.

The U.

The Weekend That Was: Where's the Defense?, UGA Wins Again, Texas & Alabama Hype, My Own Solid Weekend

Much has been made of the absurd stats from Saturday's games. The West Virginia-Baylor game is getting all of the publicity, but there were plenty of others that looked more like video games than actual competition. Here are a couple that jump off the box scores.

West Virginia's Geno "Heisman" Smith

 656 -- Yards passing by the Mountaineer's Geno Smith. It ranks fifth all-time for a single-game in Division I. Smith also finished with more touchdowns (8) than incompletions (6) on the day.

581 -- Passing yards from the Bears' Nick Florence in their losing effort to West Virginia, passing Robert Griffin III single-game mark.

557 -- Total yards accumulated by Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, breaking the old record of 540.

314 -- Receiving yards accumulated by Baylor's Terrance Williams to set the Big 12 record. Mountaineer reciever Stedman Baily had 303 yards and five touchdowns, which would have been the record if not for Williams' performance.

222 -- Rushing yards from Air Force's Cody Getz in a win over Colorado State. He becomes the first Falcon to record four 100-yard games to start the season and the first with two 200-yard games since 2007

133 --Total points recorded in the WVU-Baylor game on 1,507 yards of offense.

4 -- Games in which the teams combined for 1,000+ yards of total offense (Texas-Oklahoma State, Tennessee-Georgia, Baylor-West Virginia, and Miami (Ohio)-Akron).

If the old adage is true that defense wins championships, then many teams are much further away than they want to be from holding the crystal ball in January.

DOGS BETTER VOLS: With the win over Tennessee on Saturday, the Bulldogs were able to prove they can not only finish close games, but that their trip to South Carolina this week becomes the de facto SEC East Division Championship, a prelude to the SEC West Championship on November 3rd.

Sure the Dawgs "escaped" this weekend with the win, but the bigger question is what to make of Tennessee. There is no one part of the game which can definitively be fixed and make this a contending team. In the same light, there is no one thing making them unable to compete. It is a mixture of both and undoubtedly a perplexing situation to be in for Volunteer fans.

As close as you can get for free, close enough to hear the
opening score and get chills.

The offense scored 44 points on the road in a hostile environment. The defense gave up more points, but made critical stops when they needed to. Big plays hurt the Tennessee defense, but their big plays helped the offense. Coach Derek Dooley gave his team a chance to win, but the arm that makes their offense go in Tyler Bray threw three interceptions, not a coaching error. It is not bad enough to start over, but it is hard to justify continuing down the same path.

I had the good fortune to be in Athens on Saturday. After covering a game for The Times on Friday night, I left for the Classic City and met my sister and a few friends downtown, which is worth almost all of the positive adjectives given to it.

Gameday came and we tailgated, as any good SEC fan should do. If you have never experienced an Athens tailgate, you should. There are few places around the country that do it better than the folks in red and black. My sister and her friends made their way into the game, and since I had no interest in paying $150 to see the game, I enjoyed the pregame and first Bulldog scoring drive from a different perspective.

Being the old man I am, I was ready to get out of town and head back to Gainesville to watch the second half and beat the traffic. I was fortunate enough to see some friends to watch the game with, ready for it? With all that Athens' downtown offers, where did we meet to watch the game? 20 miles outside of Athens at a Beef O'Brady's. So when you watch that terrible bowl game this December, you can blame me for supporting the company and keeping the bowl game alive. It was a good time nonetheless.

WHAT ALABAMA COULD BE, NOT YET: I am not buying Alabama like the rest of you. I have no problem admitting the Tide is the best team in the country, but I am not oohing and ahhing like the rest of you over their dominance. Yes, they have won in convincing fashion and their defense looks outstanding, but who have they played?

Michigan's two wins are UMass and a close one at home against Air Force. Ole Miss' only opponent worth mentioning was Texas, a 66-31 loss for the Rebels. By the end of the season they could be as good as last year's team, but not yet. And for the love of the "Bear," can we stop comparing them to an NFL team?

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

- Arkansas has given up on the season. There is no doubt about that, as it becomes more apparent  every time they take the field. Call me a homer, but take your shots now. This is an anomaly and historically bad. I am realistic and know that Arkansas, no matter how much badly I want it, is probably not going to ever be a perennial football powerhouse, but it is a better team than this. SEC teams who get an extra win because Arkansas is down, enjoy it now.

- There has been a lot written about Florida State and Notre Dame's rise back to the good ole days. What about Texas? Sure, it has only been three years since they were in the national championship, but these last few years have been horrendous on Texas standards. They seem to have figured out the offense and we know with the recruiting classes they sign the talent level is only going up.

PERSONAL NOTE: I do not normally talk about my own experiences from the weekend on these types of columns. However, since my weekend did involve being in Athens for the Tennessee-Georgia game this week I figure I will go ahead and throw this in there. It was a great time all-around. The whole weekend, not just Saturdays, which in the especially fall are usually pretty good.

For those of you around my age, and even moreso those of you in school, unfortunately eating alone is a  more common experience than not, an unfortunate part of this transient period. This weekend was the exception.

Food is an essential part of life, but the socialization of meal times can be of greater importance to me. The one meal I had alone was my Friday night pregame meal before I went and covered a high school game for the The Times, and I did not have a meal with the same group of people twice this weekend. I ate with family, new friends and old friends in places I had never been before.

From downtown Athens, to tailgating, to a Beef O'Brady's in Jefferson, to church and a Sunday School party. It was solid.

Thanks to all who had a part in making this weekend a good one. I am looking forward to some more soon: The ole Silver Anniversary of my life and Samford Homecoming are around the corner.

Bet you can't tell which two came from the same gene pool. Props to you Mama and Daddy.