It was probably the 5 top 10 finishes in his first 7 seasons that pushed them to make that change.
His record his first 7 years was AMAZING. 8-4, 13-1, 11-3, 10-2, 10-3, 9-4, 11-2, 10-3.
Cool. How about his last decade at Georgia? It looked something like this:
Two SEC championships in his first five seasons, he failed to win a title in his last 10 seasons.
Georgia has appeared in the SEC championship game only twice since winning its last SEC title in 2005.
His teams suffered at least one loss of 18 points or more in 10 of the last 11 seasons
Record of 14-23 against ranked opponents over the last eight seasons, including 0-2 last year
Unable to take control of the SEC East in each of the previous two seasons, when Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee were collectively struggling mightily
After winning its first four games last year, Georgia was routed by Alabama 38-10 at home on Oct. 3, and then it blew a 21-point lead in a 38-31 loss at Tennessee the next week.
By Halloween last year, Georgia was eliminated from the SEC East race after a 27-3 loss to Florida.
Only one of the FBS opponents the Bulldogs beat last year (second-year FBS program Georgia Southern, which lost to UGA 23-17 in overtime) finished with a winning record, and only one other FBS foe (6-6 Auburn) will play in a bowl game
Richt's teams went only 5-10 against the Gators