Richt was also 1-5 vs. Urban Meyer.
When Richt did beat Saban in 2007, it was Saban's first year at Alabama, and they were 7-6 that year. Then Saban turns around and smacks him in 2008.
My fear about Richt is that he's just a good coach, and a nice guy. He's definitely more Tony Dungy than Bill Belicheck. Not that a nice guy can't win, but Richt doesn't have that ******* gene that Saban and Meyer and a lot of other coaches have that help them be so successful.
For example - watch his halftime interview of the 2008 game at the 1:04 mark. They're
#3 in the country and losing by 31 going into the half, and he gives a very polite, mildly annoyed interview. You'd expect him to be more fired up - but that's just not who he is, and I think it translates to his to his teams coming out flat in big games.
Saban and Meyer are also 2 of the best coaches in America the last decade. There really isn't much shame in losing to better teams. If you want to elaborate on his series vs Meyer we can:
Before we get that far, let's look at what happened before Meyer. Richt was 1-3 vs. Florida and was 0-2 vs. Ron Zook.
01 - Georgia ranked #15, Florida #6. GA lost 24-10.
02 - Georgia ranked #5, Florida unranked. GA lost 20-13.
03 - Georgia ranked #4, Florida #23. GA lost 16-13.
04 - Georgia ranked #10, Florida unranked. GA won 31-24. Zook had been fired a week before this game, so Richt never beat Zook.
The story isn't so much Richt's record vs. Meyer, but his record vs. Florida. You could see a pattern of coming out flat in big games before Meyer even got there.
05- we were without DJ Shockley (SEC POY in 05) and had to play a guy that should never be above 3rd string. Lost by 4.
Georgia ranked #5, Florida unranked. GA lost 14-10. Not having Shockley hurt I'm sure, but you're #5 and put up 10 on an unranked team? Richt failed to score 14 points in 4 of his first 5 games vs. Florida
06- we lost 4 games and they won the national title. Still, with a True FR QB, we lost by 7 where the score difference came on a fumble return for a TD
Georgia unranked, Florida #9. GA lost 21-14. The True FR QB was Stafford, the eventual #1 pick. That fumble return put Florida up 21-0. GA had 5 turnovers. Richt fell to 0-6 vs. Florida and his offense scores 14 or less in 5 of the 6 games. Richt gave up play calling before the end of the 2006 season
07- we won by 2 TDs
Georgia #20, Florida #9. GA wins 42-30. Game was 35-30 with 4 minutes to go. It was a close game.
08- this is the only matchup that pit 2 very good teams against each other.We got whooped, and UF won the national title.
Georgia #8, Florida #5. GA loses 49-10. GA started as the preseason #1 and got crushed by Alabama and Florida in 2008.
09- we lost 5 games, they would have won the national title had they not faced national champ bama in the SECCG
Georgia unranked, Florida #1. GA loses 41-17.
10- both teams sucked adn we lost in overtime
Georgia unranked, Florida unranked. GA loses 34-31
Our record vs meyer was bad, but we only played them once with evenly matched teams IMO.
In Richt's first 10 games vs Florida: GA went 2-8. GA scored 14 or less 6 times, 5 when Richt was calling plays. Georgia came into the game - Ranked in the Top 10 (5 times), ranked in the Top 5 (4 times), and as the higher ranked team (4 times). Georgia won 1 of those games.
As for the record vs saban:
03- lost to the national champs by 7 on the road. Game was tied with 2 minutes left
Georgia #7, LSU #11. GA lost 17-10.
03- lost to the national champs pretty bad in the SECCG
Georgia #5, LSU #3. GA lost 34-13. Georgia was just as good as LSU this year, lost once, and got blown out once, and put up a combined 23 points in 2 games.
04- beat the dog **** out of saban in athens
Georgia #3, LSU #13. GA won 45-16.
07- beat them in OT in tuscaloosa
Georgia #22, Alabama #16. GA won 26-23. As I said in the first post, Alabama was 7-6 in 2007. Of the 6 losses, only Georgia was by less than 7 points. Louisiana-Monroe beat Alabama by 7 this year.
And this was Richt's highest ranked team at Georgia, finishing the season at #2
08- lost by 11 to a team that would start 12-0
Georgia #3, Alabama #8. GA lost 41-30. You could say GA lost by 11....or as I said in the first post, you could say GA was losing at home 31-0 at halftime. The final score in no way reflects what an epic beatdown this was. This was the Stafford/Moreno/Green team that was preseason #1. They'd go on to lose to Florida by 39 a couple weeks later
12 - lost by 4 on the game's final play in the SECCG to the national champs
Georgia #3, Alabama #2. GA lost 32-28. This was close the whole way and could've gone either way
15- lost badly to the national champs
Georgia #8, Alabama #13. GA lost 38-10
Again, it's easy to say "Richt had a crappy record vs meyer and saban", without actually realizing what that means. Of Richt's 10 losses to saban and meyer, SIX of them were to teams that won the national title. TWO more were losses to teams that went undefeated in the regular season.
Of these 17 games vs. Florida or Saban - Richt was 4-13 Overall, went 2-9 when Georgia came in as a top 10 team, and went 2-6 when Georgia came in as the higher ranked team. Of these 2 wins, 1 was to an unranked 2003 Florida team that fired Ron Zook the week before the game.
Richt was 1-8 when the other team came in ranked in the Top 10.
Richt was calling plays in 9 of these games, 7 of which Georgia scored 14 or less. But Miami fans are excited about Richt calling plays again.
Overall, Richt went 5-10 vs. Florida. He won by more than 1 TD once. He lost by more than 2 TD's 5 times.
So, his record against the elite of the elite in america doesn't really bother me when you look at it like that.
It's all a matter of what perspective you use to look at it