Kevin Price: Could Mark Richt surpass Vince Dooley's win total?

Vince Dooley and Wally Butts.

Those are the only two names ahead of Mark Richt in the Georgia record book when you look up career coaching victories.

Dooley, of course, is on top with 201.

Butts is second with 140.

Richt is just one shy of Butts with 139, and he should tie him on Saturday when the Bulldogs host Southern.

Want to know how big of a mismatch this is? Georgia required Southern to bring its band as part of the contract that pays Southern $650,000 for making the trip to Athens. There is no doubt Southern's band, aka the Human Jukebox, is amazing, but that tells you a lot about the football program.

There may be some who don't know who Wally Butts was.

Butts coached at Georgia from 1939 to 1960. He finished with a record of 140-86-9.

Butts, whose teams won four SEC titles, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

His name is on the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall, which houses most of the athletic offices in Athens.

Mehre is Harry Mehre, another former Georgia coach.

Richt, who has led Georgia to a pair of SEC championships, tried to downplay the significance of tying Butts' record when he was asked about it earlier this week.

"In his era, I don't know how many games he played a year, probably nine or 10," Richt said. "I don't know if it's as significant.

"If we were only playing 10 games a year, I wouldn't be there yet.

"But it's nice to see your name next to a Wallace Butts."

Richt is being modest.

While it is true that schools play more games now than they used to -- 12 to 13 a season as opposed to 10 to 11 -- Richt's winning percentage is significantly higher than Butts'.

Richt is 139-48 for a winning percentage of .743. Butts' was .596.

Can Richt catch Dooley?

It would take roughly another five to seven seasons, certainly doable if a couple of factors take place.

One, Richt would have to have the desire to coach that many more years. There doesn't seem to be any reason to think he doesn't want to continue coaching.

Second, Georgia and its fans/boosters would need to remain happy with his performance.

While it seems Richt has Georgia in the hunt for another SEC title every season, the fact remains that the Dogs have not won one since 2005. The Dogs came close -- 5 yards or so -- in 2012 in a SEC championship game loss against Alabama.

Richt sometimes gets a pass from Georgia fans because of the kind of person he is off the field with his nice-guy persona and off-season mission trips.

But at some point, the Dawg Nation may get tired of coming close but not winning another SEC championship.

Kevin Price, kprice@ledger-enquirer.com. Follow Kevin on Twitter@lesports

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 6:13 PM with the headline "Kevin Price: Could Mark Richt surpass Vince Dooley's win total? ."