Georgia looking to rally through wave of Richt criticism

ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia has already come up short on the goals it set out to accomplish this season.

Winning the SEC East, competing for an SEC championship, earning a spot in the College Football Playoff and ultimately winning the sport's biggest prize are out of reach after eight games in the books.

Head coach Mark Richt's future has never been in more doubt, given what transpired over the month of October. The Bulldogs lost games to Alabama, Tennessee and Florida in embarrassing fashion and barely defeated Missouri 9-6.

With four games remaining, the atmosphere at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall on Tuesday felt tense at times. When Richt stepped to the podium for his media day press conference, he opened talking about Kentucky, its personnel, its leading tackler and offensive philosophy.

When he opened the floor to questions, it was evident the Kentucky game wasn't on the minds of most of the reporters in attendance.

Richt knew what he was facing when he walked in. It took only two questions for him to try his best to divert the direction of the press conference.

"Here's the deal, everybody," Richt said. "Y'all can pay attention to this. We're Georgia. We're a team. We work together. We're going to fight. We're going to fight together, and we'll do the things we think we need to do to get better as we go, but the Georgia people can count on us fighting our tails off and doing it in a way that everybody would be proud of the effort of our young men and everybody's efforts to get better. So that's where we're at right now."

Since falling five yards short of what would have been a BCS National Championship appearance in 2012, the Bulldogs have gone 23-11. In that span, they've lost two games to Florida and one to Georgia Tech. Missouri's won two East division title to Georgia's zero. The Bulldogs have been eliminated from contention with two conference games remaining on the 2015 schedule.

There's a general feeling something will change this offseason. It could be Richt's standing as head coach. It could be another round of position coaches cycling through, with Richt attempting to fix what's gone wrong this year.

While players attempt to block out the outside noise, outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins acknowledged it's tough to think about his coaches fighting for their jobs.

"If we don't finish strong, one of the coaches might be fired. It might be a clean sweep like some of the other schools are doing," Jenkins said. "Something like that is detrimental to the program. When you fire a whole staff, when you fire a coach, it sets back everything that was in motion. I've always thought badly about staffs that did that and fans that wanted that."

However, Florida fired Will Muschamp after four seasons and hired Jim McElwain, who's had immediate success in his first season with the Gators. Brought to his attention, Jenkins began to answer, before deciding not to comment.

Under Richt, Georgia elevated itself to a new level. After winning two conference championships in his first five seasons, high expectations followed as the fan base yearned for more. However, Georgia has been unable to deliver another conference championship over a 10-year span. And now, frustration among the fan base has become evident. Fans cleared out of Sanford Stadium in the third quarter of Georgia's loss to Alabama. After halftime of Saturday's loss to Florida, there were quite a few empty teal seats scattered throughout the Georgia section.

"I've always wanted to be at a school where there's tremendous support, where people are going to get in the stands and get excited and have passion, and you can't just decide to have passion one way," Richt said. "People have opinions, and when things don't go well, I don't blame people for getting mad or upset or whatever. But I do want everybody in the Bulldog nation to support our players. I think that's the most important thing, support these guys. I mean, it's unbelievable the amount of workload they have when you take football and school, and it's a lot. And those guys, they need us as coaches, just to help them navigate life in general, and certainly learn how to navigate tough times."

Times have never been tougher for Richt as Georgia's head coach. On Sunday, Richt expressed optimism that his football team and coaching staff could overcome the latest downturn that has not only derailed this season, but his potential standing as Georgia's head coach.

Richt is under considerable pressure to fix what's taken place over the past month. However, he hasn't let it show to his team. Having been under fire before, Richt has approached the recent, and more intense, criticism as a part of the job.

"He's still his cool, calm, collected self," tight end Jeb Blazevich said. "He's been doing it way too long, in the hot seat, too many years to be worried about it. He knows where we stand with him. We love coach Richt and we're all behind him 100 percent. We're not too worried about it and it doesn't seem like he is either."

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Georgia looking to rally through wave of Richt criticism ."