CARLTON FLETCHER: Mark Richt deserves respect for more than UGA won-lost record

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

— Alice Cooper

What’s that old thing about being careful what you wish for?

University of Georgia fans, many of them still reeling from Athletic Director Greg McGarity’s stunning announcement Sunday that he’d decided to fire 15-year head football coach Mark Richt, may very well become acquainted with that old saw once Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart settles in as the university’s new coach.

Not saying Smart is a bad choice. He’s certainly proved himself as an assistant at Valdosta State, FSU, LSU and, of course, Alabama, and he’s definitely no stranger to the UGA program, having played defensive back at Georgia from 1995-98.

But in these times of don’t just win, win big college football, where millions of dollars are at stake with each game played, Richt stood out among his brethren in the coaching fraternity by remaining a man of unwavering principal. And while that means little to bottom-line-obsessed alumni who are satisfied only with championships — SEC and national — it should count for something.

Mentioning Richt as one of college football’s character guys is not, by the way, one of those damning-with-faint-praise compliments reserved for second-tier-type coaches. How many other college coaches would kill — literally — for Richt’s 145-51 career record in his 15 years at Georgia?

For that matter, how many college coaches would have to worry about job security after going 9-3 in a season in which they lost one of the country’s Top 5 running backs, Nick Chubb, on the first play of the sixth game of the season? Some say it’s a sign of Georgia fans’ high expectations — the sign of a truly elite program — that 9-3 is not good enough.

I say hogwash.

I say Georgia fans — in particular those aforementioned alumni who seek inner-circle status by giving big bucks to the program and thus are allowed to exert waaaaay too much influence on things like, say, when head coaches get hired and fired — build unattainable expectations that don’t take into account such issues as injuries and the general unpredictability of 19- and 20-year-old kids. When their expectations aren’t met, they pout and do things like call for their head coach to be fired, even if he does have a .739 winning percentage.

(In other words, Georgia fans are no different than LSU or Alabama or Nebraska or USC or Michigan or Notre Dame fans … only not particularly Catholic such as that last example.)

I’m not mourning Mark Richt today. Heck, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not even a very big UGA fan (although Ray Goff has pretty much brought me around, respect to you, Coach Goff). How many of us have jobs where we can get fired and still rake in four or five million bucks over the next couple of years for doing nothing? (Hint: not journalists)

It’s just that in a college football environment that over the last several years has seen more than its share of negative news and drama, from cheating coaches to cheating players to cheating alumni to cheating administrators to cheating professors to cheating sports information directors to even cheating mascots, it was kind of refreshing to read about a guy — a very successful guy — who maintained his moral compass even as those all around him traded their integrity for just a shot at the kind of glory winning a national championships can bring.

Richt is getting set to take over the University of Miami football program — talk about opposites attracting — a place whose “Thug Life” image has held sway since the national championship days of Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson. It’ll be interesting to see how this match made in hell works out.

No matter how he does won-loss-wise, though, don’t expect Mark Richt to change, to compromise the class man he has proven himself to be, in an attempt to gain an upper hand while recruiting in that rich South Florida talent pool. No, Mark Richt will remain Mark Richt. Don’t be surprised if a lot of University of Georgia fans only get the significance of that point as they consider the part they played in his departure.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.