The B.S. Report: Bill Shanks discusses Georgia’s poor record against Florida in the Mark Richt era

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Several times before on my radio show, we’ve had the discussion about which team is Georgia’s biggest rival. Some older fans may say Georgia Tech, just because it’s the instate school that is 70 miles from Athens. Some believe it may be Tennessee or Auburn, and some may even point to the rivalry with Clemson as the best one.

But make no mistake about it, Georgia’s biggest rivalry is with Florida.

I’m a bit partial with this because I grew up in South Georgia, so I know all about what happens every year in Jacksonville. And that’s what made last Saturday’s game between the Bulldogs and the Gators the most sickening game I’ve watched in a long time. 27 to 3. Florida killed Georgia by 24 points. There are a lot of things that I can bring up against Mark Richt, and I do on a regular basis, but the fact that he is 5 and 10 against Georgia’s biggest rival is indefensible. How many coaches survive going 5 and 10 against their biggest rival in a 15-year span?

Again, I could sit here for 10 minutes and spout off plenty of stats and records that would not make Richt’s case look good, but do I need anything else but his record against Florida? Richt lost the first game in his first season – against Steve Spurrier, before the old ball coach left for the NFL. Then Ron Zook came in and beat Richt in two of the three seasons he was in Gainesville. Urban Meyer was then the coach, and the only time in six years Richt beat Meyer was when his team went out and celebrated in the end zone after the first touchdown of the game. That made Meyer so mad he called time outs at the end of the game the next season when Florida was blowing Georgia out – just to make Richt suffer through it a bit longer. Then Richt did have success against Will Muschamp, winning three of four but losing last year three weeks before Muschamp was fired.

And then last Saturday, the Gators’ new coach, Jim McElwain, beat Richt in his first game in the rivalry. There is nothing that makes Richt’s record look bad more than what he’s done against Florida. And now, two years after the Gators lost to Georgia Southern and a year after they fired a coach, the new guy has come in and made the Gators better than the Bulldogs. And hey, Georgia fans, a second-string quarterback beat your Bulldogs by 24 points. Richt made the dumb decision of starting his third-string quarterback and looked what happened – four interceptions and that poor kid, Faton Bauta, had no chance, particularly with his offensive line getting manhandled.

Florida had floundered, but even then, the last two seasons, Richt and his Bulldogs could not even win the East. Missouri won it instead. Now, Florida is back. They will win the East and go to Atlanta next month to play in the SEC championship game, while Georgia will watch it on TV. The Gators have passed the Bulldogs already, but hey, Richt did have a 15-year head start on McElwain. This is just one of the reasons – a main reason, however, that the University of Georgia needs to hit the reset button and fire Mark Richt. If he can’t beat the Gators more than five times in 15 years, then it’s time to find someone who can. The Georgia-Florida game means everything, or so it should. But in the Mark Richt era, it’s just a chance for this overrated head coach to show how once again he can fail at winning a big game.

Please, someone in Athens, push the reset button. Or will it take a third head coach in Florida’s history winning a national championship in a few years to prove that once again, the Florida Gators have passed the Georgia Bulldogs.