During a recent radio interview, Tarkenton unleashed hell on Richt and made it very clear that he thinks a change is overdue in Athens. The entirety of the interview can be heard here, but here are just a few of the highlights—with my commentary, of course.
When asked about his overall impression of the program, Tarkenton had this to say,
"We don’t want to look at the signs. There are always signs out there that show us that we've got impending disaster, be it the financial crisis or the Georgia crisis or the Florida crisis or what. We knew something before the Florida crisis didn’t we? The guy, he had a meltdown. His mojo was down and he recognized it, they recognized it and he got out. They bring a great coach in Will Muschamp in, they bring in the top offensive coordinator in the world, Charlie Weis, and they are in the SEC, and here we are at Georgia.
For the last three years our program has been god-awful. Our schedule, we play two sisters of the poor every year. We play Kentucky and Vanderbilt that aren’t true SEC teams and then we play Georgia Tech that is not going to have the talent we have. That is five times we play every year that we are much better than our opponents—doesn’t mean we're gonna win em' all."While it seems unfair to dismiss the evolution of Kentucky football, Tarkenton isn't saying anything that any other SEC fan wouldn't say—teams expect to beat Vanderbilt and Kentucky every year. Those are supposed to be wins, regardless to how hard either of those teams fight on the football field. Most years, Georgia should come out on top of that match-up. Yet, we have come to view those games as potential losses—is that okay?
Tarkenton also had this to say about Richt's statement that he was now "freed up" for giving more of his attention to the game of football,
"...What has he been doing for nine years? I have never heard of any college, high school, professional coach that ever said that I was not able to spend enough time on football. I had other issues."I must admit, I had a similar response. Although I was more focused on what that statement meant in regards to 2010. It's a valid question to ask and Tarkenton lays it on as to why he felt it was a poor choice of words coming from Richt,
"...it sounds like a cop-out! It sounds like I'm not going to take responsibility. I have other things. We hire people to be football coaches. We pay him and others millions of dollars to be football coaches not to be administrators. He didn’t do a very good job there...Mark and everybody is a wonderful guy and he is a wonderful guy. He is a good Christian guy. He wants to be a missionary. He goes on missions. That is a wonderful thing but do you know the religion of Nick Saban? Or Gus Malzahn? Or Chip Kelly playing for the national championship? I don’t think we care what their religion. We hire them to be football coaches. If we are hiring religious instructors, let’s go to the Campbell School of Theology over here in Decatur and get some of their people to come and coach our football team."Ouch, Fran, tell us how you really feel.
Richt is both praised and persecuted for being the kind of coach who seems more passionate about spreading his beliefs than coaching his football players. How many times have you heard he's "too nice" to win a championship? Too soft? Too passive? Too...much not like Nick Saban or Urban Meyer?
It's a common refrain and the voices singing it have grown louder and louder over the last three-years.
To top it off, Tarkenton had this to say about Richt's inability to make changes in the strength program until now,
"...Every person, every scout, all of the combine people that train/workout all of these college athletes have told me for the last five or six years, the Georgia football players are not in anywhere near the condition that the rest of the players from all of the other schools, they didn’t say they ranked second or third, they say they ranked dead last. Why couldn’t this coach recognize that before now? Before disaster happens?"Again, good question. One that most attribute to loyalty and not ignorance. Either way, it's a problem that Richt has proven to have—in spades—and one that isn't likely to change in 2011.
It's probably safe to assume that we won't be seeing Tarkenton on the sidelines of a Georgia football game anytime soon, but you have to admit, his questions and statements have validity—even if they lack a bit of tact.
What say you?
