Georgia football beset by bizarre, rumor-filled morning

ATHENS -- Mark Richt, on the Thursday before this weekend's SEC game against Kentucky, needed to type out a message with 140 characters or fewer to calm a fan base glued to its laptops and smart phones for the better part of a morning.

The reason: From the crack of dawn until 12:07 p.m., message boards and social media lit up with the rumor that defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt was going to be fired from his position by the end of the afternoon.

"Just so everyone knows, Jeremy Pruitt is our defensive coordinator and is in the office working diligently getting ready for Kentucky!" Richt wrote on his personal Twitter account.

It's not often a head coach is forced to release anything resembling a statement about an assistant not being fired mid-season. It signals how bizarre the past 24 hours have been for the Georgia football program and how surreal it has been since last Saturday, when the Bulldogs suffered an embarrassing defeat to rival Florida 27-3 in Jacksonville.

For some, it became a tipping point with plenty of burning questions. What does the future of this program look like? What can Georgia do to salvage its season?

Will Richt remain as Georgia's head coach?

With the immediate success Richt had in turning Georgia's fortunes around after taking over in 2001, Richt long has had the kind of job security many coaches clamor for. He led the Bulldogs to conference titles in 2002 and in 2005, which set him up to hold this position for quite some time.

Expectations then reached a high point in 2008, when Georgia was the preseason No. 1 team in the nation. But since that season, Richt's teams haven't performed as anticipated on a yearly basis and have gone a combined 69-33. This has caused for two camps to split within the fan base.

The anti-Richt crowd has long been vocal in its displeasure of the head coach, arguing he has proven over time he'll never win a national championship. The pro-Richt crowd has been firm in its support, believing Richt will eventually win a title and that Georgia shouldn't sacrifice ideals or integrity to get there.

Mack Brown, who coached Texas for 16 years from 1998-2013 and is now an ESPN commentator, said what Richt is going through is reminiscent of what he endured during the end of his tenure, which included winning a national championship in 2005. Brown went 30-21 in his final four seasons and resigned as the pressure began to mount.

"I don't know who you're going to hire who's going to have a better run than Mark Richt has had," Brown said on an ESPN conference call this week. "When you see those who hang in there, Mark will get it back. He played for the conference championship (in 2012) and he was five yards from playing for the national championship."

Senior outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins chose to attend Georgia four years ago and has formed a close bond with Richt. With all the speculation surrounding the program, Jenkins said not many people know what Richt is truly like behind closed doors.

"Other people don't see Coach Richt all the time," Jenkins said. "A lot of people say Coach Richt doesn't have intensity, he doesn't have emotion. They're not with him day in and day out like we are -- five, seven days a week. The man's emotional. The man's a great coach, a great father figure. He's done a lot for this team, for this program."

Never before this week has the buzz surrounding Richt's potential ouster been this loud. That includes last year following a loss to Georgia Tech, when it was rumored his job was on the line. On Thursday, USA Today reported Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity "favored a coaching change" after the 2014 season but was overruled by university president Jere W. Morehead.

When reached for a reaction on this report via email, McGarity wrote, "All of our efforts are focused on supporting our coaches and players for the Kentucky game Saturday" and followed it by saying he did not want to fire Richt after last season.

It's unknown what will happen in the immediate future when it comes to Richt, Pruitt or anyone else on the coaching staff. Georgia has four regular-season games remaining on its schedule. It's easy to assume this staff's future will hinge on how the Bulldogs perform during the final third of the season.

And somewhere in the midst of the talk about Richt and his staff's future are the players, which have a game against Kentucky this Saturday to prepare for.

"It seems like these fans, and everyone, has high expectations," senior inside linebacker Jake Ganus said. "And they should. It's a great program. It's one of the best in the country. It's one that you grow up -- Georgia's playing, Georgia's probably going to win. It's awesome. It's how it should be around here. But I really don't focus on what they're saying about Coach, or a certain player, or the defense, or offense. I just try to focus on us as a team. Winning makes everything better. We just got to go out there and try to take care of ourselves."

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Georgia football beset by bizarre, rumor-filled morning ."