Georgia fires head football coach Mark Richt

After 15 years, 145 wins and two SEC championships, the Mark Richt era at Georgia has come to an end.

On Sunday, Georgia fired its longtime head coach, who holds the second most career wins in program history, according to multiple sources. Richt had a career 74 percent winning mark and won 27 games the past three seasons.

Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity labeled Richt’s ouster as a mutual agreement between the two parties.

“Coach Richt and I met Sunday morning to discuss the status of our football program,” McGarity said. “And we mutually agreed that he would step down as head coach and would have the opportunity to accept other duties and responsibilities at UGA following the bowl game.”

Richt has had a great deal of success at Georgia through the years but could never quite get over the hump at the national level.

Richt was unable to reach a national championship game in 15 years and hasn’t won a conference title since 2005. His past three teams failed to win the SEC East after being the preseason favorite to do so.

His 2012 team was 5 yards away from winning the SEC championship in a 32-28 loss to Alabama. In 2007, the Bulldogs were bumped out of the BCS championship race because they lost a tiebreaker to Tennessee and didn’t play in the conference title game. In 2002, a loss to Florida kept Georgia from being considered for the national championship with Ohio State and Miami going undefeated in the regular season.

In recent years, Richt’s teams failed to live up to the lofty expectations set upon them, which ultimately was why McGarity and university president Jere W. Morehead decided to move on.

The expectation is for Richt to coach Georgia’s bowl game. ESPN was the first to report the story of Richt’s firing.

“I appreciate the opportunity of serving the university, as well as considering any other options that may present themselves in the future,” Richt said.

Georgia began the season as the preseason No. 9 team in both the AP and coaches polls but was out of the top 25 after a loss to Tennessee on Oct. 10, which followed a blowout defeat to Alabama the week before.

The tipping point for many in the Georgia program, as well as the fan base and boosters, was a 27-3 loss to Florida, in which Richt and the Georgia coaching staff decided to start third-string quarterback Faton Bauta instead of Greyson Lambert. Georgia’s offense, which was forced to deal with the loss of star running back Nick Chubb on the first play of the game against Tennessee, stumbled throughout the season.

A lot of the blame fell on Richt’s decision to hire offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, who didn’t have much sustained success in nine years as an NFL assistant.

While Georgia won its final four games of the regular season, it took overtime to defeat Georgia Southern, which is just in its second year as an FBS program.

Not helping matters is Richt’s 5-10 record against Florida, Georgia’s biggest conference foe and second-biggest rival behind Georgia Tech. Richt’s tenure does end with a 13-2 record against the Yellow Jckets.

Richt arrived at Georgia in 2001 after spending a considerable amount of his career as an offensive coordinator at Florida State. With the Seminoles, Richt coached Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks Charlie Ward (1993) and Chris Weinke (2000) and was a part of two national championship teams (1993 and 1999).

Richt’s next move appears to be in Athens in another role within the athletics department.

“Mark has the opportunity to remain on our staff at the University of Georgia and would be heavily involved with outreach programs for our former football lettermen via the (Paul Oliver) Network as well as other university and Athletic Association initiatives,” McGarity said.

Upon arriving at Georgia, Richt took over a program that hadn’t won an SEC championship in 20 years. Richt then became the seventh SEC coach to win two conference titles in his first five years as a head coach. The Bulldogs only finished one seasn below .500 under Richt (2010) and never missed a bowl game in his 15 years at the helm.

“Mark Richt has been an outstanding coach and mentor to our student-athletes during his 15-year tenure, and we have developed a strong and enduring friendship during that time,” Morehead said. “I am deeply grateful for his many years of dedicated service to the University of Georgia, and I particularly appreciate the positive way he has represented UGA. I have asked Mark to remain engaged with the institution in a new leadership role, and I look forward to hopefully working closely with him as we advance our capital campaign at the University of Georgia.”

This story was originally published November 29, 2015 at 12:34 PM with the headline "Georgia fires head football coach Mark Richt."