Bill Shanks: Is this acceptable, Georgia fans?

Saturday's game in Jacksonville, Florida, between Georgia and Florida was over before it even started. A major coaching decision was the first disaster for the Bulldogs. And it was a factor why things got ugly in a hurry.

Georgia head coach Mark Richt took a gamble when he decided to start third-string quarterback Faton Bauta. It was somewhat bold, but it also was horribly wrong.

Sure, the Georgia offense has been awful recently. Sure, the other quarterback, Greyson Lambert, is not very good. But to start someone at quarterback in the Florida game who barely has played in three years? This wasn't Florida Atlantic the Bulldogs were playing. It was Florida -- the biggest rival on the schedule.

It was the Georgia-Florida game. It was for the SEC East Division lead. And Richt started his third-string quarterback. The decision was as embarrassing as the final score.

Richt would have been better off starting Lambert again, and if (or when) Lambert struggled, then Richt could have pulled the plug and put Bauta in. Who would have argued with that?

Starting Bauta wasn't even the worst part. Since they made the decision to start Bauta and had two weeks to prepare, why didn't Richt and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer design the offense around Bauta? They didn't let him run much at all, and that supposedly was Bauta's skill set.

Instead, Bauta stood in the pocket and tried to pass most of the day. Bauta ran Lambert's offense and was even worse at it than the transfer from Virginia.

Look, Bauta was not the only reason Georgia lost. He didn't help, mind you, but it wasn't all his fault. The offensive line, thought to be a strength before the season, was overmatched. The rushing game, with only 69 yards, was non-existent.

The Georgia defense played well at times but still gave up too many rushing yards -- just like last season in Jacksonville. Florida had 258 rushing yards Saturday. The previous high this season against SEC opponents for the Gators was 129.

Face it. Georgia is just not a very good football team. The Bulldogs are 5-3, but against good teams, how have they done?

Dropped passes. Interceptions. Fumbled punts. An embarrassing fake punt attempt. Poor coaching calls. It wasn't just one thing that went wrong Saturday for Georgia, it was everything.

It was unfair for Richt to put Bauta in that position -- to try and save Georgia's season. If it had worked, Bauta would have been a cult hero, and ground would have been broken this week on a statue in Athens for Richt. But it didn't work.

Bauta had four interceptions. Should we really be surprised? He was never good enough to play quarterback before, so why should anyone have expected him to do well in this situation ... against Florida?

That doesn't mean Lambert would have done any better. He likely wouldn't have, particularly with an offensive line that has been manhandled at times by the better defenses Georgia has faced. The line looked pretty good against Louisiana-Monroe and South Carolina, but when Georgia started playing good teams that group has been exposed.

Supporters of Richt tout his 10-win seasons and his overall winning percentage. But don't you have to look a bit closer at the situation? This is the 15th year of the Richt era. His teams are a collective 33-26 against South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Auburn -- the main four SEC rivals. That's a .559 winning percentage.

Richt is now 14-23 against ranked opponents since 2008. That's a .378 winning percentage. He was 24-13 against ranked opponents in his first seven years as Georgia's head coach. But since that 2008 season, the midway point of his tenure, Richt's program has simply not met expectations. It's stuck in neutral.

Is this acceptable Georgia fans?

Richt is a good man, but that has nothing to do with this. That is irrelevant. This program has hit a wall, and now it has gone to Jacksonville and was not even competitive against the main rival.

Richt has now let a first-year head coach for Florida, Jim McElwain, waltz into Jacksonville and win. Last year Will Muschamp was three weeks from being fired as the Gators' head coach, but he got in a victory over Georgia, as well. Now the Gators will win the East, while Georgia will again watch the SEC championship game on television.

What did Einstein say? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. To think this is ever going to change under Richt is just that -- insanity.

Listen to "The Bill Shanks Show" from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WPLA Fox Sports 1670 AM in Macon and online at www.foxsports1670.com. Follow Bill at twitter.com/BillShanks and email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Bill Shanks: Is this acceptable, Georgia fans? ."