Les Miles and Mark Richt: When Do You Fire a Stagnant Head Coach?

Georgia and LSU disappointed this season. The disappointment fit an established mold. The Bulldogs parted ways with Mark Richt. The Tigers retained Les Miles, but only after an embarrassing third-quarter about face. The coaches’ trials this year seem to indicate an altered, capricious college football culture.

Both Richt and Miles have impressive, easily rattled off bona fides. Richt has two SEC titles, nine double-digit win seasons in 14 years. Miles has a pair of SEC titles, a national one, and seven double-digit win seasons in 11 years. Richt seems like a genuine, good man. Les…makes for good copy at least. It all sounds fine, when you’re not invested in it every week.

Said bona fides, however, gloss over the present state of their programs. Georgia went 9-3. LSU, 8-3, would have, but for a torrential dew before the showdown against mighty McNeese State. One can tout 9-3 as a fine record, but look closer.

The Bulldogs lost their three biggest games – Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. The latter two were blowouts. Sprinkle in four deflating, one-score wins against Missouri, Auburn, Georgia Southern, and Georgia Tech. LSU lost by two-plus touchdowns to Alabama, to Arkansas, and to Ole Miss, in consecutive weeks.

The 2015 seasons at Georgia and LSU did not alter perceptions of Richt and Miles. They entrenched them. Georgia is favored in nearly every game it plays. Mark Richt has lost at least three games in seven of the past eight seasons. He last won an SEC title in 2005. Georgia has not been to a major bowl game since 2007. Richt’s memorable wins came before 2007. His memorable losses have come since.

LSU is 14-10 in the SEC since 2013. Miles is 5-7 in the West the past two years with five two-touchdown plus losses. Texas A&M was just the Tigers’ second West win over that stretch by more than six points.

Richt has endured two-straight Florida blowouts, and has lost four of six to South Carolina. Miles dropped the 2011 title game in pathetic fashion to Alabama, and is 0-4 against them since. He has lost twice in a row to Arkansas, and nearly blew it the year before.

Both Miles and Richt recruit well. Both had big-time recruits on tap for 2016. One can compare their input and NFL output to Nick Saban at Alabama. That should highlight how much less those coaches are doing with it. Saban is 56-8 in the SEC since 2008, reaching the Sugar Bowl every year but one. He’s 10-4 all-time against Miles and Richt, 10-2 over that stretch since his first throw-away year, 7-0 since 2012.

Saban is a tough standard, perhaps an unfair one. But, what should the standard be at two elite level SEC programs? The only limiting factor for Georgia and LSU, on paper, is the head coach.

College football has changed. Revenues have surpassed nine figures. Salaries match and, at top level, exceed NFL offers. It’s a national sport, it’s an all but professional sport in major conferences, and it is covered with much greater scrutiny. Recruiting is more intense. There’s more competition from below. Winning enough is no longer enough.

Schools will (and should) focus on the present and future. The issue is not what a coach has done for a school, but what the coach is doing and what he can do to fix it. Did Georgia trust Mark Richt to change the culture, again, when he has been trying to round the corner for the better part of a decade? No.

Did LSU trust Miles to rearrange the deck chairs on offense, his side of the ball, for a fourth time (four more than the number of successful QBs he has groomed)? Probably not. He just claimed 3.95 yards/pass and a 33 percent completion percentage was a sign the engine was running strong. But, the AD’s leaks backfired. So, Miles will get the chance.

College football is a business. Rationally, schools must treat it more like one. Miles and Richt have had more leeway than many. The heartening thing, if you’re rooting for underperforming, multi-millionaire public servants, is fans do not treat it as a business.

Tiger fans overruled their AD and well heeled boosters for Miles, with a public outpouring at the Texas A&M game. Georgia fans may have done the same for honest Mark Richt, if granted the opportunity. Greg McGarity’s mentions are not a fun place right now.

Winning is not everything, yet.