Thoughts on Bizarro Richt

I wrote a story today about Mark Richt's supposed new personality today. It seems a lot of people think that because he ordered the touchdown celebration that got out of hand, finally gave in to let the team wear black and is more excitable on the sidelines that it means he's a new man. I don't think I buy that, although it makes good copy for people who aren't around a whole heck of a lot.

My belief was that we weren't seeing a new Richt at all, that the idea that there's a "new" Mark Richt is a bunch of overblown sports columnist tripe. Yes, he's been more active on the sidelines because now he CAN. Yes, he let the team wear black the other day, but he's been planning that for more than a year. This is not a brand-new guy we're seeing here. It's someone who's learning how to adapt to his new role.

Plenty of people say he'd get fired up in practice or the locker room in that way. But on gameday, he always said he had to keep it together because he had a game to call. Now that Mike Bobo's taken that role, Richt has been able to try to motivate players/yell at the refs/try to get the crowd up. Who's to say he wouldn't have been doing that all along? I think he would have, if he could have.

So I talked to people who know him much, much better than I do to see what they thought -- strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger, who's known Richt since he came on as a grad assistant at Florida State in 1985, and Richt's wife of 20 years, Katharyn.

Here's a Q&A I did Tuesday with coach Van Halanger. I thought he'd have about as good a perspective as anyone:

Everybody’s writing about how coach Richt’s a changed man and all that. Is that something you see?
I really don’t. Mark hasn’t changed to the degree of his character. He’s still coach Richt, he’s still by the numbers. We’re gonna do it right. I think he put a couple things in there that make it look that way, but if you really look, there really isn’t much difference. What is it, two events? So I really don’t see a change. I work out with Mark and No. 1, he loves Georgia and he wants the kids to have the best of everything – character, education and the football. That’s his goals. We know that winning around here is very, very important, so we’re gonna do what he feels takes to get the ‘W,’ give the guys the fire. And after Tennessee, we needed something.

So you think that stuff’s overblown.
Oh yeah, I think so. For sure. Mark’s Mark. We were winning a championship his second year and we were 13-1. He was doing some great things then too, it just wasn’t as up front. But he was doing things behind the scenes all the time to get kids fired up, get ‘em motivated. That’s what I see. And in 2005 he did some great things.

Some of the kids say he’s looser these days. Would you agree with that?
I don’t know. He started practice today with 25 up-downs because he wasn’t too happy, so I don’t know if he’s looser or not. You know, if you’re winning that stuff makes you better. But you’d better keep winning, then.

Here's a little sampling of what Katharyn Richt had to say:
"I don’t think he’s that much different than before, I just think he maybe has more time to do things and think about them and maybe do a little bit extra. And we’ve needed it. Now we’re having parity, parity is here, and you have to find the edge and what it is that’s gonna make your different than the other team."

On the players dancing:
"His big thing is he doesn’t want you dancing in the face of the other players or the other team. If you’re having fun, if you’re having your own fun with your own team, that has never bothered him. He likes that. I just think he did at the beginning of the year have to find out what he could do, but I don’t really think he’s changed that much. That’s just me."

Take it as you will. I guess my opinion on the matter is that the guy didn't become this motivational genius after they lost to Tennessee. He was already a good motivator. He just needed some time to figure out what to do with himself now that he's got the extra time on his hands. It's a still-developing process, as his comments yesterday about backing off the referees in the future indicate.