Can you tell it's Bowl Season? We're getting into the time of filler columns like this one, where we'll take a dive into some of the stats of the Mark Richt era.
I originally planned to post this after the bowl game, but moved it up when Richt took the job and Miami (and subsequently opted out of coaching the bowl game).
And, well, it took a while to compile all these stats.
We'll start out taking a look at the official "lasts" then move into some final stats for Richt.
THE LAST...
PLAY: The final play of Richt's Georgia career was Malkom Parrish's INT to seal the win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Parrish picked off QB Justin Thomas to seal a 13-7 victory, giving Richt a perfect 8-0 record in Atlanta.
GAME: The aforementioned 13-7 victory of Georgia Tech. Richt finished 13-2 in Clean Old-Fashioned Hate, the same record he held against Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
OVERTIME WIN: Just more than a week away from his departure, the Bulldogs topped Georgia Southern in overtime, 23-17. Sony Michel's walkoff 25-yard TD run sealed the win.
TOUCHDOWN: Michel's first quarter TD run that gave Georgia a 7-0 lead over the Yellow Jackets proved to be the final score of Richt's career.
PASSING TOUCHDOWN: Greyson Lambert's scoring toss to WR Terry Godwin against Georgia Southern was the final passing touchdown for Richt, and also the final passing touchdown of the 2015 regular season.
SEC EAST TITLE: The Bulldogs last brought home an SEC East crown in 2012, a year they finished 11-1. They fell 5 yards short of an SEC Championship agaisnt Alabama, but we won't bring up those memories if we can help it.
SEC CHAMPIONSHIP: Hard to believe after the 2005 season, when Richt notched his second SEC Championship in five seasons, that it would be at least 11 more years until the Bulldogs grabbed another one. Georgia trounced LSU 34-14 to claim their last conference crown.
BOWL WIN: Notching his ninth, 10-win season, Richt guided the the Bulldogs to a 37-14 thumping of Louisville in the 2014 Belk Bowl.
Now let's take a look back at some of the firsts.
THE FIRST...
PASSING TOUCHDOWN: It took Richt's offense 25 minutes and 24 seconds to notch his first TD pass, when R-Fr. QB David Greene found WR Terrance Edwards on a 25-yard strike to extend a lead over Arkansas State to 21-0 on Labor Day Saturday, 2001.
RUSHING TOUCHDOWN: If you read between the lines on the stat listed above this one, you'd probably guess it took comparitively less time to find the end zone on the ground. You'd be right. RB Musa Smith scored the first rushing TD of Richt's tenure on the 5-yard run just 4:34 into the game.
WIN: It all started with that game against the Indians (their mascot became the Red Wolves 1/31/08), a 45-17 beatdown Between the Hedges. He went on to win 144 more.
SEC WIN: Two weeks later, the other team from Arkansas (the Razorbacks) came to Athens. Richt notched his first of 83 conference victories, 34-23.
SEC CHAMPIONSHIP: In his second year on the job, Richt guided the Bulldogs to an 11-1 regular season and an SEC Title. His Bulldogs whipped Arkansas 30-3 in the Georgia Dome to bring home the first SEC Championship in two decades.
BOWL WIN: The first of nine bowl wins under Richt was perhaps his best. Following the SEC Championship in '02, Georgia travelled to New Orleans to play Florida State out of the ACC. Richt beat his former boss, Bobby Bowden, 26-13 to finish 13-1 on the season. It would prove to be his best season in Athens.
DEFENSIVE SCORE: It took Richt nine games before his defense found the end zone. Against Ole Miss in 2001, Jermaine Phillips got them on the board with an 82-yard INT return TD. That turned a 21-9 lead into 28-9. Georgia won 35-15.
QUICK STATS...
1,000 YARD RUSHERS: Five different players under Richt combined for six 1,000 yard seasons in total. Musa Smith had the first in 2002 (1,324 yards). Knowshon Moreno came next as the only repeat rusher with 1,334 yards in 2007 and 1,400 in 2008. Todd Gurley broke the mark as a freshman in 2012 (1,385), and Chubb set the high mark with 1,547 in 2014. Sony Michel leads the way with 1,076 yards (and counting) in 2015.
TOTAL PLAYERS WHO SCORED A TOUCHDOWN: 119. This accounts for players who physically had the ball in the endzone, be it on a run, catch or return. If you—like me—enjoy some good stats, here's a few from the list.
- Most common last name among TD scorers? That would be Brown, with three (Marlon, Reggie and Thomas).
- Only set of siblings to score TDs under Richt? If you guessed the Ogletree twins, you're correct! FB Zander Ogletree punched in a rushing score in 2012, and LB Alec returned a blocked field goal against Alabama in the SEC Championship later that year.
- Most different ways of scoring a TD? As far as physically scoring, Brandon Boykin takes the cake with four. He scored by way of rushing, receiving, returning a punt and returning a kick. Interestingly, he never scored on defense, and his primary position was DB. An honorable mention for this category is Thomas Brown, who scored three ways (rush, catch and kickoff return) and also threw a touchdown pass.
- Most total TDs? Not surprisingly, Todd Gurley topped the list with 44 (36 rushing, 8 receiving, 2 KO return).
- Most obscure name? This one is purely opinion on my part, but the only name that truly rang zero bells in my head was Jamario Smith, a RB-turned-LB who got in some mop-up duty in 2003 on offense. He caught a 10-yard TD in the Alabama game that season, his only TD as a Bulldog. He appeared in 8 total games for his career, some on special teams and defense in 2005. Some other honorable mentions for obscure names include Coleman Watson, Corrie Collier, Brandon Harton, Kyle Karempelis, Ronnie Powell and Mario Raley.
TOTAL STARTING QUARTERBACKS: Nine. Greene, Shockley, Tereshinski III, Stafford, Cox, Murray, Mason, Lambert and Bauta.
WINS IN GAMES DECIDED BY 8 POINTS OR LESS: 44, with the most in a single season coming in 2002 (5).
LOSSES IN GAMES DECIDED BY 8 POINTS OR LESS: 31, with the most coming in 2013 (4).
TIMES SHUTOUT: None.
TIMES SHUTTING OUT OPPONENT: Nine. The first was a 30-0 win over Clemson in 2003, which was followed with back-to-back shutouts three years later against South Carolina (18-0) and UAB (34-0). The Bulldogs blanked exactly one opponent every year between '09 and '12, and got their final two shutouts of Richt's tenure in 2014, over Troy (66-0) and Missouri (34-0).
LARGEST MARGIN OF VICTORY: 66, over Troy in 2014 (66-0).
LARGEST MARGIN OF VICTORY OVER SEC OPPONENT: 45, over Kentucky in 2004 (62-17) and Vanderbilt in 2012 (48-3).
LARGEST MARGIN OF DEFEAT: 39, against Florida in 2008 (49-10).
HIGHEST SCORING OUTPUT IN A LOSS: 42, in losses to Georgia Tech in 2008 (45-42) and South Carolina in 2011 (45-42).
LOWEST SCORING OUTPUT IN A WIN: 9, in a victory over Missouri in 2015 (9-6).
RECORDS AGAINST CONFERENCE OPPONENTS AND REGULAR RIVALS:
- Alabama, 3-3
- Arkansas, 6-1
- Auburn, 10-5
- Clemson, 3-1
- Florida, 5-10
- Georgia Tech, 13-2
- Kentucky, 13-2
- LSU, 4-4
- Mississippi State, 3-1
- Missouri*, 3-1
- Ole Miss, 6-0
- South Carolina, 9-6
- Texas A&M*, 1-0 (Independence Bowl, before they joined the SEC)
- Vanderbilt, 13-2
*Joined SEC in 2012
RECORD IN OVERTIME: 5-3. The first OT game was the Outback Bowl victory over Purdue on New Year's Day 2004, and the last was the 23-17 victory over Georgia Southern in 2015.
GAMES WON ON THE FINAL PLAY: Richt only had four "walk offs" in his time in Athens, three coming in overtime: Mikey Henderson's 25-yard TD catch agaisnt Alabama in in '07 (26-23), Marshall Morgan's FG to beat Tennessee '13 (34-31) and Sony Michel's 25-yard TD run to beat GA Southern in '15 (23-17). The lone regulation winner was against Arizona State in '09, when Blair Walsh hit a FG at the buzzer to win it 20-17.
RECORD: 145-51 (.740), 83-38 SEC (.686)
I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Maybe in another 15 years I'll write one about the Kirby Smart era.
Just in case I don't write anything between now and the "Big Day" I hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas! Go Dawgs!
