Top Dawg fine man, fine coach

Paul Finebaum
Press-Register - al.com
Saturday, February 02, 2008

Shortly before 6 a.m., the line extended outside of the Harbert Center in downtown Birmingham. Businessmen waited patiently in the dim light on this glacial January morning to show their tickets at the door while event organizers frantically scurried around to set up tables on the lower level.

The immediate dilemma was finding room for an overflow of 250 people who couldn't fit in the main room, where 500 seats are the maximum. The event had been sold out even before the official announcement of the speaker, and these others would have to make do with sitting three floors below, listening through a sound system.

One could easily understand the excitement by so many to hear Nick Saban. The second-year Alabama football coach has drawn standing-room crowds from Mobile to Muscle Shoals. However, while many of the young businessmen donned red hats, some even wearing red windbreakers to display their school colors proudly, it was a brighter shade than crimson.

This crowd showed up not to hear Saban preach to the choir. The guest speaker of the Young Business Leaders was Mark Richt, the Georgia football coach.

Nobody left the hallway disappointed.

Wearing a casual sweater (with a Georgia insignia) in a sea of harmonized navy-blue suits, starched white shirts and red ties, Richt gave an inspirational message, telling his life history, talking about his faith and weaving it all together into a speech on leadership. When he sat down 30 minutes later, the crowd jumped to their feet with a standing ovation.

And if anyone doubted his popularity among recruits and their parents, I strongly urge you to check him out the next time he comes to a civic club near you.

What was interesting to witness was when Richt talked about his personal faith, he did it with gentle sensitivity. He preached without being preachy. There was no fire and brimstone. Instead of slamming the lectern, one almost had to strain to hear because of the gentility of his voice.

Richt expertly weaved stories from the Bible into his talk. He talked about the ingredients of leadership -- from feeling unworthy, to being nervous that the job might be too much work, and finally the fear of not being able to do it alone.

Perhaps his most interesting point was not spiritual, but was his concerns about the coaching carousel, which some felt may have been an indirect shot at a head coach just down the road.

Richt talked about being at Florida State years ago as the offensive coordinator under Bobby Bowden when he had a job offer to become head coach at Pittsburgh.

After considering the offer, Richt said his wife originally wanted to go because the head coach got a beautiful house on campus. She wanted him to take the job. Then, Richt asked his wife: Do you want to live in Pittsburgh the rest of your life?

No, she said.

"Then we're not going," he said. "I don't want to go to a school knowing that it will be a stepping stone. If we do move, we move only once. I don't want to take a job knowing that I'm going to take another job. I want to move one time and one time only. If I do become a head coach, I don't want to start recruiting kids and tell them I'm going to be there for them, knowing I'm going to be somewhere else (by the time they graduate)."

Richt added: "I knew for a fact that I was not ready, but God was telling me to get ready."

That opportunity came when Georgia offered him the job in 2000.

Even though Richt has compiled an amazing mark in Athens, winning two SEC titles and a possible preseason No. 1 ranking in the upcoming season, his refusal to look elsewhere is one of his finest traits. When he talks about spending the rest of his life at Georgia, it is not coach-speak or drivel.

Explaining one of the worst moments of this past season, a 35-14 thrashing in October at the hands of Tennessee, Richt called it "one of the worst feelings I've ever had as a coach."

Richt said he wondered what happened to his team's fight and began questioning his players: "Then I looked in the mirror and I realized they were just a reflection of me."

Georgia didn't lose again, winning the final eight and finishing 11-2 and ranked No. 2 in the nation.

In listening to Richt on this particular morning, talking about his career, his wife and family (he has two natural children and two more adopted from the Ukraine), one got a much clearer understanding of why the 47-year-old Georgia leader is not only one the finest head football coaches in the country, but one of its finest people as well.

Fine read and thanx..As a Dawgs fan it is great having a coach with such high character and some of the best recruiting ability's in the country.