By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Recently, The Sporting News released their rankings of all 130 FBS football coaches. Coming in at Number 9 was former Bulldog, and current Miami Hurricanes head coach, Mark Richt.

I don’t know about every single college football coach enough to debate the merit of that ranking, but there was one comment that stood out to me: “Perhaps no coach wins this much without proper recognition.”

When I initially read that statement, I thought it was pretty accurate. (In case you haven’t noticed over these past three years, I’m a fan of Richt). I mean, he has a pretty impressive list of accomplishments: a winning percentage of .736; 2 SEC Titles; 2 SEC Coach of the Year awards; has won fewer than 8 games only once in his 16 years as head coach. I can think of about 120 FBS coaches who would be thrilled to be associated with those achievements.

Yet, if I asked you to name your Top 10 current college football coaches, I’m not sure Richt would make the cut.

On the surface, it’s easy to see how Richt looks under appreciated.

However, when you dig a little bit deeper (and I’m about to contradict everything I have ever written about him in the past) you could make an argument that he’s actually overrated.

For starters, both SEC titles and Coach of the Year awards happened within his first five years at Georgia. Granted, it’s been difficult for any SEC coach to win either of those since Nick “I smile about as much as Jon Gruden at an Air Supply concert” Saban arrived at Alabama.

Even knowing that, Richt had difficulty winning a watered down East Division during his last 10 years in Athens.

I know I like to give Bulldog fans a hard time about unrealistic expectations and where their programs ranks in the echelon of other programs, but the reality is Georgia is a great gig to have. Richt accomplished a lot during his tenure there, but it does feel like a top 10 coach would’ve achieved more.

It may be because of my proximity to the state of Georgia, but I don’t remember hearing about Richt’s team overachieving and him getting the most out of his players; just the underachieving.

Objectively, I can see how it’s easy to accuse me of having standards that are too high, in this particular case. When you tell me that someone is the ninth best college football coach in the country and he’s still the most under recognized coach at the same time, I think it warrants the high standards.

Physical Graffiti is flawed when you compare it to ZOSO, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad album.

I still believe Mark Richt is a good coach who will find success at Miami. I also think that Georgia will ultimately regret replacing him with Kirby Smart, sooner rather than later.

I just find it hard to comprehend that a coach who hasn’t won anything of any significance over the past ten years and whose teams look better on paper than they do on the field, is somehow the most underappreciated coach in college football.

Richt is a very good college coach, but that’s all he is, until he proves he is something more.

And again, I don’t mean that as an insult. In the hierarchy of Led Zeppelin albums, it’s much better to be Physical Graffiti than it is to be Coda.