HOOVER - It’s an often-repeated fact about Southeastern Conference football. Five of the league’s 12 head coaches have won national championships.
Tennessee’s Phillip Fulmer, Florida’s Urban Meyer, LSU’s Les Miles, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier (at Florida) and Alabama’s Nick Saban (at LSU) have celebrated with the most coveted trophy in the game.
Conspicuously missing from that list are Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville and Georgia’s Mark Richt. Tuberville and Fulmer are the only two who have actually had perfect seasons while coaching in the SEC. Richt has two conference championships. Tuberville has averaged 10 wins a year over the past five years. Richt has done it over the past seven years.
Both were part of national championships as assistant coaches, but neither has won the big prize as a head coach.
Richt is heading toward his eighth season at Georgia. The missing national championship doesn’t keep him awake nights.
“Our goal is always set to win the Eastern Division,” Richt said Thursday at SEC Media Days. “Our goal is always set to try to win the Southeastern Conference. From that point, you don't know if you'll get in the national championship game or not. “Quite frankly. It's hard to set a goal that you can't control. “I know that Auburn went through it. Auburn goes undefeated in this league and finds themselves watching the national championship game. We try to set goals that we can control. Those are the things that we talk about. We talk about winning Game 1. We talk about trying to win the East. We talk about, if we get in that championship game, to win it.”The Bulldogs felt slighted last season when they went 11-2 and shared the East Division title with Tennessee. They lost at Tennessee in the regular season and didn’t get to play in Atlanta. They thought their case was as good as LSU’s, but it didn’t happen that way. Their response was to crush Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl and finish No. 2, behind LSU, in the final polls.Another season looms, and expectations are soaring.“We know that in order to even get close to that point, you've got to put the work in on a daily basis,” Richt said. “Our goal was to try to focus on the moment, not on way down the road. I mean, people started talking national championship after the Sugar Bowl last year. That's too long to be chewing on that bone, so to speak. We had to break it down into the smallest component, which is today, what can you do today to get better and to prepare yourself for the opportunity. “The Bulldogs are certain to be a top five team going into the season. Richt views that reality with a mixture of feelings.“I told the players that this preseason hype could be a blessing or a curse,” Richt said. “It's a curse if you think it gives you a sense of entitlement to where you think you don't have to prepare. It could be a blessing if you look at it as one
