Mark Richt and Georgia have everything to lose; Bobby Johnson and Vanderbilt have nothing to lose

Brandon Barca, who works in the Vandy athletic department and keeps an excellent blog, is comparing the Commodores' current plight to that of their next opponent, the Georgia Bulldogs.

I live in Georgia, and Dawg fans are indeed poor-mouthing themselves these days and wondering if Mark Richt is too nice a guy to be a football coach and even telling Vandy fans like me that the Commodores are going to beat them.

To which I say, "We lost to Army last week."

To which they say, "Oh, yeah." And they start to smile in anticipation of a victory.

But Vanderbilt's situation is very different from Georgia's:

• Georgia is a perennial powerhouse and this is the first time Richt has ever started 3-3. Bobby Johnson has only had two seasons in which he started better than 3-3.

• Georgia is loaded with athletes who were recruited by every Top 10 school in the nation. Vandy DT Greg Billinger allegedly had a scholarship offer from the Dawgs and John Stokes had an offer from Bama... and that's about it. Georgia's got a stadium that seats about 90,000 fans. Richt makes more than $2 million a year. So when he doesn't contend for a national championship, everybody goes nuts.

• Georgia never has to play a home-and-home series with a team from a second-tier conference or an independent — like Vandy did against Miami-Ohio last year and Rice and Army this year — and so they don't do it.

Bobby Johnson should not be on the hot seat, even if he does finish this season 2-10. When Georgia has a young quarterback, and a secondary and offensive line beset with injuries, and a couple of receivers with the dropsies, and some coordinators who are struggling to call the right plays, the Bulldogs tend to win only seven or eight games and get a bid to a lesser bowl game. And Richt is on the hot seat.

But when Vanderbilt has one of its best and most opportunistic teams since the Eisenhower administration, the Commodores win six games (barely) and get a bid to a lesser bowl game. And Bobby Johnson is named SEC coach of the year.

Sure, some fans think Johnson should win seven games this year and return to a bowl or be shown the door. Not me. Johnson is slowly building talent and depth with undersized and/or underrated recruits flying under the radar, and then getting those underrated recruits on the field right away (D.J. Moore, Casey Hayward, Warren Norman, Eddie Foster) and sending the undersized guys to the weight room and the training table (Broderick Stewart, Wesley Johnson).

Yes, we've got to get this new offense installed and shore up our offensive line and break in a young quarterback and a new fleet of receivers. But we knew going into this season that the offense was a problem.

Anyway, Vandy fans need to be realistic. Georgia is loaded. Remember what happened the last time the Dawgs got blown out in Knoxville? That was two years ago. They struggled against us in Nashville, won on a last-second field goal, and were so relieved that they stomped on our star, which angered Richt, who essentially told his team to pick on somebody their own size. In their next game, they punched Florida in the mouth and didn't lose another game for the rest of the season. And I believe if Vandy or Kentucky had beaten Tennessee that season — and both teams came mighty close — then Georgia would have beaten LSU in the SEC championship game and then beaten Ohio State to win the national championship instead of LSU. Instead, Tennessee backed into the SEC championship game.

That's what happened the last time Georgia was blown out in Knoxville. So don't buy into the fact that Richt is a lame-duck coach and his team is on a slide. Vandy beating Georgia in Nashville would be a much bigger upset than Army beating Vandy at West Point.

If Vandy loses to Georgia, nobody on either side is surprised. If Georgia loses to Vandy, Richt is in big trouble. He's got everything to lose, and his teams generally step up when that's the case.

As for the Commodores, we've got nothing to lose.

And we tend to play better when that's the case.

Bobby Johnson right on Mark Richt's heels for longest-tenured SEC coach — but for how long?

Been on vacation and just noticed Chris Low's post from last week about Georgia Coach Mark Richt being the SEC coach with the longest current tenure at one school. Nine years.

Bobby Johnson is second with eight years at Vandy, and Rich Brooks is third with six years at UK.

Low figures that of those three Richt has the best chance of staying put for another 10 or 15 years.

Makes sense. Brooks has already named a coach-in-waiting. And Johnson will need to pull off a balancing act to stay at Vandy for another decade.

How so? Well, sure, Bobby keeps saying he wants to stay in Nashville forever, but what else is he going to say? Remember back when the Dores were 5-0 and Tommy Bowden had just gotten fired and everybody, especially Clemson fans, were anointing Johnson as the next Tiger coach.

Then Vandy lost six of its next seven games, and Johnson's name wasn't connected with any coaching jobs except Vanderbilt, where nobody expects you to win anyway. And then the Dores won the Music City Bowl and Johnson was lauded for doing what nobody at Vandy had done since the Eisenhower administration, but he wasn't getting any offers to leave, either.

That's what I mean by a balancing act. If Johnson had beaten Miss State and Duke, he'd have finished 9-4. If Nickson hadn't fumbled away the field position battle against the Vols, he could have even finished with double-digit victories. And if that had happened, I don't think Bobby Johnson would still be in Nashville.

But he can't slip too much, either. Remember what happened to George MacIntyre, the last Vandy coach to go to a bowl? He followed up a magical 8-4 season in 1982 with a 2-9 season but then he raised hopes with a 4-0 start in 1984 but then he lost six of his last seven (sound familiar?) to finish 5-6 and then he sealed his fate in 1985 with a 3-7-1 record.

So like MacIntyre before him, Johnson has earned himself a free pass in Nashville for two or three more seasons. But to stick around longer than that he's got to continue to hover around .500 — and at Vanderbilt that's mighty hard to do.

Sure, some Vandy fans will be offended by me saying this. They already expect to win an extra game or two next season to finish with eight or nine wins. But let's be realistic. If the Commodores can go 4-2 at the midway point next season (beating Western Carolina, Rice, Miss State and Army and losing to LSU and Ole Miss) then we'll all be excited, right? But to finish where they did last season the Dores have still got to grab wins over two of these teams: Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee. Not easy.

On the other hand, if Richt has one bad season he'll be feeling more heat than Bobby Johnson ever will in Nashville.

What do you think?