I wasn't rooting for Auburn last night. Nope.

As much SEC pride that Georgia fans have, Bulldog Nation could not have been rooting for Auburn last night. It isn't a bitter jealousy thing about Auburn being there and Georgia not (well it is, but...) it is more that Gene Chizik, in his second year has already surpassed what Georgia head man Mark Richt has done during his entire tenure in Athens. Since Mark Richt took the job at Georgia just days after Christmas 2000, Nick Saban (LSU), Urban Meyer (Florida, twice), Les Miles (LSU), Saban again (this time at Alabma) and now Gene Chizik (Auburn) have won BCS titles while Richt has taken Georgia to three BCS bowl games, but never the biggest BCS bowl game. Meyer and Chizik managed to get the crystal football in their second seasons on campus while Miles and Saban won it all in their third seasons. Richt meanwhile will be lucky to make it through the upcoming season.

A majority of Georgia fans are frustrated with Richt and Chizik passing him on the hierarchy of SEC coaches cannot make life easier. If one were to rank the coaches in the conference, Richt drops yet another peg and recruits are now starting to notice. Last week two in-state targets elected to go out of state, one to Alabama and one to Auburn. Personally as a Georgia alum, I look at what Chizik was able to do with a grain of salt as he has tremendous assistant coaches as well as the Heisman winner on his squad this year. I will take nothing away from him, but I also look at Chizik the way I look at Urban Meyer and wonder how much of his success was tied to one player? Richt has never been tied to one player so what you are seeing is Richt's ability at all times. That is a double-edged sword though as Richt's last few seasons haven't been impressive and maybe Richt could use one of those transcendent players like a Newton or a Tebow. AJ Green never turned out to be that guy, Knowshon Moreno only played one and one half years (the first half of his redshirt freshman year, he wasn't the starter), and Matthew Stafford was a No. 1 pick but he could never do better than a two-loss season. Maybe Aaron Murray will develop into Richt's Newton or Tebow, but he won't have the weapons next year, at least to this point.

Georgia fans just want Richt to shoot up the SEC Coaching food chain a few pegs. Get that BCS title that for the Butts-Mehre Building, but ore importantly give Georgia fans the feeling that we still have one of the best coaches in the country. Congrats Auburn fans, but I hope Richt rebounds in 2011 and wins his second game out of three meetings against Chizik next season.