Richt Helped by Petrino's Ousting

As weird as it sounds, Bobby Petrino’s accident was the best thing to happen to Mark Richt this offseason. True Richt came off of the hotseat with a new contract, but it wasn’t until the Head Hog was let go by Arkansas that Richt’s life got easier in the SEC.

Everyone knows that Nick Saban and Alabama and Les Miles and LSU rule the SEC roost, but there was much debate last year about who the third best team in the conference was. Was it Arkansas, who lost to both LSU and Alabama but who climbed as high as No. 3 during the year? Or was it Georgia, winners of ten straight during the year en route to the SEC East championship.

The debate was raging on over the offseason until the Razorbacks’ year hit a bump in the road, perhaps the same bump that derailed Petrino’s motorcycle. Richt was recently voted by The Sporting News as the fourth-best coach in the SEC, No. 14 in the nation, but you’d think that Georgia would have the nod over Arkansas this year, based on everything that gone on in Fayetteville and with John L. Smith at the helm.

South Carolina also lost a boatload of talent despite having TSN’s best coach in the SEC East, Steve Spurrier on the sidelines. Mark Richt is clearly in control of the best team in the SEC East and now can say the third-best team in the SEC overall. The two top teams will once again battle it out with Georgia awaiting the winner in Atlanta in early December. Petrino’s accident helped Georgia float a little higher in the pecking order. Now the fourteenth-best coach in the game needs to help keep the Dawgs climbing.