Richt's goal, but on Richt's terms

We've discussed before the fact that Mark Richt is as polarizing a figure as there has ever been in University of Georgia athletics. So you're either going to read this as him lagging behind his contemporaries, or you're going to read it as another great article on a great man.

Everything with Richt runs through his faith. And through his faith comes perspective and patience.

"Do I want to win a national championship?" Richt said. "Sure I do. I want to win. Everybody who has ever won a national championship wanted to win the national championship. Everybody wants to win it.

"But it is about a process. Doing things right, fundamentally, schematically and football-wise. But hopefully [it's also about doing it] morally, within the rules of the game, educating young men, educating them academically, educating them about life, helping them understand right and wrong, how to be a good husband, how to be a good father, how to function in this society properly.

"I'm in the business of doing that. And you do that well for long enough maybe you have a chance to win a national championship.

"I want to win," he reiterated, "but it's all important to me."

I get all that. It makes me proud of our coach and proud of my alma mater. And yet I still see other programs running by. I'm as patient as they come and I believe in staying the course more than gut reactions. But the fact remains that we're still waiting...

I also realize it's not all about the head coach. There are plenty of other reasons programs in close proximity have earned their crystal ball ahead of the Georgia Bulldogs. So in that sense, Wetzel's article only scratches the surface.

But it all still begs the question: Will Georgia's nice guy ever finish first?