Coaching comparison: Richt, Spurrier meet for 11th time in regular season

In anticipation of Saturday’s SEC East showdowns between Georgia-South Carolina and Florida-Kentucky, Saturday Down South takes a closer look at the coaching matchup in each game. This week’s matchups include Georgia’s Mark Richt vs. South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier as well as Florida’s Will Muschamp vs. Kentucky’s Mark Stoops.

Mark Richt

• Record as FBS head coach: 127-45 (all at Georgia)
• Previous coaching stops: Florida State (offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, graduate assistant), East Carolina (quarterbacks coach).
• Achievements as coach: Two SEC championships, six SEC East titles, two-time SEC Coach of the Year.

Breakdown: Richt has been Georgia’s head coach since 2001, and it remains the only program where Richt has served as the head coach. He led the Bulldogs to two SEC championships in his first five years on the job, but has not won a conference title since 2005. In 13 seasons at Georgia, Richt has only won fewer than eight games one time and was won more than 69 percent of his games against SEC opponents. Richt’s coaching background is focused primarily on the offensive side of the ball, and he has a history of coaching top-flight quarterbacks in David Greene, Matthew Stafford and Aaron Murray. He is also recognized by a number of fans for his team’s disciplinary struggles, but has never missed a beat in attracting the nation’s most talented players down to Athens to play for the Bulldogs.

Steve Spurrier

• Record as FBS head coach: 220-80-2 (20-13-1 at Duke, 122-27-1 at Florida, 78-40 at South Carolina)
• Previous coaching stops: Washington Redskins (head coach), University of Florida (head coach, quarterbacks coach), Duke University (head coach, offensive coordinator), Tampa Bay Bandits (head coach), Georgia Tech (quarterbacks coach).
• Achievements as coach: One national championship (1996), one ACC championship, six SEC championships, eight SEC East titles, two-time ACC coach of the year, seven-time SEC coach of the year.

Breakdown: Spurrier is a college football legend, both as a player and as a coach (he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986). He coached at Duke and Florida, as well as with the NFL’s Washington Redskins, before arriving at South Carolina in 2005. He won six SEC championships and was a five-time SEC coach of the year at Florida, and has added another SEC Coach of the Year honor while serving as coach of the Gamecocks. Like Richt, the former quarterback comes from an offensive background, and his teams have put up plenty of impressive numbers on that side of the ball in years past. Spurrier was a stunning 122-27-1 at Florida, but has posted a record of just 78-40 while at South Carolina, failing to win an SEC championship while only winning the SEC East one time.

Who has the edge:  Since 2005, when Spurrier took over at South Carolina, Richt and Spurrier have faced-off nine times in the regular season, with Richt’s Bulldogs winning five of those meetings. However, South Carolina has won three of the last four meetings between the two teams, and SC is certainly the more desperate team entering this weekend’s matchup, considering a loss to Georgia would likely put any chance of winning an SEC East crown to bed. Both Richt and Spurrier boast superstar tailbacks in Todd Gurley and Mike Davis, and both backs should carry the load for their offensively-minded head coaches. But Richt’s decision making in an impressive week 1 win over Clemson proved he’s got his finger on the pulse of this team, and that earns him the edge in this showdown of SEC coaching titans. It should also be noted Richt and Spurrier faced once while Spurrier was still at Florida and Richt was a rookie head coach in 2001. Spurrier’s Gators won that game 24-10, which means the two coaches have split their 10 career regular season showdowns with five wins apiece. Both coaches likely care more about their team’s chances in this year’s SEC East race than their own personal rivalry, but the fact this game is the rubber-match in their regular season series does add another wrinkle to the matchup.

Will Muschamp

• Record as FBS head coach: 26-13 (all at Florida)
• Previous coaching stops: University of Texas (defensive coordinator, linebackers coach), Auburn University (defensive coordinator, graduate assistant), Miami Dolphins (associate head coach, defensive coordinator), LSU (defensive coordinator, linebackers coach), Valdosta State (defensive coordinator), Eastern Kentucky University (defensive backs coach), University of West Georgia (defensive backs coach).
• Achievements as coach: One SEC East title.

Breakdown: Muschamp was formerly the coach-in-waiting at the University of Texas while Mack Brown headed the Longhorns, and has worked as an assistant under a number of legendary coaches including Brown and Nick Saban (LSU and the Dolphins). He has championship experience as the defensive coordinator of LSU’s 2003 national title, and has coached in the FBS, the FCS and in the NFL. Muschamp comes from a defensive-minded coaching background, and his Gators’ teams have ranked second in the SEC in total defense each of the last two seasons. The Florida defense shut out Eastern Michigan in a 65-0 win last week to open the season, and with new offensive coordinator Kurt Roper in place, Muschamp’s Gators appear to be much more well-rounded on both sides of the ball.

Mark Stoops

• Record as FBS head coach: 4-10 (all at Kentucky)
• Previous coaching stops: Florida State (defensive coordinator, defensive backs coach), University of Arizona (defensive coordinator, defensive backs coach), University of Miami (defensive backs coach), University of Houston (co-defensive coordinator, safeties coach), University of Wyoming (defensive backs coach), University of South Florida (defensive backs coach), Nordonia High School (defensive backs coach), University of Iowa (graduate assistant).
• Achievements as coach: N/A

Breakdown: Stoops is two games into his second year as a collegiate head coach, and his Kentucky Wildcats have already matched their win total from all of last year. Stoops was brought up in a coaching family in Youngstown, Ohio, and both his brothers, Bob and Mike, have served as head coaches in the FBS (Bob remains the coach at Oklahoma). Like Muschamp, Stoops is a defensive-minded coach, but his Cats’ defense finished second from the bottom of the SEC in total defense in Stoops’ first season in 2013. This year, UK has allowed only 17 points through two games, and ranks in the top-half of the conference in total defense. Stoops has been a recruiting wizard in his brief tenure at Kentucky, and many of his recruits have already begun starring on the field this season.

Who has the edge:  Muschamp and Stoops are two evenly-matched coaches with similar backgrounds. Both served as assistants for more than 10 years on the defensive side of the ball, both are currently serving in their first head coaching jobs, both are coming off lackluster seasons in 2013 and both have opened this season with a bang. Muschamp earns the edge because he is at home in Saturday’s showdown, he is slightly more experienced as a head coach and his team has more developed talent at this point in time. Muschamp won the first-ever meeting between the two coaches with a 20-7 victory in Lexington last year, and while this year’s game should be just as close, Muschamp should have an edge in this coaching matchup.

Ethan Levine

A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.