So the preseason No. 1 football team in the country loses three games, gets embarrassed twice, finishes the season in the Capital One Bowl and the head coach says:

“We might have had one of our better coaching jobs.”

That’s what he said Monday. Mark Richt did not add, “Well, except for Willie Martinez, of course.” Or, “In 2007.” Or, “How did Stacy Searels get on the phone?”

Richt, who owns the fifth-best winning percentage all-time among SEC coaches with at least five years of experience, said Georgia’s 10-3 mark might have been one of his staff’s best coaching jobs.

The 2008 season certainly didn’t qualify as a bad coaching job. Richt’s point highlights the injuries. The Bulldogs tore up more knees than a women’s basketball team this year.

Georgia lost 24 players to season-ending injuries. A lot of those players didn’t start and some of them contributed very little, but all of their absences affected practice.

Richt said the Bulldogs practiced differently this year because they didn’t want to risk more injuries. The scout team couldn’t simulate opponents as well because it was missing the second- and third-teamers. The team didn’t tackle much in practice — or, heck, the Georgia Tech game — until bowl preparations. That should absolve Martinez of some blame.

Richt said he’s not trying to make any excuses, only stating the reality, and those are valid points. Alabama lost two offensive linemen in the Sugar Bowl, couldn’t block Utah and got blown out. It makes a difference.

But I’m going to disagree with Richt, and to be fair, he didn’t explicitly say this was the staff’s best coaching job. First, he certainly didn’t top last year’s coaching performance, when he transformed a moribund team by employing the end-zone dance against Florida and the blackout vs. Auburn. The defense also revitalized itself. Now that was a coaching job worth noting.

And here’s another point: It’s not like Georgia lost 24 players for the season and everyone else in the SEC lost zero. Football, as Tennessee safety Eric Berry likes to remind running backs and receivers, is kind of a violent game. Kentucky got ravaged with injuries. So did Auburn. Florida lost the best tight end in the league, Cornelius Ingram, before the season started and didn’t have Percy Harvin for the SEC title game.

Finally, it’s difficult to envision a scenario in which Georgia beat Alabama or Florida with a couple of those injured players back. I’m not sure Trinton Sturdivant or Jeff Owens would have made up 39 points against Florida or prevented a 31-0 halftime deficit at home vs. Alabama.

I’m not sure Anthony Munoz and Warren Sapp in their primes could have given Georgia a win in either of those games. And three seemingly elite opponents the Bulldogs beat — Tennessee, Arizona State and Auburn — were not very good at all.

But you can’t dismiss Richt’s point entirely. The second-team players often make the difference between the elite SEC schools, and Georgia was depleted at several positions. Alabama and Florida, who played a national 1 vs. 2 game in the SEC championship contest, dominated a lot of teams.

The Bulldogs couldn’t match Alabama or Florida, not even close. Getting an extra week to prepare for Georgia Tech’s offense and still allowing 45 points does not qualify as a great coaching job.

But despite the injuries, they were probably better than everyone else in the league. So you can’t say it was a bad coaching job by Georgia’s staff this year. It probably wasn’t the greatest one, either. It was somewhere in between.

Maybe 10-3, considering all the circumstances, is exactly what we should have expected.

Tech Talk