With a 9-5 bowl record during his time as Georgia's football coach, Mark Richt has ended past seasons with more favorable memories than not.
Richt is scheduled to coach his final game with the Bulldogs at a bowl location that will be determined Sunday. The three most likely destinations for the Bulldogs (9-3) - the Music City Bowl in Nashville, the Liberty Bowl in Memphis and the TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville - are places where Richt has gone before and come away empty.
"I don't have a preference," Richt said Monday during his first news conference since being let go by athletic director Greg McGarity. "There are a lot of great bowls out there. I'm just thankful we're going to a bowl, really. It's a great experience. I'm glad we get the chance to play one more game."
Of course, things this time of year certainly are subject to change.
The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that Richt was in Miami meeting with Hurricanes athletic director Blake James about the vacancy at Richt's alma mater. Herald reporter Susan Degnan posted on Twitter that "more than one person thinks the job is his if he wants it."
One potential matchup for the Music City Bowl is Georgia against Miami.
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Georgia's first bowl trip under Richt occurred after his inaugural season in 2001, when the Bulldogs ventured to the Music City and lost 20-16 to Boston College. The worst loss of the 196-game Richt era arguably occurred in the Liberty after the 2010 season, when Georgia fell 10-6 to UCF to leave Richt with his lone losing season at 6-7.
The Bulldogs played in the TaxSlayer Bowl (formerly the Gator) after the 2013 season, losing 24-19 to Nebraska on a rainy New Year's Day. Richt is just 5-11 in Jacksonville, having gone 5-10 in the rivalry against Florida.
Georgia will be among the teams in the Southeastern Conference's "pool of six" bowls, which include the Outback Bowl in Tampa, the Belk Bowl in Charlotte and the Texas Bowl in Houston in addition to the Music City, Liberty and TaxSlayer. The league, in coordination with the six bowls, will place the Bulldogs along with Arkansas (7-5), LSU (8-3), Mississippi State (8-4), Tennessee (8-4) and Texas A&M (8-4) in that pool system provided No. 2 Alabama (11-1) defeats No. 18 Florida (10-2) in Saturday's SEC title game in Atlanta.
A Crimson Tide victory in the Georgia Dome would result in Alabama playing in the four-team playoff for a second consecutive year. The No. 16 Ole Miss Rebels (9-3) would be selected for their first Sugar Bowl appearance since the 1969 season, while Florida likely would land in the Citrus Bowl for the first time since 2007, when Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy.
Auburn (6-6), the 10th bowl-eligible team from the SEC, appears destined for the Birmingham Bowl, which picks after the "pool of six."
Georgia has played in two Outback Bowls under Richt, defeating Wisconsin after the 2004 season and losing to Michigan State after the 2011 season, but may not be as attractive to Tampa officials as a Tennessee team that has won five straight games. The league is trying to prevent two straight trips to the same site, thus rendering the Belk Bowl remote for the Bulldogs, and the Texas Bowl would desire Arkansas or Texas A&M over Georgia for attendance reasons.
"The bowls are just starting to crank up and try to find out who's going where, and I'm just glad I get the chance to be with the guys here for another month or so," Richt said. "I really would love for our seniors to get that 40th win. It's a benchmark that not a lot of guys get a chance to have."
Indoor timetable
Georgia announced Tuesday that construction on its long-awaited indoor practice facility would begin as planned later this month. The official groundbreaking ceremony will take place just prior to the UGA athletic association's board of directors meeting on Feb. 16.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.