The last offseason was spent discussing and for the most part shooting down the notion that Mark Richt was on the hot seat. I don’t think we’ll have that discussion again this year. Mark Richt will be Georgia’s coach next year – teams not named Maryland don’t willingly try to put a new staff together a month before Signing Day. The outlook beyond next year is what has changed: we won’t throw out ultimatums for 2011 (as if it were our place to make those demands), but it’s clear that the recent track record isn’t cutting it. With a third of the conference playing for national titles since Georgia last won the league, the expectations are high but unmistakable.

There’s a lot of talk about the program being at a crossroads now, but we’re a season past that point. Talking about a “crossroads” implies that the possible paths facing the program lead to roughly equally likely outcomes. Mark Richt, on the other hand, is trying to keep things from going off a cliff. If changes need to be made on offense, that would make an overhaul of both sides of the ball, special teams, and the conditioning program within two years. What’s left after that?

Bad losses have a way of clearing things up. The 2009 blowout in Knoxville wrapped up any discussion on the need for a new approach on defense. The Liberty Bowl did a good job of shooting down the idea that 2010 was mostly a story of with A.J. / without A.J. Without Green, the Dawgs were 1-3. With him, they were 5-4. Better, sure, but only the 2009 season generated more losses for a Richt team than the shortened nine-game stretch of 2010 during which Green was available. The availability of A.J. Green is an interesting footnote on the season, but it’s noise when it comes to the current state of the program.

Mark Richt has already indicated that toughening up the program will be a priority for the offseason. We’ve seen progress in that area with the developments in the conditioning program, and we’re assured that even more work in that area is on the way. But toughness starts at the top, and what we’re talking about is illustrated in a contrast Kyle makes nicely in this post. The new conditioning staff can get its ducks in a row, but it won’t matter if that attitude isn’t carried through all elements of the program from nutrition and academics up to playcalling and execution.

The Boise State game staring us in the face around eight months from now couldn’t be a bigger moment for the future of the program. I’m not really talking about the game in a must-win sense, as a loss in a game like that isn’t necessarily the end of the season (right, Hokies?). But that game, and the South Carolina game after it, will be immediate and legitimate tests of the ability of Mark Richt to right his program during the offseason. Wins also won’t necessarily mean that Georgia is set for an SEC title and beyond, but those wins are necesaary to keep next season from becoming one long and extended march towards the inevitable.

In 2005, Boise State came to Athens intent on measuring itself against the eventual SEC champion. When the two teams meet in Atlanta later this year, the roles will be reversed: this time, it will be Georgia looking to (re)establish credibility by beating one of the nation’s most successful and highly-ranked programs of the past five years.