John Amis / AP file

Georgia is 71-19 under Mark Richt in the last seven seasons.

What impresses Dooley is Richt’s knack for identifying and addressing his weaknesses. After Richt struggled with some clock management situations early on, he called in Homer Smith, a guru on the subject.

Until late in the 2006 season, Richt called plays for the Bulldogs. That’s how he became familiar with the term visual learner — and discovered that he is one. Standing on the sideline, Richt used to have assistant Mike Bobo describe the view from the press box.

“Which he did a very good job of, but it got lost in the translation,” Richt said. “I was listening; I still wasn’t seeing it in my mind quickly enough to make a change or make a call. I would watch games afterward and I’d just think, ’I can’t believe we went the whole game and I didn’t call this or do that.’ I’d just be upset with myself.”

So Richt turned over play-calling duties to Bobo. The head coach no longer had to force himself to stay calm so he could make snap decisions on what to run next.

The most noticeable example of the looser and louder Richt of 2007 was his order to players to get an excessive celebration penalty after their first touchdown against Florida. The ploy didn’t unfold as he expected — and yet worked just as he had hoped.

The entire team charged into the end zone, to the irritation of the Gators. But that moment ignited the emotion and enthusiasm Richt feared the squad lacked.

“He gets fired up when we need him to,” said senior fullback Brannan Southerland. “In the locker room at halftime, if something’s not going right, we need to get yelled at, he definitely does that. I think it just serves as an example for a lot of people that you can be passionate about something and yet stay calm and keep your head on your shoulders and stay levelheaded.”

Like any mother, Helen is still convinced her son was good enough to start at Miami, where he backed up Jim Kelly. Then again, she mused, what if he had gone to the NFL and gotten hurt?

The way she sees it now, “Life turned out the best it ever could have for him.”

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