Fans would love it. The coaches would hate it.
A few of the many college football bowl game projections have the Georgia Bulldogs (7-5) playing the Miami Hurricanes (8-4). If that were to come to fruition, it would be the first time Hurricanes head coach Mark Richt would face his old program. He was fired from Georgia after the 2015 season following 15 seasons.
It would also be interesting since Richt recruited most of the current players on Georgia's team, including freshman quarterback Jacob Eason. They used to be breakfast buddies:
#UGA HC Mark Richt made a visit to 5★ QB commit Jacob Eason in Lake Stevens, WA today. Not long before he's a #Dawg! pic.twitter.com/AKLDuvFL2H
— UGA Football Live (@UGAfootballLive) November 15, 2015
On his weekly Monday appearance on the Joe Rose Show on 560 WQAM in Miami, Richt addressed the possibility of facing the 'Dawgs.
"I wouldn't doubt that somebody would try and get that match-up. I don't know. It's hard to say," Richt said. "I don't know where we're going to go for this bowl game, but I think we've got ourselves set up for a really good one. I think there's a chance that we play a ranked opponent, or at least a very quality opponent. I think people across America will be very interested in the match-up we play in, and hopefully we can finish with a victory and get ourselves ranked."
Richt didn't mention facing the Bulldogs again in the rest of the interview. Instead, he talked about how great it would be to play in the Russell Athletic Bowl, located in Orlando, against a Big12 team. But more than anything, Richt said he wants to finish the season with a victory, get ranked and show that the future of Miami football looks bright.
After the playoff games and "New Year's Six" games are filled by the College Football Playoff committee, the conferences select teams to fill the remaining bowl games that they are committed to. The SEC and ACC play each other in the TaxSlayer, Belk, Independence and Music City bowls. However, the Music City Bowl can choose an ACC or Big Ten team.
The conferences want the match-ups to be as appealing as possible, so don't put it past them to try and setup a Richt reunion. The schools can suggest bowl games and opponents to the conference, and they are the ones to accept or decline a bowl game invitation.
Richt and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart would likely hate the match-up. Both would see the coaching storylines as too much of a distraction. Plus, Smart and Georgia would be under a lot of pressure by fans to come out with a victory to prove getting rid of Richt was the right move after last season.
So it's possible, but don't count on it.
The bowls games will be announced on Sunday.
