By Matt Smith
SouthernPigskin.com

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What would the current college football landscape look like if Georgia had fired Mark Richt in 2010?

As college football enters one of its few slow times of the calendar, were going to briefly veer from the course of reality and take a look at how the sport would have changed had certain events from the past occurred in a different manner.

After looking at the potential fallout from Les Miles leaving for Michigan after the 2007 season, as well as if Nick Saban had Drew Brees as his quarterback with the Dolphins, in this edition, we look back at the first round of Mark Richt hot seat talk, which he survived before Round 2 led to his dismissal just three months ago.

Georgia was perhaps the hottest team in the country following the 2007 season, winning seven straight games to close the year with sights set on a national championship in 2008. But the Bulldogs slipped back to 10-3 in 2008 after starting the season No. 1. Following the departures of Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno after 2008, Georgia finished a disappointing 8-5 and 6-7 in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Under different circumstances, Richt may not have survived. But in the summer of 2010, athletic director Damon Evans was dismissed after a DUI arrest. With the administrative focus on finding Evans replacement, adding a football coaching search on top of that didnt seem prudent.

What if Evans hadnt erred and remained in his position? Would he have pulled the trigger and moved on from Richt after 10 seasons? For the sake of this story, lets say Evans did just that.

His former teammate at Georgia in the early 890s, Will Muschamp, was a surprise hire by Florida that offseason. Despite the connections, Evans probably wouldnt have gone that route after Texas finished 5-7 with Muschamp as defensive coordinator. What about Kirby Smart? He was only 34 years old at that time, hurting his candidacy at his alma mater five years prior to his ultimate return to Athens.

There was a sitting head coach who likely would have had serious interest in the Georgia job, as we found out two years later when he bolted Wisconsin for Arkansas. Bret Bielema had won the Big Ten in 2010 with Wisconsin, but was going to lose quarterback Scott Tolzien and star defensive end J.J. Watt at seasons end. His frustration with athletic director Barry Alvarez and the frugalness of the Wisconsin athletic department was growing.

Bielema is certainly not one to shy away from campaigning for himself, and he would have been all in on selling himself to Evans. Coming off of taking Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1999, it would have worked, and Bielema would have taken over a much more attractive situation at Georgia than the one he inherited in reality at Arkansas in 2012.

The hire would have turned out to be a home run, with Georgia rolling to four SEC East titles in five seasons. Would he have been the difference in getting the Bulldogs past Nick Saban and Alabama? Probably not, but with two more chances than Richt had, maybe the bounce of the ball would have finally gone Georgias way.

As for Wisconsin, the Badgers would have had their next head coach already on staff in offensive coordinator Paul Chryst. The Wisconsin alumnus ultimately took the Pittsburgh job in 2012 before returning to Madison in 2015, but Chryst would have been an obvious and cost-friendly choice for Alvarez.

Would Chryst still have been able to lure Russell Wilson to Madison for the 2011 season? Even with Bielema as the head coach, it was Chrysts offense with which Wilson signed. Chryst isnt the big personality that Bielema is, but the fit still makes sense given the Badgers needs and Wilsons desire to compete for a championship.

Does Miami (FL) go after Richt, as they did after the 2015 season? Probably so. That would have left Al Golden at Temple for one more season, before he would take over a damaged Penn State program, Goldens alma mater, following the firing of Joe Paterno late in the 2011 season.

Who knows what the fallout would have actually been? As always, this is my story, and Im sticking to it.