Have $2 million to spare? Richt's lake house available

This isn’t a major thing, but in the dog days of the offseason everything may seem that way. So I thought I’d pass this on.

The web site SportsbyBrooks has posted an item about Mark Richt putting his house on Lake Hartwell up for sale. Richt just purchased the house a couple years ago, and is now asking $1.99 million for it.

Brooks (a UGA graduate) writes:

Normally I don’t subscribe to a coach putting a home up for sale as a sign of anything, but in this case, it might be applicable. …

Richt doesn’t strike me as a guy out to flip houses, so I think it’s reasonable to surmise that last year’s 6-7 record - and the subsequent outcry emanating from Athens - may have something to do with the coach making over his real estate portfolio.

UGA spokesman Claude Felton shrugged off the report, indicating that Richt’s desire to sell the house was a fairly open secret.

“He’s actually been thinking about doing that for a couple months, I do know that,” Felton said.

Richt and his family still have their main house in Athens, so the lake house is more of a retreat. Plus, lots of other coaches keep lake houses far from home; Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech) and Ralph Friedgen (formerly of Maryland) both have houses on Lake Oconee. And obviously they don’t live close by.

So even if Richt were worried about his job – and he probably is – if he really loved the lake home, I would guess he’d be keeping it either way. Selling it is probably more about money, and less about his future.

Of course, given the current housing market, good luck to Richt selling it anytime soon.