Is the squeaky wheel about to get greased?

In a USA Today piece about the NCAA considering a modification of some of the new recruiting rules, Greg McGarity is the only AD cited by name raising concerns:

Others in the Southeastern Conference, notably Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, have been outspoken in their concerns about the measures, which they fear will escalate the “arms race” in recruiting even more.

Five years from now, if it’s apparent that McGarity’s only lasting legacy is saving the athletic department money, I suspect that in the circles that matter he’ll be considered a raging success.

About these ads

“Just think of how creative people can be when there are no restrictions on it.”

I keep trying to walk away from the Greg McGarity vs. the new NCAA recruiting rules story, but he keeps pulling me back in.  Does anybody really think this is what’s keeping him up at night?

“We have the resources, to a certain level,” McGarity said. “But what level is that? The rule would let each institution make that decision. But for the good of the game, if you take a step back, our institution, and what’s for the best for college athletics in general, then basically with the approval of this legislation you would be furthering the separation of the haves and haves not. And right now you would say there are probably 22 haves, and the rest of the programs in the country operate in the red already. I don’t think that’s good for the whole.”

I mean, if he’s that concerned about the programs not operating in the black, perhaps he’s willing to consider some form of revenue sharing… Riiiiight.

This isn’t about not sticking it to the little guy further.  It’s about Alabama and other SEC schools making Georgia spend money McGarity doesn’t want to spend.

(As a side note for those of you who don’t think Mark Richt has learned from experience to read which way the winds blow at Butts-Mehre, you might want to check out this interview.)

You got to spend money to make championships, pt. 3.

I guess Greg McGarity figures if he mocks the problem, it’ll go away.

Claude Felton is one of the most respected men in the industry, that industry being sports information. The Feltons of the world are the unseen guys on college campuses who assist the media with copious, valuable and inside information. They are underpaid and underappreciated. Guys like Claude might as well have their hands in the back working cartoon puppets like Dick Vitale.

Sorry Dickie V, you — we — would be nothing without them.

The senior associate athletic director for sports communications at Georgia, Felton, 64, has seen it all — Herschel, Final Fours, 37 Georgia national championships. He has worked 17 NCAA national championship events and the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Claude Felton is one of those hard-working, unassuming media liaisons who may be adding a new, influential — and startling — job description.

“Did you know,” Georgia AD Greg McGarity told a visitor recently, “Claude can now recruit?”

Tee hee!  You know who finds that story even funnier?  Nick Saban.

You complete me, contractually speaking.

You know, it dawns on me after reading the stories about Chris Wilson’s new contract and Mike Bobo’s soon-to-be contract that Greg McGarity gets a lot of mileage out of the kind of person Mark Richt is.

Wilson is getting a one-year contract for less money than he was making at Mississippi State.  Granted, he has less responsibility now than he did, but the reality is that he’s taken a pay cut to move to Athens and he’s working on a year-to-year basis.  Nevertheless, he seems pretty happy with the change of venue (and it sure didn’t take him long to decide).

Meanwhile, Bobo has a resume that outstrips his compensation.

Bobo coordinated and called plays this past season for an offense that set school records for touchdowns, scoring average and total offense. He also serves as quarterbacks coach for Aaron Murray, who is the first player in SEC history to throw for more than 3,000 yards in three consecutive seasons and will obliterate every SEC passing record if he can avoid injury as a senior.

…

Bobo has been a steal for Georgia, too. Not including performance bonuses — and he has gotten a lot of those lately — Bobo makes $335,000 a year. That ranked 10th among SEC offensive coordinators coming into this past season. He also has operated with a one-year contract, while the majority of SEC offensive coordinators have two- to -three year deals.

Now, that’s getting reworked, but it’s noteworthy how casually outside suitors have been dismissed, both by the school and Bobo.

Georgia was already in the process of sweetening its deal with its sixth-year offensive coordinator when Virginia Tech sent a plane to Athens last week offering Bobo its coordinator’s position, according to a report out of Newport News, Va.

Bobo didn’t get on that plane. He was sitting with recruits at the Bulldogs’ basketball game against Mississippi State on Saturday and, by all accounts, plans to remain at UGA, his alma mater, for a while longer.

Jimmy Sexton considers that bad form.

In Bobo’s case, some of that could be attributed to loyalty to mama, but I think it’s fair to say for both coaches that you have to chalk a lot of this up to the man they work for.  The irony here is that kind of loyalty saves McGarity money over the long haul.  That in turn probably helps Richt’s job security.  Funny how that works sometimes.

“You’ve got to keep up with the Joneses.”

I don’t know about you, but the first thought that came to mind while reading this story was that Nick Saban has already assigned three of his best people to the job of gaming the new system.

My second thought was that Greg McGarity will sit back, watch how it goes in Tuscaloosa for a year or so and then copy what he likes on the cheap.

My third thought is that Georgia will still be luckier than most places as to that.  Haves rule; have-nots drool.

The nine-game conference schedule talk won’t die.

Seth Emerson takes Greg McGarity through a lengthy interview, the most interesting part of which comes at the end.  McGarity begins with a response to a question about attendance trends in college football.

You can look at programs now, and very successful programs can’t fill their basketball arenas, football stadiums. So it’s up to us to make sure that we’re being as creative as possible to give that person a reason to come to the game. I think our use of the scoreboard, of the video board in the stadium this year was exceptional. The replays, the clarity of the board. Our ability to look into other games. Little things like our ‘stadium defender’ (commercial), the little spoof we did. You can only see that in Sanford Stadium. So we’ve got to think of things you can only see at Sanford Stadium that you can’t at home.

Because the thought is, If I’m home and I’ve got my (remote control) out I can toggle between Game A and Game B, and if I wanna cut it off I can cut it off. Well, we’re thinking that way in the stadium, to where if I can do it at home, hopefully I can do some of that stuff at the stadium. … That’s our charge next year: What more creative ideas can we generate? And have a little fun. Can we do a better job in certain areas of how we present the game? Sure we can. Can we do a better job with concessions? Maybe we have more hawkers in the stands. Instead of Greg and Seth having to go up in line and wait 30 minutes for a Coke, let’s bring the Coke to you, and maybe that’s doubling the amount of hawkers you have in the stadium. Those are all things we think about daily. …Locally we have to do that.

It’s nice that he’s thinking about it, but this is just nibbling at the edges stuff, at best.  How many Georgia fans get up on a Saturday and say, “let’s go to the game so we can watch the new stadium defender ad”?

To Emerson’s credit, he takes the conversation where it really needs to go – quality of scheduling.

Q: Would it also impact non-conference scheduling?

McGarity: I tell you what, if you think about our schedule (in 2011) if we had not played Boise State. We would have been playing in Louisville this year, sandwiched in between two SEC games. Now we saw what Charlie (Strong) and the job they did. That would have been another game where you have to be at peak performance, you can’t just think you’ve got that one in your back pocket. But I think the strength of schedule, that’s something we have to study. We don’t know what that means. That’s why we haven’t done any scheduling in the last year, moving forward, because we want to see what is the strength of schedule.  [Emphasis added.]

I can only think of one thing McGarity could be waiting on, and so could Emerson.

Q: Are you also waiting to make sure the SEC schedule stays at eight games?

McGarity: Yeah, yeah. We are going to discuss what a nine-game model looks like, at least have that discussion. But you want to be sure that you’re not over-scheduling and making it more difficult to be in the BCS games, by adding an SEC game.

Q: Will you also discuss that in Destin, at the SEC meetings?

McGarity: It’ll be a topic, yeah. We’ll cover some of that in Nashville at the next A.D. meeting. But yes that nine-game schedule we’re going to take a look at it, to see what it looks like. But no commitment, either way.

They know.  These guys know.  The fans want less cupcakes in their scheduling diet.  One less Sun Belt opponent is going to do more for attendance enthusiasm than ten stadium defender ads would.  The networks want more conference product (and if the SEC is the best conference in the country, why wouldn’t they?).  And a nine-game conference schedule is far less unwieldy in a fourteen-team conference than what they’re struggling with now.

What’s holding them back are the same two things:  the fear of revenue reduction from a loss of a seventh home game every other season and the potentially negative impact of tougher regular season scheduling on the SEC’s postseason chances.  My bet is they’ve already heard enough from the networks to conclude that a nine-game conference schedule will result in nothing worse than a revenue wash.  (McGarity’s silence on that is a pretty good indication that it’s not really a concern to the ADs.)  So what’s left is waiting to hear how this whole selection committee thing for the new playoffs gets structured.  Bottom line:  if the ADs feel like there’s a reasonable chance two conference teams playing a nine-game SEC schedule can make the four-team playoff field, they’ll make the move.

If not?  Well, expect more stadium defender ads and unstable conference scheduling in the short term.  And don’t be surprised when Mike Slive decides that an eight-team playoff is the direction where college football really needs to be heading.  Because these guys know.

He’s not that into you, sorry.

Call ‘em bashers.  Call ‘em realists (that’s how they refer to themselves).  Greg McGarity’s got his own catch phrase for a certain segment of the Georgia fan base.

He understands there’s still an unhappy segment of the fan base. But he refers to them as, “the society of the miserable. They’re going to vent when things are going really well and when they’re not.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume none of the program’s big contributors fall into this category.  Either that, or McGarity’s learned how to tap dance when he needs to.

Extensions! Get ‘yer contract extentions!

My first thought upon reading the news about Mark Richt’s new deal was it took you people six months to come up with that?  There’s nothing groundbreaking and evidently salary wasn’t an issue.  The press has jumped all over the fact that Richt no longer has a buyout penalty to pay if he chooses to leave Athens before the contract expires, but McGarity was quick to point out it isn’t a provision of much significance.

“I think people are gonna twist it and say whatever they want to about it. But I’m just telling you the truth. I’m telling you how it is between Mark and myself,” McGarity sad. “There’s no monkey business here.”

Besides…

“I think it’s Greg’s philosophy on the contract,” Richt said. “It’s not something that I was asking for. It was something that he suggested and I said that would be fine. I think the bottom line for me, gosh, I think I’ve been here long enough for everybody to understand … that Georgia’s my home. Georgia’s where I want to be. Georgia’s the only job I want.”

The man’s only been saying that since the ink was drying on the contract he signed with Dooley.  Isn’t it about time we all took him at his word on it?  Time to move on, folks.

No, the more interesting development was the surprise announcement by the High Chancellor that McGarity was also getting a contract extension (and a raise).

“He’s had two years here now,”He’s had two years here now,” UGA president Michael Adams said. “He’s shown extraordinary leadership. He’s widely respected already among the other A.D.s in the conference…”

Wow.  “Extraordinary”.  Who’s the man responsible for bringing this paragon of excellence to the University of Georgia?  Not Vince Dooley, that’s for sure.

This being Michael Adams, a little horn tooting on a pleasant occasion isn’t enough.  There has to be some subtle muscle flexing tossed in the mix.  So if I’m Mark Richt, I’m wondering what I should read from this particular tea leaf:

“I just felt it was important for the benefit of the athletic association and the university that we get him locked in at a time that was slightly longer than the head football coach. And that would well position the university for any changes that might happen in the future.”

Adams departs in 2013, so the impact of this, whatever that might be, is likely to occur long after he’s gone.  But it’s curious that management feels the need to position McGarity in this way with Richt.  And you wonder if this is simply a parting gift that Adams has bestowed on his AD, or if McGarity asked for it.  Either way, it suggests that the school wants an edge with its head football coach.

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UPDATE:  Chris Low’s take on Richt’s new deal is worth a look.

McGarity said he didn’t see “anything negative here at all” regarding Richt’s new contract, which now runs through 2016.

I wouldn’t call it negative, either. To me, it’s more reality.

And that reality is that McGarity and the Georgia administration simply aren’t ready to throw a lot of guaranteed money at Richt right now because they don’t want to be stuck with a pricey buyout if they decide two years from now that Richt isn’t the answer long term.

Reasonable minds can differ on whether that’s a good approach or a bad one, but I think Low is on target there.

I gave up; you did, too.

“That wasn’t the total plan coming in,” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. “We were going to try to be balanced. But I just felt like after the first series, even though we gave up a couple of pressures, I felt like we could get open in their secondary. We just kind of opened it up from there.”

Every Georgia Tech game marks an anniversary of sorts.  I started GTP after the 2006 win over the Jackets.  Every win has been enjoyable, but there’s something more deeply satisfying about today’s.

For one thing, it caps a remarkable year.  After an 0-2 start, this team beat every longstanding rival on the schedule, something it hadn’t done in 30 years, and in the process, nullified the loss to South Carolina.  Georgia is going to the SECCG to face the most formidable team in the country.  I don’t argue that the Dawgs will likely open as a substantial underdog, but I’m not writing them off, either.

And that’s because Mark Richt and his coaching staff have come full circle.  In some ways, that’s even more remarkable than the 10-2 record.  The odds on a major program recovering from a sustained slump under the same head coach are fairly long.  But Richt has done just that.  Georgia dominated its in state rival in a way it hadn’t done in several years and it did so in large part by outcoaching the Yellow Jackets staff.

The quote from Bobo above is indicative of how far they’ve come.  Last year’s game wound up being a nail biter partly because he couldn’t keep his foot on the gas.  That wasn’t a problem this go ’round – all the more remarkable because he didn’t have a full deck to play with.

And Grantham continues to prove that he’s as good making halftime adjustments as any Georgia defensive coordinator in memory.  Against a triple option that gained almost 200 yards in the first half, Georgia came out in the second half and did this with Tech on its first four possessions: three plays, interception; four plays, punt; one play, interception; 13 plays, turnover on downs.

I can’t say I know exactly what sort of progress Greg McGarity was looking for going into this season.  From my selfish standpoint, I was looking for a team that was prepared to compete for a full sixty minutes.  I was also looking for a team that was prepared.  It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, but I can’t argue with where this team finds itself tonight.  And so I find myself ready to believe again.  And, boy, is that a good feeling to rediscover.

Running backs? We don’t need no stinkin’ running backs.

I swear, this reads like a bad April Fools’ joke.

A trio of Georgia running backs have been suspended for the upcoming game against New Mexico State.

As first reported by ESPN, Dawg Post has confirmed tailbacks Isaiah Crowell, Carlton Thomas and Ken Malcome have been suspended for a violation of team rules.

Malcome’s got a helluva sense of timing, doesn’t he?

I guess this week Georgia will be the team lined up in the five-receiver sets.

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UPDATE:  Hmm.  This is kind of interesting.

… There was speculation leading up to the Florida game on Saturday that Crowell was facing a possible suspension, but he played.

Athletic director Greg McGarity said “absolutely not,” this afternoon when asked by The Athens Banner-Herald if discipline was held over until after the Florida game.

“This had nothing to do with the Florida game or anything,” McGarity said. “It was all timing.”