Rodney Garner decides he prefers Athens over Knoxville.
“Certainly I’m flattered and am sincerely appreciative of the interest shown by Tennessee,” said Garner. “But in the final analysis the positives at Georgia were the determining factors. My heart is coaching on the defensive side of the ball. I enjoy working with Coach Richt and the rest of the staff and our family loves being a part of the Athens community. And we have some really good defensive linemen returning next year along with some outstanding newcomers. Our family felt that we wanted to continue with the goals we had set when Coach Richt came in December of 2000 of helping build the Georgia program.”
If you listen carefully, that’s the sound of coaches’ salary dominoes clicking in the background.
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UPDATE: Elsewhere in the SEC, the insanity continues, as Auburn has just hired Trooper Taylor away from Okie State. Taylor was making the same amount at OSU as Curtis Luper, so I presume that means the Tigers will pay their running backs coach and their wide receivers coach $400K per year each.
I guess this makes Trooper Taylor an inspiration to all those kids across the land who wear their baseball caps backwards.
And Mike Gundy has to replace almost half of his staff at this point (remember, he lost his DC to Toledo as the new head coach there).
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UPDATE #2: Further adventures in whoredom. Chip Towers has some entertaining quotes from Garner about the situation, but this one is awesome:
Rodney mulled the offer [ed.: to be an assistant coach on offense] before telling UT he’d decided his heart was on the defensive side of the ball. He said the Vols countered by offering him the D-line position. Ed Orgeron, who had already been named recruiting coordinator and D-line coach, was going to coach LBs instead.
Rodney said it was never about the money or titles. He said the lure was to work alongside UT defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin. “That was a major attraction, wanting to just be a sponge and soak up all the knowledge I could from a great defensive coordinator.”
Two things strike me here. First, if the lure was to have the opportunity to work with Monte Kiffin, why was Garner entertaining an offer to go back to UT to be on the offensive side of the ball in the first place? Second, all this talk about what a great d-line coach Orgeron is – that just gets tossed over the side by the Vol staff at the first opportunity. If there’s any question at this point about what Orgeron is being paid for, that should answer it loudly.
Oh, and snide comment time – is Rodney insinuating that he’s already soaked up everything he can from Willie Martinez, or that WM isn’t a great defensive coordinator?
One lesson to take from this (and the Searels’ decision to stay, for that matter) is that none of us should underestimate the respect and loyalty that Richt engenders from his staff.