Saturday morning buffet

It’s raining and it’s the last day of February, so it’s not like you’ve got a lot to do at the moment.

• Man, what’s gotten into Dennis Dodd?  A well-researched article on the current Congressional follies regarding the BCS?  Color me surprised and impressed.  Best line was his advice for the Mountain West’s conference commissioner:  “1) Visit while the lawmakers are actually voting on stuff; 2) Make your case to someone besides the appointment secretary.” True dat.
• On the other side of the coin, Matt Hayes lives down to expectations with a “he’s tanned, rested and ready” piece about… Dennis Franchione.
• A. J. Green isn’t worried about Joe Cox, or being double-teamed, either.  He’s just trying to live up to the Ray Goff mantra of getting “buttah and buttah”.
• It looks like the Brian Butler saga is going to continue on for a while.  I have to admit I’m hoping that Bryce Brown confirms his verbal commitment to Miami when all is said and done, just so we can see what Randy Shannon does.

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New staff salaries: “We did step it up somewhat because of their pursuit.”

The AB-H has the story on the new football staff salaries here.

If you’re looking for the breakdown, it’s like this:

UGA Football coach Salaries

► Head coach Mark Richt: $2.8 million

► Defensive coordinator Willie Martinez: $325,815

► Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo: $325,000

► Defensive line coach Rodney Garner: $290,000

► Offensive line coach Stacy Searels: $290,000

► Defensive ends coach Jon Fabris: $202,241

► Receivers coach Tony Ball: $165,480

► Tight ends coach John Lilly: $165,480

► Linebackers coach John Jancek: $163,000

► Running backs coach Bryan McClendon: $90,000

► Assistant coaches total: $2.02 million

► Football coaching staff total: $4.82 million

Basically, three assistants got sizable bumps – Garner, Searels and Bobo – and the rest received modest increases.  (Cue the “Martinez is still the highest paid assistant!” angst now.)

What’s striking to me about these numbers is how carefully calibrated this appears.  Georgia ranks fourth in the SEC in staff salaries, with an amount roughly the same as Florida’s, yet it’s clear from Evans’ quote that the recent runs made by Auburn and Tennessee at Searels and Garner factored into the math.  And still no coach has been given a multi-year contract, even though it’s stated in the article that the assistants are desirous of that.

I’m glad to see it done, but I don’t see the pressure on Evans to keep the staff happy lessening any time in the near future.  The flood of TV money and the pressure from underachieving programs in the conference will see to that.