Reading the tea leaves at today’s Richt presser

If you were expecting a dramatic announcement this morning about big changes, you’re going to be disappointed.

That being said, there were two things of interest disclosed in Gentry Estes’ summary.

• The turnout.“When Richt walked into a large team meeting room at the Butts-Mehre Building, he was greeted by television cameras, and a surprising number of dignitaries in attendance, such as UGA athletics director Greg McGarity, previous interim AD Frank Crumley, senior associate AD Carla Williams, compliance director Eric Baumgartner and other various athletics officials.” It’s news when the program goes through a stretch of sustained mediocrity.  It’s also a concern to the AD brass.  There’s a message being sent there, albeit subtly.
• A reassignment of duties. Not the staff’s.  Richt’s.  “But perhaps the biggest change noted by Richt on Wednesday had to do with his own time. Without going into specifics, Richt made vague references to McGarity personally taking over certain aspects that had previously occupied his time.” It sure would be interesting to know whose idea this was and what McGarity was relieving Richt from.

The overall impression I get is that McGarity is more hands on and has some definite ideas about his head coach’s role in running the football program.  We’ll soon see how sound his instincts are.

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UPDATE: Marc Weiszer fills in some of the blanks.

… The biggest news was Richt talking about how “things are being put in place that are going to help free me up to spend more time doing the things that I love the most, which is study the game of football and be an expert and be on the cutting edge.”

First-year athletic director Greg McGarity has helped facilitate that.

“I’m just spending less time messing around with things that Greg wants to be able to help take off my plate from an administrative point of view,” Richt said.

–Richt said that director of player development John Eason, who handles practice schedules and works with academics, will take an even greater role with the academic side at the school. He said that former strength coach Dave Van Halanger will also help lighten the load for Richt.

Eason is a former Georgia receivers coach.

“By no means will I not be involved in academics, but a lot of the legwork that needed to be done in that area he’s going to be fully responsible for and that’s going to help,” Richt said.

Van Halanger will play a role in a “mentor program” to help players transition from high school to college and from college to work force. He will also oversee a team “unity council.”

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UPDATE #2: Jeff Schultz’ “what took Richt so long?” point is a fair one.  Mark Bradley would probably answer by observing that it’s because he’s no Paul Johnson.