Clearly, Michael Adams, Greg McGarity and the members of the Georgia Athletic Association executive board don’t spend enough time on college football blogs and message boards.
“He’s not in my hot seat; he’s still in my lap,” Bob Bishop, an executive board member for 29 years, said with a laugh. “I love him. I don’t think you can find a better human being anywhere and he’s a fine football coach. He’s proven that time and time again. But we all know it goes in cycles. He had a bad cycle last year and he made a lot of changes to improve on that. If you have a real bad season again there’s going to be a lot of turmoil all over the state and on campus and behind the scenes.”
Said board member emeritus Gary Hill: “I’m firmly in Mark Richt’s corner. I want him to succeed. Everything is in place for him to succeed and I’m pulling for him to do so. Who wants to go through the turmoil of changing coaches and changing staff?”
Bishop was asked if the board would have to respond to alumni or fan dissension.
“You’ve got to listen; that’s why we serve on the board. But most of that doesn’t play into it,” he said. “You evaluate the program independently and how the program is progressing. We’ve had a couple of down years. It will be very nice if he can improve that 6-and-7, at least modestly. But I think our program is in good shape.”
Translation: as long as the money flow doesn’t slow, Richt is beloved enough to survive a stretch of mediocrity.
Get The Picture 
I just keep hearing these guys speak up when you think they’d speak more carefully… if he were truly on the hot seat. That tone can change pretty quickly, but right now I see a coach who isn’t getting just lip service support.
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Pretty much what I believed all along. Richt would have to have a train wreck on top of a dumpster fire this year to be fired this year or even the next.
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There’s young talent in place for a good long run, including at qb. If it was me, id give him through murrays senior year barring something really bad and within his control. No sense fooling with a new coach when your guy has done it before, in spite of recent bad seasons.
changes were made on defense and the young talent is in place including an undersized ringer qb who ain’t going pro any time soon. I hope we get to see that develop under richt.
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Bob “Whatever” Bishop puts high pressure on Mark, who Bob apparently thinks is his lap dog, by deciding on a modest “If Only We Can Go 7-6” goal.
As long as Bob is a decision-maker, Mark doesn’t have to worry about the Maginot Line. In fact, he doesn’t even have to worry about the Mendoza Line. He only has to worry about an economic boycott.
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End point is that we have not been getting beat down in games we lost. We were the head to LSU’s tails last year. Where they should have lost 3-4 games, but won them because the other team skrewed up worse then they did.
These guys see Richt making changes and thats all they want to see. They would prob. be more towards the hot seat talk if Richt would have kept Willie & Co. Also you have to look at recruits. Richt is still getting the brand out there cause we pulled in another top 10 class.
Truly though, I think the biggest get Richt has is Ray Drew. I think this guy has a real chance to be a huge leader for this team. I mean how much do you think him reaching out to the other 2011 recruits was. He is what we have been begging for over the last few years. A guy who bleeds red and black more then we do.
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Maybe CMR needs to start chewing grass?
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I just hope we have a better season this year, then I won’t feel the need to smoke some.
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I agree on Drew. He’s Jon Stinchcomb. He’s David Pollack. He’s Rennie Curran. He’s the guy we didn’t necessarily have last year.
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The “Mark Richt Is On The Hot Seat” meme is purely a creation of the media and bloggers (hi, Brooks!) and message board posters shouting into their own echo chamber. Not once has it ever been validated by anyone with even a shred of actual control in the matter, other than some boosters who write big checks. Even they don’t have direct control over the issue. Certainly, it’s not going away, because that echo chamber isn’t going away, but the fact is, it’s a non-story.
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Watch it now…..or you’ll have the “cold blooded sausage makers” after you!
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For the win!!!!
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I guess they really enjoy those GA-Fla games. Are we not 2 and 8?
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Yes, but that’s not how they keep score. They keep score by the amount of profit-taken from the Ga-Fla game, which means that every loss to Florida is a win:
“Senator Blutarsky
May 27, 2011 at 5:52 AM
Mayor, read this part of Groo’s post:
Each school already makes $3.4 million over a two-year period from the game, approximiately $1 million more than they’d make from a home game once every two seasons. This price increase brings the two-year haul to over $5 million, and if the 2017 increase is eventually approved, that payoff breaks $7 million.
That’s a lot more than you’re talking about.”
https://blutarsky.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/sticker-shock/
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Yeah. We pay teams like Ga Southern half that extra million dollars (the going rate seems to be about $500,000) to come to Athens to get their asses beat and they take it gladly for the profit. Some people who call themselves UGA “fans” want UGA to do the same thing for Florida–go to Jacksonville each year to another team’s stadium (it used to be called the Gator Bowl after all) and get beat there just for the profit. With “fans” like that who needs enemies.
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I’m one of those guys who has been accused of being a Disney Dawg. And I probably am. Yet I also believed that Adams and McGarity were already drawing up a short list of names in the event we started o-2. So, I have to say it’s very refreshing to hear these comments. Let’s hope they’re not just blowing smoke up a certain part of our anatomy.
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Sorry guys this is just offseason happy talk.
Half the posters on this thread will be calling for his head if we go 7-6.
What do you expect bishop to say?
Look at what mcgarity has done – he has eliminated all of the other variables (aka excuses) so if we can’t be successful (define that as you will) he is done and has nobody to blame but himself
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“What do you expect bishop to say?”
heh…well, he could have said nothing or something that didn’t make him sound like Mark’s agent but because that didn’t happen, maybe not use the words ‘modest improvement” in any statements in which you compare your football coach to Bear Bryant or say your program is in “good shape” [except financially, of course] after a 6-7 season. And don’t talk about the head football coach sitting in your lap. Is Bob so out of touch that he does not realize that Mark has a tough enough time being a bad-ass in the league as it is without silly stuff like that being said?
As for Michael Adams, not use the words “body of work,” which only draws attention to the fact that the recent past has been much worse than the distant past or say that you rely only on the AD who you just hired.
Agree that McGarity has eliminated variables upon which most excuses previously made could be based. Doubt that it makes any difference whatsoever if there is no drop in financial production of football program.
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“What do you expect Bishop to say?”
I would expect him to give the same kind of half-assed comments that others give in support of their lame-duck coaches. The tone of Bishop’s comments was markedly different (at least to my ear) than what, say, RichRod was getting last year.
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Nice way to start the weekend. Always encouraging to hear opinions from those more grounded than the usual sports-talk radio crowd. UGA has the right man at the helm, the whole F Bomb Hot Seat crowd feeds off those who have no say…thankfully. We don’t have a HC problem, time for our fans to get behind the program.team/coach. The only ones who don’t see this are those who will never be satisfied with anyone for more than five years. Is that really what we want for UGA football? Can you think of anyone who is the total package that Mark Richt is? I honestly cannot. I am happy with CMR now, I was when he was hired, and it is hard to imagine not being so in 2015. UGA fans should be very proud he is still in Athens. Over the last 3 years our football team has disappointed us on the field, but the actions of a vocal, minority group of our fans have been much more embarrassing. I appreciate our board not being stampeded by those who only see a small piece of the picture. Wins and losses are important, we have that and so much more.
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This.
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