… The overhaul of the Georgia football team was a slow one. Rather than a Saturday night massacre, it happened in piecemeal fashion, one change at a time. Almost all the players left with a push; after a 6-7 record, a low-key housecleaning was taking place.
“I felt like it was building up (the last few years), and it was time to happen now,” junior tight end Orson Charles said. “Last year we had a couple people who didn’t want to follow, and they were still on the team. My freshman year they were still on the team. And this year, I guess Coach Richt said, ‘No, not this year.’ ”
Departures aside, I give Richt credit for presiding over a quiet offseason in Athens. But ultimately how much of the credit is he entitled to take?
… Richt said earlier this summer that players have realized there was a connection between the on-field losing and off-field problems. It was also clear that athletics director Greg McGarity and school president Michael Adams gave Richt their own nudge about the behavioral issues. McGarity, hired just before last season started, quietly urged Richt to clamp down.
Get The Picture 
I believe McGarity deserves most of the credit for setting the tone. It looks as if Richt will get assurance about his job and support in exchange for cleaning up the problems on the team. I think McGarity will give Richt a reasonable amount of time (2-4 years) while he is the AD to see how Richt responds.
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To add to my post a few spots down from this one, I think what Richt got from McGarity was support and reinforcement. I really got the impression (and I have no hard evidence of this, its just something I’ve read between the lines on) that Damon was pretty hands off on such issues. He let it be Richt’s problem until he would have been forced to step in. McGarity has this ‘How can I help?’ attitude. I’ve become a huge, huge, huge fan of Greg McGarity. The man gets it, and he doesn’t seem to bring an ego to the table (he doesn’t have some agenda to bring in ‘his’ coach, as so many do when they take over programs, and that’s evident in how he’s supported Richt). The guy just wants UGA to be great, and he wants that to happen the right way. I may be premature in saying this.. but we’re in the right hands with McGarity, but I don’t think he’s pushed Richt. I think he’s nudged him and reinforced that he has the AD’s full support.
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Agreed. Thankfully Evans is no longer here or I think things would have progressed downhill even more. I’m a McGarity fan, I think he’s taken the right approach to calm things down, identify the problems, make corrections and allow enough time to see the results.
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Forgot to change my name back. 🙂
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Absolutely. Getting McGarity makes all the trash talk and ribbing we got from other schools over Damon’s demise worth it.
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Thank Goodness for red panties.
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heyberto, tell me one thing that McGarity has done to make you a huge fan of his? Fire the volleyball coach!!!!!!
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Just one? Ok. He moved the G-Day game so it’s not on Master’s weekend. Seriously.. does he really need defending? I think it’s more for what he hasn’t done than what has. He didn’t need to blow up the entire program.. Georgia wasn’t that bad off. His approach is what I like so much about him. You can tell he gets it in the little things he’s done like the G-Day game. As much as I didn’t like the change in scheduling philosophy, it’s hard to argue with it. He’s scheduled Boise State, Ohio State hasn’t… I take it you don’t think things have changed for the better relative to athletics at UGA? I don’t think we need to measure the job performance of our AD by who he has fired or not fired. To each their own.
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That’s nice, but I want to hear them talk about how they want to go out and clock somebody (on the field that is).
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and I think the clocking spoken about last pre-season will happen this season to accomplish this:
“We want the other team, when they get done playing you, not to want to play you again”
http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2010/01/22/todd-grantham-i-understand-who-uga-fans-want-to-beat/?cxntfid=blogs_mark_bradley_blog
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I think he deserves most of the credit. Despite all the problems last year, I think he took the right stance from the beginning, given the kind of infractions that occurred. (I’m sorry to those who think he’s soft on infractions.. if kicking Mettenberger off the team early in the off season last year isn’t sending the right message, I don’t know what is) He never got reactionary and evaluated each violation as it happened and shelled out fair consequences. He even seemed to clamp down and give more severe penalties as the season went on. (Caleb King got two games for missing a court date, and that probably would have been one under normal circumstances). Perhaps he just needed the locker room to get its act together, which it seems to have done, but, to me, his ‘stay the course’ attitude and not panicing seemed to allow that happen.this was a snowball headed downhill that he couldn’t just stop on a dime. Clearly no one got the Stephen Garcia treatment at UGA, so I just don’t see the issue.
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+1
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way off topic here Heyberto (or anyone else with the anwer), but I see you added a picture by your name. How’d you add it?
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I started a photography blog on wordpress, and they give you the option of adding a photo through a separate program caleld Gravatar. Apparently, Gravatar is tied to your email address, not the blog. I prefer to remain anonymous on general websites, so I continue to use the handle heyberto, but apparently it recognizes the avatar I put up for my blog. No biggie, but try going to Gravatar.com and see if it will let you add something. .
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Thanks!
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I believe 100% this was a top-down effort initiated by the athletic administration. Richt received his marching orders, and has followed them. That’s not a crack on Richt, that’s just the way it is. Either way, it’s all good. We’ve seen one part of it. Now time to see the results on the field.
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Evidence? Nah, I didn’t think so.
Seth doesn’t have any either. McGarity cleaned the place up? Just like at Floriduh?
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Fantastic point. Granted, he was assistant AD.. but I’m happy to say that the way that McGarity’s boss at UF let Urban handle player discipline influence that part of the way he runs things at UGA. I’m of the mind that this was more of an agreed upon approach between the two men, than a directive to Richt.
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Meant to say ‘didn’t’ influence.. sorry about that.
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I think this is an interesting the dichotomy… I know how I perceive it when our rivals’ players are “shown the door” (Saben’s being a hardass, poor,poor kids…) but when OUR coach gets rid of “Deadweight,” we say “It’s about damn time…”
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Yeah, but there is a key difference. Saban is usually getting rid of players that aren’t performing on the field. Whenever you hear of Saban getting rid of his top TWO returning rushiers, you get back to me. Also, Saban is getting rid of players to barely squeeze under 85 scholarships, while UGA is well under that figure right now.
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Uhhh… “rushers”.
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Don’t forget CMR dumping his secretary’s son last year- our only backup QB.
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Excellent points gentlemen, and let’s add, no playing around with which games suspensions will be enforced in.
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Yes, there are lots of examples of how the UGA house-cleaning over the last year or so is different from anything Saban has done. In most cases, the players leaving UGA were either productive players, players at very thin positions, or both. But in all cases, the net effect has been a team well below 85 scholarships. That doesn’t sound like typical roster management to me..
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Yup…we’re at 75 right now and depending on Turene & Bowman, we could be walking into the Dome on Sept. 3rd with 73 on Scholly…
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Jesus, I like a quiet off season as much as anyone, but let’s not forget that 99% of UGA’s off field issues stem from dumb college kids doing dumb college kid things (I don’t include DUIs in that). The driving without licenses and underage drinking are dumb, but understandable. I refuse to even acknowledge critics who say the program is “lawless” when there are teams in the same damn conference that have players assaulting women and committing home invasions.
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Yeah! But wasn’t all that done in and to their own parent’s homes?
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I think Richt just had enough and since the honey wasn’t working, he shit in their hats. They had already done it in ours.
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I give the credit primarily to McGarity. Do-nothing buddies of CMR’s like Eason and Van Halanger were given an ultimatum – make sure things stay quiet or get booted from the payroll.
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McGarity was at Fla. for nineteen years and no one hired him away he even interviewed for the UGA job which was awarded to Damon so he must not have been too impressive He got the UGA job because he was a homeboy, no other reason..I’m not saying he wont be good as this job but I am saying I don’t see what all the gushing is about because he really hasn’t done anything to get any accolades!!!!
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