Honestly, this is so Georgia.
Georgia football coach Mark Richt’s revamped football contract won’t include a salary increase, but it will reward Richt with larger performance-based bonuses for on-field success.
Athletic director Greg McGarity told the Georgia Ahletic Association board of directors this morning that Richt’s salary “will basically stay where it is right now,” at about $2,8 million a season.
The contract is being extended three years through the 2016 season, but is still not finalized and won’t be voted on today at the meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge on Lake Oconee.
McGarity said all of Richt’s performance bonuses “have increased 100 percent.”
He said Georgia will be “rewarding excellence.”
Whatever. It’s a split-the-baby contract approach for a coach who’s sincere in his position that he has no interest in leaving Athens. No controversy. And they still haven’t got the damn deal done.
It ain’t because they’re starving, either: “UGA will finish the year with a profit of about $2.3 million, largely the result of having more football home games.” McGarity’s quality scheduling, for the win!
Note that Grantham’s deal also hasn’t been finalized yet.
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UPDATE: When in doubt, blame the lawyers. Because, you know, nobody outside of Athens uses lawyers to negotiate contracts.
Get The Picture 
Grantham’s holding 3 aces. McGarity just needs to accept it and pay the man.
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Well said!
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Again, the Athletic Admin & University Admin seem to get twisted around the axle on things that seem so basic and fundamental to the larger priorities. I appreciate the pay-for-performance aspect, but again — why so prolonged and difficult?
Perhaps it would be easier if they weren’t pre-occupied with spending dollars to save nickles in areas like recruitng expense, S&C headcount/expense, etc.,
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This is pathetic, penny ante stuff here and is in no way the way you run a large organization. Unfortunately, it probably is consistent with the “show me” attitude of at least 95% of our message board posters in our fanbase.
If the Athletic Association were a corporation owned by the donors, I’d sure be casting my votes for some new blood on the board to see if we can find some folks who want to run it like a large business instead of a shoe store. Or liquor distributor.
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Leaking insulting remarks about the coach from Board members doesn’t help. That just was an aggrandizement of the Board members that we have to accept made them anti-Richt to the point they can hold up his contract and be intractable toward ameliorating the UGA/Head Coach relationship.
Bunch of old fuddy duddy farts! That goes for you too, Tommie Lawhorne.
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“This is simple nitpick lawyering at this point,” Adams said.
And with that, Michael thereby provoked an additional simple 1.00 hour of billable time from the pickers and grinners for having to read and analyze his insult during contract negotiations http://wenitpick.com/index.11.jpg
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Well let’s have our cake and eat it too then. From the Hot Seat to the Why Haven’t They Got this deal done seat. Performance based gentlemen? Win win? Richtopiles keep their HC and Richtophobes carry the “just win baby” meme forward. Anyway, is it all about billable hours at this juncture? All the real work has been done I am sure.
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Given the lack of additional money, it appears that the board and McGarity do not see Richt as the long term head coach in Athens. If they had full confidence in Richt, why would they not lock him up with tons of cash? I see this as an out for McGarity in the near future.
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Why would they pay “tons of cash” to “lock up” somebody who has no intention of leaving?
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That is the problem. And McGarity has found the solution. Why would Richt consider leaving when he can produce average to below average football teams while making almost $3 million a year? Over the past 6 years Richt lead teams have lost on average 4 games per year. That is pretty average. So McGarity is asking for results now. It is finally time for Richt to deliver results. Something we have not seen from him in 6 years.
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“…when he can produce average to below average football teams while making almost $3 million a year?”
I guess that is the difference between you and me. Because you see average to below average, where I see a coach with the highest win percentage in the history of UGA.
Since Wally Butts took over as head coach at UGA, our win pct is 67%. That is made up of:
Butts 63%
Griffith 38%
Dooley 72%
Goff 58%
Donnan 68%
Richt 74%
And all this for the 15th winningest program in NCAA football history. It’s not like the standards he’s besting were low to begin with.
You are using the terms average and below average relative to what you’ve come to expect under the very man you want to run out of town. His results are ABOVE average for the average UGA team. Thus when he doesn’t meet the bar HE SET for the program, you bitch and complain. What is average about winning the East in 2010? What is average about winning or tying the division 45% of the time in a six team division? What is average about holding a sizable winning pct against ALL of your rivals but one? What is average about holding a winning record against every team in the league except 2 in a 12 team conference? I guess it’s a matter of semantics, but your perspective is off, in my opinion. Of course when you come off as being as fairweather as you do, hoisting Richt on a pedastal after the 2011 win in Jax only to subsequently return to bashing him after the next loss, what am I to expect?
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He did raise the bar with UGA football. From 2001-2005. Since that period he has been below average. 4 L’s a season does not equal above average. That is what Richt has produced from 2006-2011. Given the talent and resources available to him, Richt should not be dropping 4 games on average a season. Yes, I do hold him to higher standards than 4 losses a year. All Dawg fans should. As for 2011, it was a disappointment sandwich. It began with an unprepared team falling to Boise and a turnover fest against USC. Then the run against cruddy teams (yes, Florida and Auburn were not very good last year), followed by two more best downs due to lack of talent and turnovers (LSU) and poor coaching (MSU). You were correct, we do have different views of this program and where it should be. However, we both want the Dawgs to be successful.
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Skeptic, you have to have a little perspective man. First, even Mark Richt’s supporters, including myself, will be the fire to admit he let things slip. He got complacent. Bluto linked PWD yesterday on this topic which I thought was pretty spot on. I’ve always said Richt’s biggest fault was loyalty (which led to complacency). With all that said, he CLEARLY made drastic changes two years ago and continues to do so. Why not look at a more accurate historical window, in the context of those changes? You keep referring to the last six years. Why do you pick that window? Because it conveninetly excludes his last (but not his only) SEC Championship (something average coaches don’t win)? You sound like a Gator fan with that rhetoric. Why not look at the pastcouple of years, where the Dawgs went from a disasterous 6-7 season to a 10 win season and an East championship and are ranked in the top ten heading into 2012. How’s that for a trend? All on the heels of CMR waking up and attempting to resurrect the program. Coincidence?
Also, in the “disasterous” last six years, we won 68% of our games, including a 4-2 bowl ledger, finished number two in the country, won a division title, tied for another division title, went 12-6 against our main rivals (Aub, UF, GT), and are currently the odds on favorite to win a second straight division title. How many average to below average teams boast that resume? And that’s the bad window you picked out!
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Regarding Donnan, if you give the guy a one year grace period (after all Goof had let the program slip so badly that the Dawgs were only winning 6 games a year by the time he left) Donnan’s last 4 seasons were about the same as Dooley and CMR–73% or so. 10-2; 9-3; 8-4; 8-4.
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I love incentive based contracts, and agree with the emphasis in that area. But I don’t agree with keeping him below $3MM, we look, and are, very cheap in today’s world. McGarity continues to be weaker than advertised.
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I vote for an $8 million dollar retention bonus.
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So McG wants us to believe a dozen lawyers have been working on this for seven months, and the result will be a new contract with language which is “much simpler than in the coach’s current contract”. Holy shit. How stupid does he think we are?
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