Jeff Schultz puts the cherry on top of the sundae that is the AJ-C‘s coverage of l’affair Grantham with this helpful observation:
But at the very least, Richt and athletic director Greg McGarity need to tell Grantham to be a little more low key about matters, and there can’t be repeat of Wednesday’s embarrassment in signing day. After Richt’s press conference, with some of the signees in an auditorium, several media members made their way to the back of the room to talk to Grantham. This has the potential to become a major distraction over the next year and Richt must be wondering how he is going to deal with it.
If I didn’t know better, it sounds like Schultz is suggesting that Grantham be made off limits to the press. That might make Chip Towers‘ head explode. (Of course, poor ol’ Chip could just spend the next year speculating about potential replacements. Or chatting up recruits and signees. Anything to inform his readership.)
The truly sad thing about all of this is that there aren’t really any secrets here. Grantham’s contract is a reflection of his ambitions, which, by the way, do him no discredit. And he has to tell McGarity about any job interviews first, which means we’ll all find out when that line gets crossed. The rest of this is a ginned up nothingburger from some folks who evidently don’t have much else to write about.
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UPDATE: Seth Emerson’s take on Grantham’s Wednesday with the media is different from Schultz’.
Grantham handled the media well on Wednesday, standing in the team meeting room and taking all questions, and never at any point demanding a change in subject. He was coy, and his smile seemed to say: “You know what’s going on, and I know that you know what’s going on. This is a dance we must do, and I have no problem with it.”
Get The Picture 
Sergeant Schultz also threw in a few digs earlier in the article when he stated that it’s a fact Grantham will be gone soon.
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And yet, unfortunately, the entire recruiting process is a series of ginned-up nothingburgers heavily doused in bullshit sauce.
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Chip Towers needs to be replaced on the UGA beat. This last two weeks has really soured me on ‘ol Chip…
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I’ll take David Hale, thanks. Got to be a better gig than covering the Noles…
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Hale is beatwriter royalty, as far as I’m concerned.
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They may have other things to write about but drummed up schadenfreude for UGA generates the most hits.
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I’ve said it here before, reading Schultz makes you stupider. Just a fact. He’s not funny in the slightest and brings nothing to the table with regard to learning something about the world of college football, or anything else for that matter. I’m not trying to bash the man here. I truly find it amazing, and to his credit, that he somehow has made a living off of the nonsense he scribbles. He must have nude pictures of Furman Bisher with the AJC sports editor. Nothing else can explain his employment. He is the cockroach of sports writers surviving the nuclear web winter.
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“…reading Schultz makes you stupider” could be considered libelous until you read the comments section. No jury would convict.
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I thought about the comment section as I read that part. The comment section is an embarrassment to any Dawg fan, UGA grad, or citizen of this state. I can’t believe those people are permitted to vote.
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Said it before and I’ll say it again, if you want accurate info on Todd Grantham’s career aspirations, talk to Bellamy’s mother.
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Agreed that the AJC typically is just trolling, but Grantham didn’t help with his continued silence. Sure in the beginning it was a good sales pitch, but at some point it just becomes a distraction.
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In all seriousness, though, what could he say? If he says “I’m staying,” he might cost himself interview opportunities. If he says “I’m might be leaving,” he might cost us recruits. In my eyes, the blame for this falls on the media guys who have to report every single bit of an often abortive interview process to fill their 24 hour cycle. The only thing that would truly be news is if he ACTUALLY left; anything else is just shitstirring.
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Keep in mind that he couldn’t discuss leaving with the media until he first notified McGarity, per his contract, at which point we’d all know anyway. That’s why so much of this is a nothingburger for me.
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Bellamy’s mom’s comments don’t bother you? The notion that “it ain’t real until he notifies McGarity” seems a little too convenient to me. If he played straight with the recruits, he can “no comment” the press and I think he’s fine. But there is an idea getting floated that “if honesty hurts recruiting, you can bend it a little” that I’m not comfortable with…
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If he promised Bellamy, and his mother, that he would never interview with an NFL team, then she has every right to be upset. However, I doubt he did that. From her public comments, he promised her son that he would be his coach next fall. And he will be. So where’s the foul?
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The same reason you can get tried for attempted murder…an unsuccessful execution of a crime does not mean you’re blameless.
I seriously don’t have much of a dog in this fight…I just hang a lot of my love of the Bulldogs in how CMR runs his program and don’t like seeing it (potentially) compromised.
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But you have to take into consideration how serious the attempt is. If you think that the Saints were seriously considering Grantham, rather than just checking a box that said they had interviewed a guy for the job before offering it to the guy they really wanted, then your view has more merit.
I doubt that Grantham was ever a serious candidate for the job. And I think that Grantham knew that.
If I say, on an internet forum, that I want to strangle you, you can’t have me arrested for attempted murder. You probably can’t have me arrested at all. Because most reasonable people would conclude that I wasn’t serious.
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The AJC just caters to our desire, an attempt to judge everything UGA football without waiting for a game to be played. Recruiting, assistant coaches leaving or maybe leaving, the timing of Richt’s surgery, will the new president still limit athletics, arrests, open records, etc. etc. etc. Even when the games get played winning them ain’t good enough. We give the AJC what it wants, an obsessed readership.
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Could you imagine the AJC pulling this sorta crap covering another state/program like Bama?? Saban or spurrier would go apeshit. I wouldn’t be too upset if UGA athletic dept put a one year.
Then again you could make up for it like spurrier by handing out $100 bills to media
http://www.deadsp.in/1e0nbds
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He wants Greg and Todd to keep it low key?!! Who started this crap anyway? It’s like their writers can’t even accept responsibility for what they stir up in writing. I’ve never seen the like in “sports Journalism”. Seen a lot of Pome d’ Rue before, but that’s a load in the road.
I usually am faithful about reading your references, Senator, but you will pardon me for not having read one reference from the AJC in many months. Their headlines are enough, e.g., yesterday’s “QB Phenom Leads Georgia’s Class of 2014” headline, implying that he is in our class, but what they probably are referring to is the entire state. Since I’ve read about the QB at Gainesville earlier, I didn’t read the article because I assumed it was another trick headline,whereas, they have turned me off completely with their rumor, sly and not-so-sly inferences and outright misrepresentation of UGA’s Football Program. The last thing Chip was correct about was John Jenkins where he traveled to the Miss JC and got the dope straight out of Jenkin’s mouth; not so much since then. Their writers turn on and off like traffic signals.
My only advice to them is to “Stop smokin’ ’em if you got’em”(and you write like you been smokin’ ’em).
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Eh, I think the Senator would rather you click the Naughty Former Disney Girls advert than his links to the AJC’s sports “news” anyway.
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Has anybody clicked on that, by the way?
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Ok, I just did. For the team of course.
Fairly tame. I had forgotten that Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Spears, and Christina Aguilerra got their starts on Disney.
Now I’m off to run a virus scan….
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Well, I just did my part Senator. For the research, of course.
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You are good people, Russ.
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Crows over the farmers making a lot of meaningless noise, AJC columnists are. Hacks of meager order, compared to the perspicacious Senator…
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Related from Mr SEC and The Macon newpaper
“There is no information to confirm that Grantham pulled out of the Saints’ job because he knew he wasn’t getting the job. But here’s the time frame of events: Grantham remains coy with media on Wednesday. Grantham notifies Greg McGarity on Wednesday night of interest from the Saints, per his contractual obligation. Grantham interviews on Thursday. Rob Ryan interviews on Friday. And on Friday evening (rather than the morning,) Grantham “withdraws.” On Saturday morning Ryan is hired. So … form your own conclusion.”
Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2013/02/09/2349529/final-thoughts-on-the-grantham.html#storylink=cpy
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There is a reason I don’t read the AJC, I just consider the “SOURCE” then ignore it. This thing with the coaches goes on every year, look at Oregon the coach says ‘NO I’am not going to the pro’s, two weeks later he’s gone, look at SOD going to Dallas, go figure, Gene Shitsnic run out of Albarm and is on ESPN on NSD, what the hey ? Who knows. I’m just sayin. GATA “GO DAWGS”
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Also of note is that Alabama actually did have a coach leave the day after national signing day and you never heard a peep about it.
Chip Tower can GFH for all I care.
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