Let me say that I don’t get this at all.
An absolutely beautiful day greeted the Georgia Bulldogs as they gathered on Woodruff Practice Fields on Thursday for their second of 15 spring practices. But don’t ask me what they’re doing or what they looked like. I wouldn’t know.
Interestingly, UGA is providing fewer than 10 minutes of practice observation time for media that covers the team. Practices generally run about 90 to 120 minutes. Same for this past Tuesday. It was initially supposed to be a full 10 minutes but Georgia’s sports communication personnel began directing reporters and their camera phones off the practice field with four minutes left in the last designated period.
Seth Emerson says much the same thing.
It’s weird, not because I’m asking for Florida/South Carolina levels of access (although that would certainly be nice), but because I can’t imagine they’re doing any more this early in the spring than spending the bulk of their time on fundamentals. What’s the big deal that needs hiding?
And before you engage in media bashing here, consider Seth’s point: “In the long run, it’s the public that misses out here if the media isn’t able to do its job. Hopefully the situation will improve, but if not less media access ultimately means less stories.”
I’m just your random unofficial blogger. I depend on what the beat guys are able to draw out to post about the program in a meaningful way. So if they can’t get as much access, I can’t write as much. And that’s the other part of this that makes no sense. You’ve got a new defensive staff that’s got most of us excited. Promotion would seem to be the order of the day. Why give us less than ever?
You think that’s no big deal? See if this whets your appetite for more.
That gets my juices flowing. But that’s all there is.
Get The Picture 
We have a secret weapon
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Good. An offseason without all the fluff and “kool aid” mix would actually be refreshing.
Let these boys show us on the field in the fall.
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Refreshing, huh? The whole point to decent media access is to get something more than fluff and Kool-Aid.
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“get something more than fluff and Kool-Aid.”
Oh…glad to know what decent media access is designed to do. Cause I woulda thought it was to ask a lot of “not gonna answer” questions about stipends.
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What will giving media greater access hurt? Probably nothing. But what will the media not having great access at practice hurt? Probably nothing. If the coaches don’t want their practices watched by reporters, I gotta say, I can understand that.
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After all, it’s not like the media really does a good job of getting us relevant information about how the team is going to be anyway. To back and read the reporting from last spring and summer. Nobody really warned us that the defense was going to be as leaky as a submarine with a screen door.
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great point.
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Yeah.
Or this.
Bunch of lazy bums…
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In all fairness, that reporter didn’t have to witness a larger amount of practice time to gauge what age / experience our two – deep roster was for that tweet.
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So which is it – we didn’t get a warning, or the media told us what we already knew?
I notice you didn’t have a comment about the blog post.
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Yikes…Easy big fella. I agree…I want them to get more time in there to get us more info. I just think that a tweet about 10 out of 22 is not the stuff that is gleaned from greater time allowance at practice.
And you may be addressing someone else with the question about ‘didn’t get a warning or told us what we already knew…’ I’m not sure my comment has anything to do with that.
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You responded to a comment of mine which in turn was a response to a complaint that the media didn’t do its job in the offseason letting us know how shaky the defense was.
And, again, I didn’t just reference the tweet in my comment. My blog post noted some pretty specific media observations.
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I think our beat guys are great (even better when we had David Hale). I rely on them and our tireless bloggers to feed my UGA football needs. I think everyone works hard and does great.
I feel that my comment was just trying to point out that observing that 10 out of 22…is not the information that can be obtained only through greater practice time access. I do believe that through greater access the beat guys very well may be able to get us greater info, though, and in that regard, I agree with you.
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And I think we were warned, for the record.
And I think our beat guys get us info we couldn’t get otherwise, not just stuff we already knew.
And I agree with your blog post.
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I think you’re confusing what I wrote in the post with what I was responding to in this comment thread. This is more of a reaction to the “beat writers, what have they ever done for us?” tone of the comment @ 8:20.
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That makes sense. I gotcha. My bad. We good bro.
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I may be wrong, but it is my belief that Mr Shellnutt was trying to convey that neither of your examples have anything to do with the media having/not having greater access at practice. He was responding to your reply, not the blog post.
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I know what he was responding to. And he didn’t mention one of my examples.
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Come on Coach Richt is just embarrassed by Jeremy’s langue. As your quote above shows. He’s closed practice so Jeremy won’t get called a potty mouth by the media.
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If this somehow leads to wins, then I’m all for it.
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I think Coach Richt ushered the media out early so they could wheel a big ol’ fancy flat screen out there, tune it to Uncle Verne and Raftery and see what this playoff thing is all about.
Just a hunch.
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Onions!
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“Send it in Big Fella!”
+1 Senator. March Madness is a brief hiatus from the off season sadness.
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Pruitt has brought a lot of change, length of practice periods and doing reps in pairs to name just two. Is the media thing part his idea? How does Saban handle media time at practice since Pruitt learned from Saban?
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The longer the media is there the more likely the public is to find out Malaysian 377 is in our IPC.
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IPF*
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Wow what a bunch of reporters (and bloggers) getting their panties in a wad. So we have less to read about?? So what?? I just want to see the team play well. Could care less if some reporters (and bloggers) lose web hits.
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Interesting (meant in an entirely non-snarky way). You’re a regular reader of a blog about Georgia football who doesn’t mind getting less information about Georgia football.
If all you care about is seeing the team play well, do you need the beat media at all, other than to publish a box score?
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Then why are you reading and commenting on this blog?
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If there is info I will read it. If not I will not. I could really care less and an uncertain why anyone would unless their livelihood is tied to it. When the newspapers hide info behind pay sites do you get a subscription? If not then you too can live with less info.
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If I were HC of a major college football program practices would be closed to the media and I would be the only person allowed to be interviewed. Wait….I am….and I do that….and it seems to work pretty well.
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Doesn’t bother me at all. Let the man do what he wants. I also don’t generally think the beat guys give us a lot of meat. Some are good, and I like the feature stories, but they’re going to get those anyway. I don’t think they’re going to tell us anything personnel or scheme wise that we don’t already know, and I don’t particularly want them out there because, frankly, the major media outlets haven’t proven to be friends of the program. Who knows what we’re teaching now? But I like it if it’s secret!
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And how’s that?
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Gotta keep “OMAHA!” secret for now. Patience grasshopper.
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Kim Jung McGarity says everything is open and honest. Don’t worry.
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Maybe CMR is worried that Herbstreit will come to practices and tweet out how CMR’s forgiving nature has created a welcoming environment for Pruitt’s potty mouth and tough tactics!
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Could a minor change in access be about distractions? Not just for players, but for the coaching staff, too. If the practices are faster, getting more players involved, distractions slow things down, and a bunch of reporters standing in a wad can be a distraction.
I read the stories produced with “limited access and paranoia” I don’t see much difference.
While it may be worrisome to some folks, I am glad Mark Richt don’t have time for this media shit.
Full disclosure is a vastly overrated concept.
If this new attitude is worthwhile we should know about the end of the third quarter of the South Carolina game, right?
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One man’s “paranoia” is another man’s focus.
I have no problem with our staff focusing their limited time on making the team better instead of wasting it rehashing off-field issues with some AJC employee trolling for page hits.
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Even though he showed up 6 minutes late for practice, Bill Brasky put on quite a show according to sources close to the program.
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