“We have to start respecting our players more.”

In perhaps what is an early sign of sphincter tightening, Booch plays the bash-the-media-for-doing-their-jobs card.

Or maybe things are really getting back to normal in Knoxville.

Bobo doesn’t blame Richt.

This is a pretty impassioned defense of a former boss.

I asked Bobo whether he thought the criticism was founded Richt receives for having not ever won a national championship at Georgia.

“Here’s what I say about that: I went to school there, I graduated from there, I’m an alumnus, I played football there, I have bled and sweat for that school and did everything I could to help it win, and there ain’t another man in the country I’d want coaching at the University of Georgia than Mark Richt,” Bobo said, his voice level rising. “His time’s gonna come. It’s gonna happen, OK, because he’s consistent, he does it the right way. He’s going to win. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t. But at the end of the day, he’s going to be able to say, ‘I’ve done everything I possibly could – time, energy, resources – into trying to make Georgia a complete program that cares about kids.’

“Our biggest job is make sure these guys grow, not just as a football player, but as a person,” Bobo continued. When they walk out of school, they’re ready. They’re ready to walk out there and do what it takes to be successful. He does that better than anybody. There isn’t any guy I’d rather have there than him.”

But wait.  There’s more.

“The misconception that makes me mad is that all he cares about, building men,” Bobo said. “People talk about how I’m competitive; I’m telling you, Mark Richt is just as competitive. We’d go on these trips as a coaching staff, Coach Richt is texting me first thing in the morning saying ‘what are we playing today?’ We’re not laying by the pool reading a book. We’re competing at something, cards, whatever, competing. When we’d play racquet ball at the Butts-Mehre, it was competition every day.

“He hates to lose. He is a competitive joker. That’s the thing that makes me mad. It’s a misconception that he’s trying to raise kids and make sure everybody feels good. That’s not how he is. … It’s not about making them feel good. It’s about making demands of them not just on the field, but off the field, teaching them right and wrong and how to be a responsible person. That’s tiring and taxing. But he’s never wavered from that.”

Like I said, impassioned.  But I’m not sure it doesn’t really boil down to what Bobo claims it isn’t about – Richt caring about making sure his players walk out of the program ready to deal with life, more than anything.  And that’s certainly admirable.  But as a commenter here pointed out the other day, should that be enough in and of itself to keep the head coaching job at Georgia?

I wish Richt would go ahead and win a damn national title, just so we could quit having this conversation.

Advertisement

Could a two-loss SEC team be kept out of the playoff?

Allan Kenney asked me on the podcast he did with me last week what sort of event I thought could trigger a serious demand to expand the CFP before the end of the existing deal.  One scenario I thought had a decent chance of generating such a demand was the SEC failing to put a team in the four-team semi-finals.

So read this, and imagine the excuse making, complaining and demanding for a revised playoff format that would come from the SEC being shut out from a national title shot because of what Bert refers to as “the wrong two losses”.

Hitting the wall in August

Looking for a little gloom and doom?  First practice today ought to do the trick.

Greg McGarity’s bad luck

Pity the poor McGarity.

Greg McGarity is big on catch phrases. You’ll find them posted all over his office and occasionally on his personal things. Like the coffee mug that sits on his desk in his office on the fourth floor at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall.

“Life Is All About How You Handle Plan B,” it says in colorful hand-painted script.

A close friend gave it to the Georgia athletic director recently. It really hit home, considering the year McGarity and Georgia athletics just had.

It seemed the Bulldogs were constantly having to turn to Plan B in 2014. Like how to conduct a swim season without legendary coach Jack Bauerle, who was suspended and under NCAA investigation; like having run a $100 million operation without your CFO, Frank Crumley, who was forced to resign for having an inappropriate relationship with a married subordinate; like having to play a football season without Todd Gurley, the Heisman Trophy candidate tailback who had sold autographed merchandise on the side.

And to top it all off, McGarity had to deal with rumors about a sour relationship with football coach Mark Richt.

Well, I declare, Miz Scarlett!  How in the world did such scurrilous talk evah begin?  Po’ ole Greg has absolutely no idea. He’s quite perplexed, the dear man.

But it’s football that drives the passion — and revenue — at Georgia. And late last season rumors of a growing rift between McGarity and Richt grew to palpable proportions. Fan chat rooms and even the social media accounts of some otherwise reputable outlets were ablaze with gossip and speculation that McGarity was going to make a coaching change if the Bulldogs lost to Louisville in the Belk Bowl.

Georgia won handily, 37-14. But McGarity scoffs at the notion that game was in any way a referendum for Richt or his staff.

“I’m not really sure where that stuff comes from,” McGarity said. “There are only two people involved, Mark and myself, and I have no idea where that came from. … Mark and I, we’re fine.”

I can’t say for sure if he’s referring to Richt or Bradley there (I say, that’s a joke, son), but if he really can’t figure out where all the smoke at the Belk Bowl presser came from, the latter might be the place to find a clue.  I guess this is like the time McGarity claimed he couldn’t understand the criticism made about how there was “a PR nightmare” surrounding the way the school handled the Gurley suspension.

Maybe somebody can explain to me why Andy Staples’ “sharp athletic director” keeps wondering out loud how all these things just unexpectedly happen to him.  Sure is strange.

The further adventures of run the damned ball

The next time somebody suggests all you need to do to stop Georgia’s offense is load the box and dare the quarterback to throw, hit ’em with this:

Auburn & UGA were the only SEC teams to average better than 3 yards a carry before the RB was ever touched. #CFBLIVE pic.twitter.com/lO35tJvxXw

— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) July 28, 2015

That is a pretty friggin’ impressive stat right there, peeps.

“It’s great to lift the spirits a little bit.”

My two favorite offseason complaints are (1) Richt never chooses the best G-Day quarterback as the starter and (2) every year Richt wastes a day of practice by taking the team to the Ramsey Student Center for swimming.  Well, we don’t know about the first yet – hey, maybe Richt is on to something there! – but yesterday saw the second take place.

Richt was smart enough to plan efficiently for the event, as they had word of inclement weather for the day and are making up for the lost time by scheduling a two-a-day practice for today, but seeing as bitchers have to bitch about something, I’ve tried to help come up with a couple of way to spin the slack off.

So far, I’ve come up with this…

PAWWWLLL, IF THEY HAD AN IPF, THEY WOULDN’T HAVE TO DO NO DAMNED DIVING!!!

Or this…

PAWWWLLL, IF PRUITT WAS IN CHARGE, THEY’D BE PRACTICING IN LIGHTNING WITH MUD UP TO THEIR ASSES!!!

Your thoughts?

C’mon, this is important stuff.  This is the kind of thing that costs Georgia a game every season, no?

Herbie’s mad as hell, and he’s not gonna take it any more.

Haterz gonna hate, Herbstreit.

By the way, how did that whole rematch thing in 2006 work out for you?

ESPN’s inescapable logic

The one regular season game ESPN’s FPI projects Georgia to lose?

Georgia’s chances to win each game
09.05 vs. Louisiana-Monroe: 98.6%
09.12 @ Vanderbilt: 82.0%
09.19 vs. South Carolina: 84.9%
09.26 vs. Southern: 99.9%
10.03 vs. Alabama:53.4%
10.10 @ Tennessee: 49.0%*
10.17 vs Missouri: 79.2%
10.31 Florida (Jacksonville): 71.8%
11.07 vs. Kentucky: 88.4%
11.14 @ Auburn: 53.9%
11.21 vs. Georgia Southern: 92.6%
11.28 @ Georgia Tech: 63.4%

How come?  You can probably guess the reason.

SHARON KATZ, ESPN Stats & Info: FPI sees that the Vols return an SEC-high 18 starters and have signed back-to-back top-five classes, which will pay dividends.

Well, not so much against Alabama.

Tennessee’s chances to win each game
09.05 vs. Bowling Green: 93.7%
09.12 vs. Oklahoma: 58.9%
09.19 vs. Western Carolina: 99.8%
09.26 @ Florida: 58.4%
10.03 vs. Arkansas: 54.2%
10.10 vs. Georgia: 51%
10.24 @Alabama: 31.9%*
10.31 @Kentucky: 73.9%
11.07 vs. South Carolina: 80.7%
11.14 vs. North Texas: 98%
11.21 @Missouri: 60.1%
11.28 vs. Vanderbilt: 87.2%

So Georgia is a slight favorite against the Tide and a slight-er underdog against Tennessee, which is a huge dog against Alabama. Got it.

I think they need to put ESPN’s computer on the selection committee.  It’ll fit right in.

Who is this “Gurshall” you speak of?

It’s like a dream, kinda.

Keith Marshall still talks with Todd Gurley every day. The two were once connected by a nickname, Gurshall, that seems long ago, as forgotten as the idea that the two tailbacks were on the same career path.

Gurley, who became the star, is now in the NFL. Marshall is still at Georgia, just trying to get his career back on track.

And yet that Gurshall nickname came up just the other day.

“It really doesn’t seem like that all that long ago at all,” Marshall said, smiling. “Todd was talking about that the other day. It seems like it was just yesterday.”

Time flies when you’re having a not so good time.