The AB-H does some scouting, whips out an Open Records request to find out how much love Morehead and McGarity were getting from the fan base during the losing streak, and discovers,
McGarity and/or UGA president Jere Morehead received 38 emails or letters relating to Richt and the football program between Oct. 3, the day Georgia lost to Alabama 38-10, and Oct. 14, four days after the Tennessee loss, according to an open records request by the Athens Banner-Herald and OnlineAthens.com.
Of those, 28 either wanted Richt fired (“When the season is finished, perhaps we should make an offer to Kirby Smart of Alabama to be our next Football Head Coach,” one alum wrote), changes to be made or expressed unhappiness with the team’s performance. Four wrote to express support for Richt.
Others wrote about the way players acted in a pregame incident with Alabama, complained about the Sanford Stadium atmosphere, or the condition of the field at Tennessee.
I’d love to know how that compares to the flow of complaints at peak “run the damn ball, Bobo!”. Judging from McGarity’s attitude, it doesn’t sound a lot different.
“You know probably starting Saturday night into Sunday into Monday, your inbox is going to be full of people expressing their thoughts,” McGarity said.
Some can’t wait, sending them at halftime.
Halftime, eh? I’ve probably sat near a few of those folks.
Scott Ripley wrote two days after the Tennessee loss that he no longer planned to buy season tickets, because he did not think Richt could lead Georgia to another championship.
“I’m the only one that’s fed up enough,” he said with a laugh when told he was the only fan to threaten to not renew tickets.
Talk is cheap, bud. Get back to us next year after you don’t renew. Then maybe I’ll start taking the threat more seriously.
Get The Picture 
yep. 38 emails. 38. And one guy that couldn’t even commit to not renewing his tickets. Hell I have personally written more emails than that complaining about the concessions and the facilities in the stadium. We know the anti richt crowd has a computer and knows how to type. Why aren’t they pushing their message with the appropriate people?
People think that the anti richt sentiment is growing and that most fans want him gone, but this doesnt seem to support that.
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It just says that a majority of the fanbase is satisfied with being above average.
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They just aren’t committed to excellence. They just need to fire their coach and hire a new one even if it’s just for the same of change.
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Give me McGarity’s email. I’ll spam the hell outta him starting in the 1stqtr Saturday…
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Looks like McGarity receives the same kind of complaints that you see here on this blog. No surprise there. I was slightly disappointed to see that we only have a 8 ranked recruiting class. I know its still early and you don’t care much for recruiting, but if we end up around there, we are not going to get it done. There will be 3-4 SEC teams higher and this will not be good enough to see the kind of improvement we need to see in the next few years.
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Twisty, the difference between an 8th ranked recruiting class and a 4th or 5th ranked recruiting class is so minimal as to not even exist. And that assumes the recruiting services even get the rankings right which is questionable at best. We have plenty of athletes–lack of quality athletes is not a problem at the University of Georgia. What we do with them once they are in Athens, now that is the problem.
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Keeping them eligible after they sign would be nice.
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I gotcha Mayor. I need to remember this is an inexact science at best. Lets just hope we get enough top quality athletes.
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Dude’s tickets cost $1,000. I bet the thought he would not renew had Ole Greg quaking in his shoes.
Reserve fund in danger. Amazing what folks think chump change entitles them to.
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Did McG sent each of them a thank you note for sending their comments?
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Or did he copy the letters from those alums supporting Richt by e-mail into each alum return letter that wanted Richt fired?
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I am not part of the fire Richt crowd. I do feel a sort of Falcon like apathy creeping in though. That is considerably more dangerous than some emotional self righteous blowhards. You don’t see it coming until people just don’t really give a shit anymore. My family stopped tailgating a few years ago and my progeny will still love the Dawgs but I doubt they carve out 7 Saturday’s a year to be in Athens. We can’t be the only ones.
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You are not the only ones. But with about eight gazillion new graduates a year, the seats will still be full most of the time. The longer you live, the more you know, the more nonsensical whimsy becomes I guess it is obvious I still GAS, but carving out a chunk of my life, and paying the tab for that…nope, been there, done that, got a whole bag of hats, thank you very much.
Its entertaining, its important, this football stuff, but life, I have noticed, goes on even if you lose to fucking Tennessee.
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That’s me Argon. I’ve come to conclusion that really probably is never going to happen with Richt as coach. By that I mean I no longer hold out hope that we will ever consistently play hard week in and week out, will always finish right around eight in recruiting with LSU and Auburn finishing ahead of us, of course Alabama, and now Tennessee. And we will probably never have special teams that aren’t a liability. In short, we know what we are with Richt and there are no surprises coming. Yet I also realize Richt is not going anywhere. I’m still watching the games. I’ll still go to games. But coming to this realization has taken a lot of the fun and excitement out of it. Hard to be as passionate as I was even last year knowing what I’m probably going to get. Yeah, Falcon like apathy is a pretty good description. I hope for good things for the program but feel like we are what we are.
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This + 1000^^^^^^^
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That encapsulates my feeling exactly. The pregame excitement is no longer there and I have, for all intents and purposes, stopped going to games. Being in TN, it is such an investment in time and money, and I just never know if the team will show up with me. But the biggest problem to me is that I just refuse to invest emotionally with this coach the way I have with every coach going back to my first UGA game, in the 70’s, in the rain, against Ole Miss. CMR is going nowhere and nothing is going to change that. He also is not going to change the way he does things and nothing is going to change that. We are what we are, and that is not a championship contending program. I really hope I’m wrong but I know in my gut that I’m not.
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The number of those emails just tell one on how many fans/alums are willing to stick out their neck where their mouth is for their half hearted complaints.
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I have no reason to believe that Georgia will ever win another SEC title or play in another major bowl with Mark Richt as our head coach. I Hope I’m wrong, I really do, but there is nothing to indicate that I should expect otherwise. Some folks will disagree with me and will always believe we can get over the hump with Richt, but in my opinion they are being intellectual dishonest with themselves.
It’s sad really, given the abundance of resources and so forth, but it is what it is.
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with the new way we are recruiting, just last year we were oversigned by a couple of spots, the way the admin has gotten behind the program and loosened up the purse strings for salaries and facilities, I’m willing to give CMR a few more years, but if we have not made significant improvement by the time Eason graduates or leaves for the NFL I will gladly grab a paddle and get in that boat with you. By significant I mean an SEC championship and at least play for the title
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Same thoughts of HS football coaches down here in south GA. Meanwhile, UF, UT and FSU stock continues to rise with coaches.
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to clarify, no confidence in CMR to win
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Seems most folks would associate McG with the problem, and not bother sending him an e-mail. Perhaps Morehead hasn’t reached that point yet.
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We cut our tailgates way back. Dad was getting too old put up with all the F bombs around his bride and I just got too hot during the afternoon starts. Sons are grown now. They go to their own tailgates. Youngest son hasn’t missed a game since his freshman year and he’s still at Georgia.
It was a great ride while it lasted.
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I started going to tailgates in Athens in the early 50’s, my daddy and momma were heavily into the social aspects of Georgia football and they had a great time, saw their friends get old and so forth.
I never got the point of all the social stuff, only reason I wanted to ride a long was for a free ticket to the game.
The pineapple sandwiches and Brunswick stew were not bad as long as they got put out in time to beat the team into the stadium for warmups…that was important.
As the folks got older and less able to deal with the traffic and so forth, I was happy to drive myself, wave at the tailgaters and go to the game.
My folks were the last, I suspect, of a breed. Men and women whose whole lives were shaped by their experience as students in Athens, and a big war, whose social circle included people from all over, friends for life from college.
Everybody tells me the world is so much bigger now, instant communication, the Web, etc, etc, etc.
I think I should have paid more attention to the way Momma and Daddy did business. I don’t think tailgating on a blog (blog-gating) is as socially rewarding as the real thing…although it is a lot easier to dispense with carpetbaggers and scalawags.
The games? Bought the same…us against them in Section HD, there.
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*bout the same.
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Thanks Scorp. ..I enjoyed that.
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Nice post.
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Sadly, I have entered into this category as well. I cancelled my SEC network subscription and did not even turn on the Mizzou game. It is what they say about the definition of insanity. It seems to be the same problems with UGA every year. I love my alma mater and my dawgs, but I can’t sit there and watch us play the way we have recently, and I don’t think it is going to get better. Letting Bobo go was a mistake. Blowing the lead in Knoxville was the final straw for me. I will still wear my red and black. I will still hope that the dawgs come out on top, but I can spend my Saturdays with my little kids and checking the score after the fact, rather than watching just hoping we don’t screw up, get out coached, or just show up completely unprepared.
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“Letting Bobo go was a mistake…” I don’t think anyone at the University of Georgia had anything to say about Bobo leaving. He got offered a HC gig and took it because he wanted to be a HC.
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I agree with that Mayor,however there was little to no push to try and get him to stay. Granted Bobo may have felt it was now or never, but he had been offered head gigs in the past.
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Yep. The Tennessee game was the turning point for me too. I can go deer hunting and not worry about having to make sure I’m in front of the TV in plenty of time.
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The problem I have is for the last 5 or 6 years the agony of defeat has become so much greater than the relief of winning. I don’t get the joy of the win any more. I am just relieved we didn’t lose. My expectations are now so low that I fully expect us to lose all but the cupcakes, even though I know we probably won’t. In short it’s tough to be an optimistic fan of UGA.
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After the UT debacle I’ve simply lost my mojo regarding the program. It was said above that the masses support the same results year after year with CMR. Until the big money folks get fed up nothing is going to change. It won’t affect the program one bit but I won’t attend another game this year. I will happily go to the tailgate, sell my tickets, and then drive home to watch more compelling games on TV. Apathy, malaise, whatever you want to call it, I’m done. I’ve held 4 season tickets since graduating in 1985 so 30 years of true program support and not a ton to show for it. Sure USuC would trade places with us in a minute but I guess I got spoiled in Athens from 80-84. I’ll be keeping a close eye on how the remainder of the season goes before I decide whether to renew or not. It won’t matter a shit to McGarrity whether I hang or not but that is where I am today.
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I think the 38 emails are about the number I would expect. The vast majority of people are not crazy enough to think sending an email to the AD or president is going to make one bit of difference. I think that 28 of those expressing a “fire Richt” or “make a major change” type of sentiment says something.I don’t think those 38 people are a statistically representative sample of the whole of the fan base, but when that large a percentage expresses a feeling, it does say something about the level of anger, frustration, disgust bubbling out in fan land. One writer saying he will not renew tickets is not going to cause any lost sleep, it’s the hundreds or thousands who decide they’ve had enough and quietly walk away that will cause McGarity and Morehead to sit up and take notice.
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s apathy, and that is where the Georgia fan base is headed. The program won’t suffer from a mob with pitchforks and torches marching on BM, it will suffer from a large number simply shrugging their shoulders and turning and walking away to go spend their entertainment dollars somewhere else.
Many of our fans are at the point where they don’t really get mad about losses any more, they halfway expect a loss in every game against a legit opponent and a win is a cause for relief, not enthusiasm. With the university and the city of Athens making the game day experience more and more miserable and expensive, it may not be long before a sizable number of fans make the decision to watch from home or do something else on Fall Saturdays.
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I think it’s important to state that a distinction should be made between having apathy for the program/Richt and those they strap it on each Saturday. The young men who represent us and work extremely hard to do so deserve our support. Everyone else, not so much.
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Gone with the wind.
Sounds like the dawgnation does not give a damn about the UGA football program anymore.
We have entered a Wallly Butts era.
Enjoyed a fall Saturday with no UGA football.
CMR has taken all the fun out of UGA football.
Even a, Tech team and Paul Johnson can knock off top ranked FSU.
It. Will never happen under CM R.
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What a bunch of defeatists. Listening to this is positively depressing. We have a team that still controls its own destiny in the SEC East and ya’ll are all whining likes bunch of teenage girls who had their cell phones taken away. Where are the fans who filled up the Gator Bowl in the 90’s when we knew we were going to have our ass handed to us but we went anyway? Man up people, the school doesn’t owe you, me or anyone a championship. They put a quality team on the field without significant scandal and cut the trash off the team when they recognize it as such. Nick Marshall Trey Mathews,etc
Tech knocks off a really weak FSU team(as is evidenced by their QB) with the flukiest of plays and old Will is ready to declare Paul Johnson a better Coach than Richt . Paul Johnson was called to jury duty in Cobb County a few years back and the ADA didn’t know what team he coached ,now there you have a face for a national program . Paul Johnson coaching equals 5 straight loses followed by one stunningly lucky upset and Will Trane will take old fishfry Johnson as a coach ….jeez what complete and utter insanity. They lost to Duke in FOOTBALL, but he is a great coach . He recruits those two star athletes and turns them into 3 stars. I bet if Johnson was the head coach at UGA he would turn our 4 stars into 5 stars except for the inconvenient fact that no 4 star in his right mind would play for that putz (sorry my Yiddish spelling is bad to nonexistent) Maybe this fire Richt crowd needs to put their money where their mouth is and cancel their tickets . I hear Tech has plenty of good tickets available. If all these old crest-fallen apathetic types would just get rid of their tickets and start pulling for Tech/Bama/ Clemson take your pick ,Sanford stadium would still be full next year and maybe the IQ of crowd would go up.
Doc it hurts when I put my arm behind my head…..well than don’t do it. If it hurts to be a fan of your Alma mater’s football team with Richt as the coach than don’t do it. Also, if it ain’t your alma mater and your bitchin’ like this please STFU..If we change our head coach this University will look too much like the PlainsWarTigers for my tastes. Get a grip people the season is just a little over half done and Floriduh doesn’t know what is about to hit them…you heard it here first.
Now I’m going to load the van for my 41st anniversary trip to the Worlds Largest Outdoor Cocktail party. ( a couple missed for births and trials(I was almost always acquitted)) I plan on violating numerous ordinances involving drinking ,noise and any other laws designed to keep me from having too much fun . Which should I pack first the liquor or the fireworks? All you nattering nabobs of negativity if your sitting near me at the game,which you probably won’t because you are way too apathetic to get off your fat asses , please keep our opinion to yourself because bourbon makes me stupid and ten feet tall..
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Seriously. I think all of the Fans Committed To Excellence here and elsewhere who’ve determined that CMR cannot get the program to the level that they so clearly deserve should graduate, trade up if you will, to a program that is more worthy of their fandom. I feel badly for them having to live in such a low rent section of college football.
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I dropped my tickets after last year. Had them since I graduated in 1997. Surprisingly, I got a call and email communication from the AD office, expressing concern. Had a nice back and forth. Only way to vote is with the donation. Until more do, we are stuck.
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I respect what you did. Indeed, that’s really the only way folks like us can send a message.
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