Well, now.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and predict that when they write Greg McGarity’s job tribute one day, it won’t contain the phrase “Georgia’s beloved athletic director”.
- Bloviation for the Dawgnation
-
Quote Of The Day
-
“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
Search
Categories
Archives
Blogroll (ND)
- 82 Sluggo Win
- And The Valley Shook
- Banner Society
- Black Heart Gold Pants
- Black Shoe Diaries
- Blatant Homerism
- Braves & Birds
- Brophy Football
- College Football Talk
- EDSBS
- Eleven Warriors
- Lost Angeles
- MGoBlog
- RazorBloggers Network
- Rock M Nation
- Rocky Top Talk
- Saturday Down South
- Saturday Tradition
- Shakin The Southland
- Smart Football
- Team Speed Kills
- The National Championship Issue
- The Wizard of Odds
- Tide Bits
Dawg Blogs
Dawg Links
Media Links
Stats/Info Links
- All-Time Division 1-A CFB Standings
- American College Football
- American College Football – Rankings
- cfbstats.com
- College Football at Sports-Reference.com
- College Football by the Numbers
- College Football Data Warehouse
- College Football Recruiting Map
- College Nicknames
- Football Outsiders – College
- Football Study Hall
- GBE College Football Ratings
- MapGameDay.com
- NCAA Division I Football Statistics
- SEC Statistics
- Statistically Speaking
- Strangestbrew's College Football Schedulizer
- The Helmet Project
- Varsity Numbers
Useful Links
Time, time…
GATA
Blog Stats
- 73,807,482 hits
Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
So how long until stadium security swings by to confiscate the sign?
LikeLike
It will if Smart turns out to be the guy we’re hoping he is.
At any rate, McGarity will be forgiven by most if Smart wins an SEC title within his first couple of years. Folks will remember how good that feels and decide it’s better than winning 9 games and getting blown out by every winning team we play.
LikeLike
True. As is the part about doing it in the first couple of years. That’s the standard that has been set in this move. No excuses. In fact, I would bet the standard for Richt, had he been retained another year, would have been to win the East next year or be gone. Why wouldn’t Kirby be held to the same standard?
LikeLike
Because Richt was here for 15 years. Kirby is just getting started. Your grace period tends to dry up when you’ve been around since the current crop of recruits were in diapers and it’s been a decade since your last conference championship.
LikeLike
In reacting to the news about Richt, Saban, Butch, Swinney and other coaches lamented the way things are going. And where is that? You win now, you keep winning or you’re out. Not saying it’s wrong, just pointing out it is the standard; especially since it has been shown that in recent times you either win it the first three years or the odds are you never will.
LikeLike
You sound like a Smart apologist.
LikeLike
I do not understand your logic at all. Am I right in assuming you wanted CMR retained? That would explain a lot.,
LikeLike
I did. I thought Richt earned the right to get another recruiting class in (since he only just got the expanded resources that made him more competitive in that area) and see what he could do with that. However, this move demonstrates that we don’t value what Richt represents beyond the wins and championships he might provide to us on the field; that does not get you good will or the benefit of a doubt. Kirby should be under no illusion then that anything else matters or is acceptable around here.
LikeLike
Fair enough…but I was ready for a fresh start…I was convinced after the debacle in Jax….time will tell if it was the right move. Hiring Schotty did him in, I’m convinced.
LikeLike
I don’t disagree. I am sad it ended this way for Richt. I will remain a great admirer of his. At the same time, I look forward to our future and hope Kirby can take what Richt built to the next level. Go Dawgs!
LikeLike
Uh, which debacle in Jax?
LikeLike
Very well stated. If we don’t play for an sec title in 3 years, we should fire everyone from Jere to the groundskeepers
LikeLike
He might not have a couple of years.
LikeLike
Yeah, you’re right, he’ll probably only get 1 year to win a NC, because that’s why Richt was fired, right?
LikeLike
I’m talking about McGarrity. Richt is already gone, and Smart will be given 3-4 years. O, and I don’t think he needs to win a Natty in 3 years.
LikeLike
I misunderstood. Apologies.
LikeLike
There are those around here who thought Richt should have been gone after 2006 because he’d lost his shine. That’s one year removed from a second SEC championship. I expect the same courtesy willl be given to Smart, if and when he loses his shine.
LikeLike
You are under the false impression that the rest of us think like you do. The problem is that nobody, except you, would ever think, much less write, “a part of me almost wants to lose out” so coach X. This puts you as a human being, a term used loosely in order to make this point, well outside the norm. In short, your predictive abilities vis-a-via your fellow man are probably off. I would suspect that there will be many, even if we win the next 100 football games, who will remain unhappy with how CMR was treated by this AD. For some people, myself included, everything does not revolve around wins and losses. In fact, whatever it is you are thinking right now, you’d do well to expect that most people think exactly the opposite of that.
LikeLike
I don’t see why it matters at all to you. Coaching doesn’t matter. It’s all about Jacob Eason.,
LikeLike
You’re right chili. Saban just takes the first 25 guys that sign up and coaches ’em up. Where is Alabama on the national recruiting rankings? Nowhere! They don’t need talent just that good ole ball coachin’!
If we get better, and I hope we do, you’ll see our recruiting rankings reflect that. I’d rather have Alabama’s players and Ray Goff than New Mexico states players and Nick Saban. As far as Eason is concerned, he’d better be here in January or we will suck in 2016, you know ’cause coachin’!
LikeLike
It’d be tight going into the 4th quarter and probably be Bama by a touchdown under that Goff scenario.
LikeLike
LOL
LikeLike
++1000
LikeLike
Alex is that you?
LikeLike
You are a smart guy. You know that the decision maker’s process is important. If an AD just put a bunch of prospective coaches on a board, blindfolded himself, threw a dart and hired the name he hit, then that is a lousy process. Even if the hire turned out to be the greatest coach in history the AD’s process was still lousy and his ability to make future decisions would be suspect. Once Smart signs the contract The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics still has to run the athletic department.
The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics did not just throw a dart at a board; his process as better than that. However, looking at his body of work over 5 years, not just in regard to football but also in regard to other sports, I have little confidence in him. If, as you and I hope, Smart is a championship coach I worry that we have a championship coach in spite of the AD and not due to the AD.
I get that you look back at his 5 year track record and are satisfied with it. I get it. I cannot dictate to you how to evaluate his record any more than I can dictate to you whether you like IPA or stouts. It is your taste. By the same token my reaction to how The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics has handled his job for the last 5 years is not subject to your taste, either.
You are a smart guy and you read well, so let me write it again for what I hope is the last time. Neither Stegeman, Mehre, Hunt, Butts, Griffith, Dooley, Goff, Donnan or Richt will ever coach at UGA again. I will spend my money and time buying tickets next year and attending games and I do not invest the money, energy and time to secretly hope we lose. I am as invested in Smart being a home run hire as you. In fact, I bet I will be more financially invested in Smart being a home run hire than you. My concerns about the competency of the The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics has nothing to do with any former coach and instead has do do solely with his performance.
If you have any questions about the preceding paragraph let me know.
LikeLike
Are you talking to me? I’m sorry, it’s just that after the first sentence I thought you must be talking to someone else.
LikeLike
Yes, I am writing to you. Any questions about the paragraph that begins, “You are a smart guy and you read well, so let me write it again for what I hope is the last time[?]”
LikeLike
You clearly lost him at “You are a smart guy…”
LikeLike
I get you Gaskill, I do. But here’s the thing. When Damon Evans was AD there was a consensus that he was holding Georgia football back. When McGarity came aboard there was lots of optimism that Georgia football would step forward. That didn’t happen. In Richt’s waning years McGarity started to catch the same flak.
I’m not sitting here telling you McGarity is awesome, but I don’t think he deserves the criticism he has received the past three days. I think there’s more going on than McGarity controls and I’m not so sure all of it is bad. Firing Richt to me represents a shift away from acceptance of the status quo, and why I’m optimistic about the future.
LikeLike
The fact that Georgia athletics did not improve since The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics came aboard could mean that Richt held football back despite The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics’s skills. Sure. However, Richt had nothing to do with how the other sports performed under The J Reid Parker Director of Athletics. Our entire athletic programs have performed worse since July 2010 than before.
The other sports are the control group in this experiment. I infer that the declining performance in sports over which Richt has no influence means that TJRPDOA is the constant and is not up to the task of running the athletic department.
Do you think that the decline in the other programs is due to Richt somehow bringing, say, volleyball down or do you think the AD is irrelevant to the decline in the sports other than football?
My conclusion is unequivocal. The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics is not up to the task of leading UGA to athletic excellence.
LikeLike
You don’t think that Suzanne Yoculan retiring had anything to do with that? Baseball sucked before GM arrived. So did Hoops. This is a step toward improving athletics for GM, so I refuse to sit here and lay it all at his feet when these programs were well on their way to sucking before he punched the clock.
LikeLike
Chili is an idiot. The baseball program was MUCH better before he arrived and hired Stricklin. We couldn’t even qualify in the top 12 for the SEC tourney last year. You continue to lose credibility despite how little you have.
LikeLike
There is a saying that you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.
Look, I gave you a face saving way out of the dilemma (simply say that you evaluated McGarity’s 5 year performance differently than I did) but instead you made up some shit.
It is hard to prove someone’s interpretation of facts wrong. It is easy to prove assertion of facts wrong. You ought to think before you post.
LikeLike
So, you think that McGarity is handcuffed by external forces (and isn’t accountable for B-M), but those external controls don’t flow down to Richt (who should be accountable for football)?
Those two beliefs aren’t congruent. If Richt should be accountable, so should McGarity. And vice versa.
LikeLike
I am not a Greg McGarity fan by any means, but honestly, aside from firing him (which many on this board, among others, have been crying for) I don’t see what he could have done that would have been better. CMR stays through the bowl game, gets his own presser, basically, gets to stay on administratively if he wants, and gets paid even though the contract hasn’t ever been signed. I don’t see what else he could have done. Except not fire him. It’s about as compassionate a firing as I’ve ever seen. And CMR deserved it.
My concern about McGarity isn’t his heart; it’s whether he can make the right hire, and time will only tell.
LikeLike
my concern with McGarity is whether this all is about his ego, or whether he is just an obedient servant of one of our modern oligarchs. not concerned with McGarity’s commitment to integrity – there clearly is none.
LikeLike
I don’t think McGarity could have done this on the basis of a personal vendetta against CMR. He had support, in very high places.
LikeLike
wish those in high places cared about integrity. we might as well be Auburn
LikeLike
What, exactly, does this mean? Because I’m getting pretty tired of hearing the line get repeated. Does it translate to, “Don’t ever fire a coach with integrity even though his biggest accomplishment in 8 seasons is winning East”?
LikeLike
weak, weak sauce.
we USED to care about drawing the line with wife beaters (that then go to Bama; our other discipline cases went to Auburn and BOBBY PETRINO).
– drug policy – tell me what’s gonna happen with THAT
– grayshirting – see above
and pick and choose your stats their, sport. your cherrypicking is better proof of your foolishness than any response.
LikeLike
I wasn’t aware Smart was making all of the decisions at Bama or had come out in favor of wife-beaters and drugs. Can you point me in the direction of his stance on that or in any way substantiate the claim that firing a coach amounts to a tacit endorsement of those? I love how the new hot has become: “Firing an underachieving coach who did things the ‘right way’ is the signal of our University’s moral decline.”
I’d be happy to hear what you think Richt’s greatest achievements are over the second half of his UGA tenure.
LikeLike
Finishing in the top 5 in 2012
Finishing in the top 10 in 07, 14
Beating Tech a bunch of times
Beating Auburn a bunch of times
Winning Sec East in 11 and 12
Winning 10 or more in 07, 08, 11, 12, 14 and maybe this year
LikeLike
ONLY CHAMPIONSHIPS MATTER!!!1!!1!
LikeLike
Isn’t everybody an unknowing obedient servant to one or more of our modern oligarchs
LikeLike
They need to get on the same page with their lamenting.
LikeLike
How deserted lies the city
LikeLike
The decision was made after the Florida game and nothing was changing that – he could have just pulled the plug then. He let Richt twist in the wind for a month hoping he’d lose enough games to make the announcement easier. Whatever your feelings on Richt as a coach – he deserved better than how that went down after giving 15 years to the University with nary an instance of other job envy, using another job to leverage a raise (pretty common practice by other coaches), never once doing anything to cheapen my degrees, and that he’s been an upstanding citizen in Athens his whole time.
To top all that cowardice off with sicking security because like six or seven people showed up at B-M AND to prevent the players from talking to the media, compounded by the bitch move last night having security confiscate that kid’s sign at the basketball game shows me he’s in over his head. You get paid the big bucks to do these things, Greg. Criticism is a part of the job.
LikeLike
So you’re saying if he had fired CMR after the Florida game it would have been better for Mark? I don’t see how.
Looks to me like CMR would have wanted to take care of his players as much as possible, circle the wagons and win out all of which he got to do anyway. He got involved on the field, showed a little fire and still just edged out three pretty meh teams. I think you’re rightly emotional about Mark – I am, too – but the rational side of me says that there are no good ways to fire a coach, and this about as good as it can be. If the right staff gets in place.
LikeLike
I’m not saying there was any perfect way to do it. But if you’re the man in charge, which McGarity clearly wants to prove he is, then you need to act like it. Man up and just do it. This letting him float around for weeks did no good for the program or Richt. Hell man – at the press conference you could sense that Richt was relieved that it was finally over. The decision is done and I’m not debating that; McGarity just showed a lack of leadership throughout this whole thing to me.
LikeLike
This. I will be the first to admit now that Richt was largely the architect of his own demise, BUT if the decision was made after the Florida game, Richt should have been told after the Florida game. That cannot be defended. Anyone who thinks it can is twisting the facts to suit his or her version of events in the same way that we Disney Dawgs were accused of in defending Richt’s gameday snafus.
LikeLike
Of course it would have been better. The only reason that they let him twist is that they, like Chili, both expected and wanted him to fail so that they would be better perceived. There was simply nothing to lose by pulling the trigger when the decision was made for anyone but the AD and whoever pulls his strings. Instead, the whole thing ended up worse. VD made the call on Ray after the Auburn game and everyone knew it then. Ray got to have his swan song with his players. Much better way to handle things. Now the AD has zero credibility with anyone even those who think he did the right thing. Everybody now knows that he’s FOS.
LikeLike
It’s ridiculous that the players learned of Richt’s firing via mass text only minutes before the story broke in the media. That’s Petrinoesque.
LikeLike
Agree, the whining about this is getting ridiculous.
LikeLike
Making the correct hire is very important. The right hire needs excellence in the AD’s chair to maximize wins.
The overall on field and on court winning since he took charge is down since July 2010.
We demand championships. We have not been winning championships across the UGA AA board under his leadership. Why does the guy in charge get a pass?
LikeLike
As PT Barnum allegedly said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” I think that should become GM’s motto.
LikeLike
McG will probably never be liked, but if this thing works out he want be fired or booed at home games.
LikeLike
I said this on the podcast (shameless plug alert) that it won’t matter how inept or ill-prepared McGarity has been if Smart is wins big. McGarity had this deal lined up by big money boosters and was told not to screw it up, but if Smart is everything the power brokers want him to be, McGarity will sit in the chair as long as he wants, no matter how bad every other program is.
LikeLike
I sort of agree, but I think you are underestimating the anger out there. It’s taking on a life of it’s own, and it looks like the students plan on enjoying roasting his balls. The power brokers might decide it’s better to let him be the scapegoat.
LikeLike
It’s been 3 days. The irate evangelicals will find some other slight like a Starbucks cup to get upset about soon enough.
LikeLike
You really are an ass!
LikeLike
In try not to throw out any personal insults on this blog out of respect for the esteemed Senator, but I think it’s ok to say that you are one of the smartest guys who post here.
LikeLike
Touched a hot spot, did I?
LikeLike
You’re just noticing?
LikeLike
And you’ll find a way to be a martyr in that instance too.
By the way, that’s Christian for “victim.”
LikeLike
You think it’s irate evangelicals that are the only ones pissed off about how McGarity handled this? Talk about painting with a pretty damn broad brush…
Seriously – can you not have the conversation of what’s actually going on without being an condescending ass to the folks that had a different opinion than you? Or is that impossible for you to do?
LikeLike
No, that’s impossible, AD …
LikeLike
Condescending asses everywhere don’t even like this guy..
LikeLike
I think you’re getting your agendas mixed up. I’m not an evangelical and I like Starbucks. However, the firing made me mad. You’re right, I’ll get over it ; I’m a fan of UGA and I’ll support our new coach. Doesn’t mean I have to like this decision or the way it was handled.
LikeLike
As a liberal sporadic church-goer, I have to say that’s a dumbass comment.
LikeLike
Now that is funny!
LikeLike
Could be the case, sure. I loathe him so I’m cool with that.
LikeLike
“It’s taking on a life of its own”
Why not peel off one of the Targeting Forces before deployment to get some refresher training in the Butts-Mehre Defense Complex
LikeLike
I am really curious as to who exactly are these big money boosters who are supposedly directing the puppets behind the scenes?
We don’t have a Phil Knight or T. Boone Pickens. I know a lot of wealthy alums and people that give big money. Even some of the past and present athletic board members.
None of them are the type to try to run the program from behind the curtain and not let McG do his job. They also don’t strike me as the types to say “if you want the IPF donation, go hire Kirby Smart” (though I could see some saying “you will get my IPF donation when Richt is shown the door”)
A lot of people seem to want to believe that there is a secret society of big money boosters calling the shots but I just don’t see it.
Maybe I am ignorant and naive
LikeLike
LikeLike
Leeburn and payne
LikeLike
I want master’s tickets so I wasn’t going to say that.
LikeLike
Just heard Finebaum on ESPN talking about who Smart will bring with him and saying there’s even a rumor that Kiffin could be coming to UGA.
Lord have mercy.
LikeLike
Not sure what to think about Kiffin. He is not as bad an OC as he has been as a head coach. Alabama scores a good bit, but that might be personnel overcoming the OC.
LikeLike
I’m not a fan of Kiffin’s character but I do think he can coach. I’m reminded of a game last year where he audibled a play in and raised his arm for a touchdown as soon as the ball was snapped…end result was a wide open touchdown…I never had confidence like that in Schotty.
LikeLike
Oh, and BTW, there’s a paid ad in today Banner Herald from John Colegrove, UGA Redcoat Band, 1993, asking CMR to stay on as OC. It’s a big enough ad (maybe 1-12 column inches) that it cost some $$.
I dunno, I can’t see it, but if anybody could work with a new staff in a lower position, it would be CMR.
LikeLike
I understand the sentiment, but that would be a terrible idea. It would not be fair to Smart, or whomever the new coach will be, to have the popular former coach in the building. That is why I also don’t think keeping Richt on in some administrative capacity was a good idea.
I like Richt a lot, but we need to sever ties while Richt is still young enough to coach. If, when he retires from his next job and wants out of coaching, then okay, we can bring him back without creating issues in the B-M building.
LikeLike
Agree with this, clear out the desk and be gone. Would save a lot of hassle and grief. Would even go so far as to tell the new staff, good luck, you are on your own and I am sure you will figure it out.
LikeLike
I think he is going to Miami
LikeLike
Would be fine with me, but they don’t ask me. The guy with his ass on the line should get to make the call.
LikeLike
At the college level, athletic directors are rarely beloved for their work as ADs.
It’s the nature of the job.
Best you can hope for is to be respected.
LikeLike
I am now convinced that Greg McGarity is an agent for the Florida Illuminatti. You couldn’t screw up the Georgia football program any worse if you actually tried. He fires the winningest HC on a percentage basis in Georgia football history to hire a coordinator with no HC experience. Smart is not an upgrade over CMR–he’s a downgrade. One Georgia coordinator was doing an outstanding job last season and that is Pruitt. McGarity blocks Pruitt from staying on. We have several assistants on the defensive side that were doing a very good job–apparently they are now flushed as well. If Pruitt goes to Bama which is where he is most likely to end up all the best Georgia D recruits will likely follow him. I predict that when Jeremy Foley retires in the next few years McGarity will be hired as AD at FU–that’s going to be his reward for destroying Georgia football.
LikeLike
Don’t forget the hiring of Schotty, a UF alum.
LikeLike
^^This. +1,000,000.
LikeLike
IF we had won anything of consequence the last 10 years, I might have been in favor of retaining CMR. That said, I have spent too much money in Jax over the last 10 years to continue to support Richt. Glad we made the tough call. I will support the next guy. GATA.
LikeLike
PTC, you may have heard Richt got fired. It made the news. Richt will not be the head coach at Georgia. The argument is over and your side won. No need to keep lobbying for his dismissal.
LikeLike
You don’t say? Still cannot figure all the McGarity hate. Carry on.
LikeLike
PTC, no offense but if you are spending a whole lot of money in JAX you are part of the problem. Playing that game there kneecaps the Georgia team. It isn’t a coincidence that Georgia under Mark Richt has a winning record against all of Georgia’s main rivals except FU. But guys like you who are more interested in winning the party rather than winning the damn game continue to lobby for keeping the game there so you can have your fun fall weekend at the beach. If you want to see the biggest enemy of the University of Georgia football program go look in the mirror.
LikeLike
Our athletic programs across the board have been less successful since he came aboard and I want our new coach to have a competent AD to.assist him. I want Smart to win big and none of our teams have improved under him, except men’s basketball under a coach Evans hired.
That is why.
LikeLike
Please do not hire Muschamp.
LikeLike
This^^^^^^ No BOOM needed.
LikeLike
screw that guy.
LikeLike
This is shaping up to be the real life basis for a new sequel movie – “Any Given Saturday.” Cameron Diaz came off as sympathetic in some ways though; that might be hard to do with McGarity’s character.
LikeLike
McGarity has no character.
LikeLike