“When I heard nobody came to him that wasn’t good.”

Bobby Bowden, on when he knew the end was near for Mark Richt:

Although Bowden had heard Richt’s job was in jeopardy, he never really thought the school would fire a coach that finished the regular season 9-3, won 74 percent of his games (145-51) and made 15 consecutive bowl appearances.

“I thought it would be a replay of the LSU thing, as soon as the last game is over we’ll announce he’ll be back,” Bowden said, referring to the about-face LSU officials did with Les Miles. “Then I heard after the game with Georgia Tech the athletic director didn’t show up in the locker room. Most of my games after the game, the athletic director [would] come into the locker room to congratulate you or commiserate with you…”

Eh, by then, Greg McGarity was digging down deep and listening to his gut.  Or something.

113 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football

113 responses to ““When I heard nobody came to him that wasn’t good.”

  1. sectionzalum

    nor did McGarity show in the locker room after Auburn. but, yeah, the decision wasn’t made until after the Tech win…..

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    • TennesseeDawg

      and he retained a search firm to help find the candidates

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      • Cousin Eddie

        Rumor is he hired Smart’s mom as the “search firm” and she gave Smart a very favorable recommendation.

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    • Kevin

      He was trying to figure out how he would not look like such a tool after letting go a coach that has a 9-3 season and going to a bowl game. I think he was at Phlorida a little too long. We need to send him back.

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  2. Bright Idea

    McGarity left the ATL like the Techies did….mad.

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    • Orlando Dawg

      Yes. A loss to Tech and the car ride wouldn’t have been nearly so quiet as he celebrated all the way home.

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      • I sort of understand why he made the comment about making his decision while driving home from Atlanta. He wanted to come off as decisive and tough, to counter the perception many had that he was a milquetoast. But, like everything else he has said and done in the last week, it came off as sounding phony.

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      • Beer Money

        What a weasel. This man deserves a beating. I wish Richt would have punched him on the way out the door.

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        • 3rdandGrantham

          Right. The correct approach would have been full transparency at the PC, in which he said: “I decided after the disastrous UF game that it was time for a change. Mind you, I didn’t tell Mark that or anything, but he was a goner at that point in my mind, and I just wanted to hurry up with the rest of the season so we could get this transition going.”

          Yea, that would have went over far, far better here and with the overall UGA fan base. Richt would have appreciated it as well and probably would have given him a nice bro hug right then and there.

          Just curious, do you consistently tell your wife/gf that her jeans make her looks fat and/or admit the tennis milf up the street is a real turn on for you? Just curious about your personal transparency and overall honesty in your sphere.

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          • McGarity sucks at PR. The best approach would have been to introduce Richt, say it was his day and exit.

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            • 3rdandGrantham

              Totally agree SB, and I’m not absolving McGarity whatsoever. His actions lately have been clunky at best, no doubt. BUT, he doesn’t deserve the consistent lambasting he’s receiving; especially since he was put in a no-win situation in the first place, as he was simply following orders.

              As for the PC, I agree his best approach would have been exactly as you stated, but even then he’d still be vilified here today for being a coward, for ducking and hiding and not being a man…I can go on and on. It was a no win situation for him either way, though unfortunately he perhaps chose the worse of the two choices he had in front of him before the PC.

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            • Thetruth

              McGarity sucks at more than PR. His record as AD is the pits. He has been in charge the drastic decline in UGA sports for the last 5 years. His sorry ass should have been gone long before MR.
              5 years under McGarity: 3 NCs, 4 SEC championships
              5 years prior McGarity: 10 NCs, 20 SEC championships

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            • Mary Kate Danaher

              You’re likely correct, Senator, and you know that I love you, but the approach McGarity took hardly seems deserving of the continued vitriol. My guess is that if he had done as you suggest, he would have been ripped for being too cowardly to even face the press.

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              • PTC DAWG

                I still do not understand the constant lambasting of GM on this. He did the deed, Richt comes out smelling like a rose. I think the last part has caused some serious butthurt in some areas of Dawg Land.

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              • Napoleon BonerFart

                Maybe he could have let Richt tell his players, rather than scrambling to send them a mass text minutes before the news broke. But, hey, I’m no PR genius.

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          • Irwin R. Fletcher

            There is a difference between outright lying and giving non-answers. McGarity spent several weeks giving non-answers…but once he fired Richt and the backlash started, he decided specific answers were the way to go. The problem is…they were lies.

            I’ve said all along that IF we were going to fire Richt, you better have a plan already in place and be 99% certain who the coach is. I have to tip my hat to ADGM for doing that. That’s absolutely the right move. I also can’t beef that he didn’t announce it after the Florida game or, frankly, that he didn’t tell CMR that it was coming. What gets me is two-fold…first, you get the feeling that he was looking for cover from one of the final 3 games. That doesn’t sit well with me. That’s really more of a theory though…heck, it might have hurt the bowl destination and $$$ so there is a real chance that it worked out EXACTLY like he wanted. Second, there isn’t any need to lie to save face with the fan base. Just own it or avoid the question. That’s what gets in my crawl…that if he’s lying in a public press conference that way, what’s going on behind the scenes when, for example, a coach asks for budget or an IPF or etc. etc.

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            • 3rdandGrantham

              Agree that he should have sidestepped the question (though, in doing so, he then would have looked like some phony politician with something nefarious to hide). But as for all these ‘he lied!’ talk, its the nature of the beast for someone in his profession, and I’m willing to bet you often have to lie or obfuscate the truth during your typical daily interactions as well. Whether you have a boss you can’t stand or a co-worker whom you have a difficult time with on a major project, complete and total honesty at all times almost always makes things far, far, worse than instead relying on strong emotional intelligence to see things through.

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              • Irwin R. Fletcher

                Meh. Disagree. I think there is a credibility issue there but we clearly differ on that. .’I thought of it on the way home from the Tech game’…at least we can agree that he is a bad liar, right? 🙂

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              • GaskillDawg

                I do not disagree that The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics was in a position where deflecting the truth may have been the thing to do, but giants of industry like yourself know that deflecting the truth is a type of communication skill, and he bungled doing that. It is another example of his lack of PR skills.

                He should have opened the presser by introducing Richt, saying the nice things he said, then stood up and left the table, saying this was Richt’s stage and he should have it. If he wanted to remain in the room he could have stood in the gallery. By sitting at the table gave the message that he was there to answer questions, too, and the media took him up on that message. Had he stood in the gallery (or left altogether) he would have given the non-verbal message that he is not there to answer questions and he would have eliminated the need to deflect.

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              • I see your point, but I can’t really agree that one shouldn’t be authentic and honest as a leader no matter how commonplace the opposite may be. Honesty does not mean disclosing every detail or painting things in a harmful light. But McGarity outright gave false information when there wasn’t even really a good reason to other than to shut up the reporter. Watch Richt again at the presser as an example of how it’s done.

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            • Will (The Other One)

              The worry I have is, boosters were ready to back Richt’s firing after the UF game, but things didn’t really get urgent until it looked like SCar was going after Kirby, and ADGM decided we needed to move on to keep SCar from getting Smart.
              It may all work out in the end, (and I hope it does), but it also looks petty and dumb as hell.

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          • Dawgfan Will

            It’s not the transparency; I don’t think we should have been told anything. But this whole thing stinks of Auburn going behind Tuberville’s back to hire Petrino. I don’t like the feeling of my alma mater conducting itself like Auburn.

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      • Cousin Eddie

        Can not figure out why he had it in for Richt so bad? I know he didn’t hire him but still I didn’t hire part of my staff but I wouldn’t enjoy the thought of having to replace one of them (although one needs it, it still wouldn’t make me “chipper”).

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        • Normaltown Mike

          right.

          10 years without a championship is CRAZY TALK.

          CMR was just settling in to his position.

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        • 3rdandGrantham

          It wasn’t his decision to make…it was the big boosters, power brokers like Billy Payne, et al. He simply was the puppet in all of this and following directions.

          Why can’t some of you get this through your head?

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          • Normaltown Mike

            the tinfoil prevents the telepathic control beam.

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            • Dog in Fla

              But what if tinfoil hats actually amplify mind-control beams

              “A group of MIT students decided to test the performance of different tinfoil beanies to see how various designs (the “classical,” “fez” and “centurion”) interacted with commonly used industrial radio applications. They found that all three designs actually amplified these mind control radio waves, suggesting that the tinfoil hat meme might be a false-flag operation engineered to trick the wily and suspicious into making it easier to beam messages into their skulls.”

              http://boingboing.net/2012/10/01/tinfoil-hats-actually-amplify.html

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            • Rebar

              I disagree; if McGarity is a puppet of the higher ups, so be it. But I would rather have a strong leader in such a position, one who stand up to anyone whether they are above or below in the pecking order. This is the exact problem that some of us are alluding to as to the program not being guided by a strong leader. You make it sound as if the boosters and power brokers are running the Athletic Department, and they may be, and that is exactly what is wrong with it. If McGarity is a figurehead, puppet, etc., he is not a strong leader. Is that getting through the tinfoil?

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          • GaskillDawg

            I am fully aware that there were folks writing bigger checks than me lobbying for Richt’s firing. I am also aware that the title The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics is supposed to go to the guy who is a leader in the department, not a puppet.

            Christ, we can put about $600,000.00 per year into the Reserve Fund by filling the AD spot with temps from Randstat if the only thing to do is spout what Payne or Leeburn or whomever want the placeholder to say.

            By the way, are the big boosters calling the hiring shots in UGA’s Olympic sports? If so, you can blame those teams’ performances on the big boosters giving the puppet bad messages.

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          • PTC DAWG

            Butthurt…simple butthurt.

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          • I can’t find anything to confirm that the firing was indeed a power move by the boosters. Seems like unfounded rumors to me. It’s entirely possible that it’s true, but the same rumor mill said a month ago that Richt would be here in 2016 because of the support of the exact same people.

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          • Napoleon BonerFart

            So Payne, et al, hated Richt so much that they directed McGarity to ensure that his firing blew up in as many ways possible? Damn. That’s cold.

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    • Dog in Fla

      Here’s how the trip planning session went down –

      Bark Madly Your mission is to proceed 50 klicks above some bridge on the Oconee in a bass boat or some kind of truck. Pick up the Head Coach’s path at Mark RIcht Field, follow it, and learn what you can along the way. When you find the Head Coach, don’t infiltrate the locker room by whatever means available but go ahead and terminate the Head Coach’s command on Sunday Morning Coming Down.

      Greg: Terminate the Head Coach?

      Schultz: He’s out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops.

      Jere: Terminate with extreme prejudice?

      Bark Madly: You understand, Greg, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist. Try these shrimp…

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  3. Free shoes U

    Bobby, the annual brainfart of “Faton gives us the best chance to win the SEC” secured his fate.

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  4. Granthams replacemeny

    Did GM hope CMR would lose at least one of the last four games?

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    • AthensHomerDawg

      IDK …let’s ask squirts.

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    • Irwin R. Fletcher

      Did GM hope CMR would lose at least one of the last four games?

      On the one hand it would give him PR cover for the firing

      On the other, better bowl means more $$$.

      Honestly, it’s impossible to know which one McGarity cares more about, but I’ll always default to the Reserve Fund.

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      • Erskine

        Fletch I agree about the reserve fund but cannot see how heaping lie upon lie makes good fundraising sense. Typically people do like to donate their disposable income to an organization if the face of the organization shows such dishonesty.
        If the University of Georgia is to represent positive personal character attributes/integrity, how is such behavior allowed?

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  5. anon

    I don’t get the hate for the AD honestly. butt hurt Richt loyalists that don’t really want to admit that Richt has absolutely underperformed. I know most of you will yell out 8 wins, 9 wins, etc…but really who the fuck has Richt beat of any consequence on a regular basis the last few years. I think mcgarity has handled this thing ok

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    • So it’s inconceivable to consider the possibility that neither Richt nor McGarity’s job performances were acceptable? LOL. Let’s talk about your Richt feelings, dude.

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      • 3rdandGrantham

        As someone who has opined for CMR’s dismissal since 2010 and has defended ADGM in recent days, this is well said. Both men have underperformed and should garner equal criticism.

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      • anon

        think the world of mark richt…but I can separate mark richt the man from mark richt the coach. not sure about you

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        • He’s gone. I continue to blog about Georgia football.

          Don’t really give a fuck what you’re sure about.

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        • GaskillDawg

          I will bet you do not contribute to the Hartman Fund and buy tickets. Those of us who do are not spending thousands of dollars next season secretly hoping we will lose in hopes that a coach in Miami likes us on our Facebook page.

          I am invested financially and emotionally in the teams success in 2016 and beyond. I respect Dooley as a coach but I separate UGA 2016 from Dooley. I respect Wally Butts as a coach. I separate Butts from UGA 2016.

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          • Gaskill, do you think you could go more than three comments without boasting about how much money you have?

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            • GaskillDawg

              I will when the Richt vendetta crowd shuts up about how people like me are more invested in Richt than the UGA program.

              Can you go more than 1 post without bringing the topic back to Richt?

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              • You may not be included in it, but if you’re reading these comment threads you’ve seen several posters declaring their new allegiance to Miami over Georgia, so if you’re not part of that group, don’t put yourself in that group. But the repeated waving of your checkbook around is tacky. If it will make you stop, I believe you that you want what’s best for Georgia. I can’t say the same for some others.

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              • Derek

                Some people are too dumb to see anything but black and white. You are either “FIRE RICHT!!!” or you are an irrational Richtite who wouldn’t consider firing CMR if he lost 15 straight to the bugs because he’s a good man. There is no middle ground for them because it’s messy, complicated and requires thought. When you are a knee-jerk reactionary you don’t have time for thought. You don’t even really understand what it means to be thoughtful and considerate. Chili is going to channel everything through his myopic lens. This is after all the guy that wanted to lose the last 6 cause he’s such a great Georgia fan. That made sense to him. Should give you an idea of what you’re dealing with. He’s not likely to achieve any understanding of the subtleties you are proposing anytime soon. This is a guy that watches Idiocracy and thinks that the future looks wonderful.

                That being said, there are many reasons why the vast majority of us are “invested” in the success of Georgia football. I don’t think we should measure that investment by the size of our donations. In my book a good dawg fan wants us to win on Saturday. I also think a good dawg fan should think, except under the most extreme circumstances, that we WILL win on Saturday. In other words I have contempt for those cynics who just KNOW we’re going to lose every week and I have contempt for chili. Beyond those things, there’s no need to differentiate degrees of fandom. You’ll note by those very reasonable and objective measures that chili fails miserably. You don’t need to show us you monetary investment to win the fandom argument with chili. Hell if you pulled for us to beat auburn, in terms of fandom, you’re ahead of chili by a mile even if you’ve never given a dime.

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                • Gaskilldawg

                  Sorry Derek, did not mean to appear bragging about my ability to contribute and buy tickets. My intention was to present proof that I and not putting love of any former coach over my desire for UGA to go 15-0 every season. I assure you that because I live close enough to Athens to attend does not diminish any one else’s support for the program.
                  Thank you for your suggestion that it appeared tacky and I will refrain in the future.

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                • Derek

                  Please don’t take my post as an attack. It was clear to me that you were just trying to reason with a dumb ass and that you weren’t bragging or “one-upping” anybody on your fandom. You were just trying to make a point and, due to the nature of it, he was then able to twist and misconstrue it. It’s also true that sometimes, and I KNOW I’m as guilty as anyone, we get in fights with pigs and we unintentionally get a little muddy ourselves. In short, my point wasn’t to accuse anyone of being “tacky,” but rather trying to make clear that the vast majority of us here are dawg fans first and last, regardless of what the chili’s of the world want to say. To a guy that wants us to lose, what do we have to prove? Not a damn thing. He showed all of us who he is and what he’s about. So some people wish CMR well. So what? A CMR well-wisher equates to being something less than a dawg fan? BS. Pulling for our dawgs to lose out means you were never a dawg fan and never will be.

                  Moreover, anybody who wants CMR to fall on his face after 15 years of dedicated, loyal service when he could have taken his early successes here, doubled his money and said “bye” is an asshole. Anybody who says that we should be indifferent to him because he’s gone is an asshole. He certainly was never indifferent to us. Every dawg fan should appreciate CMR’s service and wish him well in anything he chooses to do (except beat us or take a recruit from us). This includes both those that wanted him fired and the ones that wanted him retained. I hope he does very well at Miami and that if we ever play them while he’s the coach there that we kick the shit out of the Canes.

                  If we’ve done the right thing here, it won’t matter what happens at Coral Gables. If CMR makes us look bad, well, we only have ourselves to blame.

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      • Mary Kate Danaher

        I completely agree with you that McGarity’s job performance has been miserable. We’ve all seen the horrible hires and lack of titles during his administration. He deserves all the criticism he receives for these failures.

        But it seems to me that we’re all now bashing him for transgressions that have little or no impact on the programs he’s handsomely paid to oversee. Why should I care that he didn’t tell the masses that he had made his mind up about Richt’s fate long before the Tech game? Why should I lose sleep over the fact that he talked about a search firm? Let’s judge him on his lack of accomplishments, and not on what we wish he had or hadn’t said.

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    • I’m not sure I’ve encountered a single individual who wouldn’t acknowledge that Richt has underperformed. The unabated Richt bashers like yourself are really good at creating false dichotomies (and in fairness, so are some of the “Richtbots”). I was in the camp that Richt had absolutely underperformed, but he was taking the right steps to correct the root causes and that the risk to the program of a new hire was too high at this point. Also, on can certainly like Richt yet also criticize McGarity for his poor performance. Yet another false dichotomy people are propping up.

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  6. ChicagoDawg

    I don’t understand why the AJC seems so gleeful about Richt going to Miami (good for him) when this just means an almost guaranteed loss for their favorite hometown team annually.

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  7. GaskillDawg

    The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics is an UGA alum. Every alum ought to be happy about beating Auburn anytime in any endeavor. Unless, . . . Noonan is right! McGarity posts on here under the name chilidawgnv!

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  8. Bulldog Joe

    Considering how quickly the Miami deal went down, this was decided long before the Georgia Tech game.

    I doubt Coach Richt was even looking for Greg after the game.

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    • I doubt the two of them have been on each other’s Christmas card list for at least a couple of years now.

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    • Gaskilldawg

      The surprising thing, if The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics was not in the winning locker room after the Tech game is that we won the a Governor’s Cup back and the Governor of the State is the person who awards the cup. I am stunned the guy in charge of Georgia athletics would have avoided that ceremony.

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  9. Will Trane

    Richt is gone. Move on.
    Time to engage and battle the culture in the B-M complex. It is the disease.
    Once again. Where is Smart? I do not buy into the reason he is tied up with Bama preparations for UF. No doubt he is. But can he coach and talk at the same time. I have not heard one utterance directly or indirectly from him or his agent that he is coming to UGA. What is reported is pure speculation. There was that about the coaching vacancies at Maryland and Miami, but those were filled.
    If McGarity had obtained the Coca-Cola bottle from Saban and turned it up to his ear, then I might feel more comfortable about the hire. After all Smart declined the B-M people before. No doubt he has talked to Sherrer and Pruitt about the people and culture in the B-M complex.
    No smart coach should come to UGA if he can not have total, absolute control over that program.
    Understand it takes time for water to flow through the drainage system in B-M, just maybe it is time to house clean there while the search for a football coach slowly rocks along.

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    • Jared S.

      For the record, I like the idea of Smart at Georgia. But is it bad that I kind of hope he ends up NOT coming and the whole thing blows up in McGarity’s face so that he himself is fired?

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      • Bulldog Joe

        You don’t have to think that way. It would be better if authority is negotiated now, leveraging Kirby’s agreement to sign on.

        No doubt Jere will get involved if there is a standoff and we’ve already seen what happened last year when this happened.

        It’s a much better outcome for Georgia to give the incoming coach more authority to be successful now and have our current AD ‘retire’ if this conflict continues into the off season.

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        • Bulldog Joe

          Meant to say “what the result was last year when this happened”.

          (Just channeling my inner Yogi this morning.)

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        • Jared S.

          Yeah, that makes sense. Sounds like the situation can be really good if Smart gets a lot “made clear” and negotiated on the front end.

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  10. DawgPhan

    Georgia athletics have under-performed across the board under ADGM. He has mishandled nearly every PR issue he has faced.

    Not sure why anyone wants to cape up for this dude.

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  11. Governor Milledge

    After reading some of these comments, McGarity’s presser is put in a little bit better context.

    While I do think he totally muffed the Richt transition and has flat-out lied to us about the timing of his Richt decision, in McG’s mind he has surely stayed consistent – McG has maintained ever since he became AD that all coaching decisions are made after the conclusion of the season. Come to think of it, I can’t recall ever seeing an explicit vote of confidence in any coach prior to the end of the season after McG has, as he states, his opportunity to assess the season and where the team is headed.

    If McG wanted to keep up this charade, keep up some semblance of appearances (go to the locker room after wins against rivals, for instance) if you’re going to lie to us.

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  12. dudemankind

    I can’t wait for Kirby to get on campus so we can all talk about his assistant hires and recruiting class. This crap about McGarity is getting pretty old. I am starting to feel how all the Richt supporters must have felt when some of us would rant on and on about canning the guy. Irony for the win!

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  13. Noonan

    Stingtalk comment of the day:

    “In his defense, Miami, FL >> Athens, GA”

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  14. If big money is running the show at UGA, and no doubt they are, take a look around and see how big money is running and ruining most everything they touch. We have failed to keep the amateurs away from our sports. We have failed our professionals, but most of all, we have failed our players. After the game is over, life goes on for those that played and trained hard. How these players respond to life after college football can be greatly influence by those that coached them through good and bad, wins and losses. Yes, good coaches win on the field, but their greatest win is turning out healthy men into the world who contribute to our communities. Good bye Coach Mark Richt. No doubt God will go with you.

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  15. Will Trane

    Winning and championships are the culmination of coaching. Money is a measurement of those achievements. Being healthy is a personal accomplishment and due to one’s on work. Not doubt Saban has turned out a lot of healthy dudes. If I had been a player in his program, I’d feel like a million bucks even thought my coach had the cash. Why? We were successful, had the hardware to show it, and the record to back it up. In the vogue it is called, touchy-feely, but in the field of play it is call winning, my side of the ledger has more points than yours.
    At UGA that is not the culture, it is about a fall back excuse and rubbing your conscience due to minimum effort and consistent failure.

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