I tend to brace myself when Greg McGarity is in explanation mode, but this is downright weird.
Change was clearly on the mind of Athletic Director Greg McGarity back in mid-October when he began looking into search firms. McGarity revealed Monday that it was then that he made up his mind he was going to utilize Bill Carr of CarrSports Consulting — if needed.
McGarity was a panelist at the College Athletics Leadership Symposium at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Atlanta on Oct. 19 when approached by Carr and “three or four” other search firms after the meeting.
“Bill was one presenting that day,” McGarity said after introducing Kirby Smart as Georgia’s new head coach Monday at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. “They all anticipate (coaching changes). That’s the job of these firms. When you finally make a decision to contact one — and I’m sure they’ve done some homework themselves — those guys want work, too. … They’re doing their due diligence, too.”
So McGarity didn’t seek out search firms, they sought him out? Color me a wee bit skeptical on that happening out of the blue.
It’s a pretty good indication the decision to can Richt wasn’t totally based on this season’s record, though. That “on the way home from the Tech game” story of McGarity’s is just that.
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UPDATE: According to Chip Towers, the players didn’t see it coming.
Georgia’s players have had the air knocked out of them the past week. They went from not really believing that Richt was in trouble with the administration to dealing with him being fired, to rationalizing him bolting for Miami, to accepting a new coach.
Get The Picture 
Well, I’m glad that McGarity pulled the trigger, since he was obviously flirting with the idea for so long (…we think of the reports that he pushed for Richt’s ousting last year). I’m actually happy for Richt’s sake. Nothing like being somewhere without your boss’s support.
I think Richt was sad to go (and I was sad to see him go), but I also believe he was relieved in some ways and is very glad he gets a chance to coach at his alma mater, kind of starting “from scratch”. I’m sure there’s a whole raft of things he would do differently if he could “do it all over again” at Georgia. And now he gets a chance to do some of those things at Miami.
What I’m not happy about is that AGDM comes across as a weasel. I’m not saying he is, but he certainly comes across that way – in his actions and his demeanor. And I’m also not happy that his coaching decisions – over ALL sports – haven’t been stellar so far.
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I honestly wish he’d just quit talking to the media.
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Your sentence should have ended with, “I honestly wish he’d just quit.”
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Good one, sir
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Isn’t talking to the media part of his job?
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If it is, they need to change the job description.
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I would argue “they” need to change the occupant of his office.
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Yeah, I was going to say that representing himself and UGA well while talking to the media is probably what is expected of him. Not sure he’s measured up so well.
As an aside….
I live in a town with a small-ish state university. It has about 8,000 undergrads. The University President is known as being an intellectual light-weight but she EXCELS at her job, which basically consists of two things: 1) to not say anything stupid and 2) raise tons of money for the university. I’m amazed that in her tenure she has raised over $250 million for new construction and renovation projects at the university. Half of that has been raised since the end of 2008, during the trough and aftermath of the “great recession” while our state (Maryland) has been continuously cutting funding for the University of Maryland system schools. Simply astounding.
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McGarity had been gunning for CMR’s job since the day he arrived IMHO. I think the powers that be wouldn’t back him or he would have fired CMR after the ’10 season. I still think the late addition of Boise as first game of the ’11 season was an attempt to undermine CMR–coming off a 6-7 season and giving up a sure win at home to play Boise at a neutral site. Plus, if there was any doubt in my mind, at least, that GM wanted CMR to leave that doubt was erased when GM had CMR’s contract redrawn a couple of years ago to eliminate any buyout from CMR’s side if CMR wanted to leave on his own.
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Burying himself every day using his mouth as the shovel to dig the ground.
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They guy is just not honest. His record of running the athletic department is poor as well. Most programs have been stagnant or regressed Time to let him go.
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Well, take heart. Maybe some search firms are contacting President Morehead as we speak, asking if he’s interested in firing his athletic director and offering their services in finding the next guy. Since that’s apparently the way things work, according to McGarity…
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“are contacting”? Don’t you mean “have contacted”?
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I will say it for you the man is a weasel from his talk with Mark Bradley last year until now he has been looking to oust Mark Richt. He needs to be gone. I feel for kids and I admire Coach Richt for insulating them. I know he looks happier now. I can not imagine working in the toxic environment. Fire the AD and do it now President Morehead. Let him be changed by his tenure and he is not doing his job.
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Not changed judged
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I wonder if McG’s decision dates back even as far as the UT collapse. Judging from social media, that was the jumping off point for A LOT of fans from the Richt bandwagon – I know it was for me. I can’t tell you how many “this was the final straw, I’m done with Richt” comments that I saw on various platforms after that game.
And even if we had still had the same loss to UF, I’d be willing to bet that Richt would still be our coach if not for that UT loss. As shocked as people were to see a 9 win coach get fired, I just don’t think McG could have pulled it off coming out of a 10 win season, I don’t think the support would have been there.
Not saying McG absolutely made his decision after the UT game, but I bet it got him leaning that way. Then the UF game went ahead and pushed him over.
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I think it dates back to 2010.
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I was not unhappy about the change. I was more than unhappy in the manner in which it occurred. And McWeasel has lied at every corner of this thing. He is and has been an embarrassment as an AD. Gator fans think we sabotaged them with Will….well, they have more than evened the score with this jerk.
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AD Greg McNocchio?
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I like that one. And we’re past due for an addition to the lexicon.
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Not sure why the athletic director owes any of us the truth.
I’m sure the negotiations with Coach Smart were taking place well before Richt’s firing was actually announced. While it’s shady, it’s good strategy: we were able to get the coach we wanted, get him on board with a chance to recruit before the dead period, and benefit from him being on national television for the SEC title game, a CFP game, and, possibly, the national championship game. South Carolina had a “head start” on finding a new coach and the best they could do was Will Muschamp. How much worse would things be if we were still searching for our head coach or made a quickie hire out of a fear we’d still be searching come January?
I know a lot of folks wanted GM to elaborate on why he fired Coach Richt. Maybe he will in time. But it think it’s a little uncouth to dance on a fresh grave, particularly when the recently canned guy is sitting next to you at a press conference.
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Solution: don’t sit next to him at the press conference, especially when you don’t intend to say anything.
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Agree with you Bob. Richt had to go, but starting with the security squad and sign confiscation, the transition process, press conference, explanations, etc. were handled terribly by McGarity. Then again, I’m not surprised because everything this guy touches turns to shit it seems like.
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Good grief, we fired CMR…many wanted it..never thought he would do it..let’s move on. The new hire is on GMac…time will tell.
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I got to say – the lack of self-awareness of folks that spent every blog post of every day for nearly the last 12 months telling others how much they wanted Richt gone NO MATTER THE SUBJECT now telling other folks to let it go is just precious.
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+1
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Well said, AD
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Let the GMac thing go is my point. I wanted CMR gone after the UF debacle last year.
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PTC, I understand and respect your point, and I think that reasonable people can, in good faith, conclude that the former coach should have been let go (and, there are unreasonable people acting in bad faith who have called for his head. That does not diminish the quality of your reasoning.)
Now that we have a new coach is it reasonable to worry about the quality of the leader of the program upon whom the new coach will rely? I think so.
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Why? The guy has done nothing positive since he arrived in Athens and then acts like, “How dare people question my competence?”. As a contributor whose money goes to fund scholarships across all sports and a season ticket holder, I do have the right to question whether he’s he right guy to lead the athletic program. He hasn’t proven anything to me at this point, and we’re 6 years in. Go read vineyarddawg’s assessment over at DawgSports
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Yeah, I’m pretty much over the fact Richt is no longer our coach. He seems happy, and I’m not one to dwell on things that can’t be changed. However, I will never think McGarity handled this well, and even if Smart works out, it will not change my mind about McGarity’s competence.
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Let’s say the AD had just come out and said something like, “Given the level of the competition in the East over the past several years, we think we should have done better. It’s a tough decision, but yadda yadda yadda.”
Many of us who have a conscience still would have felt bad, but it would have been understandable.
The thing about McGarity is that there’s nothing about him that you can respect, admire, or be inspired by. For all I know he’s a brilliant administrator. Heck, when he’s not in front of the camera, he might be a great guy to hang out with. However, from our lowly perspective there’s nothing about that guy that makes you want to chat with him, get to know him, have a beer with him, or listen to him tell stories about his career.
Richt, on the other hand, is all of those things. I’d be afraid that if I spent too much time around him I’d start going to church — and liking it.
He probably doesn’t even care, but McGarity should be smart enough to realize that he lacks the likability factor and doesn’t have the political chops to lie effectively. So, as the Senator suggested, he should just shut the heck up. Keep it professional and stick to the facts.
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What’s the over and under on how long the Fire Mark Richt folks are gonna give Kirby before they start questioning every decision he makes?
…oh he shoulda hired that offensive coordinator…oh he shoulda hired that defensive coordinator….oh how can he start that quarterback, he’s got terrible footwork.
Some folks are already bitching about Smart fulfilling his contractual obligations in Tuscaloosa when he ought to be working in Athens.
You’d think Bama was built in a day.
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Wait for Eason’s decision.
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I really really don’t have a good feeling about that. What with Eason lauding McElwain and his OC.
https://www.dawgnation.com/football/recruiting/5-star-jacob-eason-tells-local-paper-hes-still-committed-but-will-decide-between-uga-and-florida
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I think he’ll ultimately come to Georgia assuming Smart hires the style of OC I expect. If he doesn’t, c’est la vie.
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Frankly, if Eason doesn’t come, we are screwed big time for the next 2-3 years. Our QB depth is nonexistent and I don’t see any other way to fix it quickly. I know Hockman is committed for next year, but we really need at least 3 QBs between this class and the next.
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Maybe. I expect one of the guys on campus could be turned into a serviceable QB. Saban managed to win with John Parker Wilson, after all.
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We definitely need more than just Eason, though. We need to sign at least two quarterbacks this year and another in the next year. If Eason gets hurt, we’re boned.
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I was a Fire Mark Richt folk, but I like to think of myself as one of the reasonable ones. 🙂
For me I’ll be in wait and see mode. Biggest thing I want to see out of Year 1 is that the kids are buying in. Richt’s first year was by no means his best season, but you could totally see that the players were buying in. They actually believed in “finishing the drill”. And that paid off in Year 2.
So for me, as long as he can mostly hold this recruiting class together (attrition will certainly happen, but hopefully he can land a couple we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise), and he can get buy-in from the players, that’s pretty much all I expect out of his first year.
Now by year 2, especially if we land Eason and he’ll have experience under his belt, and all the players will have had a full year of experience in the new systems, I do expect to see pretty significant on field results. And give the history of coaches in their 2nd year over the past 15 years or so, I don’t think that is unreasonable to expect.
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Kirby apologist. Settling for mediocre already. With all our talent and recruiting class coming in no reason Georgia doesn’t win the East…SEC…CFB…Superbowl…Olympics…Star Wars….
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Speaking of Olympics…. When’s the last time Georgia had a football player who also competed in the Olympics?
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Herschel did the bobsled.
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That was forever ago!! Stop living in the past! What Olympian has our staff delivered for us lately? 😉
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I can’t really argue with any of this. I want to see the buy-in like you and honestly, as much as I thought Richt deserved another season, I can’t argue with the depth comments Kirby had. Even if Richt doesn’t blow that Tennessee game this year, the Florida and Bama games were always going to go like that because they were terrible match-ups in the trenches. I was definitely tired of going into one or two games every season knowing we were in a bad spot because of how terribly we matched up against somebody else given the roster mismanagement from 2008-2013. If he does nothing else, I’m hoping Kirby bridges that gap. We were working to get there by signing guys like Trent Thompson on the defensive side, but the O-line has been a weak spot for the vast majority of Richt’s tenure.
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Of all the criticism leveled at the former administration, that o-line thing is the biggest head-scratcher…everywhere Richt had been had good players on the offensive front…we just could not seem to find them consistently…very strange, indeed.
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I wanted CMR gone after the UF debacle last year. You misinterpreted my post up above. Carry on…
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I misinterpreted where folks that wanted Richt gone beat the drum for wanting him gone every single day and that they don’t see the irony in the fact that they are now telling other folks to not beat another drum about disdain for McGarity continuously? Cool story, bro.
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I don’t know Scorpio, the lady that sits behind me in 305 was still blaming Bobo during the Mizzou game. I am sure it will take some of them time to catch up on who to blame now.
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My thoughts, too. In my experience it’s the loudest and grumbliest people who are always unhappy, no matter what. Sure, some of us will get ticked off and upset and say at some point next year, “We fired a 9-10 win coach for this?!”, but that’s understandable. That’s change, and that’s something we deal with. Some people, though, can pull back and still be mad or upset but at least have some perspective on issues.
The ones who’ve been calling for Richt to be fired since ’08 or ’12 or any other time are the same ones who will want Smart out on his ass and will be saying, “It’s not my job to find someone better; we just need to fire this guy!” That’ll happen after the first or second loss (or an inexplicable one; remember, Alabama has only had one undefeated season under Saban).
It’s going to happen, but the good thing about all of this with Richt is that it’s shown who people really are (at least with the anonymity of the internet), so when the bitching or the apologetics start up next time, we’ve got a record of who’s just doing the same old routine.
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I wanted Richt fired,and Smart gets something of a pass his first season, barring a complete catastrophe. I expect he’ll go 8-4 or 9-3, but even if he goes 6-6, I’ll wait and see how his second year goes before I start reaching conclusions about him and his staff.
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Yesterday?
Nothing is going to change. The impatient will remain impatient. The ignorant will remain ignorant. And despite what’s been said here the roles won’t reverse. The ones calling for CMR’s head will call for CKS’s one day.
Either this year or last I heard a Bama fan call a radio show after a loss: “what do you mean they don’t have a reliable back-up center? He’s getting paid 7 million a year to have a reliable back up center!”
Yep. Seriously. You could win 48 games in a row and some asshole will be complaining about “style points.” Gene Stallings got run because the team wasn’t entertaining enough.
Things don’t change. It would be nice to do well enough to limit the bitching to a manageable level though.
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Stallings was run because he got them stuck on probation.
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It seems to my memory, that was a contributing factor Rickus, but there were other things. Gene, again, as I remember, talked about problems with his son, and personality conflicts with the then-powers that be at the Capstone. Stallings decided he had had enough. Didn’t they have a conah back who signed autographs for money or something?
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I’m sure it was a little more complicated, but if they weren’t losing 30 scholarships over the next few years, I doubt he would have been forced out. I mean, officially he “resigned”, but I always took the public reasoning to be face saving offered to him by the administration.
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Do you fellas really need to be turning over these stones again? 🙂
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You mean the stone of the SEC Championship youse guys won with an ineligible player? Ahhhhh OK, never mind, you beat Florida. All is forgiven. 😀
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Au contraire.
He wasn’t ineligible until after signing a contract on the back of a napkin following the Sugar Bowl. 🙂
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Point taken, BD. Just a question, did Bebes bite the dust because his offense was something that Derek found boring?
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Ha. He makes some good points, but Bebes bit the dust because he couldn’t stomach the UA administration at the time.
Y’all have complained about ADGM…you really have no idea. 🙂
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Dude. It wasn’t my feelings. I listened to the Bama fans on finebaum practically every day back then and whether you want to believe it or not, the fans bitched about the damn offense. Incessantly. Constantly. You have to remember. This is when SOS is lighting the scoreboard up and beating Alabama in Atlanta. Unless you were in Alabama when that went down, I don’t know how you can argue. I won’t tell you about what ever YOU personally witnessed so please don’t try to tell me what I did and didn’t hear from Bama fans. I’m stuck in their midst every fucking day.
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D…you need to avoid talk radio on any subject…really, worse than the Webertubes for your mental health.
Stallings left Tuscaloosa for considerably more complicated reasons than his personality, although that may have been a contributing factor.
But I generally agree with your time frame. 😀
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I meant that his offense wasn’t entertaining not stallings personally.
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Nah…his offense was almost exactly what they run now. That was a very strange time in Tuscaloosa…like a Shakespeare tragedy.
Stallings was criticized for not wearing the right tie at Bear’s entombment.
Coaches only get fired for boring offenses if they lose.
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Well, you are going to have to tell me when Gene started losing then. 70–16–1
.813 is nothing to sneeze at.
Of note, he lost his first 3 so he won 70 of the next 84.
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Who said he got fired for losing D?
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To recap: I said he got fired for boring offenses. You said no one gets fired for boring offenses IF they are winning. I pointed out that Stallings never really lost, so again, he got fired (“forced out” may be more accurate), at least in part, because people complained that his offenses were boring. It certainly wasn’t because the boring offenses were losing.
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Ok Derek, what the fuck evah….Gene Stallings did not retire from Alabama because his offense was boring, and again, it is basically the same offense that Nick runs today….ok?
To recap, maybe his tailback was too big?
That’s in the same ballpark, there, Derek.
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Maybe you’ll believe from the horses mouth. A tide fan on a tide blog discussing bring gene back after Shula:
moorav said:
December 9th, 2006 02:48 PM
Re: Gene Stallings
If you think Shula & Co had a predictable boring offense, GS was toss sweep right just like the Darby up the middle.
Fans wanted him gone – The entrie year he was trashed for barely winning and his offense was behind the times…etc all the way up the NC
The defensive talent made that season work (not the DC) they populated the NFL with defensive talent.
As far as Henry, mea culpa. I never imagined he’d get as many carries as he has AND that he’d be conditioned to handle it. Had he gotten the normal 18-22 carries a game, he wouldn’t have registered on the radar.
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See BD’s comment above. If you think Bebes was “fired” because of comments on Paul Finebaum’s radio show, hell you might believe Derrick Henry is too big to be a tailback.
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Ok. You’re the genius. Why was stallings forced out? Why did the administration feel they had the fan support to shove him out the door? You tell me. Hell I just live here. What the fuck would I know? Because I missed Henry having a big year all of a sudden I can’t know shit, right? Can I say your house isn’t on fire because of that one time you were wrong or should I take your word for it because you’re standing there watching it burn down? Just wondering. I’m sure I could comb your posts and find something wrong and use that everytime you offer an opinion.
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Derek, first I am glad you finally recognize it.
Second, yes, twice you were wrong, and way to man up, sorta, kinda and admit it.
😀
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@scorpio Just wait until a game is lost in 2016–that will also be Richt’s fault from a few folks viewpoint. I am one who had no care whether he stayed or he went, Now time to move on and look forward to 2016.
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If we get a qualified offensive coordinator, this may work out.
However, I pray Greg is more honest with his employees than he is with us. If he’s not, Jere should have another job opening to fill immediately after the contracts are done.
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….. McGarity should be smart enough to realize that he lacks the likability factor…..
Wasn’t he quoted somewhere last year as saying he just didn’t understand why people say he has no PR skills (I’m sure I’m paraphrasing a bit)? Not only does he lack the likability factor, he lacks the self awareness to be able to work around it.
I’m not as down on McG as some are around here. But there are certain criticisms of him that you simply can’t dispute.
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oops, this was in reply to Butler T Reynolds above.
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He sure seems to like to talk a lot when he can pat himself on the back or give himself credit. In the words of Doc Holliday…now I know I hate him.
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Yes. Even after l’affaire Gurley, he provided to the AJC a blow by blow of HIS account of the events that transpired and how he did a wonderful job handling that debacle.
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I wish he had had a Plan B for Gurley-gate. Plan A pretty much sucked. The team almost covered for him by winning but then laid an egg in Jacksonville.
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It appears The J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics was scared shitless we would beat UF, finish 10-2 and win the East. That would have been his Plan B.
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exactly, I honestly beleieve he slow-played the Gurley fiasco on purpose in order to screw Richt
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I’m not ready to go there, but the fact that they delayed the reinstatement paperwork certainly could lead you to that. If that were ever proven with emails with compliance, etc., one could make the case that his @$$ should be sent packing and any state pension, etc. be taken away from him. That would be something for the AUC to sink their teeth into.
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one of the great mysteries is why open record requests were never filed by local media regarding the situation…so many questions that have yet to be answered…but after seeing how local media have fallen over themselves in defense of the AD, maybe it isn’t a mystery
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I never got that as well. I thought GM should have been fired for bungling that whole episode, but I had multiple people attack me here for questioning the skills of our AD.
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And plan c would have been to fire Richt as soon as he slipped again.
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“Lavelle Durant, Eason’s personal quarterback trainer, also shared his view of Eason’s decision at this time. He said he viewed it as a “two-team race” between UGA and Florida. What might be one deciding factor?
“I do know that Jacob really cares about the relationships he has built with the Georgia fans, the Georgia players and the commits,” Durant said. “I feel that could be where his heart is with Georgia right now.”
Hope he stays away from the blogs!
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Good point, especially some on the newspaper sites.
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Can Kirby give Durant a job of quality control analyst for QBs for the next 3-4 years?
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“I’m a big Plan B guy”–McGarity
You know what? This does not surprise me at all.
So he makes a decision and acts upon it because it was his decision so it must be good, while not considering the full possible consequences of his actions. The next morning finds him down at the drug store in line to buy Plan B for his random from the night before. Meanwhile, his brain is working hard coming up with rationalizations to prove his decision was the best one for everyone involved. And if he (or this random) ends up with a STD down the road? No problem! By now he believes that it was all the fault of the person he f**ked (over), and he should be lauded for doing everything he could in a difficult situation. Maybe a raise is in order?
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Seems like a professional search firm would offer professional expertise and a plan to
*announce the firing
*communicate with the players
*communicate with the staff
*plan for uninterrupted recruiting
*plan for the bowl game
*deal with the anxiety of the time before next coach is announced
None of this happened very smoothly.
Alas, firing is a messy business.
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What in the heck did a search firm really do for Georgia here? We knew who we wanted and we went to go get him. If all they did was provide candidates to flesh out the field or something, I’m not sure why it was worth the money from our precious reserve fund.
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There’s really one reason an AD hires a search firm: ass covering.
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Actually, to me, this explanation makes the most sense of everything I’ve heard from McGarity, and it’s unfortunate that his lack of transparency makes it so hard to know which story to believe.
The search firms are the ones chasing fees. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the hot seat chatter is planted by them. Senator, a few weeks ago you linked to a story that was basically free advertising for the search firm that uses analytics. I can only imagine how competitive that space has gotten. Probably not unlike companies that only start thinking about M&A after an investment bank approaches them.
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Anybody in McGarity’s position has to massage the truth a little, but you can’t continue to put yourself in a position where it is obvious you are lying. Pretty soon everybody starts to assume you are just a lying weasel and they shouldn’t believe anything you say. GM has reached that point with me, so I agree he should just STFU.
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McGarity will be the posterboy in my upcoming book on how NOT to run an athletic program… ‘The bottle’ could teach him a thing or two about p.r.
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