Phillip Fulmer, on Mark Richt’s dismissal:
“I was disappointed that he left Georgia, but at the same time this world has changed a lot. We basically have corporatized college football, which whether you want it there or not that’s where it is. The amount of dollars that are being paid to coaches, and the expectations that are out there, and the truth of it is they just get tired of you after a while.” [Emphasis added.]
We’re at a point where a comment like that doesn’t shock the conscience. Hell, it’s not even worthy of a halfhearted rebuttal. Of course the bastards running college football have corporatized it. That’s where the money is.
Get The Picture 
“They get tired of you”
SOS said 10 years at one place was enough. The Pumpkin says this. The NFL-ization of college football continues.
I guess these guys (the coaches) only have themselves to blame. They get paid CEO type of money and are expected to produce now. Not after having a year or so to figure out the problems or to put together a plan and a team … NOW! The big donors are now the Arthur Blanks and Jerry Joneses of college sports. They don’t know a damn thing about football other than what they see from their luxury box, but dammit, they want a championship, and they want it now.
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We should probably be grateful they can’t move college football campuses around like NFL franchises.
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+1 to both of you.
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I’m so thankful for the tiny blessings of life. 🙂
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What, you wouldn’t pull for the Bulldogs if they relocated to Birmingham?
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Or played in Jacksonville?
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I see what you did there. I agree…games are already being moved around to sites and dates other than Saturday afternoon, so what the hell are you talking about Senator? We’re halfway there.
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Would be nice if they PLAYED in Jacksonville.
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we haven’t played a regular season game in Jacksonville in over 2 years….
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Ouch …. but true 🙂
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Mega ouch, but true. I am still trying to figure out two last two trips to J’ville.. Spouse says they are bad flashbacks to some evil from a previous life. Laughed at that one.
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I think if they could separate the team from the university they would. It would be so much more convenient. Trouble is, there is still some sort of irrational sentimentality in the fan base (and above all in the alumni fan base) that loves the idea of the team representing good ol’ Wassamatta U or wherever, and trashing that idea would result in fewer eyeballs and $ and so can’t be implemented. Pesky fans!
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Don’t tell Harbaugh that. He’ll blow a gasket when he finds out he can’t move Michigan to Florida.
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Solid ‘crutin down there in Florida. You can even sell never having to live in the cold of a Michigan winter while playing for big blue.
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Privatization has been the trend at UGA in the last few years. I’m surprised it is taking this long in athletics.
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There is a classic dichotomy in modern CFB that continues to strengthen. It’s a sport controlled by regulations that require a head coach to operate in such a manner that he is forced to produce results in 1-3 years and the reality is that a coach needs 4-8 years to do it and achieve lasting results.
They’re compensated before they earn it. It should be like golf, if you win you make more money. If you don’t make the cut, try again next time. The battle between expectation and compensation can be managed with more appropriate salaries and being paid structured bonuses/rewards for post season competition.
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Good points but Jimmy Sexton would violently disagree with you. 😉
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I’m inclined to understand the salary structure of college coaches.
With turnover rates over 20%, much like an NFL running back they have to make it while they can because that career ain’t gonna last forever. Both of my nephews played at school’s that employed 3 head coaches during their 4 year college careers.
The days of a HC being an ingrained part of the University not just on the field, but off the field are nearly extinct. I guess that is why I am cynical when I hear things like “Come on home, Son” when they leave off the caveat “as long as you run a 4.5 40 at 240 pounds, don’t make any mistakes, are willing to dedicate your body and your life to sport, and deliver a title. If we catch you smoking a joint at 20 years old, a bunch of family members here at home will be blasting your name on the airwaves, on blogs and demanding you be thrown outta the house.”
CMR’s final words (rings gather dust) didn’t set right with a lot of folks, not because in the higher sense they were incorrect but rather because fans are given the moral pass of saying “at $4 million a year, you aren’t entitled to ideology anymore, it’s NC or bust.”
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Damn capitalism. Baby needs new shoes and all… 😉
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For what it’s worth, Fulmer forgets the start of his own rise to fame and fortune when UTK unceremoniously dismissed a mostly successful HC Johnny Majors, who had rebuilt the program.
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
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That’s a really great point. Well played, sir.
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I’ll pay you Tuesday for a doughnut today
“Majors undoubtedly was forced out to allow new blood to lead the football program into the future. Was it simply based on a three-game losing streak? Or was it orchestrated during Majors’ recuperation period via backroom dealings involving Athletics Board member Bill Johnson, Athletics Director Doug Dickey, university president Joe Johnson, and even Phillip Fulmer himself? Could Majors himself have set the table of discord with the powers-at-be by complaining about his contract, that had two years remaining, in public during a publicity caravan across the Volunteer State?”
http://www.rockytoptalk.com/2012/8/1/3207753/20-years-ago-in-big-orange-country-the-season-when-one-legend
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As a Dawg fan, I have to hope that this transition resembles the Majors to Fulmer switch.
My biggest fear is that it will resemble the Fulmer to Kiffin/Dooley switch.
All signs point to the former scenario, but only time will tell.
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My biggest fear is that Kirby’s affinity for Krispy Kremes will be as great as Phil’s
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I was thinking the same-came back to bite you.
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@Alamosa: comment was about Majors and Fuller. But the donuts sound good.
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I don’t think we just “got tired” of CMR. I watched Cam Newton this weekend and Deshaun Watson last weekend. Throw in Josh Dobbs, Nick Marshall, and Blake Sims, and probably others. CMR’s stubborn refusal to change and adapt his system to fit the incredible quarterback talent our state has produced is inconceivable to me. Brice Ramsey over Deshaun Watson? Cam at tight end? Penalizing any QB who happens to be athletic, instead of being open to change, IMO, is a big reason for CMR’s recent failings and subsequent dismissal. D.J. Shockley was over a decade ago. I think we will continue to see more mobile quarterbacks in the future, and I look forward to seeing many of them in the red and black.
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The Cam Newton thing is beyond baffling. If you watch a kid with a cannon like that and say “Tight End…definitely a Tight End” then you need to have your head examined.
It’s as bad as Ray Goff early appraisal of Robert Edwards and saying “not smart enough to play RB…move him to defense”
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Or maybe wanting him at TE was an easy excuse not to get into a bidding war. If it happened the second time, you know it happened the first time too…maybe not for $180K–but Cecil gots to gets paid one way or another.
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however much he got from Irvin Meyers, it wasn’t enough to keep his dumb a$$ from stealing a laptop and spray-painting it.
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All those that you mentioned except Cam failed to “Win the big one”.
Are you really willing to accept that type of mediocrity.
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Really? Marshall and Watson and Sims won their conference. That would be plenty good enough for me.
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What’s really nifty here is that during the period Cam and Marshall were at Auburn, Georgia’s offense was fine.
Yeah, it sucks Richt and Bobo didn’t get in on Watson early enough, but the rest of your criticism boils down to your preference for running quarterbacks. You’re probably not going to like the next three or so years at Georgia, then.
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+1
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Why in the world would Cam Newton have come to Georgia to run a pro-style offense that didn’t suit his athletic skills at all when Matthew Stafford had at least two more years before he could leave and Urban Meyer had just won a national championship and ran a system that complimented that skillset perfectly? Again – there’s a bunch of criticism of Richt that is absolutely valid and fair, but this revisionist history shit to fit the narrative of him being a completely incompetent boob remains fascinating to me.
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My criticism of CMR is this assessment during Cam’s Heisman season that UGA saw him as a tight end. Better to say “he’s a great talent and his skills better fit other teams” and leave it at that than something like this:
“I remember him, a very talented guy, a guy that we looked at,” UGA coach Mark Richt said Tuesday. “We actually had him pegged more as a tight end prospect. A lot of it had to do with what we liked to do offensively. It was more of a fit than any type of disrespect to his ability to play quarterback.
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I like the truth, CMR spoke the truth, plus I thnk they had a bead on his character at the time too. UF at the time was a much better fit..in many ways.
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so talent scouts like you would feel a lot better about CMR if he’d just said “Cam isn’t the style of QB we need here” instead of some fourth hand legend about UGA seeing him as a tight end?
Plus, you know, that Stafford guy…the one who got picked number 1 in the NFL draft…was still here. So, if CMR had just said, “well, we really don’t have a place to play him for a couple of years” would that have been better?
Urban signed him and then was willing to ditch him over a stolen laptop, apparently. Given what followed Tebow, should people be criticizing his poor QB evaluation skills, too?
I get that some of you didn’t like CMR and were jubilant that your long sought after wish was granted. But, let it go. You want to get all giddy about how the new regime will never miss on a single prospect, or ever have a single bad loss, and SEC titles and NCs are guaranteed to some cascading down the pipe now, have at it. But quit blaming everything including global warming and the high unemployment rate on CMR. He’s gone. Get over it. I just feel sorry for Kirby, because geniuses like you will be the first ones to turn on him, should he fail to live up to your standards on a weekly basis.
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Richt speaks to reporter, reporter quotes Richt about Cam being a TE. That would be first hand (I remember reading it). Recounting that report later might be second hand at worst. It really happened. Otherwise, I agree with you. Maybe it was a character thing with Richt. Maybe recruiting him at TE was a way to run him off without saying “Well, I think this kid’s Dad is a piece of shit and I don’t want either of them around my program.” I don’t remember too many showboats like Cam during Richt’s tenure–and that was good. I don’t like Newton at all. I am glad he didn’t play at Georgia.
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“Urban signed him and then was willing to ditch him over a stolen laptop, apparently.”
To be fair Irwin, Cam already knew how to multi-task:
“But from all indications, Newton already had decided to transfer perhaps because of academic misconduct first reported by Fox Sports.”
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os-cam-newton-gators-mike-bianchi-0124-20160122-column.html
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I don’t think anyone is giddy, but you have to admit that it is pretty shitty to watch two Georgia natives light up the college and pro game at QB in the last couple of weeks and wonder what could have been. Just because Richt is gone does not mean he should be elevated to some special platform and never be questioned or criticized in regards to his time here. At least that’s what I think.
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“Just because Richt is gone does not mean he should be elevated to some special platform”
Before being Departed, he had already elevated himself to the 10 m platform
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As Lamont deftly pointed out, it’s a direct quote. Not a fourth hand rumor.
Would Cam have signed to ride the bench behind an entrenched starter? He did at Florida. Would Cam have cracked the line-up in 2009 over Joe Cox or 2010 over Aaron Murray? It’s worth wondering. I think he’s been mildly successful, though not at Tight End.
“I get that some of you didn’t like CMR and were jubilant that your long sought after wish was granted”
wrong guy. I was not in the “FIRE RICHT!” crowd.
I’m sorry your feelings are hurt when people quote the former head coach at the University of Georgia.
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81 – if I remember correctly (ok, that’s questionable…) good ol $Cam also got caught cheating on a test afterwards and that was the final straw that got him booted from FU
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I think you’re taking more from Richt’s comment there than what he intends. It sounds like Richt said that Newton’s skillset didn’t fit what they wanted to run at QB (no different than Nick Marshall, IMO) and he was more likely to fit in at TE. Don’t forget they had a future #1 draft pick starting at the time. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to say that it should have been a no-brainer. However – of all the fair things to criticize Richt on, this just seems like a stretch. Like PTC and other commenters said – maybe Cecil already had his hand out at the time and Richt didn’t want to play that game. I’d argue that theory is just as likely as the one that Richt didn’t know how to evaulate QB’s for his system.
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@AuditDawg. Good comments.
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I do agree that it sucked not getting in on Watson earlier. That’s completely fair.
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It is striking to me how many quarterbacks from Georgia, that we did not want basically, have won championships elsewhere. Remember when Vince, recognizing Herschel’s potential, changed to the I formation? My point is that good coaches have to adapt and change to take advantage of the available talent. CKS recruited Watson hard when he was at Bama, meaning that Bama would have tailored an offense around Watson’s considerable skill set. This is a change in philosophy that we desperately need at UGA, IMO.
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It’s striking to me how you remember something that didn’t happen. UGA junked the veer (which it ran from 74 through 77) for the power I in 78, when Herschel was still in HS. We went through about 6 QBs in 77, and Coach Dooley apparently felt like an offense where your QB is going to get hit about 30 times a game was not to his liking. WIllie McClendon did a pretty fair job as an I tailback in 78.
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I do remember Dooley adapting to Herschel. How many carries did Herschel average? He was definitely the feature back in ways that no one else had been. After the Tennessee game, Dooley recognized what he had and planned accordingly, maybe during the season (as you pointed out) more than before the season. But he changed and adapted to Herschel’s talent.
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McClendon had almost 300 carries n 78
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He had Herschell doing what Willie McClendon did in 1978.
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Alabama recruited Ramsey as hard as Georgia did.
The failing with regard to Watson’s recruitment wasn’t over the offensive system. It was over Richt’s reluctance to chase kids in the eighth and ninth grades.
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Michael Jackson did it.
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Ooh.
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Dang-it NM! Now I have to clean coffee from my keyboard and monitor.
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@Normaltown Mike: I just spit my coffee all over the table. Called the wife in to read it.
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Sandusky Football Camp?
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My preference honestly is for UGA to win the SEC. If CKS can do this with Eason I will be very happy. If CMR could have done this with Stafford or Murray I would have been happy.
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Yes…because offense and more specifically the QB position was such a disaster under Richt and Bobo. We should have yanked Stafford off scholly to get Cam and never recruited Aaron Murray. What were they thinking signing four Elite 11 quarterbacks in row back then?
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Stafford and Murray won nothing of consequence, and there have been a lot of down years at QB mixed in between and around those two. Stubbornness and refusal to change was a problem in other areas as well under CMR, including at defensive coordinator. His system did not win, and he would not change accordingly. I think that is a major reason that he is gone.
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You’re absolutely right. Those four wins over Florida, five wins over Tennessee, and six wins over Georgia Tech meant nothing to nobody.
That’s completely your preference of a running QB. Nothing wrong with that, but offense wasn’t what held the Stafford and Murray teams back.
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To me, if CMR had been more willing to change, scheme wise and staff wise, he would still be our coach. Just my opinion.
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That’s fine feeling that way; however, it’s this after the fact whitewashing of Richt’s recent era as having meant nothing of consequence that you are doing right now that completely blows my mind. Hell – there are happy moments from the Ray Goff era that meant something to people and were important and enjoyable and he never won a conference championship. It doesn’t mean that it ended well, either.
We’re moving on and discussing the future of Georgia football with Kirby Smart while noting what did / didn’t work for Richt and that’s all good and well and we should talk about those things. Although his era didn’t reach the level we all hoped it would 15 years ago, that doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of good times along the ride either along with the bad times. Some of y’all pretending like there was nothing enjoyable about the Richt era (even the last 5 years of it) are just bitching for the sake of bitching.
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Having two quarterbacks like Stafford and Murray and not winning the SEC with either is striking. Seeing other Georgia QB’s win big elsewhere is striking. I can’t watch pro or college ball without hearing someone talk about Cam and Watson. It is a point worth mentioning to me, and I can’t help but wonder what could have been with CMR and a great mobile quarterback like DJ. But, yes, I am moving on and looking forward to next season.
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Murray played for the SEC title in 2011 & 2012; we didn’t win but we damn sure played for the SEC championship.
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This.
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Do some people really think that Cam could have stayed on Campus at UGA?
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Maybe if UGA supplied him with all the laptops he wanted…
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Well considering he got booted from FU for cheating, and from what I have heard rarely ever attended a class at Aubie, Id have to say…. no
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You can have all of that bunch you named except for Watson, who appears to be a good kid. Stealing, breaking rules, and other assorted violations do not want them at my university.
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Agreed …you gotta take the bad with the good.We just weren’t paying Dad enough. Referring top a post above ….that whole bad with the good is one of the reasons they let Majors go at UT…..it’s not good to have a drunk as the face of your program.
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Well said, and folks need to understand this..YOU CANNOT sign every great prospect in our great State…impossible. Easy to cherry pick after the fact. If you can do it beforehand, posting on this board is a waste of your time, Saban pays well for shit like that.
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@PTC: Sarcasm font . Yes you can. Every top recruit in the state should play at UGA and if they do not want to, then pay them enough to do so. 15 and 0 every year.
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Did you know that for a period of TEN years, from 1949 to 1958, Wally Butts went 45-54-6 for a winning % of .457? During that period we were 98th out of all programs considered “major”, behind such notables as VMI, Drake, Long Beach State, Villanova, Wichita, and Detroit. Also during that time Tech won at a .755 clip and beat our “butts” regularly. Can you imagine a Georgia coach these days being allowed to stay through such a dismal period? BTW, the next year, 1959, Wally got Tarkenton and won the SEC and the Orange Bowl.
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So what you’re saying is UGA should hire Malzahn and wait around for the next great scrambling QB?
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ROTFLOL! Not hardly!
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Well, they got Spurrier and Fulmer to weigh in on the Richt decision.
Now sitting on pins and needles waiting for reactions from Lou Holtz, Guy Morriss, and Woody Widenhofer.
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And Gene “the cheese” Chizik
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And Curley Hallman, Gerry DiNardo, Charley Pell, and Frank Broyles … Has RC Slocum chimed in yet?
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And mean Gene Stallings, Bill Curry, Pepper Rogers
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Coupling this with the article yesterday about the AA’s not returning a “profit” to the universities, and you can really see what a kleptocracy the athletic departments have become.
Administrator pay goes up, coaches pay goes up, a bunch of new staffers are hired (at increasing rates), new facilities are built to benefit the AA, and the general university gets nothing outside of a few “winners” who are able to get better pool of applicants due to better brand recognition. (I guess the construction firms can make a killing, too, on stadium renovations and giant scoreboard installations.)
And mostly these are public institutions being plundered without benefit to their state because they’re run by clowns who only know how to spend the $$$ that’s coming in the door. No recognition that there may come a day when the revenue starts going down…
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From a macro-perspective to the entire collegiate athletics eco-system; I’m curious to see what happens if/when the state of Louisiana begins forcing the LSU athletics dept. to share/give back all the incremental revenue they’re receiving to the school’s academic mission given the state’s budget crisis.
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First stop: the LSU Library
http://bobmannblog.com/2016/01/24/sinking-flagship-a-new-look-at-lsus-middleton-library/
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post about fulmer contains no fat phil, tit sweat, or great pumpkin jokes. Heavy on the rewritten history of richt.
ser folks let it go.
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Needs moar Lulu and Junior jokes.
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The times, they have a-changed.
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WHATEVER DISNEY DAWG!!!!!!!
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