… if only for the ending.
In May 2012, news broke that Adams was about to announce his impending resignation as president. Vince Dooley was driving back from Atlanta when he got the word. His passenger said, “There’s something I have to do,” and she directed him to head not for Milledge Circle but for Broad Street. And that spring night, Barbara Dooley rang the chapel bell.
Now do Leebern.
Get The Picture 
That’s awesome! I know Babs elicits all sorts of reactions but I think we’d all agree with her on this.
And heck yeah, PLEASE do Leeburn. Time to get rid of the liquor barons permanently.
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I think the liquor barons gave UGA Kirby. Just saying…..
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Don’t cloud the issue with facts.
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Good for her.
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I hope Mike Adams reads that and chokes on his chardonnay as he sputters with rage. Ditto, Mr. Leeburn, who may well have done some good things for UGA, but should be ashamed of his part in this whole drama.
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I am surprised Adams is not in the current administration in DC. He fits right in. Adams was Trumpy before Trumpy was cool. (your mileage may vary of course)
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SABOD you disease ridden dripping vagina.
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So, Senator, this is what your place has come to? Interesting.
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That doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Also, you should your hate speech for the playpen.
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I don’t know if you’ve been away for a while, but there’s a reason I started the Playpen here. You may want to search the archives about that.
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Ha ha….I am aware of the Playpen. The eloquence, deep thinking and brilliant writing is just too much for me. I run out of Zantac before the end of the first “discussion”.
Apparently the erudite Mr Ramp took umbrage with something in my post. Oh well.
I hope to God you dont have to actually read that shit Boss….really….constant exposure to hate causes lesions on the brain that can accelerate Alzheimer’s.
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I wonder if Barbara rang the chapel bell when she heard the new Governor (the ACTUAL Governor) declined to re-appoint Mr. Leeburn to the Board of Regents?
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So that story may actually be true? Another Barbara Dooley story that belongs in a book right after “Vincent, either play me or trade me.” Vince and Babs Field at Sanford Stadium anyone?
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maybe they could name the Gymnastics practice facility for Barbara.
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Now that would be interesting. I can see the steam coming out of some areas near the campus…ha ha
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^This. Leeburn might take affront to it not being named for his squeeze…
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Brilliant!
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I think Barb to busy doing those commercials for Bulldog Kia 😂
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And Barbara Dooley rang the chapel bell. Haha good for her. I didn’t know that story but that’s a good one. I’ve rang chapel bell prolly 10 times maybe I can’t remember. But yeah Bradley at least did a good story for once
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Best Mark Bradley ever…
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The fact that this whole thing has Il Duce spitting mad somewhere makes me really ok with all of this.
For all of the grief people have given Barbara Dooley over the years, one thing you can say about her is that she loves and defends her family. The chapel bell story is awesome.
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I understand she has been known to buy t-shirts from a certain SEC East school just so she can burn them.
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Yeah she had to be conflicted with her son Derek going there. That had to be was some strange times for her
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Senator, could you please attach Bob Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells” ?
Thanks!
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Stop begging and we just have to wait for more music when his majesty gets the time
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For Whom the Adams Death Knell Tolls. Glorious.
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I’ll still always be madder at Knapp for not hiring Erk.
Adams may be a horrible, terrible guy, but I don’t know if he made a decision that cost us in football. He fired Donnan. Hired Richt.
Everything else may be a travesty but he DID NOT pick Goff over Erk. Knapp did that.
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Knapp didn’t pick Goff. Dooley did.
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And he picked Goff over Spurrier. Would we hate him as much had we had a similar run in the ‘90’s?
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Please Senator. We understand that you studied Coach Dooley’s book. I have tried to tell you that Coach D. would never say or write anything that might damage UGA. Next football season I will be glad to take you to meet a man that was in Knapp’s office when the shit hit the fan.
This thing about Coach D. hiring Goff, or having the authority to hire anyone, is bullshit. We will also go talk to Kirby Moore about the Goff hiring and if Kirby is willing to tell the truth you will find out that Ray’s name came from Kirby , his good friend at the time. Sheridan was offered the job by Knapp and his committee, headed by Kirby. Sheridan turned it down because Knapp told him he would not announce until Sheridan had a chance to tell his current team he was leaving. It was in the AJC the next day and Sheridan, coming from an ACC basketball school, could not understand how that happen. So he turned down the job. Kirby then started campaigning for Ray which killed any chance Haffner had. I called Kirby and talked and begged for 15 minuets for him to give George a chance. All Kirby said was, “thanks for calling.” I knew we were fucked. Just think how much better UGA would have been with George instead of Ray. I had to call George and tell him he better take the LSU job, even though he did not want to leave. Of course I had zero influence in George taking that job. It was just the best offer he had.
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George did stay for 2 or 3 years trying to work for Ray and even though Ga gave him a nice bump in pay, he, nor Ray could take it any longer. That is when he took the LSU job.
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The Sheridan story in the AJC came directly from one of the Athletic Board members who just could not keep his mouth shut. I am glad someone has finally understood neither Knapp, nor Dooley…for very different reasons, of course had approved or selected Ray to be head coach.
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‘Preciate the info, whb. My stuff isn’t coming from Dooley’s book (which I haven’t read, by the way). It’s coming from sources I trust close to the principals.
Interesting stuff about Moore.
No matter the details, the problem began with Dooley’s abrupt departure with no transition plan in place and the vacuum being filled by a bunch of folks who had agendas, but no idea how to manage an athletic department. Any competent school would have hired a new AD first, but Georgia didn’t do that. You get one guess as to why.
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Coach Donnan was good look @ all the players he had and Coach Richt was good. There was a lot of players that went to the NFL from those two coaches. And btw from previous players I talked to loved Coach Donnan
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They offered the job to Erk. He turned it down. Knapp said he never offered the job to him, but Erk says he did. I believe Coach Russell
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You are absolutely correct. See my post below.
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Paul Johnson said it was offered, too. Told Furman Bisher, as a matter of fact, and Bisher wrote an article about it in the AJC. Paul Johnson was Erk’s OC at the time. He said Erk called a meeting and told them that they were all going to Athens….make preparations. So for a few days, they were making preparations….and then the word came down that UGA was hiring Goff, instead. Johnson said Erk was really hurt by that….and this was also supposedly one of Johnson’s reasons for disliking UGA so much….because they had hurt Erk the way they did.
On another note, how do you think the triple-option would have worked at UGA? Because that was the plan.
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How the triple option would have worked? We would have become what Fech is now … a joke running a high school offense. No Eric Zeier, no Garrison Hearst, no Andre Hastings.
I’m one of the few that’s glad Coach Russell didn’t come back as head coach in 1989. I appreciTe what Erk did as defensive coordinator at UGA (his loss is why we didn’t have multiple NCs during the Herschel days) and respect his job as head coach at Southern, but the game at the highest level changed while he was in Statesboro.
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Adams did not fire Goff. Goff’s firing date was November 2015. Adams commenced his presidency of UGA in 1997.
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And off topic… The Cool Kids show has a new episode is on tonight that show is Hilarious if u don’t know it’s about friends at a retirement center it’s funny I recommend it
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Mikey, this is really getting old.
GTP isn’t a general message board. It’s a football blog. House rule is comments should relate to the post topic. Anything else is Playpen only.
We’ve already had this discussion once. I would appreciate it if you would respect my wishes. If you can’t, don’t blame me for what comes next.
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Yes Sir your Majesty I will do better. Sorry I do apologize I just get carried away sometimes. Please forgive me you Highness. I will respect the rules and behave better. I promise so we don’t have to have this discussion again
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I don’t really need the smartass assurance. Just do it.
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And I know it’s football blog but need your bitching @ me cause I went off topic on a post. But that won’t ever happen again I promise you and I’m sorry I shouldn’t post that cause it was not playpen I made a mistake sorry I fucked up
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Dooley did not pick Goff. Check it out Simply not true.
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Check it out? Dooley said he made the call and Goff said the same thing. Whom else should we check?
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Sorry to split the hair of a long-dead horse, but Dooley ACCEPTED Ray. The choice was made during the dust settling of the massive fuck up with Erk Russel. When Dooley says he made the call, that’s what he means.
Dooley was in Europe for most of this. Sincerely, William Barr.
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I know where Dooley was. He came back in time to decide between Goff and Haffner.
You can certainly say the choice was limited because of the way the committee fucked up the process and I wouldn’t argue, but in the end, it was his choice as far as it went.
Also, don’t forget that Dooley’s initial pick was Dick Sheridan. That’s the hire Knapp really screwed up.
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This is true. Knapp screwed up the Sheridan hire, but it never should have gotten to offering Sheridan the job. That Russell was not named Head Coach was a lasting debacle for UGA. I’ll always believe they should have made Russell an offer he simply could not refuse. Anything less was failure.
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You are certainly entitled to your view.
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The problem with Erk’s hiring was not JUST down to Knapp, the University System refused to transfer Erk’s tenure qualifications from Georgia Southern to Athens. This was a big deal to Erk. A member of the Board of Regents at the time told me they could have probably gotten it worked out if they had more time. Erk was shocked by this and it soured him on the deal. Sheridan was Knapp’s buddy, had worked with him. Nobody in their right mind really wanted him. Goff was asked by four members of the Athletic Board if he was interested, would take the job. Ray said yes, even though he knew he was not ready for a job that big.
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All correct. The other problem was that the committee wanted to formalize the process, as if Erk were any other coach requiring due diligence. That didn’t sit well with him — for good reason.
My understanding is that Akins, the car dealer in Winder(?), was Goff’s big backer and urged him to jump in.
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Akers was not alone in that. There was a feeling after the catastrophe with Erk et al, Athletic Board members blabbering to the media, etc that Ray, being a Good Bulldog, would calm the waters. I dont think it is accurate to say Ray “jumped in”….more like…”Shit if nobody wants the job, I will do it.”
There were folks who blamed Dooley, who was seen as having left the mess; waving as he left for Europe, for not being more in charge, and this was not unknown to Dooley.
You may be aware that Dooley moving to the AD job was not universally popular among the cognescenti.
The situation was remarkably similar to what Tennessee went through after they lost their collective rabbit-ass minds and fired Phil because Phil upset the biggest donor they had.
If you Google cluster-fuck Tennessee comes up first, but Georgia is right behind.
Moving from Richt to Kirby was, compared to Dooley to Goff, clean as a whistle….although Richt’s memoirs should make interesting reading.
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*** Akins….
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Semantics, I guess, but that’s basically right. (Although Haffner wanted the job, too.)
I know there were people pissed with VD and that’s something that continued to build through the next decade. In that sense, Michael Adams was the best thing that could have happened to Dooley in the long run.
The committee didn’t help things, though. Nobody really had the first clue how to conduct a proper search for a football coach.
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“proper search for a football coach.” Forget search….hell they could not even complete the hire of the one man everybody wanted. Not that it matters, I am not sure Knapp, personally, offered Erk the job. I am not at all sure he would have been allowed to do that.
Not to get too far afield, but this had been a cluster-fuck-in-the-making since Fred blew off Jan Kemp’ re-up. An institutional disaster. Hiring Dooley’s replacement was only one of many things that got fumbled.
It is with all that in mind that I read here and there of some dissatisfaction with the current operation of the athletic programs and just shake my head.
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*Akins
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Knapp did fuck that up I remember that and
Coach Sheridan had a hell of career he was from Augusta Georgia and went to South Carolina. His college football coaching record 121–52–5. yeah I did look it up I wanted to know
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Sigh
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What you wanted Erk…. Erskine Russel well I did too. My dad to tell you a short story he went to Georgia Tech and met him and at the Waffle House and they talked and Coach Erk invited him to sit at his table yeah dad all ways talked bout. He really never discussed what they talked about at
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But I can only imagine Georgia Tech man sitting with Georgia Erk Russel at Waffle House eating together at the same table yeah I’d like to have been there knowing what they were talking bout
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Whats the main gripe with Adams? You can’t park your RV on campus on Wednesday anymore?
The profile, coffers of the university grew greatly during his term.
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Adams really fucked up the tailgate experience we had. But I think it’s getting better
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Yeah read half his book… A Place of Hope and Vision: Speeches. It wasn’t very good IMO I didn’t even read the finish reading the whole book this back around 2002 or 3 I can’t remember but I do remember I bought his book fucking waste of money that was
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What’s wrong with Adams…two words – Jim Harrick. The destruction of the basketball program, tailgating debacle and everything else is just icing on the cake.
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Senator, with my up most apologies, it seems that given a tractor trailer truck load of Preparation H, some assholes will still be that.
In reference to Coach “Erk” May I say most of the above scripts are true, coming from a source May I say that to this day I am not proud of. Coach Paul Johnson served on our staff as a JV coach while still in college. From there he went to a 2A school Mountain Heritage which where his head coach in high school was. I forget some of the tales about what happened in reality. Paul’s head coach was the OL at Heritage. He had a offer to go to Lees-McRee as the OL coach and during the second season the head coach at Less-McRee passed away with a heart condition. He brought FISH FRY up and he became a decent offensive co-ordinator.
During this time as I recall Coach “ERK” called them up and asked if Pauuuul would like to interview. I know to be true Fish Fry went for the interview and thought he was a no snowballs chance of being at Georgia Southern. He was packing to leave early on Saturday morning and the phone rang in his motel room. It was Coach “ERK’s” assistant coach and wanted Paul to drop back by. Paul went all slicked up back to Southern’s field house and the door’s was locked. Figured he’d been pranked and was in his car get ready to leave when Coach “ERK” pulled in behind his in his truck with his fishin’ boat in toe. They went fishin’ and by all memory that still serves me Paul stumble through about everything to do to prove he was’t worthy of assisting dip water from Eagle Creek.
Coach “ERK” knew June Jones then of the Falcons so long story short June ended up hiring him at Hawaii. So as much crap as we’ve all give Fish Fry Coach “ERK” saw a positive. Where he became the O Co-ordinatior and eventually coming back to Eagle Creek and winning a couple of D 2’s along the way to that ugly yellow school northeast of Athens.
So perhaps there just might be a little good in those that seem to have a blown fuse that addresses your source and my insight of them Junkyard DAWG.
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This whole thing is the Georgia version of Rashomon. We all know the base story, but the details vary, based on the perspective of the folks telling the tale.
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