Treading in AirForceDawg’s footsteps again, here’s an interesting data trend line for those of you who think Richt’s and Smart’s financial backing from Butts-Mehre have been similar. It’s a spreadsheet of Georgia football expenses for the last four fiscal years (2014/5-2017/8) as tallied by the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool.
Football Men’s Team Expenses 26154335 38884925 36387975 44909546
From $26 million to almost $45 million… quite the increase there. All of which reminds me of something I read at a blog once.
I mention this story not in a fit of jealousy, nor to condemn another program’s wasteful spending. Rather, it’s a perfect example of what the Georgia Way is up against. Regardless of where you think Richt falls on the performance spectrum, you cannot deny that for the bulk of his time in Athens, he was not allowed the resources to duke it out with Georgia’s main rivals.
Forget about the IPF. Georgia was one of the last schools to give out multi-year contracts to assistant coaches. (Ironically, the administration got away with that because of staff loyalty to Richt.) Saban bulks up support staff; Richt is forced to come out of his own pocket to pay bonuses to his assistants. Georgia’s recruiting budget was far short of what other conference schools were allocating until this year.
If you manage an SEC football program, there’s a difference between being committed to winning and being financially committed to winning. Everybody wants to win. The hard part is figuring out how to allocate resources to make sure that happens. And, no, that doesn’t mean spending money like a drunken sailor. (We’re looking at you, Tennessee.) It simply means that if you think your rightful place is among the Alabamas, Floridas and LSUs of the world, you’d better take a hard look at what they’re doing and make sure you’re giving your coaching staff the opportunity to keep up with them.
Is Smart a better head coach than Richt? Yeah, he is that. Has he received better support — far better support — to succeed than Richt got? Numbers don’t lie, peeps. It’s actually possible to accept both points without feeling like you’ve compromised yourself. Especially when it works.
What you should be pissed about as a Georgia fan is what might have been accomplished if the athletic administration had been in all along as it’s been for the past two or three years.
I’d like to remind everyone that after 2010 Richt gave DVH a 6 figure job that involved little more than giving a weekly presentation. I wouldn’t be too eager to give him more money, either. A question- after 2010 he told his players he was coming back to be a father figure to them. He was already getting paid millions and not keeping up with the competition. If it was about being a father figure, why did he need raises?
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And I’d like to remind you that for years Georgia refused to sign its assistant coaches to multi-year deals, that Richt had to come out of his own pocket to fund bonuses one year, that requests for an IPF were ignored for years, etc.
It’s not a question of “giving” a coach money. It’s a question of having an organized plan that all parties are invested in and implementing it.
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“It’s a question of having an organized plan”
Exactly. Richt didn’t have one. An open checkbook and nearly unlimited support requires the recipient to demonstrate they know what to do with said support. Richt had no clue how to run a program at the level Saban and Meyer took things. Few coaches do. Richt and the Bobby Bowden approach got passed by in the mid 2000s and when that happens you get what happened from 2009-2015
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The number of people, in 2010, who “had a clue how to run a program at the level Saban and Meyer took things”, was essentially 2 (and history has been very unkind, to say the least, to 1 of them). Kirby certainly didn’t know how to do that in 2010. By 2014, Bobo and Pruitt (and no doubt Kirby as well) knew how to do it, IMO.
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Agree on your point about 2010 which is why the idea that Richt didn’t get support for the program doesn’t resonate with me.
I’d say Pruitt is still a question mark on running a program. Yeah he knows what to do but hasn’t proven he can do it effectively yet
I disagree on Bobo- loved him as an OC but seems to me he has fallen pretty flat as a HC
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Exactly. It was part of Richt’s job to get support for the program from administration.
He failed.
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Perfectly stated
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Right was a pushover. He wouldn’t fight for what he wanted. Also the big money people finally demanded a football team that could compete.
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How do you know what Richt would or wouldn’t fight for behind the scenes?
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Heard him on 680 the Fan talking about the UF game. Said he wanted it moved but got tired of fighting for it.
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Richt could’ve laid down in front of the team buses in the BM parking lot on the way to the airport for the flight to Jacksonville and you guys would’ve bitched about him being “too stubborn.” GMAFB!
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Because he’s a Bigshot, see?
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I take issue with “compete.” CMR won 2 SEC Championships and half a dozen plus East titles. The Dawgs finished 3rd in the nation in end of regular season polls at least 3 times when the top two teams made the playoff. If the rules were the same now as then Georgia would have been left out of the playoff in 2017. Kirby’s record after 3 seasons looks almost exactly like Mark Richt’s.
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But Kirby yells in his headset on the sideline and Richt didn’t therefore we all know who really cares about the game.
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I think Richt was competitive early on but then got complacent and frankly lazy (recruiting). Right now Kirby reminds me of early on Richt. We’ll see if he stays that way
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No his wife and a assistant coaches wife fought cancer. Not complacent but after watching my mom fight cancer changed my life perspective and I am sure it changed his too. He spent a lot of energy fighting for something’s that the Georgia Way would not give so he stopped wasting that energy. I am glad Kirby gets the support.
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I’m not ready to say Kirby is a better coach. He is a far better recruiter, however his inability to hold leads in critical games with equal talent and his bomb out road record versus the West stand out. He may end up being a better coach; time will tell but I am not there yet. I do expect to be able to say that in 5 years with the wealth of talent he has assembled. I would say that in any situation when a change at or near the top is made, in business, sports or government it is common for those hiring to give the new leader all they want. If, however, they don’t carry you to the promised land in time, abandonment does/will happen. In these days that happens much sooner than in the past. The bank is open Kirby; let’s cross the Jordan.
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Should we blame McGarity, Adams, or Leebern? If you ask me we should blame all three. Once Saban came into the league the west got it and began to pony up. We have more than 5 years of backlogged projects in our AA when you compare us to the SEC west. Either way I really hope the AD continues to catch up in facilities for football and starts to supply our other programs with the ability to improve their facilities ($$).
Unfortunately we will never know how Richt would have done if we funded football like the West teams. We should have never had the Nalley multi purpose room and a small weight room to begin with when they renovated Butts-Mehre in ~2011. Master plan would be useful going forward.
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Can’t believe you left out Red Panties…
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Him too…
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Worked for Miami, didn’t it?
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When Kirby arrived, Georgia went all-in for football, with an emphasis on recruiting expenses.
The old Georgia Way is still alive and well for the other sports, as Georgia remains at the bottom of the conference for investments in basketball and baseball.
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Glad we have Kirby…But i’m pissed we leave our other sports twisting in the wind like we do.
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Most, if not all spring sports venues lag when mentioning “championships and having UGA hold early round events ” during tourny time…
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Crean isn’t gonna put up with it for long
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CMR did more with less support than many want to give him credit for. I for one, would have loved to have seen what he could have done with more support. Being a play or two away from a national championship multiple years at half of what we are spending now tells me a lot about his coaching ability at that time. Also, when it comes to innovation, keep in mind that the SEC officials refused to let CMR do the fast paced O that is all the rage today.
What might UGA football have been if CMR had been supported by the admin from the beginning.
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He woulda jumped off an even HIGHER dive board…if only that meanie McGarity gave him more money
Clearly CMR was an intense competitor, always pushing himself to new heights of success. Look at all he’s doing at Miami…oh right.
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During the most recent head coach hiring process, Georgia did not have a viable plan ‘B’.
Kirby and Sexton leveraged this to make increased football investment a requirement for his acceptance of the position. Also upon arrival, Kirby was no stranger to the top donors of the program and he has a degree in Finance. It’s an advantage our previous two head coaches did not have.
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I’m pretty sure Kirby showed up to his “interview” with a comprehensive plan for the football program which was something that hadn’t been seen before. And he is showing that he can execute on said plan given his background, education and OTJ training.
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Every thing that all of you have posted here about Butts Mehre, UGA, Richt and Kirby is true and also old news. Looking ahead I see an AD on a year to year contract and a football coaching staff loaded with recruiters who except for Pittman haven’t proven a whole lot yet in player development, especially on defense. That worries me as I wonder how much Roquan, Chubb and Michel really carried us in 2017. As for Kirby he’s a good coach who has been given everything he’s asked for and the pressure is only gonna’ grow on him. I don’t see him getting complacent like Richt did but he must turn these recruiting classes into great performers on the field to last another 12 years.
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What are you talking about? Donnan was the man with the financial plan!!!
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True. Didn’t give him enough credit. Even got MFA to kick in some dough.
Also had a plan to sidestep the prosecution. 😉
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Richt was on 680 the other day. What a whiner. Hard to believe he Coached at UGA 15 years. Miami saw right through his BS early on.
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“Is Smart a better head coach than Richt? Yeah, he is that. Has he received better support — far better support — to succeed than Richt got?”
The feeling is that Smart is the better coach, but we do not know just yet IMO. Good points, have always wondered what Richt could have done with the support that we are showing now:
The 3 year comparison:
CMR overall record: 32-8
CKS overall record: 32-10
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The SEC’s better than it was in Richt’s early years, so it’s not apples to apples. Smart’s last two teams have been qualitatively better than any of Richt’s, but the difference isn’t that substantial. Assuming he sustains that level, and I think that’s a safe assumption, there will be no arguing that Smart’s better.
I doubt the level of support had much, if anything to do with Richt’s shortcomings, but since it’s all hypothetical, we’ll all choose to believe what we want.
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“The SEC’s better than it was in Richt’s early years, so it’s not apples to apples”
Everything is relative….subjective.
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Difference between Richt and Kirby isn’t in the Win/Loss column.
Recruiting ranking 247 composite
2001 (LSU, UT, AU, Ark, UGA -5) 2nd in east
2002 (UT, UGA -2, UF) 2nd in east
2003 (UF, LSU, UGA -3, UT) 2nd in east
2004 (LSU, UF, UGA -3, UT) 2nd in east
2016 (Bama, LSU, OM, UGA – 4, AU, UF, UT) 1st in east
2017 (Bama, UGA -2 , LSU, AU, UF) 1st in east
2018 (UGA -1, Bama, AU, UF, LSU) 1st in SEC
2019 (Bama, UGA -2, TA&M, LSU, UF) 1st in East
Include what was inherited by each coach on the O-Line and D-Line and where those units are by year 4 and the comparisons melt away other than Win/Loss. Lastly Bama is just ridiculous when comparing any other period of SEC football to now. That is what we have to overcome now.
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There is no doubting at this point that Kirby Smart of the last 2 years has been a better head coach than Mark Richt’s last 2 years at UGA. There’s also no doubting that Kirby has gotten the financial support in his first 3 years that Richt never could have dreamed of in his first 3 years.
Can we all be happy that Richt left Georgia in a much better place than he found it and that Kirby is building upon that to build what appears to be monster?
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Were Belk Bowls and the like really better? That is where Richt had us.
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Can you read?
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Richt Derangement Syndrome is obviously still a thing.
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I don’t understand it from some people … they’ll be the same ones calling for “lather, rinse, repeat” if Kirby doesn’t deliver a national championship in the next 2 years.
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SEC Titles move the meter for me. YMMV.
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It’s nice, but no matter what you say it is not the top prize.
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You’re going to be disappointed year in and year out … natty or bust!
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Very well. 2005 was a long time ago.
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Kirby seems to respect publicly what Richt did for the program over a 15-year period … why can’t you?
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I do think the health of his Wife had a profound effect on him, and I get that totally.
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What does that have to do with respecting the work he did?
He probably should have retired after 2014. That season, especially the Gurley suspension, should have spoken volumes to Richt about how much support he had from the AD (and, therefore, the liquor barons).
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They’re better than the toilet bowls, which is where we were circling at the end of Ray’s and Donnan’s days…
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Losing to Tennessee and Florida by 20+ consistently, getting curb-stomped at home by Fech, making Ben Leard look like a Heisman winner, and allowing Quincy Carter to throw 5 picks at USCjr without yanking him pass for the program being exactly the same as it was in 2014-15.
No matter what the real evidence indicates some people can’t be reasoned with.
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From the phantom time out in Jax until Donnan was fired, there were exactly two points – beating Florida in ’97 (snuffed out immediately by Auburn) and LSU in ’98 (snuffed out immediately by Fat Phil) – that were above/better than the lowest moments of Richt’s tenure…
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I hope you don’t think I’m disagreeing with you.
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Appreciative of Mark Richt and I’m excited the way Kirby is building. Point is, it is too early to compare the two imo. There is nothing definitive at this point to say who is the better coach…but my feeling is, we’re on the right track (MNC), just need to get that big bear off our back.
A change was needed, happy Kirby is here…
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It’s amazing how smart you can be when someone gives you another $20 million to spend on football.
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Alfred E Neuman even stated himself that Richt never asked for the things that Kirby did and if he had he would have gotten more support. I think Richt was basically lazy. All he worried about was couch time with “the water girl” which was another really.dumb idea of Richts!!!
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Why do you think the numbers jumped suddenly under Kirby? We finally got a head coach with real vision and the ability to sell administration on his vision.
Administrative support is not arbitrarily ordained by the college football gods. A head coach has to fight for what he gets for his program. Richt failed to do that.
It’s an integral part of the job, especially at schools where unbridled support of football programs isn’t totally automatic.
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That’s one way to look at it. Another would be this: We’re receiving obscene amounts of money from the TV contracts. If we don’t spend it the school will. I’m guessing the truth is somewhere in between this and your comment. Getting rid of Adams was also a game changer. Keeping the Athletic Department in check was his obsession.
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If TV money were the key determinative factor, then you’d expect all SEC programs to be spending proportionally more. I haven’t conducted that study, but I’d be surprised if that were the case. TV money definitely enables more spending, but I’m not sure it necessarily determines more spending.
I think you’re right to consider Adams as a factor. But that doesn’t change the bottom line. Richt could have lobbied boosters, the fan base, and other allies to further his cause. He could have played hardball. Remember Pruitt’s frustration? For whatever reason, Richt just wasn’t effective.
Getting support for the program is the job of a head coach. Same with winning games. Both rely on many variables, only some of which the coach can actually control. But both are bottom line metrics of success or failure. In the support category, Richt failed hard. With wins, he had his moments.
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^^^So much of this. Adams needed the AA money to play CEO when the UGA Foundation money was taken away from him. He wanted to control every last dime and Damon nor Frank were going to mess up their gravy train (at least in that way) to appeal to the Athletic Board to stop him. The Board was in Adams’ camp anyway. I wish Mark Richt had been given the resources in years 5-10 to compete in the impending arms race, but my heart tells me he wasn’t cutthroat enough to keep up for long.
Having said that, I agree with others that Richt built up our program from where we were headed in the late 90’s and I for one am thankful. I just wish he had bowed out a little sooner to save a little more of his legacy in the eyes of many.
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Just curious, but do you think Richt should have laid down the law in 2003-5 to get the indoor facility and other support when he had the most leverage? If he didn’t get it, he was going to look at other opportunities.
As others have stated, Adams didn’t want to give the program the financial support it needed to remain competitive with the arms race that was getting ready to start in the west.
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I was not (and am not) behind the scenes enough to say whether/when Richt should have advocated for specific allocations. What we do know: Richt consistently failed to get enough support. It’s very hard to say exactly why and Adams may have been part of the problem.
That said, any way you slice it, Richt failed to obtain support for his program. That is a bottom line result. Full stop. Even more damning, it seems that Richt even failed to recognize the looming arms race as an urgent problem that would eventually undo him.
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Instead Richt repeatedly told the world that he was thrilled to be at UGA and would never leave the guys he recruited. Adams and crew believed him too.
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Senator Blutarsky for AD and DCWeez for President of the University and ALL our problems will be solved and ALL our wishes fulfilled. Michael Adams was the problem from which all others flowed during the Richt era. He was a little ,ineffectual man who was pissed at the world because of any or all the following reasons:
a) his mamma stopped breast feeding him too soon
b) he got picked on in school;
c) didn’t get in the fraternity he wanted
d) got picked last for all sports teams;
e) married the first girl who had sex with him
f)all the above
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Read title, first thought, “here we go again”
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