A puzzling note from Chip Towers about Coley:
There’s reason to believe Coley’s deal might be more complicated. At Georgia, Coley was making $950,000 a year as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in a three-year deal signed off on by the Bulldogs less than a year ago. That represented a $100,000 raise from the previous year and $500,000 more than he was making when he joined Kirby Smart’s staff at UGA in 2016.
But Smart gave Coley’s job to somebody else earlier this past week when he hired Todd Monken as offensive coordinator. That meant Coley, if left without a job, was still owed $950,000 for the next two years from somebody.
That seems to imply — and I’m really not trying to put words in Towers’ mouth here, but I genuinely am confused by what he’s offering there — either Coley was canned outright by Smart, or else McGarity signed off on a contract deal that pays a buyout in the event of a demotion and a voluntary departure.
Given that the school formally announced Coley was given a new title when Monken was brought on board, it appears that Kirby wanted Coley to stay (or at least that he hadn’t kicked Coley out the door), so I don’t buy the former interpretation. The second take seems even more unlikely, though.
Anybody have an idea what Towers is getting at here?
Get The Picture 
That McG let some money slip through his hands? I’d be stunned.
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Gotta fill column space. No substance present, word salad is served.
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Guessing a negotiated deal – he likely walked away with 1/2 his money, etc. Just tells you that CKS understood the severity of the situation and acted for the best of the program.
I’m not a Coley hater… And believe that Kirby has ownership here too.
Team had 12 wins; but some of it was just brutal to watch and that had more to do with strategy and play calling.
It looks like all of this has been a ‘monster’ wake up call for Kirby.
Let’s hope so…
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Yep. And Coley will probably be named oc at A&M at some point after he has received whatever funds remain in his Georgia contractual buy out. He still won’t be calling plays though.
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aTm already has OCs and what I’ve seen said they’re hiring Coley as TE coach.
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I agree with this take.
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If the D was even slightly worse this past year, we could have been looking at a 7-5 season with our Offensive production. I am sure Kirby took that to heart. You can’t bank on being able to hold teams scoreless forever. I mean this past year the D had 12 scoreless halves of football out of 28 total halves of football, that in it’self is pretty crazy.
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^^This. We won close games this season. With the best D in the conference. Even a slight drop off in the D could have resulted in several more losses, particularly to hated rivals (read: Florida). This O problem has to be fixed ASAP. Glad Kirby recognized it and acted. Now….what’s going on re: Hankton?
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I agree, Senator – those two scenarios seem unlikely. A third possible option, that Coley simply left $450k on the table and walked , is also unlikely.
A fourth option is that Towers assumption of Coley’s salary at Tamu is wrong. If anyone can justify paying a TE coach 950 a year I’d think Tamu is your huckleberry
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Depending on terms a demotion can trigger severance clauses. Even if comp stays the same. You can ask for an exit package.
We could owe him some cash. The amount depends on what he negotiated up front and at the end.
He clearly wasn’t fired. That’s not what McGarity or Kirby wanted financially or from a recruiting message. But he clearly was demoted.
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Between the reserve fund, annual revenues increasing every year and the McGill society donations pulling up GM shouldn’t worry about paying off a coach. It would interesting for a reporter to request Coley’s contract and see what the agreement is around quitting
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I don’t think they’re worried about having the money to pay it, they’re worried they’ll use up some cash to pay it.
The reserve fund doesn’t get so big by just focusing on annual revenues increasing and the McGill society donations going up.
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I quit being a Chip Towers fan last season.
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Chip is the original Debby Downer to me! I quit reading his articles in ’17 when he completely Munsoned out before every game. Geezus, man.
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AJC says it all
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I’m with you. It sounds like Chip is sure that Coley will be paid off by UGA but he doesn’t offer proof, only conjecture. I guess the FOI request will let us know soon enough. All of a sudden we’re learning the media guys must have loved Coley on a personal level. Could he have been a leaker?
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In my spouse’s big corporation they often move someone over to a less important job instead of firing them. The person looks for another job and then smoothly leaves. It’s less aggressive and tends to not rattle the rest of the employees. Not really that surprising.
Well, in the last 5 years almost all of those people negotiate a severance before they except the next gig. I think that is what happened here. Coley knew Smart wanted to free up the spot on the staff, so they agree to something to make it happen smoothly. McGarrity clutched his pearls but someone made him do it.
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I suppose a Public Records request to aTm and UGA will clear up some of the mystery over the coming weeks.
Usually the salary offsets occur when someone is fired, not when they leave of their own volition. No mention of any buyout clauses if he left for another job without being fired. Kirby gave him a promotion to Asst HC to justify his salary. If Coley decided to leave for a new gig on his own, that would be his decision unless, Kirby wanted him out the door and agreed to pay a “start looking but go away” bonus that was less expensive than an outright firing would be.
UGA hired the OC from Southern Miss that was making $250K for $150K as an off field analyst right after Monken came on board.. Why would he take that position unless it just as a holding spot till Coley’s spot opened up.
Beyond that Chip is going to eventually hurt himself trying to think. Maybe he should quit speculating on a report written on an aTm fan site and make a few calls.
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Kirby probably wanted to keep him around on the payroll as long as possible for recruiting reasons and also not lose anyone prior to signing day. But as expected, other schools are likely asking recruits to challenge UGA on who the full new Offensive coaches / staff will be, which is low hanging fruit on the trail. So the hand got forced and McGarity needs to know what money is going to be spent, and when on the remains staff. So Kirby & Monken likely to promote Buster Faulkner as well as name an official WR/TE Special Teams coaches in order to satisfy all the recruits and their families.
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Bottom line “In Kirby I trust” end of story.
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but, but, Kirby is so stubborn, he jumps around on the sideline, he only likes to run up the middle, etc
everybody needs to dial it the fuck down, Kirby is on the mutha
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Towers’ job is to stir up shit so that people will click links at the AUC. He doesn’t need to have a point or even make sense.
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Kirby Smart has another staff position to fill this offseason. Dawgs247 confirmed on Saturday that Director of Player Personnel Marshall Malchow has left his post for a similar position at Texas A&M, with a substantial pay raise expected. He will replace Austin Thomas, who just left to become the General Manager of Football Operations at Baylor.
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Malchow tired of Kirby hours?
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So….aTm is now raiding Georgia for football personnel?
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Why are we even worried about this? If there is a buyout then UGA will pay it. In the overall scheme of things it’s not that large a buyout and it’s the cost of doing business. Even McDumbass knows that. I’m more than willing to pay up a little for a luxury model that “performs” better.
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Coley wasn’t a bad OC—he just wasn’t a really good OC. Who knows, in a few more years Coley may be a really good OC but he doesn’t need to get the OJT here. Let him get it someplace else.
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I don’t know how to answer that as I’m now confused about the whole thing. Smart bringing Monken, and then especially Faulkner, on seems to tell me that there was no coaching position for Coley but that he wanted to keep him for his recruiting. That’s great in a perfect world but seems highly unrealistic, at best, and a slap in Coley’s face, at worst.
The hiring of Faulkner lead me to believe he’d be the QB coach. Maybe I’m wrong about all of this. Kirby could clear the air if he wanted to. The fact that Coley bolted for aTm to be a TE coach behind 2 OCs tells me that maybe he wasn’t too happy. Lol
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I saw CT at a wedding reception tonight – he couldn’t have been nicer – and like a moron I asked him about the article. It wasn’t really the time or place, but he did talk to me anyway.
His take was that, no surprise, it’s a Jimmy Sexton contract thing, and he said that as we know with JS representing so many SEC coaches it’s all very incestuous. He’s trying to figure it out too, but the point was that with Coley losing his OC position, Sexton is making a case that Coley essentially lost his job. Even though they tried to keep him on staff the move may have been enough to trigger the $950k.
I don’t know if it is settled or being negotiated or arbitrated or what (don’t have time to read the article now).
There – clear as mud!
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Is Malchow taking the same job at aTm? That concerns me if so.
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I have no idea what is being said… I clicked out when i saw it was an AJC article
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