In a 13-day period that bracketed Georgia’s appearance in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 7, the Bulldogs spent $422,047.07 on 42 trips by chartered air planes for coach Kirby Smart and members of his staff. Those flights landed in 23 different cities outside of Georgia’s borders, some as far away as Van Nuys, Calif., and Ontario, Canada.
Those are just a few of the revelations discovered when UGA released this week travel documents requested by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January. According to those records, Georgia football coaches boarded chartered flights at least 74 times between September and mid-December of last year. On average, the UGA Athletic Association paid $9,409 for those trips, not including coaches’ personal expenses. The total: $696,269.99.
That’s not chump change.
“You want a return on your investment, right?” said Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity, referencing to the recruiting class’s No. 1 rank.
I’m not complaining, mind you. It’s just that Greg sure has changed his tune from the Richt years. And before any of you start whining about how it was Richt’s responsibility to push for the support, if recruiting is as vital to the success of a football program as McGarity acknowledges, why does the athletic director need to be pushed to spend the money in the first place? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Get The Picture 
CMR was gonna win 9-10 games with the #1 class. Was never going to push UGA over the top. Never. No matter what kind of talent he had.
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I think “Never” is wrong there – considering he won more than 10 multiple times. I agree he was missing on the roster management and line of scrimmage recruiting needed to go next level. Plus some killer instinct.
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Agreed, Richt may have eventually had one magical Natty despite his slack roster management under recruiting OL. You can have a #1 class while undersigning in the trenches. Recruiting rankings aren’t about filling needs it is average and amount of stars beside a recruit’s name. Richt regularly scored relatively well. Richt had the #3 class in ’06, #4 in ’09 and was routinely no lower than 11th especially prior to 2010.
Smart is a bad call away from 1 title and has been regularly in the top 4-5 teams with no sign of that changing. Further should we review the snark posted this week about UGA’s problem at OL? Smart has regularly moved to fill any gaps in the programs from position needs on the roster to changing OCs.
Richt’s killer instinct onfield is a reflection of his office room negotiations with McGarity. Richt helped fund the IPF for Miami, nice gesture but again if it is needed why isn’t the AD writing the check? He is a great guy. I’d love for him to coach my kid at a lower level but many under estimate what cut throat jobs being a FBS head Coach, or FBS AD are. Further the more I read Richt was burned out which didn’t help. You can be burned out in many jobs and still perform well, FBS HC isn’t one of them.
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and you know this, how??
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What is 2001-2015 UGA Football?, Alex
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If you ain’t first, you’re last! Woo!
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It will be interesting to see if Smart wins his second SEC title in his first 5 years as compared to Richt.
Don’t get me wrong, a change was made and it was the right thing at the time (Smart)….but you just know, that there will be some comparisons.
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Unfortunately for CMR, he only had 7 years to show some improvement from the 2008 debacle vs Bama and the 2015 debacle vs. Bama. Just not enough time for him to turn things around
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yep….still unknown for Kirby in what he will do, those 1st 5 years for Richt will be hard to beat (2 SEC titles). I can only hope that he can do better. Not too many coaches at UGA have done better than Richt (5 or more years), if any.
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This bogus argument gets old. Things have changed big time since 68 men on scholarship left Athens.
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who’s arguing??
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“CMR was gonna win 9-10 games with the #1 class”
When did that ever happen??
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Spot on. A leadership style of hanging back and responding to requests will only get you so far. Wonder if McG is looking for other ways to push the envelope now – across all of our programs – or just responding?
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“Wonder if McG is looking for other ways to push the envelope now – across all of our programs – or just responding?”
Excellent point! One would think Greg Mediocrity would be pushing coaches and staff from ALL the sports programs HE ADMINISTERS to emulate Kirby’s recruiting magic. In McG’s own words, it would be a great return on investment.
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Richt preferred to invest in the important things…like black helmets for the 09 Cocktail party.
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When Richt started to pay coaches increases/incentives out of his own pocket…..you just knew it was the beginning of the end.
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Also when Alabama hired Saban.
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Last I looked, only 2 coaches have beat Nick Saban…..Urban Meyer and Mark Richt. Have to look it up, but Dabo may needed to be added to that list.
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“Last I looked, only 2 coaches have beat Nick Saban…”
Well, except for Steve Spurrier, Kevin Sumlin, Ed Orgeron, Gene Chizik, Gus Malzahn, Sylvester Croom. Charlie Weatherbie, Bob Stoops, Hugh Freeze, Bobby Bowden, and Tommy Tuberville (oh, and indeed Dabo). Other than them, Meyer and Richt are the only two coaches who have beaten Saban since he started at Alabama.
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It’s obviously been a looooonnngg time since Greg last looked.
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see edit below, bout 2 minutes before you posted…and another reply just below it. That should make you feel better, you can now go about your day with your chest bowed.
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edit:….Last I looked, only 2 coaches have beat Nick Saban at least twice.
Dabo possibly may be the third coach to do it.
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Malzahn. Freeze.
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“Last I looked (beat twice – edit)”….apparently, that was sometime in 2017.
I believe Freeze had to vacate some of those wins. It looks like the NCAA stripped them of 33 wins over 6 seasons.
Yeah, Malzahn is correct….it looks like he did it in ’13,’17 and ’19. Spurrier is probably another. I stand/sit corrected, still not too many can say they’ve done it.
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Well in 2007, CMR was joined by Sly Croome, Les Miles, Tuberville, Bobby Bowden and, wait for it, Charlie Weatherbie in notching a W over Saban.
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I don’t think it was McGarity making the decision to throttle funding for CMR
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Whatever the reason, we should be very happy McGoof changed!
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Unrelated: JFC, Deandre
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52675230
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It’s not unrelated, he was a Richt recruit dammit!
Of course I’m kidding, but I saw someone comment elsewhere that this crime was an SEC East trifecta. Baker played at UGA, he was recruited by the current UTk coach, and his accomplice was a gator.
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That’s funny right there, I don’t care who you are.
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Friends don’t let friends be friends with Gators.
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Mr. Rogers said it best….#FTMF
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Hey look everybody here knows who we are so let’s rob them – maybe they won’t notice. You truly can’t fix stupid.
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No. It isn’t the ADs job to know how to run a football program or to tell the head football coach how to run a successful program. People that don’t have McGarity Derangement Syndrome know that.
You are also forgetting the part where Morehead replaced Adams. McGarity most likely has different marching orders.
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McCheap is a recent convert. And he only changed because he was forced to change. I’m reminded of a saying: “It’s a hard enough climb up the ladder of success without having to drag someone else up with you.” McCheap needs to go. He’s an empty suit. At least at this juncture it appears he isn’t the hindrance he used to be during the Richt years. But when the best thing you can say about him is he isn’t a hindrance any more……then he needs to go.
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We’re still doing Richt?
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