I really don’t want to post anything more about Greg McGarity. I’ve written enough about him over the years, good, bad and indifferent, to last a lifetime. And the reality is that I expect little to nothing in the way of change in the wake of his departure.
On the Auburn rescheduling controversy of 2012 that sent the Bulldogs to Plains two straight years without any reciprocal adjustment …
“People have no idea how hard I fought for us on that. I was furious when it first came up; I went (expletive) nuts. I’m in there advocating as hard as I can. But, at the end of the day, there are 14 other people in that room, and it always comes down to a show of hands. The SEC has to do what’s best for everybody involved, and that’s not always what’s best for Georgia. When it’s over, I can’t come out there and trash the league or rant about what other teams are doing. But to say that I’m not in there advocating on behalf of us as hard I can is just not true.”
On the infamous dual press conference with Mark Richt after firing him in 2015 …
“I regret that; I definitely regret that. Talk about do-overs. But here’s the thing, we didn’t think he was going to leave for another job. I had always been impressed with how well Mark interacted with alumni and good he was in fundraising situations. So, we had talked about him slowing down a little and helping us with that and overseeing the Paul Oliver Network. Based on the conversations I’d had with him, I thought he was worn out. We didn’t think he was going to go right back to coaching. I was stunned he did, to be honest.”
The best thing I can say about his retirement is that he won’t be speaking with the press anymore.
Get The Picture 
I give him a pass on the Auburn situation, because there was nothing he could do – it was gonna be a 13-1 vote and if he’d stood his ground, it probably would’ve blown up the permanent cross-over rivalry (maybe he could’ve gotten something out of the league, like a little cash to grease the skids, but there was no way he was getting a “make-up” home game).
The Richt “firing” will forever define him. His latest quote simply confirms (again) that he was lying when he fired Richt (“I decided to do it on the drive back from Tech yesterday”) or he’s lying now (“we’d been talking about Mark slowing down”). At the press conference, I sure didn’t get the sense Richt was ready to quit coaching…. It’s particularly galling because we were told by a prominent booster prior to the Tech game that as long as we won, Richt had already agreed to can Shotty and he’d be fine for 2016 (which also happens to be entirely consistent with someone flying to Washington state a few weeks earlier after the Auburn game, on his own dime and of his own volition, to lockdown the prized QB recruit). McGarity’s inability to be honest about the situation to this day is pretty revealing.
As many have said over the past few days, other than football (where Kirby has basically been given free reign, something Richt never had), we are in worse shape in pretty much everything else, than when McGarity came on board. Sadly, that says it all….
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Should all that be true concerning the release of Mark Richt, Kirby Smarts name got into the conversation pretty damn quick, maybe south carolina (or another potential suitor) got involved, from a distance seemed like a lot of moving parts for a position that may/may not have been open…yet…not gonna pile on the lack of foresight pile, but…tennis facilities is the one that be will a HUGE part of the outgoing ad’s legacy, not only for UGA but the community at large lo$t out on an event that would have/should have been in Athens town on a regular rotating basis…I know he was a gentleman, Coach Magill may reach out and piss on Mcgaritys grave one day…
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I’m also not giving him a pass for not going to bat for AJ Green or Todd Gurley. Gurley playing all of 2014 likely gets UGA at least a Heisman finalist, and another SECCG appearance (probably not a win though.)
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He’s so condescending. Reminds me of an old boss that spoke in a similar way to cover up his insecurities and incompetence. It was a thing of beauty when his competence was questioned by his peers and you watched him cower. Interestingly, he was viewed the same way as most view Greg. What does that guy do and how does he have that job?
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FTMF
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X2
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I can always stand with that.
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Two things you could count on from mcgarity
1) fucking up anything he touches because he’s a retard
2) scheduling an interview with the AJC after a particularly public fuck up (ludacris concert anyone?) and in a futile attempt to spin the truth to cast himself in a more favorable light manage to make himself look even worse than if he’d just stayed silent as well as looking like the whiny little bitch that he is.
Final thing I want to say: mcgarity gets zero credit for keeping a surplus in the reserve fund. Calling him a bean counter is an insult to the competent bean counters that I know.
1) just like any idiot can spend money foolishly any idiot can not spend money. It’s not hard, you just say no to every expenditure including the ones you should be saying yes to.
2) related to #1, ugas finances would be in better shape if it weren’t for mcgaritys incompetence and lack of vision. Exhibit a is our lack of a master facilities plan which causes us to build some half assed facility (like the first indoor football facility) that we then have to tear down to build what we should have just done all along in the first place!!!!!
We haven’t even gotten into how all his hires have sucked (kirby doesn’t count, if it were up to Greg we’d have dan Mullen) and our directors cup standings have steadily declined under his tenure.
If UGA were a company, an activist shareholder or the next private equity owner would have mcgarity fired ASAP because literally every day that he sits in his seat he is costing shareholders value. Good riddance to that guy.
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How does Kirby not count? I think he made plenty of mistakes, but undermines rest of argument when you refuse to give credit where it’s due. He hired him and moved on from Richt.
And the weird baby indoor facility that we tore down was done on Damon’s watch, not McGarity. He was way too slow to get the real deal facility done and master plan absolutely needed, but that strange waste of a room was on Damon.
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McGarity was TOLD to hire Kirby. McGarity wanted Mullen.
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Kirby was technically hired by McGarrity, who was told by Leebern and Kahn there would be no more money until Richt was fired. That shouldn’t earn him credit for the hire.
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I’ll (grudgingly) give McGarity credit for bringing Kirby home, but even then he wasn’t doing something a whole bunch of boosters weren’t already clamoring for him to do. It was a successful decision, but one that didn’t exactly require a lot of imagination on his part.
In the meantime, nearly every other program suffered from McGarity’s cheapness, even as he asked for more and more money from the alums. His legacy will be that he was more interested in filling the reserve fund than the trophy case.
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“His legacy will be that he was more interested in filling the reserve fund than the trophy case.” Nicely put.
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Am I the only one who thinks our outgoing AD bears a striking resemblance to the future King of England? Can we all acknowledge that now?
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Well, he acts like him. Probably why Adams liked him.
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Maybe he stepped down since interest rates are zero and it’s just not fun to buy bonds in the reserve fund anymore.
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I think McGartiy has done a fine job in his 10 year tenure. Don’t quite understand the hatred lobbed his way.
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When it comes to football, I mostly agree. However, I remained baffled at our cultural ineptitude and apathy toward men’s basketball in an era when all of our SEC peers have made major strides in that sport.
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You do realize he sat and twiddled his thumbs while the NCAA tennis tournament left Athens, the women’s gymnastics program devolved into an SEC also-ran, and our Directors’ Cup standing for all-sports consistently fell.
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To add on to your thought, obviously football is the sport we all care the most about and I’ll give credit that the football team is on better footing now than it was when he got here. However, of the non-football sports on campus, can you name a single one that has gotten better during his time in Athens? I can’t.
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I can name quite a few that have gotten worse. Women’s swimming and gymnastics, for starters
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Track and Field
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Exactly my point about the Directors Cup. I don’t expect us to win it because we don’t have enough sports (fencing, anyone), but I don’t think it’s too much to expect us to be in the top 10.
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You know, Greg, I might… might… be willing to give you a pass on fighting the league or Auburn or whoever on the 2012/2013 double dip trip to the Plains that we will never be made whole again on if you didn’t turn around a few years later and once again bow to Auburn’s whiny demands to move the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry from November where it has been every year during any of our lifetimes and make it just another hot weather game four or five games into the schedule. When the SEC needs someone to take a hit, they call Greg McGarity. When Auburn needs help with something, they call Greg McGarity. Me? I say safe travels and happy trails.
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Shorter Greg McGarity “I bent over, and was just as surprised as any of you when they f*ed me in the a.”
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Ahhh, the curse of Markdown strikes again. Asterisks are used for formatting text, single asterisks around any text italicizes it, double asterisks makes it bold, triple makes it bold italics. If you want more than one asterisk to appear, you have to add a backslash () before each. At least, that’s what I think is going on, Testing here:
“….f***ed me in the a**.”
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Yep, you have to backslash the asterisks
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“Sometimes you want to say something, but you just don’t. Opinions are formed, and people are going to say what they’re going to say, but they just don’t know, and I can’t change their mind anyway.”
I feel like I can actually relate to this comment a bit. I work in a leadership role where people often make assumptions about my actions when they don’t have anything close to a full picture of the situation. And even when you take the time to explain it (assuming you have that option), it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. I can’t say it doesn’t bother me at all, but I’ve learned to live with the fact that you can’t please everyone. It’s enough for me to sleep soundly at night knowing I’ve done everything I can to do right by people.
Ironically, having said all that, I’m still not willing to give McGarity a pass. Did he do more behind the scenes than what we generally give him credit for? Possibly, maybe even likely. But at best that means he was ineffective, instead of just totally inept. That’s not a huge improvement.
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I had the same thought. “Guys, I really tried–and failed utterly!” is not much better than, “Yeah, I had better things to do.”
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Sounds like you’re stubborn, that you don’t get “it” and won’t ever get “it.”
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You’ve probably heard the phrase “Effort ≠ Results.” That’s sort of how I feel about the AD’s relationship with the SEC and our other member institutions. The only thing it feels like he has been successful at is keeping the Auburn game as an annual event (although I think Bama’s game with Tennessee is the real reason the SEC hasn’t taken this on).
I don’t know the scheduling conflicts that needed to be worked out that led to our 2013 trip to JHS. Maybe he couldn’t do anything about it. He had all of the control over moving the timing of the game this year and did nothing.
I notice the AJ Green suspension never comes up when he is asked about compliance. That one still pisses me off. We lost at least 2 (maybe 3) games because he wasn’t available or wasn’t yet in game shape. We suspended him unnecessarily because we kept asking questions.
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I will never give Greggie credit for ‘bringing Kirby home’. Gregs is a mouth piece for the really high donors who have a lot of influence behind the scenes of who stays and who goes. Money talks and he listens. He fucked CMR exit press conference so badly, it just shows how out of touch he is. He thinks we are idiots and will buy his BS. Bye, Greggie. You can’t get gone fast enough for me and shut your yap while you are at it.
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His past failing are plentiful and many mentioned here. What I found interesting in his interview today was his outlook toward next season. He stated fans have learned this year to enjoy watching football at home and the challenge that will be to get them back into stadiums. He also mentioned the need to improve the tailgating experience on campus. He has always been clueless or just didn’t care regarding the wants of average fans.
He knew it was time to run for the exit now under cover of 2020.
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Just came here to see the reaction to that tongue bath Chip gave him. Noticed he didn’t say anything about rolling over for AJ Green. Never did really mention any of those “behind the scenes” times he stood up for UGA and it benefited us.
And while Chip makes a big deal about how he was Magill’s gopher, he passed right over McGarity’s neglect that caused us to lose the tournament that Magill fought for years to bring to Athens.
To me, he’s just a left over Adams yes man.
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At least McGoo didn’t get pinched driving drunk in ATL with a pair of red panties ‘twixt his legs and a home wrecking ho in the passengers seat.
So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
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What did he expect from Richt? Seppuku?
It’s like he watched Inception and figured he’d try to convince Richt it was his own idea to quit and retire.
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One of my McGoobery favorites as a season ticket holder was his brilliant reaction to fans being upset about building the endzone out for recruiting players. We got McGoobery’s minutes highlighting the fact that they repainted the restrooms for us common folk that shell out money every for our tickets. My primary request for new AD is less games against Ark state.
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Best thing I can say about McGaritys retirement is he won’t be Georgia’s AD any more.
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At last Greg McGarity can sit back and reflect on all the things Blutarsky has done to make the University of Georgia a better place to work, learn and live.
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The chief advantage of claiming to be a a guy who gets things done “behind the scenes,” is that you don’t have to point to much in the way of concrete achievements. I admit, much of my dislike of McGarity is visceral – he comes across as a sniveler and a weakling, someone who wouldn’t hesitate to throw an underling under the bus to boost his standing with his superiors. Josh Brooks did all the heavy lifting on scheduling, and the liquor barons were always going to spend the money on facilities as soon as Smart was hired (I still wish someone would conduct an audit on how and why that $40K was spend on a consulting firm to assist with the hire). And he lied on Finebaum (talk about a tongue bath) the other day, saying he didn’t sleep the Friday and Saturday nights before the Richt firing, when he told us he made the decision when driving home on 316 after the Tech game.
And what about his selfless sacrifice to delay his retirement to Jacksonville for nine months after COVID hit? What exactly did he do that was any different than any other AD? At the very least he could have pushed for beer sales at Sanford this, no one would have even noticed with everything else going on.
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