McGarity + Richt = What?

Not long ago many of us were involved with a thread on Dawgs.com concerning our feelings and relaying them to the Georgia Athletic Department. Many on this board did so, and apparently after reading the article below, we see just how far our lack of leadership has fallen.

I am highlighting this one statement from Mark Richt, last statement in the article. Never has Mark Richt made a statement that carried as much truth as . . . . "Don’t focus on things I can’t control".

Sir, that is the problem. You cannot focus and you cannot control our teams focus. That has been proven over a 15 year span.

Richt was asked days after the Tennessee loss about criticism he receives.

“We all have frustrations,” he said. “I just go back to the things I can control and I focus on that. Don’t focus on things I can’t control.”

Regular business hours at the University of Georgia are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

Email inboxes never close.

That’s a good thing for people like Danny Smith, who have something to get off their chests about the football team under coach Mark Richt, especially when the Bulldogs lost back-to-back SEC games to Alabama and Tennessee earlier this month.

Smith, a season ticket holder who lives in Tunnel Hill near Dalton, fired off an email to Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity at 10:55 p.m. on Oct. 10, hours after the Bulldogs lost 38-31 in Knoxville.

“2015 will be another mediocre year for UGA’s football team ending with an invitation from a 2nd or 3rd tier bowl,” he wrote. “We have lost confidence in Coach Richt’s ability to beat the tougher teams on the schedule and propel the team to a championship.” He closed with “I think it is time for UGA to make a change.”

Reached by phone, Smith said he also sent an email in 2010 in support of Richt after a 1-4 start. On the night of the Tennessee game, he crafted an email in a hotel room in St. Simons Island after returning from a wedding with his wife. He saw most of the first half and then watched highlights when he returned.

“If you go back, starting with 2008, every year we have a habit of losing games either we shouldn’t lose, or there are games against top-ranked opponents that are critical to us in terms of making it to the championship game,” said Smith, a retired hospital chief financial officer who also thinks 10 years since Georgia won an SEC title is too long. “It happened again this year. I feel like we had a pretty good football team. (Richt has) obviously got some issues at quarterback, but other than that I thought we had a pretty good team and a chance. Even if we didn’t beat Alabama, I felt we should have beat Tennessee.”

McGarity and/or UGA president Jere Morehead received 38 emails or letters relating to Richt and the football program between Oct. 3, the day Georgia lost to Alabama 38-10, and Oct. 14, four days after the Tennessee loss, according to an open records request by the Athens Banner-Herald and OnlineAthens.com.

Of those, 28 either wanted Richt fired (“When the season is finished, perhaps we should make an offer to Kirby Smart of Alabama to be our next Football Head Coach,” one alum wrote), changes to be made or expressed unhappiness with the team’s performance. Four wrote to express support for Richt.

Others wrote about the way players acted in a pregame incident with Alabama, complained about the Sanford Stadium atmosphere, or the condition of the field at Tennessee.

“You know probably starting Saturday night into Sunday into Monday, your inbox is going to be full of people expressing their thoughts,” McGarity said.

Some can’t wait, sending them at halftime.

“I read emails,” McGarity said. “Sure, if someone has time to write, I’ll read it. I have to decide on my own decisions, things of this nature. People vent. I get that. People compliment. I get that. You kind of read everything.”

Georgia gave Richt, now in his 15th season, an $800,000 raise and a contract extension in January after a 10-3 season. It has increased annual spending for the football program 35.7 percent and moved forward with plans for a $30 million indoor facility. Richt has helped attract a 2016 recruiting class, led by five-star quarterback Jacob Eason, that is ranked No. 8 nationally by Scout.com.

“We are proud he is our coach and that he is a man of character and ethics,” Becca Farr wrote on Oct. 12. “We believe that Mark Richt is the man to lead the UGA football team and we believe he will lead us to a national championship. It may not happen this year, but it will happen.”

Others aren’t so sure.

Tommy Lawhorne, captain of UGA’s 1967 team, sent a letter to Morehead after the Tennessee loss with the handwritten message “I remain convinced our coach has lost his competitive edge.” It was written on a letter dated Dec. 17 in which he wrote he had lost confidence in Richt and mentioned he left the loss to Georgia Tech “in disgust.”

When he was on the athletic board of directors in September 2011, Lawhorne said at a meeting “many of us are concerned about the state of the football program.”

Scott Ripley wrote two days after the Tennessee loss that he no longer planned to buy season tickets, because he did not think Richt could lead Georgia to another championship.

“I’m the only one that’s fed up enough,” he said with a laugh when told he was the only fan to threaten to not renew tickets.

He wrote to McGarity: “I cannot tell you what to do. I only hope that this realization has hit the athletic department and that there is a plan of action in place to deal with Coach Richt’s removal and replacement in a swift and purposeful manner. I am shocked at the number of fans who still claim that Georgia can’t do better than Mark Richt and throw the tired argument of ‘who can we hire that would be better.’ I don’t know the answer to that question but other teams within our conference have proved time and again that it can be done. ... I am a 2002 graduate of the Terry College of Business and have been a season ticket holder ever since. I can no longer support the continued employment of Mark Richt as our head coach of the football team.”

Ripley, 35, who lives in Marietta and is a project manager for an electrical contracting company, is a lifelong Georgia fan.

“The frustration has built over time,” Ripley said, mentioning a “no-show” at South Carolina in 2012, a 35-7 loss.

Ripley said he got a phone call from someone with the Georgia Bulldog Club the same day he sent his email. When asked if he would still discontinue to buy season tickets if Georgia ran the table the rest of its schedule, Ripley said he was leaning toward that. His tickets, he said, cost him more than $1,000.

Like Ripley, Smith also praised Richt for his integrity and the way he runs his program.

“You don’t want a coach like a Bobby Petrino or someone like that,” he said.

Ripley and Smith said they did not hear from McGarity.

Smith said he gets surveys from UGA on his opinion on what they can do to improve the fan experience.

“I said start winning. Start winning the games we need to win and make it to the championship.”

McGarity said the volume of emails this month wasn’t different than other football losses, whether it was Auburn in 2013 or Georgia Tech in 2014.

“That’s why sometimes you’re numb to it,” he said. “... It is just typical of the type of email traffic we receive on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis. It doesn’t surprise me because people are passionate.”

Richt was asked days after the Tennessee loss about criticism he receives.

“We all have frustrations,” he said. “I just go back to the things I can control and I focus on that. Don’t focus on things I can’t control.”

Fran Tarkenton, Georgia quarterback great. NFL Hall of Fame. Successful businessman. Huge supporter of the University of Georgia. Donations on a continual basis. Below are some thoughts from "Fran the Man".

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Fran Tarkenton Realistic on the State of Georgia Football


Fran Tarkenton, on the state of University of Georgia football (and compare to Coach Mark Richt’s positive outlook on the same):


I think what has happened in the last week at Georgia has been the most disturbing time that I have seen at Georgia football in a long time. You know people don’t want to look at reality. We don’t want to look at the signs…

And then I read this quote. Holy cow! Yesterday, where Mark Richt says, ‘I have been freed from administrative duties to spend more time on football.’ Then I quote him, he said, ‘the moves give him more time to study the game of football and be an expert and be on the cutting-edge.’ What has he been doing for nine years? I have never heard any college, high school; professional coach has ever said that I was not able to spend enough time on football. I had other issues.

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I really have to agree with Georgia great Fran Tarkenton. The issue with the Bulldogs is purely mindset. We have everything we need to win, and the coaches and the players just need to get it together and get in the mindset of being a team and being winners. No more excuses, just FINISH THE DRILL.

Good Sunday Morning Buc,

Just had read your post in the ABH before hitting the internet

Much meat on the bone....interesting Saturday in college

Football....CNS post game interview. We found a way to win when we were not playing our best football

I can remember Maddux and Glavine saying the same learning to win when you don't have your best stuff

Gus Bus .....more blue smoke. World beater DC gives up

45 pts. Hmmm.... Enjoy your day...giddy on North Ave

Go Dawgs

Going back into the past again, feel it important that the history of Georgia football be presented here.

Not all of us that are asking for improvement are against individuals, believe it to be more of folks that recognize and speak to existing "facts". Fifteen years is quite a long period of time, and there seems to be disagreement as to when our (UGA) program will move forward. Here it is 2015 and we seem to be in the same place we were . . . . you select the year.

Dr. Tommy Lawhorne is quoted in the opening thread. Remember him well, to me he was a "puppy" at that point. Much smaller than those playing the game in Athens today, but he was, smart, tough and played "team football".

Mentioned Francis Tarkenton above, now it is Dr. Tommy Lawhorne that I bring forward. Another of the graduates that played hard and realize that all is "not well in Athens".

Everyone is entitled to their opinion(s). That is a given. Sometimes those that want "more" from a head coach in my opinion don't really understand where D1 College Football is at this day and time. Again, my opinion.

Encourage that the link below is visited. Remembering also that he was quoted in the thread opening.

www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/lawhorne_tommy00.html

When the seats are empty, maybe change will come.

I, for one, refuse to spend a couple of grand for a weekend in Athens to see us underperform and then listen to a whiny coach tell those who pay his salary some things are out of his control.

We have been taken for fools.

The problem with letters is very simple. Richt and the rest of them are all completely dismissive of anything said as coming from people who are just caught up in the emotion of the moment.

Mark Richt, being completely devoid of emotion, cares nary a bit about such things. He thinks we all care about things that he knows are not really important... wins and losses whereas he cares about the important things: matters of spirituality and redirecting of our enthusiasm into being good men moreso than good football players.

The rest of them don't give a hoot as long as the money keeps pouring in.

So I hope the letter writers continue to fight the good fight, but it means little.