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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Garner, Searels decisions speak volumes about Richt
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just one man’s opinion as we prepare for the last game of the 2008 college football season:
1. The decisions by Garner, Searels, tell you volumes about Richt: The people who work in college football for a living will tell you that the most important quality a program can have, other than great players, is stability on the coaching staff. Hiring the wrong assistant coach or multiple assistants at the wrong time can put an otherwise decent program in the ditch. Just ask Auburn.
That is why, no matter who Georgia signs in February, head coach Mark Richt has already had a good recruiting season. The decisions by assistant head coach Rodney Garner and offensive line coach Stacy Searels, who turned down big money offers at Tennessee and Auburn to stay at Georgia, is a tribute to Richt and what he has built in Athens.
And while I’m at it, let me get this off my chest as we start the New Year. There is a reason that coaches work where they work and it’s not always about money. It’s about a quality of life. Garner and Searels like and respect the man they work for and they like the quality of life in Athens. In the “disappointment” of a 10-3 season there have been some on this blog who have tried the characterize Richt as some sort of choirboy who doesn’t have the gravitas to go head to head with the Urban Meyers and Nick Sabans of the world.
Gently put, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. And the decisions by Garner and Searles prove it.
2. Time to give Chizik some credit: I can’t think if a coaching hire that has been more widely second-guessed than Auburn’s decision to hire Gene Chizik. And yes, race was injected into the issue when Charles Barkley said what he said. But now it’s time to start giving the new head coach at Auburn some credit. He has made a couple of very inspired hires by bringing in Guz Malzahn as offensive coordinator and Trooper Taylor as assistant head coach. Taylor, who was one of Tennessee’s best recruiters before he went to Oklahoma State last season, is a great get for Auburn. He was a big reason why the Oklahoma State offense lit up the scoreboard this season.
My friend Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News pointed this out this morning but it bears repeating. Chizik has hired five assistant coaches thus far and four have been African-American. If you’re going to criticize Auburn for passing on Turner Gill as a head coach, you have to credit the school for having a diverse staff. Here is Kevin’s column.
3. Tennessee will have the highest paid staff in college football: Defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin will get a $1 million plus. Ed Orgeron, who is not even a coordinator, could be in the $600,000 range. Reports said Tennessee was prepared to pay Rodney Garner about $400,000 as a position coach. Tennessee has put out the word that it is going to hire the best coaching staff that money can buy.
In 2008, Tennessee spent $1.935 million on its assistant coaches. Before the hiring is done the budget for the Volunteer staff could double. It’s a good thing the new TV contracts with CBS and ESPN are getting ready to kick in. Tennessee is going to need the money.
In a recent poll in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, 63 percent of those who took part said that Tennessee was not overspending for its staff. Thirty percent said they were.
4. Texas will not win the AP national championship: The Longhorns made a great comeback to nip Ohio State at the buzzer in last night’s Fiesta Bowl. But I know the voters in the AP poll. I used to be one of them. They were looking for Texas to make a statement in last night’s game that they should share the national championship if Oklahoma beats Florida.
Texas looked sluggish in the first half and then got things cranked up in the second half behind Colt McCoy, who will definitely be in the Heisman discussion again next season.
Texas coach Mack Brown said that he will join Utah’s Kyle Whittingham and defy the rule that coaches must vote for the winner of the BCS championship game in the final USA Today coaches’ poll. He’s going to vote for Texas. I also predict, after talking with Brown last week, that he may not be a voter in the coaches’ poll next season. “I want to do what’s right but I also want to be fair to my team,” Brown told. “It’s just a conflict that we shouldn’t have as coaches. I’m going to do a lot of study and see if I should stay in.”
5. Tebow’s comments are a non-issue: Unfortunately, media day at the BCS national championship game has become like media day at the Super Bowl. It is a cluster you-know-what where the media desperately attempts to get a player to say something that will be a sound bite or a headline in an otherwise routine day. The players have to be coached to be boring instead of being themselves.
Florida quarterback Tim Tebow said earlier that he would like to play against some of the defenses in the Big 12 like Texas and Oklahoma. So the media spent the first half of the day trying to get Tebow to admit that he was really dissing the Big 12. Tebow’s point was that he would like be on the same field with two of the great franchises in the history of the sport. But that’s boring.
Oklahoma defensive back Dominique Franks said that Tebow would be the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12. If I was a defensive back in the Big 12 and had seen Sam Bradford, Graham Harrell and Colt McCoy I would probably say the same thing. Franks was not knocking Tebow, he was taking up for his own league, which SEC players do all the time. But that’s boring.
Sometimes we in the media treat college football like it’s the WWE. At the end of the day it’s about who is going to win the game and why.
I know. That’s boring.
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