UGA AD Greg McGarity reacts to bowl loss

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By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity expressed disappointment in the Bulldogs' performance in the Liberty Bowl, but said the focus must immediately shift to "the tremendous amount of work to do to get us back on track" for next season.

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Stephen M. Dowell, MCT The Bulldogs' Liberty Bowl performance struck Georgia AD Greg McGarity as different from their play in the regular season.

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"People need to understand that I get it," McGarity said in an interview Saturday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I understand people are frustrated. I understand they're disappointed. No one is more disappointed than our staff and our players. We're moving forward. You've got to flush it and move on. You've got to learn from your mistakes, just like in any other situation."

McGarity spoke with the AJC shortly after arriving back in Georgia from Memphis, where the Bulldogs lost 10-6 to Conference USA champion Central Florida on Friday. The game left Georgia with a 6-7 record, the Bulldogs' first losing season in 14 years.

In the interview, McGarity did not depart from his earlier statements regarding coach Mark Richt's future, saying that coaches and others in the UGA athletics department are constantly being evaluated, but that he expects Richt to be the Bulldogs' coach when the 2011 season opens.

"Mark and I will continue to talk daily about our program and the things we need to do to get the program back to the stature we all want it to be," McGarity said. "Some people say, ‘Wait till the end of the season and have an evaluation.' We have it every day.

"I'm going to sit down with Mark and talk about the bowl trip, talk about recruiting. You've got to deal with these things as they come."

The Bulldogs' performance in the bowl struck McGarity as different from their play in the regular season.

"If you look at the 12 [regular-season] games we played this year, I don't think there is one of those 12 games you could say we didn't give a great effort," McGarity said. "I don't think there is any question we took a little step backward [in the bowl] in our effort and our performance, and obviously it isn't something we're accustomed to seeing.

"If we [also] had an effort like that during the regular season, I think there would be a greater concern. But that is not what we saw for 12 games this year. I think those of us who saw our football team play for 12 games saw tremendous effort and saw fight. I think we had a lot of shortcomings [Friday]."

McGarity also made a point to commend Central Florida, which won the school's first bowl game in its fourth try.

"It was obviously a great night for UCF, and we congratulate them for a well-played game," McGarity said. "They did the things necessary to win."

Georgia now has eight months to try to make corrections before it opens next season against Boise State in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game at the Georgia Dome on Sept. 3.

"There is no doubt our work started on 2011 when we left the locker room [Friday] night," McGarity said, "and there's no doubt everyone realizes we have a tremendous amount of work to do to get us back on track."

Before leaving the stadium Friday night, Richt sounded a similar note.

"There's reasons why we ended up the way we did," Richt said. "We've got to make changes. We've got to make sure that doesn't happen again in the future.

"When you start saying ‘change,' that doesn't necessarily mean personnel. ... It's more of how we go about our business. We're going to improve. We're going to get Georgia where it belongs."

The Liberty Bowl loss completed Richt's 10th season as Georgia's coach. He has a 96-34 record -- 82-22 in his first eight seasons and 14-12 in the past two. After going 8-5 last season, the Bulldogs lost four of their first five games this season, then rallied to a 6-6 record before falling below .500 with the bowl loss.

Georgia is 7-3 in bowls under Richt.