Richt needs to have a word with Grantham

Really, this really is not meant as a criticism of Grantham. (Sort of.) As I wrote Wednesday when Grantham's sudden candidacy in New Orleans unfortunately intersected with national letter of intent day, he is like almost every other assistant football coach. He's a climber. He is always going to be looking for the next best thing. He wants to be a head coach one day, which is only natural. But that means his loyalty extends only as far as the next want ad.

Grantham and his agent haven’t been shy about using his potential candidacy for other jobs for raises. So even if he is focused on his coaching duties while in Athens, this is bound to become a growing distraction and opposing coaches certainly will use it against Georgia in recruiting. That's the problem.

I’m not sure what Georgia coach Mark Richt can do about this. I'm not on board with the suggestion by some fans that Grantham should be fired, unless the situation just mutated into something unworkable. But at the very least, Richt and athletic director Greg McGarity need to tell Grantham to be a little more low key about matters, and there can't be repeat of Wednesday's embarrassment in signing day.  After Richt's press conference, with some of the signees in an auditorium, several media members made their way to the back of the room to talk to Grantham. This has the potential to become a major distraction over the next year and Richt must be wondering how he is going to deal with it.

The fact Grantham withdrew his name for the Saints’ job tells me that he probably wasn’t going to get it anyway. But he is going to get other job offers, either as an NFL coordinator or a college head coach, and eventually he will be gone. The question is how Richt deals with it until the inevitable happens.

Here's Grantham's statement:

RELATED

RECENT POSTS