It’s a new year, but not necessarily a happy one for Greg McGarity. Georgia’s athletic director is not pleased with the way things went in 2013 or the way they’re heading early in 2014. Football and basketball are the engines that power UGA athletics and they aren’t performing well at the moment.
The Bulldogs’ football team just completed an 8-5 season, and the basketball team headed to Missouri on Wednesday night to start the SEC schedule with a 6-6 record and an RPI of 242. Beyond that, McGarity is having to deal with an academic controversy that has embroiled ultra-successful swim coach Jack Bauerle.
“When you’re in turbulent times, your senior staff has got to be strong and confident and continue to do things the right way,” McGarity said. “I’m confident that we’ll come out of these tough times stronger and better. I’m confident that at some point and time we’ll be where we all want to be in our total program. We’re struggling a little bit right now — I’d be the first to admit that — but we’re going to keep working our tails off to make it all work.”
Step one of that process will begin Thursday morning when McGarity meets with Georgia football coach Mark Richt for his annual review and evaluation.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday, McGarity talked about the Bulldogs being “in choppy waters” and “having some issues to deal with.” Here are some highlights from the interview.
Q: What are your thoughts on the 2013 football season?
A: I think everybody was pleased with the effort. I don't think anybody can discount the effort that the team gave really in every game this year. There were some pretty devastating situations that occurred, but the team didn't quit. You saw the resilience of the team at Auburn this year. Normally what occurred would totally deflate a team. Yet (after Auburn's 73-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds remaining) the offense picked it back up (driving to the Auburn 20) and almost had the greatest game in the history of college football. That's getting into "if-onlys," but my point is you saw how close we came to scoring again. If we had felt sorry for ourselves and been "woe is me," there would not have been the effort there was to score again. So I think that's the one thing from an AD's chair you're really proud of, the never-give-up attitude and the ability to be resilient. Sometimes we weren't resilient enough and sometimes we couldn't overcome our shortcomings.
Q: There were a lot of breakdowns like that on defense and in special-teams play. Why do you think that was?
A: Everyone knows where are shortcomings are. It's pretty obvious to everyone. There's no sugar-coating that. We do have a lot of deficiencies. Those are the things — and Mark has already commented on this – that are going to be addressed. As head football coach, it's his job to address those and learn from those and move forward. And, hopefully, they won't happen again.
Q: Will you recommend coaching staff changes to coach Richt?
A: I don't do that. That's not my job. That's the head coaches' job. They get paid enough money to make those decisions. I help coaches get things done. But the first time I insert myself in that conversation, the coach has every right to say, "well, you tell me who to hire in his place." I'm not qualified to do that. So it's up to the head coach in every sport. I don't tell (men's basketball coach) Mark Fox who to hire, and I don't tell (men's tennis coach) Manny Diaz. That's their job.
Q: What kind of feedback have you gotten from fans and donors regarding the football season?
A: A lot of people are disappointed. We're all disappointed. Nobody wants to give up a 99-yard pass (as Georgia did against Nebraska in the Gator Bowl). The tough thing was the losses hurt so much more this year because it didn't have to do with us not hustling or giving up. They were just plays like a high snap. That's not a problem with your scheme; that's a guy not executing. Why's a guy in there? That's legitimate questions. Did you learn lessons? Marshall Morgan has become one of our most dependable players. We solidified that. … But right now our special teams are a deficiency; they need to be a plus. It's a three-headed monster – offense, defense, special teams. Right now we're not special. It's up to Mark to fix it.
Q: You were part of two BCS titles at Florida? How tough is it to watch without having a chance to play in it?
A: Having been a part of every championship in every sport at Florida — we're talking about soccer, volleyball, football and basketball, tennis, golf — every program aspires to be in that arena. In football, there's nothing like it. Like the College World Series in baseball, it is the ultimate experience in college sports, to be able to participate in the final leg of whatever championship it may be. Once you experience that, you definitely want to experience that more. So there's no question the two years at Florida (when) we were in Miami and Phoenix were probably the highlight of my college career in administration. It's just being there, being a part of something where everybody else in college sports wants to be.
Q: How close are the Bulldogs to being able to reach that pinnacle?
A: We're 8-5. We're not ranked in the Top 25. So we were a ways away from that this year. To be able to be at that competitive level, you've got to be really talented, you've got to be fundamentally sound, you've got to have everything work and you can't have any weak links in the chain, so to speak. You look at Auburn in (the BCS Championship) game, that missed field goal was huge. You're always chasing points after that. In the back of your mind you're always thinking you let something slip. You look at your most important games, whether it's basketball and missed free throws or advancing a runner in baseball, when the lights are shining brightest, that's when everything has to work well. Unless you're just that much better than your opponent. That's what hurt us this year, our inability to execute at times.
Q: Speaking of resources, has the desire to build an indoor practice facility gotten more traction?
A: No. … All we've done is ask campus planning to give us a ballpark on a facility that mirrors the Falcons'. That's in the process of fact-gathering. We don't know how much it will cost. We have an idea of where it could be located, off South Milledge (Avenue), but exactly where, we don't know. We're still in a level of discovery. We need to find out what it would cost to build a facility that's 80 yards wide, 140 yards long and 100 feet high. That's all we've done on it.
Q: How concerned are you with men’s basketball right now?
A: As we enter SEC play, we've got 18 games to play. … I think what we all want to see is us getting better every week. We've had some success against some opponents, and we've really struggled against tougher opponents. So we're anxious to see how we compete in the Southeastern Conference. But, yeah, there's worry.
Q: How do you feel about the overall performance of Georgia sports so far in 2013-14?
A: We're in some choppy waters right now. We've got some areas where we're not where we want to be. We've got issues we're dealing with we wish we didn't have to deal with. But you've got to be steady at the helm.
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