"Dadgumit, will the last person leaving Tally please turn off the lights"
Today, Brad Johnson, Mark Richt's brother-in-law, and Richt's sister announced that they are moving to Athens. This is roughly the 30th person that Richt has moved to Athens from Tally. Leaving the question remaining of...who is stuck down there still?
All non-sense aside, this should be (but it won't be because some people are stupid) the last nail in the "Richt to FSU" worry wart festival of doom.
Richt has been working since he arrived in 2001 to convince the media, rival fans and the Bulldawg Nation that he's not leaving for FSU or Miami when/if Coker or Bowden step down.
Many of the hints were apparently too subtle for the masses.
- In 2001, when he asked Coach Van Halengar to relocate his family to Athens from Tallahassee, it was the first sign. Why would Coach Van move only to move right back? The money was basically the same.
- In 2001, when he moved his brother-in-law to Athens and hired him as the new full-time team chaplain. It was another statement of "Athens is my home."
- When he worked out a deal after the 2002 season to create the largest two-way buyout in college football history at $9.9 million at its peak. Some folks still said he'd leave. Although, virtually no program would touch a buyout that large.
- When he moved his father and his new mother-in-law to Athens. Still many remained convinced that he would leave.
- In 2005 UGA reported a $23.9 million profit in athletics. By comparison in 2005 FSU posted a profit of $164,185, and Miami LOST $1.5 million the year that they won the National Title in 2001. Yet some folks think they could STILL outspend us and take on Richt's $10 million buyout.
- Today, the Tallahassee newspaper reports that Richt's sister and brother-in-law, NFL QB Brad Johnson, are selling their $3.8 million home in Tallahassee to move to Athens.
- The article also announces that Mark Richt's mother AND Brad Johnson's mother are moving to Athens in the near future. And Richt has a new contract extension which pays him $2 million per year through 2013. (If the buyout clause is structured like the last one, it now stands at closer to $12-14 million).
All coaches talk about staying put. But nobody moves 30-40 friends and family members including almost two dozen school age kids to Athens just to uproot them again when Bowden retires or Coker gets canned. That's not the way decent people deal with other decent people. Especially not family.
(Hmmmm....although, it would be funny if he moved them all to Athens just so he could saddle them all with new mortgages and then run off to Miami for some peace and quiet. Sort of a Mark Richt's own version of PUNK'd)
Paul Westerdawg
Georgia Sports Blog
17 comments:
Somewhere I bet Bobby Bowden's saying, "Uh, Jeff, you sure you don't want to go up there too?"
Of course, we would close the exits around Athens and make him keep going up I-85 so he could sleep on his brother's couch.
I heard they all got 3-year ARM's on their houses. Plus there's a rumor that Coker might try to whack Bowden--that way Bowden is out of the picture and Coker's in jail. Richt would have his choice of Miami or FSU. Probably no truth to that rumor, though.
So...you're telling me he likes it here? And wants to stick around? Lies!!!
In all seriousness, this proves that no fan base is immune from an irrational inferiority complex. We, unfortunately, have our own crazies that people can mock at will.
I'm a Realist, every single fanbase definitely has those.
The funniest thing about this post Paul is that I could really only change just a few names and numbers around and it would read like all of the Paul Hewitt worry warting we have among Tech fans.
I bet if you look at other programs with young hot coaches that came from someplace else you get the exact same concerns. I just wonder what the statute of limitations on that kind of worry is?
Yes, but Dan you're forgetting something.
Tech actually is teh suxorz.
UGA isn't.
That changes the entire equation.
To stray for the lighter-side for a minute. Does anyone think that perhaps Brad Johnson will join the staff after he retires from the NFL?
He is 37 and has probably 2 years left as a starting QB with the Vikings. I would think that Mike Bobo will be in a position to move on in 2-3 years.
Johnson could step right in as QB coach.
Buyouts aside, why would Richt go to either program? Athens provides a better quality of life for raising a family than Tally or Miami. The school is better academically. And, as stated above, more AD money is available. Plus, he is building his own legacy here.
Suxxors has two X's Paul, TWO!!!
Seriously though, I agree with J. Elmo Fogg above me. Unfortunately for GT, I see absolutely no logical reason for CMR to ever leave UGA.
Someone on DawgPost.com's board said that Johnson's father lives in NGa. This might have as much to do with that as it does with Mark Richt.
I don't think Johnson joins the staff. He's a multi, multi millionaire. Why would he want to kiss 17 year old's butts on the recruiting trail and work 60-80 hour weeks during the season.
Plus, if Adams is still president, would he even let CMR hire his brother-in-law?
I hope not. You know what they say...Nepotism starts at home.
I think Coach Richt is either here for the long haul or here until he gets a head coach spot in the NFL, but even if he did pull a fast one on us and hightail it to Miami or FSU, it's not the end of the world. Do you really want a head coach hanging around who doesn't want to be here? That'll be great for the program. Just because Dooley was only ever able to find us one good football coach and then only when Adams forced him to fire his last pick, doesn't mean that there aren't good coaches out there to be had. UGA has an elite football program and can attract good coaches if we can only distinguish the good from the bad. While Richt would be sorely missed, he's not irreplaceable.
Allow me to add to the reasons Richt won't ditch UGA for FSU:
• Has anyone noticed that Georgia is actually a substantially stronger program than FSU at the moment? This isn't like the mid-to-late '90s when FSU was winning national titles right and left and Georgia was clusterf#cking its way to an 8-4 record every season.
• Why would Richt leave what J. Elmo rightly described as "his own legacy" -- and a stellar one at that -- to go rebuild FSU in the wake of Bowden's departure? Face it, whoever follows Bowden is going to be a Ron Zook, a Ray Perkins, a Bob Davie. No matter how good Bowden's replacement is, at least 50% of the fan base is going to hate his guts from the get-go because he isn't Bowden. Why would Richt want to give up winning SEC titles at Georgia just so that he could embroil himself in that kind of mess?
• Georgia already has substantial competition from UF and FSU in terms of recruiting, but at least Richt has pretty comfortably established UGA as the recruiting king w/r/t its home state. Why would he want to go from that to having to fight tooth and nail for recruits with Florida and Miami and whoever else year in and year out?
Georgia-haters can a-wish and a-hope all they want, but for them to continue to believe that Richt has one foot out the door is kind of like me saying, "Well, so what, just you wait, Angelina's gonna leave Brad Pitt one day! You'll see!"
Richt is getting everyone a little closer to Auburn. For you see, when Tubby bolts for Miami, Richt will bring his posse to the plains where he will finally be able to reach his full potential because Auburn has something that Athens doesn't. A culture of winning.
Richt leaving UGA for The Barn...that's rich.
A culture of winning. Yep, this year marks 50 years since AU's one national title.
Jordan, Dye, Tater Tot and Tubberville all have one thing in common. They all had to cheat their asses off to make Auburn a championship quality team.
By culture of winning I would assume that you are referring to that plethora of SEC Championship games that Auburn has won.(1) Oh wait...
Well you must be referring to the vastly superior number of SEC Championships at Auburn vs UGA. (6-12) Oh wait...
Ok so it must be all those national championships for Auburn (0)...
Wait I know heismans area all that matters (2-2)...
Winning tradition must mean something a litte different in Alabama I gues.
LMAO -- Auburn has the same number of SEC titles as Georgia Tech. And GT has been out of the SEC for FORTY ONE YEARS
The only culture that Auburn has is one of corruption and tiolet paper art.
pwd
I didn't even know that the word culture existed in Alabama...the thought of such makes me laugh.
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