Lane Kiffin: "That's the money you could be making in Knoxville."
ESPN's Chris Low reports that Garner is in Knoxville interviewing at UT. After Orgeron was hired as both defensive line coach, defensive coordinator in waiting, recruiting coordinator, and associate head coach, where is the logical slot for Garner? You can't blame him, though. Orgeron will be earning over $500,000 at Tennessee for the same titles Garner holds in Athens. Garner makes way, way less than half a mil.
Developing ...
PWD Update: It's interesting to me that some Dawg fans want Rodney Garner to be "loyal" to Georgia. However, they don't want Mark Richt to be "loyal" to Willie Martinez. I have no problem with Rodney talking to them. As for the timing, there is no good time to interview with a competitor.
Quinton
35 comments:
It is probably good that he did not tell Jeff Owens he wasn't leaving... oh wait...
Why not look for more money when coaching? One bad game, god forbid a poor season, and the throngs scream for your head. These guys have family and a future to look out for just like the rest of us. And thank god I don't rely upon 50 kids for the future of my income.
I disagree. Loyalty to an institution is different than loyalty towards a person.
Many times loyalty to personnel cause a lot of problems because it prevents objectivity concerning his job performance.
Secondly, the point you make about the loyalty CMR should show to CWM is different categorically than CRG to UGA. The analogy does not compare. CMR is over CWM but CRG is not over UGA. It is an improper analogy.
Third, Loyalty to an institution transcends something beyond humanity, that characterizes the personality of the institution. However, loyalty to a person depends upon the character of the individual. Despite whatever you may say it is impossible to be loyal to an individual but it is possible to be loyal to an ideal.
Just my 2cents.
If Garner is gone, and I hope not, I wonder if Tubberville would get a call? I'm sure Richt and Tubs had some interesting "what if" conversations in the Middle-East last year and they seem to have a mutual respect for each other. Blackouts notwithstanding...
"PWD Update: It's interesting to me that some Dawg fans want Rodney Garner to be "loyal" to Georgia. However, they don't want Mark Richt to be "loyal" to Willie Martinez."
ORLY PWD? Is that interesting to you?? Cool story bro. Why don't you run another 13 yr old's fave "This Is Why You Suck" update while pretending all is well because we beat the Mighty Michigan State Spartans 24-12. This situation sucks, WILLIE SUCKS and so does this blog the last year or so. But hey, at least I know where to come if I wanna get a grilled meat brander!
Good for him if he gets more money, and is happy. CMR has to expect some attrition hence we have John Lilly the previous recruiting coordinator from Florida State now on staff.
Let him go. He has been living on reputation for at least 3 years and has been producing very little on the field and in recruiting.
Hey, I'm anonymous so I can talk about how something sucks without putting my name to it.
FWIW ... higher salaries = higher expectations and higher expectations = less patience.
In other words, when not if UT throws all this cash at assistants the UT faithful will expect a MNC within the next 2-3 years; else there will be a glut of overpaid assistants begging for jobs.
Not sure I like those new Geico commercials. The British-accented lizard and the cavemen are cool, though.
Tenn is desperate. UGA and CMR are stable. Garner should stay. However, if Garner does leave he'll be taking a risk, but at this point in time he deserves to do what he feels is best.
All you sour grapes need to come to grips with the fact that Ol' Willie is our DC. (It took me a while, but I did, you can too.) It's not gonna change. Either fall in line or find another team. You're either too ignorant to understand or too young to remember what it was like to suffer through years when the Dawgs didn't win over 80 games in 8 seasons, go to a bowl game EVERY season and land the big recruits from our own state. Willie isn't the one who missed all of those tackles or filled up our training rooms with key players.
Our Dawgs are in great shape. It was a difficult season and we still won 10 games. Smile, it'll do you good.
Anon 8:05 pm,
You're more than welcome to read other blogs.
You're more than welcome to start your own blog and try to be better than this one.
If you don't like this site. Don't read it.
PWD
Rodney should be loyal to his career goals and family, period. If he does leave someone will step up and fill his shoes. I would have never thought Bobo would turn into the play caller he is.
Dubbayoo,
Amen.
I doubt he knew that he'd get an offer like the one I think UT will make tonight when he made his promise to Jeff Owens.
And if Owens is a mature kid, I doubt he'll hold it against him.
PWD
Oh, Fuuuuuudge.
is CRG's search a sign of his restlesness, or a sign of unstable conditions in Athens? I hope that it is the former. Big hats off to the D and CWM! I was very impressed, and did not see that effort coming. I hope that we see more days like that next season.
A) It's not like Georgia doesn't have the money to fight for him. Mark Richt is smart enough to know who to hold onto, and if we really need Garner, then we'll find a way to keep him, a-la CBB at FSU getting Chuck the Chest back on staff. He wanted him back, so they worked something out.
B) Good for Garner. The only sign of a program that is in good health is when people keep asking to talk to your assistants, and no matter what some of you may think, Garner has done a great job bringing in and developing D-line talent. I obviously hope he stays, but if he can't get a matching offer, and he's got obvious proof his services are worth that much, why not take the raise?
PWD, You have a great blog and we appreciate what you and the others provide for our entertainment. Go dawgs. Do not let the bast#%@ get you down.
As to RG, he needs to do what is best for his family. Maybe this is the time for change for both RG and Georgia.
CRG does this every so often. LSU a few years ago? He'll get a raise and stay or CMR will tell him to get his money. Either way, Lilly and Bobo are capable recruiters and it would give CMR a chance to upgrade a position coach. To me, this isn't as serious as Auburn talking to Searles.
What the article doesn't mention is that the new head coach at UT makes 2 Million a year. Compare that to the 3.7 for Miles and Saban and the 3.4 for Meyer and it seems apparent that the overall coaching salary budget for UT is in line with Florida, Alabama and LSU.
Rodney interviews every year. This year, he's interviewed three times. This can't be the first time Richt has had to ponder Garner's replaceability. I get that he's important to us -- he recruits well in-state. I'm torn between two trains of thought:
1. If I got wind of an employee interviewing that many times, I'd take the hint and let him go. I want to work with people who want to work with me. You pay a guy what he's worth to you, not what he's worth to someone else. Money is only one form of compensation, and if the other forms UGA has to offer aren't worth anything to Rodney, then that should clarify the long-term picture of Rodney and UGA. Ultimately, no one's bigger than the organization.
2. Alabama, Florida, LSU and Tennessee are throwing down the gauntlet in the coaching arms race. We saw what Auburn's response was -- a sudden and complete shitting of the nest. What's ours going to be? Do we go the Yankees route of dropping big coin to attract and retain top talent, or take the A's route of playing talent arbitrage? And, if you go one route for head coaches, does that route *have* to apply for assistants?
While acknowledging that recruiting is half the game in college, I'm not convinced that Rodney is should be considered top talent when it comes to the other half of the game, but I'm not a head coach, so I'm hardly a qualified judge.
Tennessee's got a lot of cooks in the kitchen right now. Auburn had a similar situation with Franklin and we saw how that played out, so the mere fact that Tennessee is dropping its pants in salary bargaining doesn't necessitate us doing the same.
Garner seems to be about upward mobility. We know we don't have that to offer. UT may not have that now, but, going back to the cooks-in-the-kitchen issue, they might have it in 2-3 years. In the meantime, should we let Garner wring $100K annual pay increases out of us every year until one of those UT slots opens up, while our defense only improves marginally in the meantime?
Let him go. There's better DL coaches out there, and UGA ain't that hard a sell.
Tommy,
I'm not sure this is about upwards mobility for RG unless he's moving back to offense just to prove a point that he's a versatile coach.
It looks like it's about money.
The best way for a college coach to get a pay raise is to interview.
For instance, No one interviews Jancek, so he makes the least amount of money. Despite having been on the staff longer than Ball, Searels and Lilly.
PWD
It looks like he's gone. The UT plane is back in Athens right now and scheduled to depart for Knoxville at 4:41pm.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N111UT
I hate to say it, but RG gone and CWM staying only means we will continue to be a mediocre team. Learn to be happy with 9-10 wins per year. CMR will never win a NC!
Paul,
If it's about money, which we certainly have plenty of, do you think we're getting $400K worth of value out of RG now, or that we can't get commensurate value from someone else? You're closer to the program than I am, so I'm not asking that rhetorically.
I get that, if you have a good staff, you should expect to go through this every year. And given that we throw off close to $25M in "unallocated revenue" every year, we'd be stupid to be cheap, if money's all it's about and Rodney's worth it AND irreplaceable. What are your thoughts?
Anon 3:15, if the plane came from Knoxville, that's where it has to go back to. I doubt Rodney can pack all of his belongings in an hour and a half.
PWD, I'm not so sure its just about money this time. Its common knowledge that he & Martinez are and have been having troubles. Now he's been offered a job on the OFFENSIVE side of the ball with more responsibility, recruiting duties & more pay. That's hardly a lateral move. And its obviously not something we can match. Also take into consideration that this happened pretty damn fast - he apparently didn't want to negotiate with UGA.
I think its pretty clear he was unhappy here & took a great offer with a promotion to leave. Can't blame him, but I do think CMR should fear for the future of his job if he can't replace Garner with an outstanding hire. Losing Garner & still getting stuck with Martinez is not a win & will most likely hit us where it hurts next year.
UGA is quickly tumbling towards the SEC cellar folks - get used to it.
Tommy, you dumbass, it means they are picking him up and taking him back to knoxville for a press conference & so he can start work tomorrow.
Some fans act as if watching a Martinez coached defense is the worst thing in the world. Now imagine if you had to work under him, go through a historically bad year, and the whole time you think you could do a better job and know you'll never get the chance. That's my take anyway. I wish CRG well.
I should add I hope he stays, but I'm just saying I would understand if he left.
We are fine we have John Lilly. He was FSU'S recruiting coordinator a couple of years ago. He is a good recruiter and I am tired of Garner tryin to leave.
Ok, Anon (who's so sure of his knowledge that he won't use his real name), we'll just wait on that 5 p.m. Sunday press conference.
Tommy,
It's a gigantic headache to pay your position coach more than the coordinator.
In any business, paying an employee more than their boss is a huge personality hassle. It creates more problems than it's worth.
If he's getting the $400k offer that Dasher thinks....which was my guess before all of this started....it's a $150k pay raise.
Willie makes around $325-350k. They aren't going to give Willie a $75-100k pay raise just to keep him above Rodney. Not after last season.
Richt has been preparing for this day for 3 years. He *obviously* has a list of DL coaches in mind, and he already addressed the "recruiting coordinator in waiting" issue when he hired John Lilly from FSU. That's essentially what Lilly was by most accounts.
Richt has done an *exceptional* job of managing his risk around this key hire for 8 years. (More on that later)
But yeah....it's about money and probably personality. Rodney probably wants to learn under some new guys. It's not a bad move for him.
And it's DEFINITELY not the end of the world for us.
BTW -- If Travis Jones (a former co-worker with Stacy Searels at LSU) is smart, he's already called Richt and Searels. And I imagine lots of high energy, high caliber DL coaches have put calls into Richt.
If Stacy vouches for Travis Jones AND if he wants to come home, then we only have to outbid the Saints who might want to promote him to head DL coach (he's an assistant DL coach now).
PWD
For those of you who preach loyalty, remember that the next time you leave for another job.
When UGA hires a coach from another school,remember that loyalty thing.
For the person who said there are better DL coaches: name them.
For some people Athens is not the dream destination.
No coach will ever be as loyal to UGA as you are. They are employees. They will leave; they will get fired.
Does anyone see the irony in whining about Garner's lack of loyalty to UGA when he came to UGA FROM TENNESSEE?
Well, Anon, 5 p.m. came and went, sans press conference. Thanks for playing.
david Hale reports that Garner is staying ...
http://ugadogsblog.blogspot.com/
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