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January 22, 2008

New TE Coach

It's not official yet, but both UGASports.com and DawgPost.com are saying that Mark Richt has hired John Lilly as his new TE coach. Kyle King's take on it is here. Dean Legge with DawgPost expects it to be confirmed around Friday.

I think it's an exceptional hire. Richt and Eason have worked with Lilly in the past, and he has managed exceptional recruiting classes for FSU.

There was a rumor that Lilly was the best man at Mark Richt's wedding. As lowiq pointed out on DawgPost.com's message board, that seems unlikely. Richt was married around 1987, and Lilly graduated from Guilford College in 1990. He didn't start working with Richt until 1995. So unless, he was the best man for Richt as a freshmen in college, that rumor pretty much looks bogus.

I think it's a very good hire. As others have said, this pretty much means that we are unlikely to lose any recruits from this class.

PWD

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a very good hire indeed. It's only been rumored since about the day after Richt accepted the job, so it's not altogether surprising. One thing it does for sure is take the sting out of Rodney Garner's eventual departure, should that actually come to pass.

And FWIW, I think Bear Bryant was the best man at Richt's wedding.

Anonymous said...

Any concerns about how he develops TEs? I can't think of many noteable players in the pros that he's developed.
Its great that he's a top recruiter, but I'm a little concerned about his ability to coach to the level that we expect out TEs to perform at Georgia.
Its not as if the TEs have been lighting it up at Florida State in a while. Hell, their entire offense has taken a dive since CMR left.
Thanks for any info or correction.

Unknown said...

How many notable pro TEs are there? 10 maybe? Out of those, at least one of them didn't get any college coaching (Gates). Besides, TEs only gain notoriety by catching footballs. That's only half their job.

Anonymous said...

with the way FSUs OL has performed the last few years, I doubt they thought much about throwing them the ball. That their TEs caught so many this year with such a pisspoor OL is a credit to their ability and coaching

Anonymous said...

True, but UGA is known for their TEs. In NFL circles were are a breeding ground for great Tight Ends. Many would like that trend to continue. With all due respect to Coach Lilly, asking if he can develop players like these (below) is a legitamate question.

Ben Watson
Leonard Pope
Martrez Milner
Randy McMichael
Jermaine Wiggins

Unknown said...

I think their leading receiver last year was a TE. He was the kid that wanted to transfer to UT, but Bowden and the kid had some sort of falling out.

He was a stud on par with some of our better TEs.

Other than signing Miami's or Southern Cal's TE coach, there isn't ANYONE that has consistently produced elite pass catching TEs at a rate equal to UGA.

And those 2 dudes weren't available.

PWD

Anonymous said...

Anybody remember the previous Tight Ends Coach at Miami befor Pannunzio came in under Sahnnon last year?
I can't think of another program that puts out better TEs than us than the canes.

Anonymous said...

Damnit, why can't we get Brad Johnson!

dean said...

With the depth we have coming back at tight end (Chandler, Figgins, Ward and possibly White) and the emergence of our running game I'm thinking we'll see more 2 TE sets this coming season, which BTW is only 220 days away.

 
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