Raise a Glass Today

Today marks the 76th Anniversary of the Repeal of the Prohibition Act.  Don't mind if I do.  Although, I don't have the liver to play the Tim Tebow Drinking Game on Saturday.

PWD

Stafford Mic'd Up

If you missed this from a week or two ago, it's worth a listen. The NFL mic'd him when he lead the comeback by Detroit vs. the Browns a few weeks ago. Here's the NY Times on the mic'd up session with Stafford.

PWD

So who will we get?

I haven't seen many credible rumors. What I've seen is a lot of theories based on people playing some sort of football version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with Sanford Stadium and Mark Richt alternating their roles as Kevin Bacon. Or just a random wish list of candidates.

So before I list who I want, I'd rather list what I want from a coach:

1. Someone with a relentless desire to be a head coach. Or someone with an unquenchable desire to be great. Someone that will sleep in their office if that's what it takes to figure out how to stop our opposition.

2. Someone who isn't set for life rich. The last thing we need is someone sitting on a multi-million dollar settlement from his flamed out head coaching career. That guy isn't going to put in the hours to be great.

3. Someone with an attack mentality. Someone that brings VIOLENCE and TEMPO back to our defense. Someone that keeps opposing offensive coordinators sleeping in their offices to figure out how to stop his unit.

4. Someone that teaches terrific fundamental football. I'm not looking for gimmick systems like John Thompson or Joe Lee Dunn. I want to see someone that will put our guys in the position to make the play.

5. Someone that takes recruiting seriously, and gets personally involved. Not someone who thinks that's beneath them or who sucks at it.

Let's talk about who I think we won't get or shouldn't pursue....

Who We Won't Get:

1. Tommy Tuberville - This is the single most absurd rumor / theory I've seen. Tommy is sitting on $6 million from his settlement with Auburn, and he can wait for the right head coaching opportunity to come along. Plus, he has said repeatedly that he doesn't want to be a defensive coordinator. He wants to be a head coach. This isn't like saying, "I don't want to leave Ole Miss." That's something you say to fool people into thinking you're staying. When you DO want a new job and you're unemployed, you tell everyone who will listen what kind of job you want. Tuberville and his agent Jimmy Sexton think he'll be a legitimate candidate for a variety of BCS jobs this year or next, and with his resume they are right. Those jobs will pay him $2.5-3.0 million per year. There are only two assistant coaches in college football who make over $900,000. Most big-time DCs make $300-500k. If he comes here, I'll eat my hat. I'd be thrilled, but no way it happens.

2. Will Muschamp - The former Dawg makes over $900,000, and he's the coach in waiting at Texas. At Texas, he can get all the talent who wants with relative ease, and he has an easier road to the national title than in the SEC. Playing for National Titles gets you head coaching jobs faster than anything else. Plus, UGA has shown zero indication that it has any interest in getting into a bidding war with a school like Texas.

Who I don't want:

1. Jon Tenuta - Check out Tenuta's stats at Notre Dame. Now check out Martinez's stats. Willie is better in almost every category despite playing dramatically tougher competition. Weis is being fired because the defense is wretched, and this is Tenuta's second pathetic defense in two years. At Georgia Tech, he was a notoriously uninvolved recruiter, a sandpaper personality and a wildly inconsistent performances. His defenses at Tech had such staggeringly bad performances as giving up 51 in Athens, 30 to Fresno St., 39 to Clemson, 41 to Duke, 34 to a bad UNC team, 51 to VT, 38 to Utah, 38 to WVU and 40 to Fresno St. I could've listed him in the "Who We Won't Get" list, but I'd rather list him in the "we'd be insane to consider." Personality wise, matching him with Richt would be the match made in hell.

2. Chuck Amato, Ron Zook or Sly Croom - Amato has never been a DC, and Fisher doesn't want him at FSU. Zook has been fired or demoted at almost every coaching job for nearly 20 years. Croom has never been a defensive coordinator, and he's spent much of the late 80s and 90s as a running backs coach. All are sitting on enormous piles of severance cash, and I don't think any of them are that impressive.

Guys that intrigue me:

1. Kirby Smart - I really don't think we can get him. Plus, he's going to be the center piece of a bidding war between FSU and Bama after this season as he's apparently Jimbo's #1 candidate to replace Andrews. I'm not sure we could get him to leave Saban anyway, but I'm less confident that we would pay what it would take to get him.

2. Kevin Steele - The current Clemson DC has worked for Nick Saban, Dom Capers, Mickey Andrews (before he started struggling), and Tom Osborne. His teams play smart aggressive football. He was a bust as a head coach at Baylor, but who hasn't been a bust as head coach at Baylor? He really intrigues me.

3. Bob Sanders - Current Bills DL coach. Sanders worked with Spurrier at Duke and Florida from the late 80s-2000 mostly as the #2 defensive assistant, but never the DC. After moving to the pros, he coached in Green Bay as DC as well as Miami and Buffalo as DL coach. He is incredibly intriguing.

There are other names floating around, but none that I think are all that realistic for the Defensive Coordinator job. For the Fabris position, I would VERY much like to see us bring Travis Jones home. The former Dawg is the current DL coach for the New Orleans Saints, and he's doing a helluva job there. He worked with Saban at LSU as DL Coach and Recruiting Coordinator on the 2003 National Title team, and he followed him to Miami. He has coached all front seven positions from both the 3-4 and the 4-3.

Regardless of who we get, they have to be able to recruit. We have to keep upgrading the talent. The last two classes were directionally right, but we need more high end defensive studs.

As for Brian Van Gorder, I just don't see it happening.

PWD

More on the firings...

If you want a complete look at Mark Richt's comments and those of Damon Evans about the terminations of Martinez, Fabris and Jancek, check David Hale's blog. If you're interested in more of a summary of the situation, I liked Chip Towers piece a lot.

Richt's most interesting comment is:

"It was definitely not a one-year, knee-jerk reaction to this season, I can promise you that. It was more of a decision that was made over the course of time -- more time than just one year."

All indications that I've heard points towards these absolutely being Mark Richt's calls. Not something he was forced to make. That's the most encouraging aspect of this entire thing.

Admit it...you wondered if he had it in him to make the tough call. I did. I've been worried about that for weeks. In Knoxville as we watched a completely inept Vol offense obliterate our defense, I said to a friend, "Either Mark Richt fires most of this defensive staff, or he'll be out of here in two years. This just can't continue."

I feel awful for the guys impacted by this decision and for their families, but Georgia Football is the flagship product of an $84 million business. It's not a family run shoe store. By doing the right thing with these 3 coaches, Richt protected the other six full-time coaches on staff and many more support personnel.

Months ago, I listed the Top 3 problems with the program.

1. Lack of a sense of urgency - I was concerned about the overall complacency that had slipped into the program. This sort of shake-up and the injection of new ideas and personalities into the program can help that.

2. Lack of a transparent meritocracy - These moves are only step 1 in a two step process. He still has to make great hires, but this was directionally right.

2. Lack of an attack mentality on every down - We won't know if this has been fixed until Week 2 next year in Columbia. We may have an idea on things if we're familiar with the new hires, but we won't know for sure until we get to Cola.

We have the financial resources to put in place to have a meaningful conversation with a variety of elite candidates for all three positions. We just have to close the right guys.

As for the departed...
Don't be shocked to see Coach Jancek at Notre Dame working with linebackers next year if Coach Brian Kelly moves up there. Jancek worked with Kelly a combined 7 or 8 years at Grand Valley State and Central Michigan, and Kelly promoted him to Defensive Coordinator twice.

Martinez was an exceptional defensive backs coach for much of his time in Athens. The last two years were a complete train wreck, but the first 6 were so strong that he'll get another offer as a position coach very quickly. It wouldn't shock me to see him in Miami or at Michigan State should a position open up. I'm pretty sure that Mark Dantonio at MSU is a big fan of Willie's work.

Lastly, Fabris is very well networked from his travels. As a DE coach, he's pretty damn solid when he has something healthy to work with. It was his maddening strategic decisions on special teams that were his undoing...not his DE work. He'll land elsewhere and thrive.

Best of luck to them, and best of luck to Coach Richt in his search.

See Also:
-- A good man does the right thing - DawgSports

PWD

Bloody Wednesday

Martinez, Fabris, and Janeck ... fired.  Now what will we complain about?

The coaches are reportedly going to stay on through the bowl game, which appears to be in Shreveport.  So, here we go.  Will the defensive recruits stay on board?  Who is next?  Who should be next?  Has Jimmy Johnson been spotted at the airport yet?

I admit I have defended Willie in the past, but there was just no arguing with a move at the coordinator level.  It's very difficult to defend the simple math of the defense's steady decline.  Just as difficult to defend is the inexplicable kickoff coverage of the past two years and the absurd quotes from Fabris about directional kickoffs.  I'm sure these moves were painful for Coach Richt, both professionally and personally, but they had to be made.  Again, it's hard to argue with math.  Even if you say turnovers consistently put the defense in terrible spots, that's no excuse for the poor tackling and undisciplined play of our defense over the past several years. 

Lastly, as difficult as these decisions must have been for Coach Richt, I hope they were Richt's decisions.  I don't want Damon or anyone else forcing personel changes on the staff.  We pay Richt a lot of cash to take responsibility for the program.  The responsibility should be his.

Quinton

Bowl Chaos Update

SEC and ACC Bowls are getting progressively more nuts and unpredictable by the minute. Here's the latest:

• LSU to the Capital One - This is still pretty much a go.

• Ole Miss to Cotton - Multiple reports including the Dallas Morning News are saying that Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma State is pretty much a done deal for the Cotton Bowl.

• Auburn to Outback Bowl - The Outback Bowl may officially announce this afternoon that Auburn is invited to the Tampa bowl. Tennessee media outlets agree that AU is likely to get that invite instead of the Vols.

• FSU to the Gator Bowl - The Gator gets the second pick of ACC teams, and the Tallahassee Democrat says the Gator will select FSU vs. West Virginia for Bowden's final game if/when the retirement is finalized. The Gator also selected UGA for Dooley's last game.
  

• Virginia Tech to the Chick-Fil-A - The Chick-Fil-A Bowl should update their blog later today with their latest leanings, but 9-3 Va Tech looks like a distinct possibility. If the Chick-Fil-A takes VT, the loser of the ACC Title game could fall all the way to the Champ Sports Bowl. Update Per the Tallahassee Democrat:

  According to the Gator Bowl's contract with the ACC, the team only has to invite the ACC title game loser once in four years, which it did with Georgia Tech in 2007. Without speculating on the matchup, Gator Bowl general chairman Dan Murphy told the Times-Union late Monday that it's the GBA's interpretation of the contract that the league's one-loss rule (a team cannot be passed for consideration by an ACC bowl partner for a team more than one loss behind in the conference standings) does not apply if the Gator Bowl decides not to invite the championship game loser. (emphasis added)
  

  Georgia Tech attended the Chick-fil-A last year. Va Tech would be making their third trip to Atlanta in one season, and Clemson would be riding a two game losing streak at 8-5. All three ACC teams have hair on them.
  

• UGA or UT in the Chick-Fil-A - The best thing for all bowl partners would be UGA in the Chick-Fil-A and UT in the Music City. That would sell the greatest number of total bowl tickets. However, UT vs. VT is an incredibly compelling regional game as is Georgia vs. Clemson, or Georgia Tech vs. Tennessee. The Atlanta Sports Council has a tough call on their hands.

• UGA, UT or SC in the Music City? - The Nashville Bowl has a variety of incredibly compelling potential games as South Carolina, Tennessee or Georgia would all offer a great game against North Carolina in the Music City Bowl.
  

• UGA to the Independence Bowl? - If UT goes to the Chick-Fil-A and SC faces UNC in the Music City, Georgia could fall all the way to the Independence Bowl. We are hearing that this is still a scenario that is very much on the table. The Liberty Bowl isn't in play as that bowl will not pass on Arkansas. Texas A&M is a strong candidate for the opponent in Shreveport.
  

PWD

Spurrier Joins a Different Top 10 plus a comparison

With Al Groh's departure at Virginia, Steve Spurrier moves into a tie for 10th place on the list of "Longest Tenured Coaches without a BCS Bowl" at their current BCS school. The 2009 pre-season list is here.

Here's the latest Top 10:

1.(T) Mike Leach (Texas Tech) - 2001
1.(T) Greg Schiano (Rutgers) - 2001
1.(T) Gary Pinkel (Missouri) - 2001
4.(T) Bobby Johnson (Vandy) - 2002
4.(T) Jeff Tedford (Cal) - 2002
6.(T) Rich Brooks (Kentucky) - 2003
6.(T) Mike Riley (Oregon State) - 2003
9.(T) Randy Edsall (UConn) - 2004 Joined Big East
9.(T) Mike Stoops (Arizona) - 2004
10.(T) Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) - 2005
10.(T) Jim Leavitt (USF) - 2005 Joined Big East
10.(T) Mike Gundy (Ok State) - 2005
10.(T) Dave Wannstedt (Pitt) - 2005

If Oregon State beats Oregon this week for the Pac-10 Championship, Spurrier will move into a tie for 9th place. Also, while we're on the topic of the Evil former Genius. How about a comparison to Ray Goff's tenure at UGA.

Spurrier through his first five seasons in Columbia:

35-27 overall
18-22 in the SEC
10 win seasons 0
9+ win seasons 0
1-2 Bowl Record
0 Top 25 Finishes

Goff through his first five seasons in Athens:

34-22 overall
18-19 in the SEC*
10 win seasons 1
9+ win seasons 2
2-1 Bowl Record
2 Top 25 Finishes

*If you include the '89 UGA vs. SC game and 'the 91 Arkansas match-up in the Independence Bowl as SEC games, Ray was 19-20 against current SEC Members...which is a still better.

Ray was mocked mercilessly by Spurrier for his mediocrity. I'd love to see how the '94 version of Steve Spurrier would react to seeing how pedestrian the '09 version of himself looks.

PWD