Georgia is on a roll.
That's something you would rather hear as a Bulldog fan during the football season when you are winning games—and not referring to players being arrested in the middle of the summer.
Apparently Georgia is jealous of the attention that their division rival Tennessee is getting and is making their own run at the Fulmer Cup title.
Hey Dawgs, you don't have to beat Tennessee at everything. Talk about taking the rivalry to another level.
With the most recent arrests involving Georgia football players, I wondered, why does it seem coach Mark Richt gets a free pass whenever his players get in trouble?
It seems like there are some coaches that are raked over the coals by their fans and opposing fans and media, but Richt always seems to avoid such criticism.
I'll admit it, I like Mark Richt. He's a good guy and does many good things outside the realm of football that impact people's lives. But at some point, you have to change your approach in the way you are dealing with your players if you are Richt, because it's obvious that what you are doing isn't working.
Richt has had plenty of time since getting to Georgia in 2001 to implement his standards, to make sure he recruits the right kinds of players, and to make sure they all understand what is expected of them.
This isn't a case of a new coach dealing with someone else's players. This is a coach that's been at his school for eight years and is still dealing with the same things he's been dealing with from day one.
Here's a look at some incidents involving Georgia football players during Richt's tenure. I'm not even sure if this is all of them, but you will get the point.
2003 - 9 Georgia players are suspended for selling their SEC championship rings on eBay. CB Tim Jennings, WR Michael Johnson, DT Kedric Golston, CB Kenny Bailey, DB Bruce Thornton, WR Fred Gibson, and LB Tony Taylor were the main ones involved. This was a clear NCAA violation, as players cannot sell something online or anywhere else for profit and get over market value.
2003 - Four sophomores are suspended for violating team rules. B.J. Fields, Chris Hickman, Jamario Smith, and Tyson Browning were the players involved.
2003 - Defensive tackle Kedric Golston is suspended for selling his SEC championship ring, his Sugar Bowl jersey, and his Sugar Bowl championship ring on eBay for an estimated $3,500. All three of these are NCAA violations. More to come on Golston.
2003 - Five Georgia players are arrested and suspended two games for marijuana possession
comments (20) write a comment »
write a new comment
6 months ago
Sounds like USC over there
6 months ago
Honestly, I think it's the just the kids being kids and being in Athens. It's very easy to get swept up in the party lifestyle in Athens, especially when you're an athlete, and even more so when you're an athlete on a team expected to win it all.
6 months ago
I would venture to guess that Richt may have seen some things over in the Middle East on his trip that may cause changes with how he runs his program on the personell side.
While your article seems to be on point, I think it's speculative to crusify the man at this point.
If things don't turn around, I think it would be apropos to turn up the heat.
6 months ago
Selling rings, underage drinking, marijuana... A bunch of victimless crimes that happen at every school in the nation. However, it is interesting to think why certain coaches gets blamed for stuff like this and others don't.
6 months ago
Richt also seemed to get off with a free pass after encouraging, and some would say ordering, his entire team to celebrate in the endzone of the FL game. He was lauded for providing a "spark to his team" rather than mocking another team that has dominated him in his career at GA. I like Richt, too, but I was disappointed to see him laughing on the sidelines after that.
The hypocrisy, of course, is that he was all over his players for celebrating on the Vandy star.
from 6 months ago
yeah but it worked.
from 6 months ago
It didn't really work the way everyone said it did.
After all, GA was down by 3 at halftime.
By the time they went up for good, it was a solid 2 hours after the dance.
I think GA's halftime adjustments played a bigger role than the celebratory dance.
from 6 months ago
stomping on a a teams logo midfield is different from celebrating in the endzone you just scored in. don't you think?
from 6 months ago
Different in nature, but both are centered on disrespect.
Just my take.
from 6 months ago
Richt told them that if they scored and they didn't get a flag for excessive celebration he wouldn't be happy. He was mostly kidding, but they took it to heart. There was no disrespect intended. They weren't stomping on the Florida logo or anything, they were just celebrating because they scored.
6 months ago
As an Ohio State Buckeyes fan I know how you feel. I can remeber Back to the Randy Airs years of baketball at Ohio State. He contantly had players getting in trouble and that eventually lead to the near death of the basketball program at the end. My only explination on why Rect get's a free pass is because of the year he had last year. That seemed to be why Randy got of the hook at OSU
6 months ago
Wow, and Bama gets torn a new one after each and every arrest, but look at that rap sheet in the article. Granted we dont have rings to sell on ebay, but geez thats pretty bad.
It also brings up another point...these guys are obviously broke and need money if they are having to sell a championship ring for cash. They cant have jobs b/c of scholly rules. Like someone said after Jimmy Johns got arrested, these kids will get money anyway they can so they can live themselves.
6 months ago
Most of these are peanut compared to a lot of what goes on under Pete Carroll's watch at USC.
6 months ago
I don't think Richt's getting a free pass at all, he is getting the benefit of the doubt, he dosen't give free passes or cover up like some other coaches.
If the article had listed all the multi game suspensions and even the physical disciplin these kid's get, all could see he is doing everything expected of a head coach.
Every season he's has been at Uga, starters are missing from the line up at least the first two games of the season. As a fan who keeps up with the program I can tell you, parade all American or third string, if they get out of line they will be punished.
6 months ago
Mark,
Everyone suspends players for the first two games--it's because they are meaningless. Coaches all across the nation do that; it doesn't seem like much of a punishment.
FSU's best player, Preston Parker, is gone for the first 2 games this year. It won't affect them at all.
6 months ago
Tim I see you're point about the first two games, but If we were playing a highly ranked team the first game it would hurt, and if Moreno gets drunk a week before the SECCG he will miss that game. I think it was in 03 that GA went to play Clemson in death valley the first game, with four starters and significant back up players suspended, all were on defence. Ga won big but most were picking a Clemson upset.
If we know anything about CMR it's he believes in doing the right thing, I don't think we'll see the kid, I think his name is Lemon on the team this season and he may be kicked off the team for good.
Ga has suspended these players, what more can the man do? I bet if you look at Tenn and Fulmer, you'll see that Richt gives more games on the bench and is tougher on his players, in my opinion that's what went wrong at Tenn (lack of discipline).
6 months ago
Gee, that's a lot of problems when you list them out like that. And we thought Larry Coker had no control over the Hurricanes. Maybe there's some kind of misunderstanding or something.
6 months ago
Downtown Athens on a the weekend is just arrests waiting to happen. Richt is just facing the same uphill battle that many schools that have a party area near campus fight. Alabama has the strip and I have heard the university is buying property and closing down bars but even that drastic step doesn't seem to be helping.
wonder what the ratio of arrests per all students at UGA is compared to arrests per football players?
from 6 months ago
I can think of maybe, and a very strong maybe, 10 Georgia football players that have been arrested, so we'll say one out of every five to be generous. And it's way more than that for the average Georgia student with underage drinking alone.
6 months ago
Wow! And I thought the Vols had problems. What disturbs me the most is the selling of the rings, for some reason. That act tells me that money, more than anything else, dictates their behavior. Sad times indeed.
Is Georgia any different than other teams? Do we really want to know the answer? I don't. The headlines read like a police blotter for a lot of schools.
Someone made the comment that the first two games of the season are meaningless due to non-important games.
I disagree...for many schools, like USC, the first two games are high profile....@ Virginia and hosting Ohio State. Perhaps the punishment for these players should be the last two games of the season?
That's when scouts are in high numbers, and most players get a lot of attention. Now that would be punishment if a coach decided to take out a high profile player during that period.
The question is, would they do it?
write a new comment