No more excuses — Georgia’s arrests fall on Mark Richt
Mark Richt has been buried in police reports since March.
(UPDATED at 3:30 p.m. with booking and suspension.)
Before you dismiss this as just another trivial arrest in a 24-7, TMZ flip-cam media world, ask yourself this:
What would you be thinking if this was Florida or Alabama or Tennessee? Would your first reaction be, “This is no big deal. Everybody is picking on us”?
What if this was Nick Saban or Urban Meyer or Houston “I’m Just Trying To Save The World One Quarterback At A Time” Nutt? Would you really be absolving the head coach — in this case, Mark Richt — of any responsibility?
Georgia’s football program has hit nine on the arrest chart. That’s nine since March.
Kickoff is Saturday. There’s still time to run out of fingers.
Here’s the latest: Campus police have booked freshman safety Alec Ogletree on misdemeanor charges of theft by taking and he has been suspended for the season opener. Ogletree, a prized member of their 2010 recruiting class, is charged with stealing a $35 scooter helmet from the Rankin Smith Center on June 15 (police discovering only this week that the helmet was in his possession).
Forget that we’re only talking about a $35 helmet. There’s no such thing as a minor incident any more. There’s a cumulative effect.
I realize this is difficult for some people to accept. We live for this time of year, not just because of our obsession with college football but because, as Richt said this week, “It’s good to be undefeated.” What you feel in Athens, they feel even in Starkville.
But when nine players get arrested between spring and opening kickoff, something is wrong.
Please, no more apologies.
I’ve had it with apologists. They live among the fan base (who claim police are just out to get athletes). They live among the coaching fraternity (because to blame another coach sets themselves up for higher standards). They live among the media (some of whom are too afraid of burning bridges with the program and not having the coach smile at them any more).
Bottom line: This falls on Richt. It’s his program. It’s his responsibility. It’s on his watch.
He doesn’t have to be the one drinking-and-driving. Or hitting-and-running. Or drinking-and-groping. Richt recruited these players, signed these players and ultimately determined, “They will represent the University of Georgia well.” Either he is picking too many of the wrong guys, or he’s not saying or doing enough of the right things when they get here. Regardless, don’t deny the problem.
Richt said Friday he was “disappointed” and that Ogletree is “responsible for a poor decision and will serve a minimum one-game suspension.” He was so angry when running back Washaun Ealey was arrested for a hit-and-run — which occurred while he was driving with a suspended license — that he didn’t even want to speak to Ealey. That anger is justified. The question is whether his suspension of Ealey will last beyond the Louisiana-Lafayette game — because that’s a small notch above running steps in Sanford Stadium.
Forcing Ealey to miss the South Carolina game — that would hurt. Of course, that also would hurt Georgia, and the South Carolina game is really important, right?
When asked at his news conference this week if, in so many words, there was a flaw in his discipline structure, Richt responded: “The flaw is if a guy does something that deserves to be disciplined and you don’t discipline him. That’s where the flaw is. The flaw is in us as humans. We’re flawed, we’re human, we make mistakes. When we make a mistake, then we get disciplined for it. As long as we have 18- to 22-year old guys who are human beings, they are going to make mistakes. That’s just all there is to it. If you don’t discipline it, you have a problem. If they don’t learn from it, then they have a problem.”
Actually, it goes beyond that. If players don’t learn from it, Richt has a problem. And he does.
No more excuses. This falls on him.
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1,737 comments Add your comment
Mrs. Richt
September 3rd, 2010
8:19 pm
If Mark cheats in football, does that mean he cheats on me?
Now that I think of it, he did go with Damon Evans to Atlanta for a lot of late-night meetings. And there were those red panties I found once…
Rachel in East Point
September 3rd, 2010
8:22 pm
“Richt is right on this one, Jeff is wrong—again.”
Bullsh*t. A typical apologizing, self-serving response from a dawgtard moron.
Bad Dawg, Bad Dawg
September 3rd, 2010
8:23 pm
No more excuses, the buck stops with Richt. Remember that he was at FSU during the crime years. It’s about the character of the program. AD needs to step in and take control because Richt hasn’t. DAWG fans will spin this but the program has become a disgrace!!!
byron sandwich project
September 3rd, 2010
8:23 pm
It’s tough going for the born-again crowd, 1st gw can’t find the wmd and now saint mark is getting sullied- what’s next affirmation that the sky-cloud diety is a myth….
Red Panties
September 3rd, 2010
8:28 pm
The UGA football team is the most undisciplined team in the country.
Don’t any of you people see any correlation between leading the nation in
penalties and negative turnover margin and leading the nation in arrests.
Until Richt lays down the law (and he won’t) the dawgs will continue to
be a 2nd tier program. It may hurt in the short term, but it will be the
answer to the long term problems. If Richt doesn’t do it, you can bet
your sweet a$$ the new AD will, he came from a championship program
and knows how to do it.
Bad Dawg, Bad Dawg
September 3rd, 2010
8:28 pm
Just like Georgia fans above, throw long Saturday and everyone will forget. That’s all UGA has, and they have not even had that since 1980. Richt is the most senior of SEC coaches but Urban, Miles and Saban have won MNC’s without embarrassing the school and state!!!
Red Panties
September 3rd, 2010
8:29 pm
Rachel
Goog for you, ditto
No more Schultz....
September 3rd, 2010
8:30 pm
To all the Tech fans that keep saying the UGa is the states flagship school, wellmaybe we should just say Tech is now the flagship school of the state. Tech fans want the title. The AJC wants it. I really don’t think Dawg fans care. One thing though, we will still kick your a$$ 9 times out of 10. Have a nice day!
Red Panties
September 3rd, 2010
8:32 pm
When Richt was at FSU, it was Free Shoes U, now at UGA, it has become you can’t
spell U Got Arrest again without UGA.
SEC Fan
September 3rd, 2010
8:33 pm
When I read Richt’s comments, I see Bobby Bowden.
JW
September 3rd, 2010
8:36 pm
Seems like folks think CMR only goes after thugs…last time I checked with Rivals, our players were recruited by everyone. Wonder how many of these guys would have been offered scholarships at the trade school?
Why it's a Ruger, thank you
September 3rd, 2010
8:39 pm
Yep…how much weed did you smoke in the past, Schultz? Come on, you hint and joke of it often; isn’t/wasn’t weed illegal? But that’s OK as it’s a victimless crime, right? Oh yeah… you were just a kid… in college…. on the left coast. This comment is as useless as your story…kids will be kids and do stupid things. And NO I am not from or a Georgia fan
byron sandwich project
September 3rd, 2010
8:40 pm
jesus said he without sin cast the first pigskin….
Bad Dawg, Bad Dawg
September 3rd, 2010
8:42 pm
JW I’d take a program that does not have these type issues over your Rivals recruits any day. Bama does not have these number of arrests, Tech doesn’t, Auburn doesn’t, Florida doesn’t……should I keep going?
byron sandwich project
September 3rd, 2010
8:52 pm
never trust a bible thumper, most are known fornicators, 92% of born again christians have molested the neighbors pet in the last 6 months….
Chester Lucks
September 3rd, 2010
8:54 pm
Wow the dawgtards are really out tonight. CMR idea of discipline is a joke. My guess is that UGA intentionally schedules a creampuff for the first game of the season specifically so that CMR so called disciplinary measures in no way will actually cost the UGA team a possible win. UGA could beat whatever high school team they are playing on Saturday even if they suspended the 22 offensive and defensive starters. Not to be a hater but at UGA and the SEC its all about the wins — character and mean NOTHING.
Character Matters!
September 3rd, 2010
8:58 pm
Here is he problem at UGA. You must watch this in its entirety to understand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTT5cfPJSqg&feature=related
pulaski dawg
September 3rd, 2010
9:02 pm
Why did something that happened months ago only come to light on opening weekend? Why is what happens in Ala. and Fla. only discovered months later with little or no team effect? Why do local papers live off these burst when in other states they don’t seem to. What in the hell did Mark Richt do to piss off Jimmy Williams to save this breaking news for opening weekend? Twenty years ago an 18 year old caught with a beer on a scooter wasn’t breaking news.
Damon Evans
September 3rd, 2010
9:03 pm
Here is the Red Pantie Brigade to the rendition of “Snatch it out”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y8jTmVRiXs&feature=related
harold
September 3rd, 2010
9:08 pm
GEORGIA NOW THUG U! THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI!
I'm sick and tired of arrests, arrests, arrests
September 3rd, 2010
9:10 pm
I’m just about through with CMR. I like him as a person but is he a good coach? If he cannot keep discipline on the UGA football team ….. he needs to be long gone. It’s time for this crazy stuff to stop. If CMR don’t can some of these criminals, stupid street thugs, law breakers and don’t care about UGA or the team , he can be the first one on the bus. It’s time for a “get tough” policy at UGA … if Richt can’t or won’t do it …. replace him as soon as possible. I have HAD ENOUGH!!!!
SatillaDawg
September 3rd, 2010
9:11 pm
Look in the mirror people.
How many of you were perfect in your youth? How about at college?
How many crazy, irresponsible, possibly criminal things did you do without getting caught?
We all make mistakes and hopefully we learn from them.
I’m confident CMR will deal with this.
Now let’s play football!
Go DAWGS!
BeefATL72
September 3rd, 2010
9:11 pm
Schultz, I’ll be the first person to cheer when karma takes a chunk out of your a$$. It’s gonna happen dude. You’re such an idiot. When you’re out of a job & peeing in your pants, I’m going to make it a point to find you somehow just so I can point & laugh at you. I might even throw dirt on you just to give you some perspective.
TampaGator
September 3rd, 2010
9:18 pm
Wow….
14 post pages on a kid stealing a scooter helment. Why did he steal it?…because he could…and probably has stolen things many times before in middle school and high school….and never thought anything about it. I have friends who teach in both educational environments…and today…it is OK to steal anything left unlocked as long and you don’t get caught. Stealing is not wrong to them. Getting caught or being snitched on is. This is a problem in society, not just on college football teams. It is going to get worse before it gets any better, I am afraid.
ajc pariah
September 3rd, 2010
9:18 pm
fourteen pages,Dude, you’d been better off kicking a fire ant hill and standing in it.I’ll give you credit,me,they’d fire a long time ago.Why?,You can pay me, but you can not pay me to kiss your ……….! Now to the subject you ‘err,tried to make relevant. A., If they are not borderline felons,UGA,does not want them.You see,they have to be Bad A$$’ s to matriculate.They also have to be unable to follow the slime trail back to where their brain’s fell out.B.,No public or private high school prepares any potential student ,much less atheletes for, College Life.Really, it’s kind of like dropping on the pavement naked, a la Terminator.C.,That said,still, act like you have a clue,Dude.
The Chain Gang
September 3rd, 2010
9:18 pm
Boy – CMR are really teaching the kids about character – another uga player (Ogletree) arrested – the day before their opening game!! CMR is also sending the players a great message by only suspending most of the players (including the pen-stripe wearing Washaun) for just ONE game – a game that uga’s 3rd string can win. Way to go CMR. Let’s Change uga’s name from the Bulldawgs to The Thugs.
Marge
September 3rd, 2010
9:19 pm
You don’t let Jeff Schultz or opposing fans tell you how to deal with disclipine issues. You deal with them and move on.
That’s the problem, dawgturd. With every arrest, either Richt or one of the moron players will say something like “We need to learn from this and move on.”
But there’s a lot of moving on and absolutely no learning.
Here’s a solution: FIRE THE A@@HOLE RICHT.
You did the right thing with Evans, you just didn’t fire enough of the jerkoffs.
Red Panties
September 3rd, 2010
9:19 pm
It’s becoming abundantely clear that most of the bloggers aren’t UGA grads, but trail trash that
saves up the welfare checks to buy a Georgia t-shirt and goes wof,wof,wof–pathetic
Greta
September 3rd, 2010
9:23 pm
You Dawg fans who keep repeating “30-24″ like a mantra enjoy yourselves all you want. The thing is… Tech alumni and fans have lives that don’t depend entirely on what a bunch of kids does on Saturday afternoons. College sports are fun to follow, but the biggest reason for going to college is to get an education.
UGA fans don’t seem to care about anything but football, and they don’t care if their players are enrolled in silly majors that no parents who are paying the bills would send their kids to UGA for. The very few football and basketball players who graduate have no job opportunities and end up unemployed or working in menial jobs that hardly require a college degree.
Georgia Tech is a real school with serious academic standards, and that includes scholarshipped athletes. UGA has a long history of being a party school, where parents send their kids for an easy degree, even if the degree itself is practically worthless.
Jan Kemp exposed the crap going on at UGA with athletes being enrolled in courses a ten-year-old kid could pass. That was almost three decades ago, and nothing has changed. If anything, the abuses are more blatant today. Way too many illiterate morons are being recruited, and the very high arrest rate shows clearly that Richt does not care if his players have any morals or self-discipline.
The bottom line is that most Tech fans have very good jobs and productive lives that don’t depend on Tech’s football record for their happiness in life. It would be great to beat UGA more often, but when you put scholar-athletes up against dummy-athletes, it’s usually no contest.
It’s pretty pathetic to see UGA fans who typically have never been within miles of a college classroom and who live or die with UGA’s weekly results on the football field.
So keep on posting your “30-24″ all you want, especially since you’re home with plenty of time on your hands. I wish you well, maybe you’ll get lucky and get your old job back at the Waffle House before your unemployment checks stop coming.
Red Panties
September 3rd, 2010
9:23 pm
TampaGator
You are so right
Red Panties
September 3rd, 2010
9:26 pm
Greta
Good for you, go get’um girl.
Whatever
September 3rd, 2010
9:26 pm
I can’t believe all the idiots on this board who think that it is OK to do what these players have done and say things like “big deal, weren’t you a college student once” or “their only immature” – that is NOTHING BUT LAME EXCUSES. I spent 4 years in college and I can promise you (and I am sure MOST people in college can say the same) that I never stole anything, never hit-and-run somebody or vehicle, never drove on a suspended license, etc. Oh yea, is it a prerequisite that uga recruits or players have suspended licenses or no license whatever? Please people – quite making stupid comments supporting these stupid people. At the college I went to – if you got caught stealing ANYTHING – you were dismissed from school – not suspended for one game.
Damon Evans
September 3rd, 2010
9:29 pm
Here is another one ” All the Way Thuged up” ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTT5cfPJSqg
SouthFLDawg
September 3rd, 2010
9:30 pm
Young adults learn from their mistakes. Even though it somehow feels like the Athens and UGA Police Departments seem to have their radar aimed at the Dogs, it probably more like kids pushing the boundaries between right and wrong. What does seem strange is why certain teams seem to have more problems than others. FSU has suffered, Tennessee has endured a summer of negative press and now UGA. The real question is what is the difference in Gainesville and Birmingham. Can the coaches have that much impact on what 18-22’s do on their spare time or is their more cooperation between the law enforcement agencies and the coaching staffs??? Maybe a combination of the two. At the end of the day, Ogletree and Ealey did wrong and pay the price for their actions. The sad part is so does UGA!!
artsilva
September 3rd, 2010
9:32 pm
HORRIBLE ARTICLE! R U SERIOUS!!
JDW
September 3rd, 2010
9:33 pm
Just loving the sensationalism Jeff, what a huge issue. An 18 year old kid picked up someone else’s helmet. OMG what is this world coming to! Have we no morals? What a heinous crime. OBTW the 18 year old kid is going to serve the same suspension that Spikes served for trying to gouge an eye. Seem right to you? Me Thinks you have graduated from inappropriate laughs to burning at the stake…get those witches they are among us! O’ the moral outrage!
Referee
September 3rd, 2010
9:34 pm
mark,
Do you have anybody working for you. If they get arrested, are you to blame. The UGA rent a cops have had a hardon for football player for years. Let’s make as many arrests as we can and make a BIG deal about everyone. Driving with a suspended license, underage drinking. These are crimes that should get the death penality. Should we blame the teachers when a student fails a class. 85 students in 150,000 people stand out more tha 85 in 3,000,000 do. How about the 10 Notre Dame football player under 20 that were caught with alcohol. God’s school, oh my god. It happens everywhere. That does not make it right, but get real. You are an idiot!
JDW
September 3rd, 2010
9:34 pm
SouthFLDawg, the difference in Gainsville and Birmingham is that any campus officer that tried to make this case would not last a year.
JDW
September 3rd, 2010
9:36 pm
Whatever, if you went through four years of school and never did anything that you might consider a bit off the wall shall we say…you must be a nerd.
byron sandwich project
September 3rd, 2010
9:37 pm
greta,
Damn girl you so fulgy even your dildo said thanks but no thanks…..
Kindra
September 3rd, 2010
9:37 pm
“Certainly it’s an unfortunate sequence of events,” Richt said in a statement. “I’m disappointed in the situation and will continue to gather information as the case is processed through the proper legal channels.”
This is like a broken record. Richt makes the same kind of bullsh*t statement after every arrest. He should just make a recording and have an assistant play it for the media.
Goons, morons, and thugs.
Referee
September 3rd, 2010
9:39 pm
Greta,
I played football and I’m a physician. And by the way, I have several friend that played football and they are physicians,too. So STFU!
Abdullah the Bitcher
September 3rd, 2010
9:41 pm
Stealing is stealing folks.
You scoff at a 5-year old child for swiping a neighbor kid’s bike, not an 18-year old freshman at a major university. However, you teach the kid when he’s 5 that stealing is wrong so that he doesn’t steal when he’s an 18-year old freshman at a major university.
How many of you scoffing at this because he’s a college kid say the minimum drinking age should be 18 because he’s a man? Well, an 18-year old man is a thief if he takes something, regardless of dollar value.
Hannah
September 3rd, 2010
9:48 pm
I used to have so much respect for Richt. Not anymore.
Heath
September 3rd, 2010
9:50 pm
Yeah, and most of those Falcons fans never worked for the Falcons either, they’re pathetic!
some people are just wrong
September 3rd, 2010
9:51 pm
yea -sure Referee – I can tell by the response to Greta that you have real class there, Mr. Physician. And by the way, if you have several, then “friend” should be plural (as in “friends”), Mr intelligent physician. BTW – what exactly did you mean by “STFU”? Yes, very intelligent and insightful of you.
No more Schultz....
September 3rd, 2010
9:54 pm
Hey Greta….Seems i remember plenty of NERDS on here posting 45-42 a couple of years ago. Shut up and go back under your rock that you came out of. oh yeah….30-24.
John Schultz, Jeff's evil twin
September 3rd, 2010
9:57 pm
This guy is just following the gameplan of his mentor Bobby Bowden. In his own mind he has justified to himself that these are just kids and thus they are going to get in trouble. He has a good reputation of being God fearing man and thus the media seems to give him a pass. Bowden got away with it for 30 years at FSU and to this day they love him. He was lax on discipline and got more questionable kids in the program and thus better players. His engaging personality and awe shucks comments fed the media and they never called him on the thugs he recruited over the years. Richt does not have personality of Bowden, but lots of writers just do not want to bang on him for his players discretions. He is not going to become a disciplinarian because he saw the success Bowden had doing it the other way.Bowden was like the cool uncle to the players instead of the stern dad. Richt is the same way with the likes of Rodney Garner bringing in the talent. In a wierd way his faith scares people from criticizing him.
Heath
September 3rd, 2010
9:58 pm
I hope Greta isn’t the gf of a Tech player or she might get punched in the face.
DSV
September 3rd, 2010
10:01 pm
Start looking a little deeper into the backgrounds. Don’t just look at papers. Interview friends and non-friends of these athletes to get the truth of their conduct and potential hazards. The talent is out there. Criminals have a lot of talent. Honesty and INTEGRITY is what is lacking.