Stacy Searels leaving Georgia? Can I offer him a lift? (Update II)
Stacy Searels hasn't lived up to his reputation. (Brant Sanderlin)
(Updated below with Searels officially accepting the job.)
Reports are flying that Georgia offensive line coach Stacy Searels is closing in on taking a job with Texas coach Mack Brown, who has been churning assistants (and recently lost coach-in-waiting Will Muschamp to Florida).
First thought: Does Searels need a ride to the airport?
Second thought: Is it abandon ship time in Athens?
First, about Searels: He came to Georgia from LSU in 2007 with a solid reputation. But the Bulldogs’ offensive line has been central to their problems, particularly in the running game.
Now, I suppose some of the blame also could be attributed to the team’s oft-criticized strength and condition program (Dave Van Halanger recently was demoted), or to a perceived lack of talent up front, or to coach Mark Richt. But Searels can’t be absolved of responsibility. Coaching the offensive line is his job and he also carries the title, “running game coordinator.”
I’ve already received Tweets from readers asking me if Searels’ departure just two weeks before national letter of intent day would hurt recruiting. I doubt it. Any recruit who is willing to come to Georgia knowing the state of things and amid questions of Richt’s job security is not going to change his mind based on the offensive line coach leaving. That recruit probably is coming for playing time and to be at Georgia.
Onto the second thought: Searels has good reason to look around, as would any Georgia assistant coach. We don’t know where this program is headed. If Richt loses his job after next season, his assistants are out of work.
In particular, head coaches tend to bring in their own offensive line coach. If Searels sees guaranteed long-term employment elsewhere — and certainly at a solid program like Texas — he would be nuts not to take the job.
Searels would be going from a 6-7 team to a 5-7 team. But Texas was in the BCS title game two seasons ago and won the title in 2005. Mack Brown’s not going anywhere.
♦
UPDATE: The Rivals Texas sports site Orangebloods.com reports that Searels has accepted the job. However, Texas has not announced the hiring and the Austin American Statesman reports there will be no announcement tonight. An excerpt from the Orangebloods story:
Sources close to Texas and Georgia have confirmed to Orangebloods.com that Georgia offensive line coach Stacy Searels has accepted the Texas offensive line coaching position. That could bring to an end a nearly two-month-long process in which Mack Brown has replaced six assistant coaches and made changes at two other staff positions.
UPDATE II: Searles was named the Texas offensive line coach Thursday night. Here’s an except of the official announcement, via Tim Tucker’s blog.
“When you’re in this profession, you want to coach at the highest level,” Searels said. “From afar, I had always been interested in The University of Texas because I thought it was one of the premier jobs in the country. You can win a championship, you have great leadership, great players, a great pool of talent to recruit from, and I think there’s no reason you can’t win and win big at Texas, and I want to be a part of that.”
Searels joins the Longhorns after coaching the offensive line at Georgia for four seasons beginning in 2007. He added the duties of running game coordinator in 2009. During his time in Athens, the Bulldogs have ranked in the Top 25 in the nation in fewest sacks allowed three times, including ranking sixth and leading the SEC in 2009 with just 12.
By Jeff Schultz
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So Richt would have a key position to fill on his staff, presumably after recruiting.
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343 comments Add your comment
He Hate Gator
January 19th, 2011
10:07 pm
Just sayin’…notice how no one, not the AD nor Adams has said a word about Richt possibly staying beyond next year….and no refute of Tarkenton’s comments, only the AD trying to reach out to him to quiet him down during this recruiting season….Mark, you better update your resume’….
mdr
January 19th, 2011
10:09 pm
The only thing I will say in reference to the “stability” at UT, is that stable programs don’t replace nearly an entire staff of assistants in one off season. No matter the reason. Mack isn’t going anywhere? Not yet. But it won’t be long if they don’t turn it around QUICKLY.
Loyal Dawg
January 19th, 2011
10:09 pm
Our O-Line has been average at best since Callaway left. Our fundamentals were poor this year- especially for a veteran O-Line. On our running plays, were getting off the ball too high most of the time and the D-Line was getting under our pads to stalemate us. Guys were coming through completely unblocked in critical situations. I’m not sure we were recruiting the best talent either or we certainly were not helping them progress. That’s mostly on the O-Line coach.
CMR Titanic
January 19th, 2011
10:10 pm
This ship is sinking willie willie fast. UGA better start placing some phone calls to Dan Mullen immediately.
Dirty Dawg
January 19th, 2011
10:11 pm
Yeah, you guys – you and Bradley – don’t have an agenda, you’re just a couple of sucker fish with your lips firmly planted on Paul Johnson’s haunches…and any ’shaky ground’ that Mark Richt may be on can be directly attributed to you guys keeping the pot roiled…along with the likes of Fran ‘The Jerk’ Tarkenton and the Columbus Bootlegger, Don Leeburn…along with the rest of the ‘troll-like’ loyal Dawgs around here.
Clean house
January 19th, 2011
10:14 pm
If you notice the photo above our guys looks like linemen for a old division II school as in a Furman.These guys couldnt run block through a wet paper bag. UGA is in Big Big trouble.
10 to 6
January 19th, 2011
10:15 pm
Nope thats not the time !!!!
BabsTolstoy
January 19th, 2011
10:16 pm
As a University of Aubren fan I must say it is not without some small pleasure that I enjoy watching you dawg nitwits twist in the wind. But as the fan of a contributing member to the stellar reputation of this league I have a vested interest in your well being and so feel the need to comment.
Get a hold of yourself over there. It’s embarassing. As I’m sure you will agree you are supposed to be one of the leading lights of the SEC, the U of the entire Ga. Act like it, come up with something, be somebody, see your future. I just don’t see the resolve over there required to get it done. And unitl you have that, the low having pair required to chop heads and make deals, you will remain the best player on tour not to have won a major. I say this with the well being of the league in mind. Stop acting like Vandy, praising well intended effort and not results.
Timmy Dog
January 19th, 2011
10:18 pm
It’s because our ship is sinking people. You don’t have to read the tea leaves. It’s going down.
5150 P.O.A.D
January 19th, 2011
10:18 pm
Wish we had some coaches at Tech!
Tech Stinger
January 19th, 2011
10:27 pm
As a Tech fan I would love it if all the Georgia Convict fans stay off our blogs, I know that is hard because you losers can’t read at all just like your football team can’t read a speed limit sign
LA-DAWG
January 19th, 2011
10:31 pm
Shultz…you are a complete DA…where do you come up with the idea that Texas is solid program….Their w/l record, I believe was below Georgia’s. I would imagine if you were writing for some paper out in Texas, you would have ripped them apart like you have Georgia all year…But, of course, you probably have an answer as to why the Longhorns fell so far this year. Your title should be changed to KNOW IT ALL…….
Loyal Dawg
January 19th, 2011
10:31 pm
Schultzie, you need to do a story on this oversigning thing. It’s not technically against the rules, but it sure is dirty pool. I will give Saban credit, he’s learned how to exploit it and utilize the “medical scholarship” to his advantage. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like Bama (disclosure-wife is a Bama grad) and I think Saban is a heck of a coach, but it makes it a lot tougher on men like CMR who are trying to be upfront and open with the recruits.
dcbl
January 19th, 2011
10:33 pm
Boys and girls,
A couple of things:
1 – Everyone that writes for the AJC has an agenda – help us sell papers and generate web traffic. If that was not their agenda 7 I was an editor, they would be fired (FWIW – I am in the advertising business…)
2 – Richt has TWO SEC champions in 10 years. Dooley had 6 in 25 years – THREE of those were ‘co-championships’. Under the same rules Richt would have at least 3 SEC championships (maybe 4 – don’t feel like working that hard on google tonight)
Richt is a great coach. We need to keep him. Had he been blessed with the same luck as SEVERAL other coaches (IE – the other schools losing one) – he’d have a MYTHICAL Nationl Championship – the ONLY blight on his record.
Dooley had losing seaons. Bear Bryant had losing seasons. MANY great coaches have had an off year. This year was an aberration, not the norm.
The paly calling has been uninspired? YES – but let’s attribute that to haviving a less than talented QB 2 years ago and a FRESHMAN this year.
We will compete for the East next year. CMR will be around for a while.
Good riddance to CSS.
Damn, this kool aid tastes good!
go dawgs
dawgster
January 19th, 2011
10:36 pm
@Dirty Dawg…great comments…i was wondering earlier how long it would take for Shultz and Bradley to stir the pot with their dawg bashing at every opportunity…they are absolutely the worst journalists that i can remember when it comes to reporting…its one thing to report but another thing when you have an agenda…Its funny you never see the negative articles or if so, very litttle when it comes to Tech…What disturbs me more is all the so called dawg fans that are trashing Coach Searels right now especially during recruiting…Do they actually think that this is a positive thing for the dawgs right now…You can have your opinion about the man as a coach, but he is a very good recruiter, and this could have some negative results especially when the Shultz’s and Bradley’s spin their headlines to put a negative slant towards anything UGA…I wouldn’t have a problem with their articles if they were not so biased in their remarks…Whether you agree about Coach Searels leaving or not, the timing is not good..Thank god that our AD is in charge of our program and not the fair weather fans on these blogs…The dawgs have some issues, no one denys that, and from what i can see alot of those issues have been addressed and we appear to be having an outstanding recruiting class so far….Get this thru you heads guys…Coach Richt will be here next season…try supporting the team and then see what happens…but what is usually true with fair weather fans is that if things turn around you jump right back on and say, hey i was with you all along…go dawgs
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
10:42 pm
Anyone who thinks Richt is in any kind of hotseat is delusional.
Colorado wanted him a few weeks ago, so did Miami.
He’s only had 1 losing seaosn in 25 years.
Finished in the top 10 20 times, 6 out of 1 at Georgia.
Finished #2 in 2007, #10 in 2008, 8-5 in 2009 was surprisingly tough, and have been going through a transition year in 2010 with new coaches and new QB.
But Richt’s not going anywhere. He’s one of the top 5 coaches in the country. Why would Miami want him if he wasn’t?
Denver Dog
January 19th, 2011
10:44 pm
Amen Dawgster. Colorado was the only non bowl team UGA lost to last year. Nobody blew UGA out, and there is something to be said for senior leadership. Last year he had to fire coaches as they weren’t any good and that is a problem. This year good ones get good big jobs and that is a problem. Go figure Pink Elephants that fly and Cam Newton is telling the truth, what is next?
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
10:48 pm
Florida had a bad year, Texas had a bad year (worse than Georgia), and Richt FINALLY had a losing season after 2 1/2 decades in coaching. Richt has a higher winning percentage than Saban, Miles, Spurrier, Petrino, etc. If Richt WERE going to be fired, it would have been after going 6-7 or after starting 1-4.
Richt lost 5 games to top 25 ranked teams with a new QB and a new defensive staff. Also lost to Colorado, by 2 points due to a dumb fumble.
4 of the losses were by 7 points or less.
Scout had Georgia ranked #23 to finish THIS season, even though Georgia was 6-7.
Herschel Talker
January 19th, 2011
10:49 pm
Hear ye, hear ye:
Jerry at 10:42 is a fool. dcbl is a bigger fool. Two pathetic morons who want our program to be the equivalent of Vanderbilt. Just what we don’t need – fans like those two buffoons.
HT
Herschel Talker
January 19th, 2011
10:50 pm
Hear ye, hear ye:
Jerry at 10:48 is the biggest fool of all. Stupid j@cka$$.
FIRE MARK RICHT!!!
HT
Tech Stinger
January 19th, 2011
10:52 pm
Herschel Talker is the biggest DA of the blog, he is the main reason why UGA’s perception that their football team and fans are a bunch of idiots
oakwood dawg
January 19th, 2011
10:52 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong but Searels was a great offensive line coach at LSU and came to UGA to be close to his ailing mother. I don’t know what the situation with his mother is now, but I have a feeling that he will be a very good coach at Texas and if he is we would have to wonder why he didn”t succeed at UGA. Just a thought but I guess we will see over the next couple of years. Would it not be ironic if in a couple of years he is the Longhorns head coach?
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
10:53 pm
There are only a few active coaches that have a .735 winning percentage over the last 10 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_football_coaches_with_a_.750_winning_percentage
Bulldog high IQ
January 19th, 2011
10:53 pm
Jeff,
Did you ever play football? You make so many comments in your reporting that make past football players know you’ve never laid a hit. A preponderous of evidence would indicate that Searels was the best coach on Georgia’s staff. We lost a good coach and you’re wanting to give him a lift to Texas? You need to write in another State where you can be a positive supporter of Georgia football.
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
10:55 pm
The 5 active coaches with 10 years experience, with a .735 win % or better right now are:
Paterno, Brian Kelly, Mark Richt, Lennon, and Hale.
That’s it.
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
10:59 pm
you could add Stoops, Patterson, and Tressel to the list of coaches in Richt’s league, done it at a high level consistently for at least 10 years.
Then Paterno, Kelly, that’s really about it.
Dawg Fan 4 Life
January 19th, 2011
11:00 pm
Jeff,
I live in KY but have been a DAWG Fan 4 Life especially with all
of the family ties ti GA. I get to games frequently.
Really enjoy your commentaries!!! As to Searls, I’ll buy the gas
if you can shuttle him to Hartsfield!!!!!!!!
dawgster
January 19th, 2011
11:03 pm
@Bulldog high IQ…amen…Jeff shows how little he knows about the game everytime he writes a negative article about the dawgs…I wouldn’t have a problem with him, even if he never played a down, but what i realize from his comments is that he really doesn’t have a clue when it comes to evaluating a coach…I wonder what Texas and Mack Brown see in Coach Searels..Could it be they know the man can coach…I can’t explain everything that caused our line to underperform the past two seasons as many think, possibly all the injuries and surgeries that kept the line from gelling…but Shultz doesn’t want to talk about those issues…i’m not making excuses…to win in the SEC you can’t do that, but i just don’t believe the man forgot how to coach…and evidently neither do the Longhorns…go dawgs
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
11:07 pm
Georgia lost AJ Green for 4 games to start the season and started out rough at 1-4, just couldn’t click. Teams were bringing 8 in the box to stop the run and Murray was learning how to throw the ball deep without AJ Green.
But when AJ came back, Georgia went 5-2, lost to Florida by 3 in OT and late in the 4th Quarter to #1 ranked Auburn, that’s the kind of season Georgia would have had with AJ there for all 12 games. Probably would have gone 9-4 with AJ in all 13 games.
Lesson learned:
Don’t build your offense around 1 guy.
Tech Stinger
January 19th, 2011
11:10 pm
dawgster it shows how little you know about football because you are a complete idiot. Jeff does a great job writing these stories and if you come on here to bash him then I will report you and the rest of you convict friends that root for thugU
North Ave Trade School Hater
January 19th, 2011
11:13 pm
two words – Hugh Nall ( and yeah, someone else may have already said this, but I’m not going to read 175 comments, half of whom are haters)
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
11:25 pm
True picture (non-AJC view) of Georgia:
Sports Illustrated has Georgia at #23 pre-season ranking.
Scout has Georgia at #23 pre-season.
Some kind of “sinking ship”, thanks for the laugh, that was funny.
co-nun-drum
January 19th, 2011
11:25 pm
Mack Brown could easily be gone next year…he would’a left this year if Texas hadn’t stunk so bad!
Norman Cowans
January 19th, 2011
11:34 pm
When the ship starts to sink the rats will jump off.
dawgster
January 19th, 2011
11:36 pm
Hey Tech Stinger…why don’t you worry about what happened with your price recruit Tuitt…he just decommitted from you back to Notre Dame…I just call like i see it…you can agree or disagree…report me for what may i ask?…for disagreeing with Shultz…you have got to be kidding me…I hate to post a comment about Tech, i don’t have a beef with them, but you started it by calling me an idiot…And my disagreeing with Shultz has something to do with my football knowledge…you are kidding, right?…Why don’t you go back and look at the archives and then tell me how many negative stories he comes up with on the dawgs…i don’t have a problem with him reporting news, but i’d like to see some fairness in his treatment of the local teams…I honestly don’t think you can make an arguement for him in that matter…but its so much easier for you to call someone and idiot to whom you know nothing, absolutely nothing about…i didn’t even stoop to calling Shultz that in my remarks…I do totally disagree with him, but i didn’t call him names…now tell me again who should be reported…thank you…
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
11:38 pm
It’s actually a badge of honor to see a top program like Texas come after one of Georgia’s coaches.
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
11:38 pm
When your program starts to rise, people raid your coaching stasff.
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
11:40 pm
Mack Brown lost nearly ever assistant coach, but the Texas program isn’t sinking. Still attracting the best recurits in the country, no wonder.
Jerry
January 19th, 2011
11:43 pm
I don’t think Diaz thought Mullen was on a hotseat after 1 season, yet Diaz also jumped at the chance to coach in Texas, nor did Tenn’s coach think Dooley was in a hotseat, yet he jumped to Texas too. It’s the best state to recruit in, and almost always in the hunt for the National Championship. It’s a world class program.
Bevofan
January 20th, 2011
12:07 am
The first step is to admit you have a problem. And, UGA fans, you have a problem. In fact, you have more than one problem. OC Bobo is calling out a freshman QB in the press? And you think the OL coach is the problem?
Searels was a winner at LSU and then went to a sinking ship at UGA? No wonder he was ready to leave if Bobo stayed. We know that feeling in Austin. Greg Davis stayed well past his welcome.
Longhorn Fans welcome him to the Longhorn family. We made the hard changes/fixes. I hope you follow suit because we would love to see you beat up on Auburn, Florida and the rest of the SEC, but with Richt and Bobo I am not optimistic for you.
And the award to most moronic blogger goes to...
January 20th, 2011
12:19 am
LA-DAWG
January 19th, 2011
10:31 pm
Shultz…you are a complete DA…where do you come up with the idea that Texas is solid program….
***************************************************************************
Why would anyone think that Texas is a solid program? Maybe the fact that they are the most profitable program in CFB. That in the 10 years prior to 2010 they averaged 11 wins a year. The fact that they won the MNC in 2005 and played in the BCS championship game just 1 year ago.
And the award to 2nd most moronic blogger goes to...
January 20th, 2011
12:30 am
Jerry
But when AJ came back, Georgia went 5-2, lost to Florida by 3 in OT and late in the 4th Quarter to #1 ranked Auburn, that’s the kind of season Georgia would have had with AJ there for all 12 games. Probably would have gone 9-4 with AJ in all 13 games.
***********************************************************************************************
Ah – so with AJ, UGA went 5-2, apart from the loss to Florida (=5-3) and the loss to Auburn (=5-4).
Yep – UGA with AJ lost to Colorado and UCF, but if he had been there in Columbia and Starkville and at home to Arkansas, UGA would have won
NashDawg
January 20th, 2011
12:44 am
Anyone have Neal Callaways phone number?
Tide Rising
January 20th, 2011
1:15 am
Jeff,
You only “like Austin”. Hell everyone I’ve ever known who has been there loves and raves about the town. I think I love the place just from what I’ve heard about it.
fayncdawg
January 20th, 2011
1:46 am
Hey, does Mack Brown need a new OC? Maybe he can have Searels bring Bobo with him!
7576DAWG
January 20th, 2011
2:59 am
I think that the reason Searels was so successful at LSU was because Miles oversaw everything just like Saban ,Spurrier, and Myers . The reason he wasn’t successful at Georgia was because when CMR delegated authority to his coordinators he really became more of a figure head on the side lines. That why Searels and Bobo and Martinez did such a poor job. They need a lot of supervision and should not be in charge of anything. They are all followers not leaders.
But I will agree that Bobo and Searels seem to both be good recruiters.
Stinger2
January 20th, 2011
4:40 am
The best thing that could happen at UGA would be that the so called fans who do not like CMR just find another program and leave the man alone. He is the coach so let him run the team. Most of these people who knock CMR so much have no clue about coaching a major college team.
59bulldawg
January 20th, 2011
4:46 am
Now let’s watch Richt find a way to screw this up. Will probably hire the first person he interviews just to fill the position.
Time to mock! Kiper, McShay say Falcons take . . . | Jeff Schultz
January 20th, 2011
5:02 am
[...] – Stacy Searels leaving Georgia? Can I offer him a lift? [...]
No more donations to UGA
January 20th, 2011
7:19 am
Hope Richt made a call to Tallahassee last nite? FSU O-Line Coach is an animal down there!