SEC punishes players, but why no reprimand for coaches?
Vanderbilt coach James Franklin stated his case to Mark Richt after the game.
(Updated with SEC statement on coaches.)
Georgia’s attempt to achieve a rare exacta — 1) beat Florida; 2) win the SEC East — just got a little more difficult.
The SEC, in an expected move, has suspended two Bulldogs defensive starters — safety Shawn Williams and nose tackle Kwame Geathers — for their actions in last week’s victory over Vanderbilt. Each must sit out the first half of the Florida game. Also suspended for a half was Vandy center Logan Stewart.
Meanwhile, the conference chose not to act on the actions of Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham or Vandy head coach James Franklin. That’s odd. It sends mixed messages.
This is not to suggest either Grantham or Franklin should have suspended, and a conference spokesman wasn’t even aware if there is precedent for a coach being fined for an on-field action. But the minimum of a public reprimand certainly seemed in order.
I sent an email to SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom asking why there was no publish discipline of any kind for Grantham and Franklin. This was his emailed response: “Matter handled internally between league office and schools.”
Coaches should be held to at least as high a standard as players. Actually, higher. They are the adults in this scenario, at least theoretically.
As for the impact of the suspensions: The Dogs’ defense has improved this season — notwithstanding a poor second half against Vanderbilt — so the loss of Williams and Geathers, even just for a half, hurts. Williams has been one of the defense’s best players, but was flagged for a flagrant personal foul in the third quarter. Geathers drew two personal fouls, one stemming from a punch at Stewart, who clipped him from behind.
Williams reportedly also was one of the initial sparks to the post-game scrum involving the two teams. Various videos from news sites have popped up, the most recent indicating that Williams was popping off after the game to Franklin, who then returned verbal fire, which brought Grantham into it. Then things exploded.
WSMV television in Nashville released raw video footage on Tuesday that showed a post-game conversation between Franklin and Georgia coach Mark Richt, who apologizes to the Vandy coach for the actions of Williams and Grantham (while also calling each a name).
Suffice to say, Richt did not intend for those comments to become public, even if he probably was right.
Here’s the transcript from the news video:
Franklin: “36 comes up, after a tough game, talking **** to me!
Richt: “Okay.”
Franklin: “Rubbing our face in it right after the game!”
Richt: “He’s a dumb***.”
Franklin: “And then your coach when I tell him about it, then he goes after me and the fight starts.”
Richt: “That’s what I thought happened, I apologize. It’s horse **** horse ****.”
Then coach Franklin finds another coach to express his feelings to.
Franklin: ” Hey, 36 after a tough game, come over and going to talk **** in my face after the game. That’s NOT how my guys do it!”
This is two strikes for Grantham, including last year’s episode when he gave multiple choke signs to a Florida place kicker. But there has been no official statement from the school, and athletic director Greg McGarity has only referred to Richt’s post-game comments, in which the coach expressed regret for the way his team acted after the win.
On the field, the Dogs definitely will take a hit in the first half against Florida next week. But they take a hit off the field as well.
By Jeff Schultz
Follow me on Twitter (@JeffSchultzAJC). Friend me on Facebook (Facebook.com/JeffSchultzAJC).
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
724 comments Add your comment
Calhoundawg
October 20th, 2011
12:08 pm
You still haven’t made one, and no one has held James Franklin accountable for his innappropriate behavior as the head coach at Vanderbilt. Maybe you should have gotten you diploma from there.
Terry
October 20th, 2011
12:11 pm
Why does Franklin go up to another coach, after he has spoken to Coach Richt? That should have been the end of it, but the next coach he comes to, he starts his whinning all over again.
Terry
October 20th, 2011
12:24 pm
Red Scarlett, Employers are not worried about anything, but what kind of production they are getting out of you, if their worried about you College, then your not worth keeping, I would start look for a new job, if I were you.
Calhoundawg
October 20th, 2011
12:28 pm
I graduated from Kennesaw State, Red Scarlett, which is a University of Georgia system school, and I was born in this state. Does that qualify me to post on these blogs? Nevermind the fact that this discussion board is about incidents that happened at a football game in Nashville last weekend; something that you failed to mention specifically in your self-righteous diatribe. Besides, I’d rather be a boor than a bore. Go Dawgs !!!!
Dirty Harry
October 20th, 2011
12:50 pm
All of you whiners are a bunch of sissy boys who don’t like real men kicking some sorry butts! You punks would start crying if Erk Russell looked at you! Sissy Punks!!
Thomas Brown
October 20th, 2011
1:02 pm
Dawg Tired October 20th, 2011 7:59 am
“Time for Richt to go. That’s it. Got to stand up for your guys. You can call 36 a DA to his face in private, but you never say that to the other coach who may also be a DA. One thing is clear – our coach is a DA.”
____________________________________________________________
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
pb
October 20th, 2011
1:07 pm
What did you guys say to Schultz to pi** him off? Usuallly he doesn’t tell people to just leave the blog if they don’t like it ( “click somewhere else”). Maybe he he was just in a bad mood yesterday? Some of the opinions on here are extreme… But getting all these comments is what he is trying to do; whether you agree with what he says or not.
dawgfacedboy
October 20th, 2011
1:07 pm
Players broke rules/played dirty. Arguing and finger pointing are neither.
Thomas Brown
October 20th, 2011
1:13 pm
gbal October 20th, 2011 9:18 am
” Richt failed misrably in showing support for his team and coaches. Jumpin to conclusions before getting the facts. He should show public suport for the sake of team morale and recruits are listening. “
Weather Channel Expert
October 20th, 2011
1:22 pm
Anyone see Schultz lately? Someone must have hurt his feelings.
phil
October 20th, 2011
1:27 pm
Well, Jeff, it could be that some people with some sense thought no suspension was warranted. Opinions other than yours do count, you know.
How often are you punished by the AJC for some of the stupid stuff you write now and then? It isn’t all good.
Murphy
October 20th, 2011
1:33 pm
This might just be the fire UGA needs heading to Jax.I sure hope we use this to our advantage and put it on the GAYTORS. Could this be another “UGA isnt man enough” deal. Just for the record I usually agree with Schultz and enjoy his comments but this time I must say with me being a huge Dawgs fan I dont appreciate this article at all. Go Dawgs!!! Time to get nasty in Jax!!!!!!
Jimmy Crack
October 20th, 2011
1:36 pm
SCHUUUULTZ!!
All coaches should learn ventriloquism.
Franklin will learn how to eat a 50 Burger next year in Athens.
pb
October 20th, 2011
1:46 pm
Jimmy Crack, you are right. Now there wil be bad blood between Vandy and UGA. And Dawgs will try to pound them in the ground next year in Athens. Vandy coach partly to blame for the fracas too, not just Grantham, and maybe he will be taught a lesson next year in Athens. But I guess that sounds immature and not Christian like Richt would do?
Terrance Moore
October 20th, 2011
1:49 pm
Dang…..It never got this bad for me when I would say bad things about whitey…..
Charles
October 20th, 2011
2:02 pm
GTBob – you want to preach about class? Whose football program is going on probation again? Can it, geek.
Calhoundawg
October 20th, 2011
2:59 pm
Come on, Jeff, according to Franklin’s response from above, please write an article and post in slow motion exactly at what point you think that Logan knew he wasn’t going to get his “hat” in FRONT of Geather’s legs and should have abandoned the mission. In my little worthless opinion, since he was already BEHIND Geather’s rather ample posterior, he knew what he was going to do the second he put his cinder block head down. Right, Jeff? Come on, smart guy. I’m waiting for the James Franklin article. Still waiting ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Calhoundawg
October 20th, 2011
3:01 pm
……………. or should I say “wading.”
Pouncing Tiger
October 20th, 2011
3:09 pm
Who “punishes” sports writers when they write like jerks? Spurrier criticized one of you and all you writers came to his (the writer’s) defense. Blow hards. You can’t take iut.
Thomas Brown
October 20th, 2011
3:56 pm
GTBob October 20th, 2011 10:44 am
“How many of our players are getting arrested? How many of our players have thrown punches during a game? How many of our coaches are starting fights with other coaches after the game? We certainly aren’t perfect but we are a much more classy program then UGA is.”
____________________________________________________________
And, that is why Georgia tek is on NCAA PROBATION back-to-back, repeat offenders of the Major Infractions Database in FOOTBALL ?
Why 1 of your athletes is charged with MURDER ?
Why Calvin Johnson does a commercial without talking – because if he opens his mouth, you see he cannot even talk ?
Why your football player who had 52 lbs. of drugs in his van with his child in his lap on your campus, taking them to a dealer to sell them there in the slums of downtown Atlanta, Rueben Houston, was put in the game against Georgia and played against us – after he ADMITTED all this to the AJ-C ?
Why you have beat the coach, who is on the hotseat here at UGA, 1 time in his 11th season now ?
Why you have blown-up half your GRANT field and offer 2 cokes, parking permit, bag of boiled peanuts and 4 hot dogs to anyone who will buy 1 ticket ?
Why you strip search ladies who have season tickets and sued your Athletic Department for taking a Chick-fil-A from a vendor directly in-front of your gates to your silly little empty stadium, when she threw it away in the trash when told that vendor had rights to sell it at the front gate but not for consumption INSIDE the empty stadium ?
Why you have not won a Major Bowl Game since 1955 ?
Why your recruiting is # 51 in the nation every year of Paul Johnson ?
Why Paul Johnson hired little Joey Hamilton to be his Director of Player Development, who then took his 1st paycheck and bought drugs, committed a hit and run, was drunk, left the scene and apologized ?
Why you graduate fewer of your football players than we, why you graduate fewer of your baseball players than we, why you graduate fewer of your ladies’ basketball team than we, why you graduate fewer of your men’s basketball players than we – and yet, why we BEAT YOU IN ALL THESE SPORTS too ?
Why you are downtown in a city of 6 million and we in a city of 50,000 which folks in Atlanta can drive to faster than getting to the slums where even you don’t feel safe and no one attending any of your events while we are packed – with YOU in HERE on our blogs to talk to little ole us ?
Focus on Facts, Schultz: History of AJC
October 20th, 2011
4:48 pm
Dear Schultz,
So, I’m reading through all of these blogs and see all these assumptions and stories about what happened, what could have happened, what should have happened, and whatnot. Looking at this story and the multiple directions it can be taken, it’s just hard to get the facts. Writing this type of stuff (i.e. – your story above) is WEAK REPORTING…it’s not news…it’s not the facts.
Let’s put the arrow in the opposite direction. We all know how the ajc works. It’s part of a dying media. Let’s talk about STRONG REPORTING…news…and actual facts that we can use to value your story (or devalue it for that matter). The AJC, in ‘07 has lost nearly 50% of their Daily circulation from ‘07 to ‘11. Sunday, nearly 25% in the same 4 years. ABC Audit Verified…and if we put a “readership” calculation in the mix, things don’t get pretty. Oh yeah, so they decreased the distribution footprint and that’s why (or is it because less people are buying the stuff and you have to save on ink and paper – so you increase your TMC (ad coupon mail-to-garbage product) product which costs less to distribute so you can still make some profit. Then you finally (after every other medium already took advantage of it) go digital / online because you realize the print product just isn’t working anymore. Online readership and circulation – pretty stagnant. With all those cuts in customers, and no real way to gauge their interest to increase circulation and readership, advertisers (which make up 60%-70%+ of your content, and revenue, and keep people like sports editors employed) continue not to invest. And with lower investments come lower returns. With lower returns comes less staffing and less writers (online or offline).
Fact: The weak reporting that you’ve asked us to clarify, which is indeed weak reporting, has been backed up by facts that your medium continues to diminish…why? because editors just don’t have the element of surprise any more. They’re boring. And there’s a heck of a lot better news on the internet than from some sports editor that thinks the same story over and over is going to interest people.
Let it go. Find something that will actually captivate your audience. Otherwise, AJC is going to just write itself out of existence with their weak and boring reporting.
Next up: Schultz explains why Georgia’s uniforms are red and black…GET CREATIVE or don’t bother…jeez.
BIG MIKE
October 24th, 2011
7:49 pm
You friggin’ so called Dawg fans really take the cake. Last year you were whining about Richt and how he should be replaced with the SECOND COMING Will Muschamp. Muschamp acts less mature than Grantham and isn’t half the coach. At least Grantham is a throwback to Erk Russell. Russell used to beat his head against the lockers until his forehead was bleeding to fire his defense up. IT WORKED!!!. Grantham will be there along with Richt and Bobo…until they get tired of the BULLDOG FAN CRAP. If it was me, I would wait until I had an exceptional season and resign, leaving you whiney Bass Turds high and dry.
Will Muschamp is the greatest….CRICKET…..CRICKET…….CRICKET
Brainiac(Dawg for life)
October 24th, 2011
11:26 pm
Rally: Why don’t you drive, or have your parents drive you, to Athens and tell Mr. Grandtham face to face. You are simply a lowlife hiding behind the blog and appear to be dumb enough to be triplets. Next time you have a thought just let it go.
Jeff: You are really doing damage to UGA. This whole thing was started by CJF and CTG simply put a stop to it yet you continue to dredge up more BS that you get 2nd or 3rd handed and play it for all you can get out of it.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(Richt fan for life)
October 24th, 2011
11:52 pm
@Thomas Brown & Focus on facts Shultz: Damn you guys are good but don’t count on it making a big impression on Jeff and GTBob. I am going to buy 1000 lottery tickets EACH WEEK until I win and then I;m going to sue some people associated with the AJC for slander and anything else my Johnny Cochran Attorney can come up with.
I’m not going to sue GTBob because, as a Bunglebee fan he is being punished daily.
Thomas Brown, that was a DAMN GOOD list you came up with for ole GTB. He will spend weeks checking it out only to find it is true.
Good stuff guys.