What should UGA fans make of the Stacy Searels situation?
Stacy Searels has drawn a lot of flak for his underperforming lines at UGA. (Brant Sanderlin / AJC)
l’m not seeing too many tears shed among Bulldog fans over the apparent impending departure of offensive line coach Stacy Searels for the same job at Texas.
Oh, sure, the timing could be better, coming just a couple of weeks before national signing day. And there’s the concern expressed by a few that Searels jumping ship is just one more sign that Mark Richt’s program is sinking fast.
But that latter view ignores the obvious fact that even if the Richt program wasn’t facing a likely do-or-die turning point next season, the Texas job would be somewhat better than a lateral move for Searels. Despite the Longhorns having suffered a losing season in 2010, that program mints money and is a choice spot for any coach. Of course, the chance of Searels being out of a job in Athens next year if Richt is fired adds to the attractiveness of a move to Austin at this point in his career.
It’s a little tougher to figure out why Mack Brown wants Searels. While his four years coaching the OL at LSU produced stellar results, his work at UGA has left most Dogs fans decidedly unimpressed. With injuries a major problem, Searels did get credit his first two seasons in Athens for cobbling together lines with three freshman starters as the Dogs finished with 11-2 and 10-3 records and Top 10 final rankings.
But the reportedly prickly Searels never seemed all that comfortable in Athens amid rumors he didn’t get along with offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and others, and Georgia folks never really warmed up to him, at least in part because of his refusal most of the time to talk to the media.
And as the Dogs’ fortunes began to sink over the 2009 and 2010 seasons, with OL play an obvious deficiency, the suspicion grew in the Bulldog Nation that having offensive stars like Matt Stafford, Knowshon Moreno and Mohamed Massaquoi made Searels’ 2007 and 2008 lines look better than they really were. The past two years Searels’ lines badly underperformed most of the time, despite having veteran players, and the running game that Searels had been named coordinator of in 2009 foundered.
Perhaps Texas has concluded the problem with the Dogs’ linemen getting pushed around by opponents really was Georgia’s infamous strength and conditioning program and that the LSU years more accurately reflect what Searels can do. Time will tell.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see where Richt turns for a new OL coach. While an up-and-coming coach might jump at the chance to take over the OL job at Georgia, the tenuous nature of Richt’s own status in Athens might work against drawing an established heavy hitter. Let’s face it, anyone who takes the job is gambling.
Mac McWhorter recently announced his retirement at Texas. (University of Texas)
The natural speculation has centered on a couple of former Georgia players with established credentials as offensive line coaches: Mac McWhorter and Hugh Nall.
McWhorter, ironically, is responsible for the opening at Texas, having just retired as the Longhorns’ OL coach amid a general staff house-cleaning that Brown has undertaken following a disappointing season just a year after playing in the national championship game. But since McWhorter’s “retirement” is only a little over a month old, he might be inclined to basically swap places with Searels.
If that’s the case, you could argue UGA would be getting the better end of the deal. While McWhorter was at UT, the offense ranked among the top 10 in total offense three times and in the top 30 seven times. It was also in the top six in scoring offense on five occasions and in the top 16 eight times. McWhorter also was named the 2008 Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.
If he were to take the job at Georgia, it would be his second go-round as the Dogs’ OL coach. He held that position, along with special teams coordinator and director of football operations, under Ray Goff. Interestingly, he also put in time at Georgia Tech under George O’Leary and ended up as the Jackets’ acting head coach for their bowl game after O’Leary left for his short-lived stint at Notre Dame.
As for Nall, he had a good run coaching the OL at Auburn under Tommy Tuberville but left coaching for an executive position in the trucking business after Tuberville was fired and reportedly is quite happy out of football. Giving up that gig for a potentially one-season stint in Athens might not seem like such a smart move.
Other names not associated with UGA are starting to surface, including former Vanderbilt head coach Robbie Caldwell, a veteran of offensive line work.
What do you think? Would you be happy with a Searels-for-McWhorter swap? Who else would you like to see Richt consider for the OL job?
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245 comments Add your comment
Gary
January 20th, 2011
11:12 pm
each time you lose a coach in recruiting season, you lose recruits already verbally committed, verbal recruits bond with position coaches and when those coaches leave, verbally committed recruits leave too.
You also lose future recruits who might have signed up, but now feel the program is less stable.
Another reason why McGarity needs to get better at retaining top talent.
Gary
January 20th, 2011
11:25 pm
1- McGarity is not a good negotiator.
1- He lost out on trying to get Florida to travel to Athens for ther Florida-Georgia game for 10 years. He caved in and Florida won.
2- He lost out on trying to get AJ Green’s 4 game suspension reduced
3- He could not negotiate terms with Searels and Texas beat him out for Searels
2- The 2 recruits today were good, but won’t help Richt turn it around in 2011, they won’t even see the field in 2011.
The two recruits Georgia needs to land are uncommitted—Crowell & Jenkins. Only thing McGarity can do to make them feel more confident about the stability of the coaching at the top at Georgia–extend Richt’s contract as soon as possible.
Bob C
January 20th, 2011
11:31 pm
Bill: Are we again assuming the worst?: “Giving up that gig for a potentially one-season stint in Athens might not seem like such a smart move”. Obviously, he could go right back to being a “trucking executive” moreso than than O-line coach. I do not believe that 2011 will be Richts last in Athens. Perhaps you should be more optimistic.
AltamahaDawg
January 20th, 2011
11:33 pm
Hard to believe he couldn’t talk UF into letting him loss a million dollars a year in revenue.
Big Harry
January 20th, 2011
11:43 pm
Acutally, I don’t really give a crap. Nothing is going to be truly fixed until Richt makes up his mind if he wants to be a Missionary or Top Dawg at Georgia (or until the decision is made for him).
Further, I’m not so sure I want Richt to stick around. He has shown that he has absolutely NO stomach for making the hard (and often OBVIOUS) decisions for this program.
Maybe its just time to tell Richt (as Neal Boortz would say): AMF.
Gen Neyland
January 20th, 2011
11:46 pm
AltDawg : How’s the new gig working out..? Staying up this late leads me to believe, Good..! I stay up this late because I’m one of the 10.2 but with a granddaughter here tonight, I guess I better shut her down.
Gen Neyland
January 20th, 2011
11:48 pm
Big Harry : That was the Greaseman out of D.C. who signed off using the AMF banger…So I bid all of thee, a good night and AMF’s, with love of course…
Snoopy
January 20th, 2011
11:59 pm
As for SS…
Bye Bye Bye…
Good luck in Austin
Snoopy
January 21st, 2011
12:02 am
Gary – What a pessimist you are…
Let SS go.. & give McGarity a chance.. He’s been on the job 4+ months… If things are not “better” like 9 wins in ‘11 – then the onus is on HIM.. Till then, let him beeeee
Big D Dawg
January 21st, 2011
12:05 am
wde you must have forgotten one of those undefeated seasons came at the expense of probation due to a pay for play under ad/coach dye
athdog
January 21st, 2011
12:36 am
I do have to wonder, though. Why is it that SS was a success everywhere but here?
BoWeevil
January 21st, 2011
2:08 am
(1) Mark Richt will hire the wrong guy for his coaching staff
—- it is all he does
(2) Stacy Searels hates Mike Bobo because Mike Bobo’s play calls made him look bad
…
which is why Stacy Searels left and Quit on Mark Richt and Mike Bobo.
2008, Georgia finished # 13 in the AP Poll.
ca dawg
January 21st, 2011
2:14 am
WDE: congrats on the NC. i was interested in some of your claims about the decline of our program. hard to argue–the last couple of years have been tough. so anyway, i followed your example and decided to concern myself with someone else’s team. took a look at auburn’s schedule.
away: arkansas, south carolina, clemson, georgia, lsu.
home: florida, alabama, etc…
pretty tough sledding, but you’ve got a lot of talent down on the plains. should be able to handle a tough schedule. right? so i took a glance at your roster to confirm. uh-oh.
starters lost: 14
4 OL: ziemba, pugh, berry, isom
3 DB: washington, etheridge, savage
3 DL: fairley, goggans, carter
1 QB: newton
1 WR: zachery
2 LB: bynes, stevens
why are you so concerned with the dawgs? UGA has a favorable schedule and 15 starters coming back. let’s talk in a year and see who’s in decline…
Jas
January 21st, 2011
3:05 am
Jim Mora Jr. available?
BoWeevil
January 21st, 2011
3:17 am
15 Starters RETURNING ?
Clint Boling is certainly gone as Starter
Shaun Chapas is certainly gone as Starter
Vance Cuff is certainly gone and he Started 5 games
Chris Davis is certainly gone and he Started 3 games
Josh Davis is certainly gone and he Started 11 games
Akeem Dent is certainly gone as Starter
Demarcus Dobbs is certainly gone as Starter
Marcus Dowtin Starter 2 games and he is gone
Kris Durham is certainly gone and he Started 8 games
Darryl Gamble is certainly gone and he Started 7 games
Caleb King Started 5 games, did he Flunk Out ?
Fred Munzenmaier Started 3 games and he is gone
Tanner Strickland Started 3 games and he is gone
Brandon Wood got a Start this year too and he is gone
AJ Green is certainly gone as Starter
Justin Houston is certainly gone as Starter
16 Players who got to Start 2010 are all GONE.
You make it sound like we have a Young Team with a Nucleus of Great Players.
Nothing could be further from the Truth.
15 Starters coming back ca dawg ?
BoWeevil
January 21st, 2011
3:18 am
Looks to me like we LOST half our Starters
BoWeevil
January 21st, 2011
3:22 am
and what is this about an easy schedule ca dawg ?
Florida is easy for Mark Richt ?
Missy State is easy win ?
Auburn is an easy win ?
South Carolina is an easy win ?
Boise State is an easy win ?
Good Lord, ca dawg DISNEYdawgs.com
Woebegong
January 21st, 2011
6:10 am
Youy know, after all of the Auburn and Alabama fans get on this blog to bad mouth the DAWGS, and act like they really think their opinions count, I decided to do some checking. I tried to find an Auburn football blog, but couldn’t find one, although there were a few Alabama blogs. I wanted to see if UGA fans got on those blogs, just to be a butt hole like some of the Auburn and Alabama folks are on here, but I couldn’t find one. Maybe I just didn’t search deep enough, or maybe UGA fans and alumni have more class. I bet the same Alabama and Auburn fans that are on this blog, can’t either or they would surely be on each others blog’s, spouting their all knowing wisdom (we can lie and not get kicked off these blogs I hope). I am not saying that all negative comments are not welcome, but at least be a man about it, and quit acting so childish. The question this blog asked was, “Who do you think would be a good replacement for our offensive line coach”, not, who can come onto a blog of another team and write the most childish, stupid and assinine comments about the team in question. If you have nothing positive to say, then take it over to your teams blog, if you have one and leave the Georgia blogs alone. GT I guess being an instate rivalry can be excused somewhat, since this is an Atlanta paper, but not some of these clowns from Alabama and Auburn, who are simply riding their teams late success, of the last couple of years ago. I do not know enough about the pay for play drama involving Auburn, and I do not know about Sabans recruting practices so I do not even bother to state an opinion one way or another. Even if I did, I don’t think I would try to find a blog from that state and act like a child as some of these folks do.
Now back to the original question this blog asked. Offensive line coaches as a general rule do not get a lot of press so I am not even sure who is out there that would be a good replacement for our departed coach. I suspect that Texas probably offered him a few more bucks, butit looks like to me, that maybe, he is a little thin skinned and did not like the criticism he was receiving over the poor offensive line play this past year. I think the offensive line has good amount of talent both in place and in whom UGA recruited. My guess is a fresh infusion of blood on the coaching side, along with a better approach to S and C, will do wonders and fix the problem. I sure hope so anyway. GO DAWGS.
chazzo
January 21st, 2011
6:17 am
Weren’t those huge Texas O years when they had Vince Young? I am not sure Searles was all that bad or all that good. It is hard to judge based on O production stats. What I did see was that there never seemed to be a cemented group until about the fifth game of the season. I did not see consistent performance out of them. As mentioned games like the 2009 Tech face off looked stellar. Does an O line coach make or break a team? I don’t know. Hope they get someone dynamic who has good chemistry with the other coaches.
WDE, do you read the news? Rome and Mitchell just happily committed to UGA (#1 and #6 I believe).
This program is not a sinking ship, but I sincerely hope everyone thinks that.
NashDawg
January 21st, 2011
7:29 am
Do not let the door hit you in the……….
Barf
January 21st, 2011
7:43 am
Auburn would have been 5-7 without Cam “guard your laptop” Newton
SOS Dawg
January 21st, 2011
7:48 am
I cant wait till the 2012 kick off with a brand new competent coaching staff.
Barf
January 21st, 2011
7:49 am
O by the way I actually met Searls through my business. Probaly would be a great neighbor but I wondered how 18 year olds would relate to his personality. Best wishes at the real UT a great town and if you went to AU, going to Tx is like going to heaven.
Barf
January 21st, 2011
7:51 am
When did AU have their steriod scandel?
chazzo
January 21st, 2011
7:55 am
BoWeevil,
You are correct that UGA is losing some key players. You are also correct that UGA was not built around a nucleus of young starters. I would say, though, that some of the players on your leaving list never fully reached optimum potential (who’s to blame for that is another discussion). In addition, there are many young players who got on the field last season and made a big impact. So, all I am saying here is that 2011 will not be a bunch of inexperienced guys who have never played in a college game. I honestly think that, with the exception of AJ and Houston, all of these players are replaceable.
As for the schedule, you are absolutely right. It is not a cakewalk, especially after adding BSU. However, it is a much more manageable ordeal than playing four out of five of the past BCS champions plus ranked conference and out-of-conference teams as was the case a couple of seasons ago. There are also no flights across the nation between major conference opponents. I think that is why people are commenting on the “easy” schedule.
Turkeyman
January 21st, 2011
7:56 am
Here’s reality from my sources in Athens…and they’ve never been wrong when passing along stuff to me…
1. Searles has been SCREAMING for the last couple of years about how bad our strength/conditioning program is. His complaints: my linemen are fat, weak and soft
2. He and Richt get along really well
3. Ealey and Thomas, both running backs, are the most disrespectful to authority thugs on the team.
4. Red panties Evans and I hate Dooley Adams had Richt out of coaching and off “selling” the product called Mark Richt. I actually do recall Evans saying “Mark Richt is our product” once. Their whole goal was profit for the athletic department with assistant coaches left to literally run the program. McGarity is capping Richt’s outside appearances and putting him back on the field.
5. The players hate Tereschinski as the strength coach. Why? He puts up with NOTHING. You either work hard, or get off my team attitude.
6. The attitude will and is turning around.
Bug Killer
January 21st, 2011
8:25 am
What do I think, Bill, besides good riddance, Coach Searles? Would McWhorter want this job again under these circumstances? As someone else posted elsewhere, I say get any high school coach to come in and light a fire under this talented but very underachieving OL that embarrassed itself against UCF by t-tty blocking a team that had more heart.
chris
January 21st, 2011
8:30 am
Two more of the “dream team” came on board last night, Searels should have been fired last year and David Pollock for O-line Coach (he’ll do great). GO DAWGS!
JoeFann
January 21st, 2011
8:34 am
Here’s a different take. Texas’ offense thrived with the skill position players to run it. That’s the reason for the high offensive rankings. Georgia is married to the power run and drop back passing favored by the pros. Texas’ goal was to get the ball to the edge ASAP and allow their superior speed athletes to work in the open field. They just didn’t have the superior athletes this year, and college football (everywhere except Georgia) is catching up to defense the spread. That’s a completely different set of requirements for O linemen. They needed speed and agility. Georgia needs brute strength and toughness. I’d look for a pro OL coach who is suddenly out of a job. He’ll take a one year assignment while he looks for another pro job. In the meantime, he might change the OL mindset. I don’t think Richt can afford a long term plan. Admittedly, I’m torn. Love the man. The recent results? Not so much.
Go Dawgs!
SavDawg
January 21st, 2011
8:59 am
GOD BLESS TEXAS ! Ya’ll can have that slug ! I’d love to have Mac McWhorter back.
DawginLex
January 21st, 2011
9:02 am
WDE
January 20th, 2011
12:31 pm
Not only did the Damon Evans episode embarass your University, but it has put off rebuilding for at least a year… Probably more when you consider the lack of faith in your program. The recruits can smell it, its why that “Dream Team” CMR so desperately begged for is just that… “It was only just a dreeaaaaammmmm” hahaha
Hey WDE,
Care to re-think your statement about the Dream Team not happening given what happened last night???????????????????
Gary
January 21st, 2011
9:11 am
McGarity just lost his Asst AD to Texas, Arthur Johnson AND Searels both were not able to be retained by McGarity.
I think McGarity’s setting this up where Richt really can’t have a good season, but if that happens, McGarity will be fired too. Even his Asst AD knows that.
UGASlobberknocker
January 21st, 2011
9:21 am
As an executive myself in the trucking industry, I believe that unless Nall is part owner of a rare privately held profitable trucking company, he couldn’t have secured any exec position in the industry other than a sales job somewhere. (given no experience in the logistics ops side). The executive title means nothing. My lowest sales rep’s title is “Account Executive”. The better sales reps can make about 100k..but a lot of that is commission and income is up and down in a very unstable industry. If UGA pd near that, and he still had any desire to coach, he would jump at it, I’ll guarantee it.
Gary
January 21st, 2011
9:52 am
You got to ask why a Georgia grad like Athur Johnson, Asst AD at Georgia, would suddenly leave Georgia after working with McGarity for only 4 months.
Combine that move, with the way Richt responded to McGarity’s leadership style, with his worst season in 2 decades, and you have to start asking yourself the hard questions about McGarity.
Is McGarity capable of developing talent? Didn’t do much with the #5 best coach in college football.
Retaining talent? In 4 months, has already lost some coaches, and some admin.
Turkeyman
January 21st, 2011
9:54 am
McGarity has either run off or not encouraged numerous people in the Athl. Dept to return. He’s cleaning house of Evans’ deadwood cronies. Evans played alot, as did he friends he hired.
McGarity is ridding the dept of any person not carrying their weight and on board with doing whatever it takes. He’ll get the job done.
Geeze, the guy has only been here 1/2 a year and you guys are expecting him to fix Evans and Adams’s stupidity overnight!
Searles really was a good coach, but it’s ok that he left. They are looking at a couple of really good coaches to replace him. You’ll be pleaseantly surprised when you hear the hire.
exile on broad street
January 21st, 2011
10:15 am
Thanks Turkeyman, some good info, I’ve heard some of the same from inside as well. Give it time to shake out. Mostly positive so far. Any hints, anyone we haven’t thought of?
bystander
January 21st, 2011
11:12 am
Caldwell to Clemson.
ca dawg
January 21st, 2011
12:16 pm
boweevil: i figured someone would call me a disney dawg. where did i say we’d win the NC or even the SEC or even the SEC east? i hate that crap as much as you do, but i also don’t think that the sky is falling is athens. at any rate let me clarify a couple of things, as you seem like an agreeable guy: the point i was trying to make is that we’d probably win more games than auburn, who is actually losing 15 starters (didn’t mention darvin adams, their leading WR, who declared for the draft).
1) i said we had a “favorable schedule,” not an “easy” one. i was really thinking of our conference schedule, but i’ll take the knock because i didn’t specifically say that. anyway, take a look at the conference schedule and you’ll see that it gives us a shot to win the east. SC, miss. st., and auburn are at home. our draw out of the west is ole miss, miss st, and auburn. our toughest road game is in knoxville. and then OOC, we play two road games in atlanta. they’ll be tough games, yes, but not unwinnable ones, and they’re de facto home games. so… are there tough games? yeah. do we have questions going into 2011? yeah, serious ones. i just wanted WDE to worry about his own team and quit taking needless shots at my dawgs. might be my mistake for trying to reason with the guy.
2) as for returning starters… you mention several guys who actually LOST their starting jobs over the course of last year or guys who “got” a start or two, but i take your point that we’re losing some important contributors from last year’s team. i’ll confess that my “15 returning starters” claim sounds optimistic, but go look at the roster and you’ll see that we have a good mix of youth and experience coming back. doesn’t mean that we’ve got no personnel questions — any dawg fan (or dawg hater) knows that isn’t true — but rather my initial point is that we have less to worry about than auburn. remember, my post was directed at a specific person (WDE) and written for a specific purpose in mind.
bottom line: we’ve got questions for sure, but if we do the right things in the offseason and stay healthy, then we’re going to take a step forward next year and have a puncher’s chance to win the east. that’s not disney stuff, IMO.
LCDawg
January 21st, 2011
12:18 pm
Hands down, Robbie Caldwell. He’s an excellent coach and great person.
Tallcarl
January 21st, 2011
12:54 pm
Goodbye Coach SS, I lost confidence in you the last two years when we could not run the ball. If the guys needed more strengthening then you should have made changes yourself. Take responsibility for you failure. You have to run the ball to win at the highest level no matter who your quarterback is. Go away WDE, in fact quit skipping class at the Alabama Reform School and turn off the wrestling reruns. You haven’t got a clue what is happening at UGA…I would like to look outside the box. Since CMR runs a pro offence maybe look at some fresh available OL coaches from the NFL. Just saying.
LawDawg
January 21st, 2011
2:47 pm
Nothing but bluuuee skkiiieess smilin’ at me.
LawDawg
January 21st, 2011
2:53 pm
I really don’t even care if we hire an OL coach. Nothing could be worse than the last two years at the line position. That said, anyone you suggested make sense because they will not really be negatively effected if they have to leave after a year.
ed f
January 21st, 2011
2:59 pm
I really think this was best for UGA. Firing someone just hurts the program more right now. Searles needed to go. So he did us a favor. I think things are about to get better. My gut tells me so. We will see.
William
January 21st, 2011
4:10 pm
I think Searels is a great guy and I wish him all the best. I think the best case scenario, or at least what I think would be best for the team, is to go get a new OC who will also be the line coach. Move Bobo back to QB coach. I think Bobo is amazing at developing QBs look at what we have had under him. I just cannot put much faith in him as a play caller. Also, the job gets much more inticing when you throw in OC to a top teir coach (which we need for recruiting, and just to get some more big names in there)
DDUCK
January 23rd, 2011
9:05 pm
I Believe the trouble with our O-line was Coach SS cross-training. When one got hurt…..he
shifted 2 to 3 other players so that we would have about 3 men playing out of position instead
of one. An O-line must play together and know what the man beside him is doing and
capable of doing.