McGarity learned ‘art of scheduling’ well at Florida
Some thoughts coming out of the UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors spring meeting at SSI …
You want early evidence that Georgia made a wise choice in calling Athens native Greg McGarity home from Florida as athletic director? Just look at the fact that following a losing 6-7 season and an absolutely dismal and dispiriting bowl showing by Mark Richt’s football team, Bulldog Club/Hartman Fund contributions actually increased $300,000 to $23 million this year.
A major factor in that apparently was McGarity’s decision to schedule the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game opener with Boise State. Anyone contributing at least $100 to the Hartman Fund was eligible to buy tickets to the Georgia Dome game and UGA fans snapped up all 53,000 that were available.
McGarity is a smart man.
DOING IT THE ‘FLORIDA WAY’
Speaking of which, McGarity announced that David Perno will be returning as UGA’s baseball coach, which is as it should be. Despite the tragic injury to Johnathan Taylor, the Diamond Dogs improved their SEC record to 16-14 this season. If it hadn’t been for losing too many of those midweek nonconference games, they’d be a lock for an NCAA tourney spot.
And that’s where McGarity will make a difference again. He rightly diagnosed Perno’s problem this season as over-scheduling, noting that SEC teams on average played three to five nonconference games against teams with a Top 25 RPI while Georgia played 17 such games this year. As he told our Chip Towers, “I hate to deal with could-haves and would-haves, but it speaks to what I call ‘the art of scheduling,’”
McGarity said “next year we need to have a schedule that is totally different,” with 37 or 38 home games instead of 28 like this year. As for those tough nonconference opponents, “We’ve got Tech; we’ve got Clemson; we’ve got UCLA. That’s enough.”
McGarity knows what he’s talking about. The University of Florida has perfected the art of devising a national championship schedule.
SAY WHAT?
Among the expenditures approved by the athletic board was $675,000 for a new sound system at Stegeman Coliseum. Talk about money well spent! The echo in the Steg is awful, especially at lesser-attended basketball games and graduation ceremonies. It’s long past time that problem was corrected.
WOOF!
Sonny Seiler was on hand for the St. Simons gathering and provided an update on the search for a new Uga mascot, saying he hasn’t yet found a pup who will “fit the bill” and anticipates stand-in Russ continuing to wear the red sweater for as much as two-thirds of the coming season before a new dog is introduced. Russ, as Seiler noted, is very popular with fans (despite the team’s less than stellar won-loss record during his tenure). Actually, I don’t see why Seiler doesn’t just let Russ serve the whole year and then unveil a new Uga at the beginning of the 2012 season.
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156 comments Add your comment
DawgVoiceofReason
May 28th, 2011
9:00 pm
Dawgs on Fire,
Your ignorance of the Ga-Fla series is astounding, considering you post as some sort of expert on why UGA “loses almost every year”. It has NOTHING to do with playing in Jacksonville. Anyone who asserts that that is the reason is simply ignorant. If you didn’t know, UGA still holds the series lead, having played in Jacksonville almost every year!!!
And UF does NOT have “all of the advantages playing in jacksonville (sic)”. If you haven’t noticed, half of the fans there every year are our fans. And every other year we get to be the “home team”, with all of it’s real or perceived advantages. Neither team plays there more often than the other team and both have the exact same history. The only advantage UF might have is having a shorter trip to the game but even conceding that, it would be impossible to prove that it makes the slightest bit of difference in the outcome of the game. Again, we’ve been doing it and winning for many years.
Your assertions are flat out wrong!
Otis My Man
May 28th, 2011
9:29 pm
Russ is lame Otis My Man- bulldog should stand in until UGA IX is ready. He will be 3 in August and is fiesty handsome and sweet. Check him out on youtube and facebook. He is does have UGA lineage as well.
Merrick
May 28th, 2011
10:54 pm
Delbert D. here’s some returning players you missed:
Offense – Doug Martin RB D.J. Harper RB
Defence – Shea McClellin DE Bryon Hout DL
All these mentioned will have a huge impact, GO BRONCOS
South Dawg
May 29th, 2011
12:53 pm
Now that meyer’s gone and UF is down, UGA will take over that series, starting this year. Richt’s furious about muschamp guaranteeing a win and will run up the score to get even. He might even order another endzone dance to really show muschamp that he’s the boss from now on. Dawgs will win the SEC east in 2011—take it to the bank!!!!!!
Too much Kool-Aid is bad for you
May 29th, 2011
2:34 pm
Now that meyer’s gone and UF is down, UGA will take over that series, starting this year.
You need to seriously cut back on your Kool-Aid consumption. It ain’t gonna happen. Florida owns the dawg b*tches.
redneckDawg
May 30th, 2011
10:31 pm
McGarity seems to have failed the art of scheduling.
#1- McGarity blew it when he signed on to continue to have the G-Fla game in Florida instead of the Dome. Should have learned form Florida that having the #1 in division rival at home every year is a smarter move.
#2- McGarity didn’t learn form Meyer that you schdule bad teams for the opener to build confidence. Meyer never faced a ranked team on 1st game at Florida. McGarity scheduled Boise, 35 ranekd team, for opener. Not a wise move.