Blame Mark Richt? He’s not the one who’s embarrassing UGA
Even tougher love goes only so far. (Special to the AJC)
Mark Richt is a nice guy. Mark Richt believes in forgiveness. Mark Richt looks for the best in people. Mark Richt coddled Odell Thurman.
All of this is true. None of it explains, at least not fully, why Georgia players keep getting arrested.
Let’s stipulate that Richt was too lenient for too long. But he has toughened since the egregious offseason of 2008, when eight Bulldogs got arrested and stole a goodly part of the luster that should have descended on a team ranked No. 1 in preseason for the first time in school history. He has kicked more guys off the team. He has instituted an automatic one-game suspension for anyone arrested (for the first time) on an alcohol-related charge. Yet here Georgia sits, two summers later, having cut its offseason arrest total by …
One.
Seven Bulldogs have been arrested this calendar year. Three have been dismissed from the squad, including Montez Robinson, who figured to play at linebacker, and Zach Mettenberger, who might have challenged Aaron Murray as Georgia’s starting quarterback. Backup tailback Dontavius Jackson, arrested Saturday on DUI and five other charges, has been suspended for half the 2010 season.
This is no longer the Richt of repeated second chances, but it hasn’t much mattered. Bulldogs are still messing up — even as we note that an arrest isn’t a conviction, we must also face the reality that getting arrested generally isn’t a signal of meritorious behavior — even though they should know their actions can and will have consequences.
No, Georgia isn’t alone in having football players make the wrong kind of headlines. But it has happened so often with these Bulldogs that each incident bears a subtext: It isn’t that a Georgia player has been arrested but that another Georgia player has been arrested. And Richt, as head coach, must bear some responsibility. But responsibility isn’t the same thing as blame.
This man is a football coach, not a prison warden. In the name of discipline, he cannot put his men under dormitory lockdown. If he did, it wouldn’t be discipline. Discipline is about having the freedom to make choices and then choosing wisely. Too many Georgia players continue to be, for want of a better word, unwise. And that’s not on the head coach. That’s on them.
Maybe Richt needs to be more careful about the players he pursues — recruiting risks tend to bite the hand that signs them — but that can be said of every program everywhere. Richt is in business to win games, not to oversee the glee club. He’s going to be in a lot more trouble if Georgia goes 8-5 again than if another 19-year-old gets caught with a beer. But the 19-year-olds have to smarten up.
Loading ...If they can’t grasp that there’s increased scrutiny on this program — especially after the arrest and resignation of Damon Evans — they’re not bright enough to attend an institution of higher learning. If they can’t understand that being a Bulldog is both an honor and a responsibility, they shouldn’t be allowed to wear the red jersey.
Too many college athletes (and not just Georgia athletes) have been so pampered they believe they’re untouchable. Reality check: They’re not. Just because a bunch of folks followed their recruiting and got excited when these blue-chippers put on a certain school’s cap doesn’t mean a player can’t be arrested, can’t be disciplined, can’t be forgotten in the time it takes to say, “You’re off the team.”
Say what you will about Mark Richt, but for more than a decade he has carried himself in a way that has conferred honor on UGA. He is, alas, only one man. He cannot make choices for 85 others. He can try to lead them, teach them, punish them when necessary, but in the end everything comes down to free will.
Too many Bulldogs act as if they’ve been handed a free pass through life. (Reality check: Nobody gets one of those.) Too many Bulldogs need to grow up or go home.
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831 comments Add your comment
come on
July 12th, 2010
2:40 pm
can thuga play road games this year because i thought u can’t go out of state on probation
Dawgtards ruin this state
July 12th, 2010
2:40 pm
Bush (w/o panties) was partially responsible for Damon Evans failure to maintain his lane. You can blame that on Bush.
Things that make you go hmmmm....
July 12th, 2010
2:41 pm
My uncle said 90% of these arrests would not have happened when he was in college because the legal drinking age was 18. The big risk for him and his frat brothers was getting their hands on Coors which was illegal east of the Mississippi at the same time. College kids will always push the envelope.
Things that make you go thUGA
July 12th, 2010
2:41 pm
hmmmm….
Mark Bradley
July 12th, 2010
2:41 pm
I believe that description — too stupid to realize you’re stupid — fits me to a T, Watching Paint Dry.
george
July 12th, 2010
2:41 pm
TL-bama not had any arrests??????????????? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha now that is funny. The handcuff bowl between bama and the puppies is always one of my favorite games.
Bumble Bees Yay
July 12th, 2010
2:42 pm
The punishment for screwing up is similar to that of other schools so stating that Richt is not harsh enough is ignorant. I think this boils down to the recruiting base that Richt chooses from, if you look at the kids from the state of Ga. many have discipline problems coming into college and not just starting when they get there. Where were the tenn. kids from that committed assault? GA Where was the kid from that got kicked of Oklahoma? GA – It’s a recurring theme and I cant figure out why the kids are such thugs here in Ga. It doesnt mean every kid here in Ga is the same but it does seem that a high percentage have discipline problems. And the issue here is more with Jackson and not King- If every underage kid was kicked off their team for drinking we would not have very many teams here in the US, but Jackson needs to be suspended for some time for his DUI.
But even with the arrests this past year only one has been violent in nature and that is Montez Robinson. The rest have been petty crimes that have come under scrutiny because of the microscope that is fine tuned on UGA. Is it fair that the media focuses on every mistake by UGA players? NO but it comes with the territory of being a big time program. So the PLAYERS, not the Coach or University, need to clean up their act.
Thirty Points to your Twenty-Four Points
July 12th, 2010
2:43 pm
Enter your comments here
Things that make you go thUGA
July 12th, 2010
2:43 pm
Momma always said thUGA is as thUGA does
Evansdawg
July 12th, 2010
2:44 pm
Its funny how people that have never worked in sports administration or management think they know better than the coaches that are paid to make such decisions. “Well if he would _____________, then ___________!” Shut up. Your comments are as useless as a screen door on a submarine.
Montez Robinson
July 12th, 2010
2:44 pm
What’d I say?
Lilburn Dawg
July 12th, 2010
2:44 pm
Nothing will change until the certainty of a severe punishment for violating a law or team rule is instilled in each player’s mindset. What good is a “one game” suspension? Big Deal. Especially when it’s against a patsy opponent. Punishment based on how “good” the player is or the “value” he has to the team has to cease. It’s analogous to when celebrities get off light because they are “famous” and the whole country is sick of seeing it. Rules: 1) Don’t distinguish between a “minor” law or “major” law……if you break ANY law you get punished, 2) Either kick the offender off the team or take away his scholarship. If he wants to stay in school it’s on his dime and if he stays on the football team he gets no free ride with school expenses for a full academic year……this would make more of an impact than a “one game panty-waist game suspension”, 3) Apply the rule to WHOEVER the player is no matter how important he is……the fact that players think they can get away with infractions because they are too “valuable” is what causes half of the problems to begin with…….and every player feels he is important and no player has any fear at all of any consequences of their actions.
A lot of the problems at UGA are the fault of the coaches…….encouraging excessive celebrations, allowing excessive penalties, etc. All of this instills a sense that “we don’t have to obey the rules”.
Kick a few players off the team and implement severe, certain consequences and the players will get the message that there’s a no-nonsense coach in charge and maybe it will get their attention and we will see some improvement in their off-campus behavior. Or maybe they will at least see that they need to go elsewhere instead of signing with UGA.
Things that make you go hmmmm....
July 12th, 2010
2:45 pm
Things that make you go thUGA
July 12th, 2010
2:43 pm
Posting under multiple names. That’s as lame as it gets……..
JASon
July 12th, 2010
2:45 pm
Mark, nobody is blaming Richt.
I Could've Put Some Lame Name Here
July 12th, 2010
2:45 pm
MARK B. It’s Simple. Hold All Students to the same level of ZERO Tolerance.
According to the NCAA Athletes should not be singled out for “SPECIAL” Treatment. That should go both ways not just for the good stuff.
Once all these pure, clean and Wholesome “NON-THUG” sorority/fraternity princesses & Princes start getting hit up with this policy we will see how long this ZERO Tolerance call lasts.
I understand the Athletes are on Scholarship but what about the HOPE it’s the same concept. Make no mistake about it. They have earned this NOT so Free Ride through their blood sweat tears and quality of life.
They are kids and expecting them to be better than other kids simply because they play ball is lunacy. TREAT THEM ALL THE SAME and you have no argument from me.
ac
July 12th, 2010
2:46 pm
12-1 SEASON! MARK, Mark it down. Dogs lose to Gator’s but win SEC and win Sugar. Will not play for NC because every year Dogs have a great team, we get screwed because 2 or 3 teams go undefeated.
Hankie Aron
July 12th, 2010
2:46 pm
TL- For your viewing pleasure. Let he who cast the first stone…………….
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20080218/NEWS/633384924
BP CEO
July 12th, 2010
2:46 pm
don’t blame me for that oil pumping out in the gulf….
Coach Cool
July 12th, 2010
2:46 pm
Mark: today’s one of the answers to your trivia question from a while back.
When’s the next big test?!?!?!
Beast from the East
July 12th, 2010
2:46 pm
Suwaneedawg,
The burden of proof lies on the accuser. Mike, ac, Fl-Dawg and War Eagle are the ones that makes the allegations of “cover-ups” on other campuses. Where’s their proof? They have none because there is none. I tend to like to deal in facts. The facts are that it has become a major problem in Athens and they need to deal with it with a sense of urgency. It will get worse before it gets better if it’s not adressed. If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. That’s obviously not working.
By the way, I’m not throwing stones because we have our problems at UF, too. I’m just amazed at the mindset of some of the UGA faithful.
ugag is irrelevant
July 12th, 2010
2:46 pm
why even compare that athens anthill to world-class universities like UF and Bama? in anything? cmon folks, get over yourselves
hello
July 12th, 2010
2:46 pm
who?
DP
July 12th, 2010
2:47 pm
One of the big stories during last season’s fall practice at Georgia was about how Mark Richt was determined to reduce penalties, which had become a huge problem. I recall the Athens paper running a story on it. The picture alongside the story showed a couple of linemen going after each other in practice. The offensive lineman had a grip on the defensive lineman’s face mask. Then the season started and Georgia was again among the most penalized teams in the country. On one of the TV games, can’t recall if it was CBS or ESPN, the announcers said they’d asked Richt about penalties during the week and he told them that when he was at FSU they won big while being one of the most heavily penalized teams in the country. But then later in the year, Richt instituted a policy (or at least a threat) of pulling players off the field after they committed a penalty.
I think there might be some correlation between discipline on the field and discipline off the field.
ugaclassof2004
July 12th, 2010
2:49 pm
The reason why players getting arrested at places like FSU and UGA are such a big is because of their head coaches Christian values. Sometimes that Halo above their heads can fall around their necks and be a noose. The truth of the matter is that in order to win, you have to have some of that thug element on your team.The Florida Gators have had Mr. Religious Right as their QB the last few seasons, but most of those guys on defense are straight up thugs( aka Brandon Spikes). Everyone gets onto Richt about his players, but I can assure you that he would have punished Brandon Spikes more severely than Urban Meyer did( suspending him for half a game against Vandy, what a joke!).
The Miami Hurricanes and Oklahoma Sooners in the 1980’s did things that were 100 x worse than anything UGA has done, and that is just the stuff that was reported! But in this internet age, its harder to sweep things under the carpet like it once was.
And finally, I think we as fans should accept some responsibility for some of this thug culture, even though I realize that will never happen. We build these kids up( some of whom have less than stellar character traits), buy them drinks and get them laid, then act SHOCKED when they get in trouble. We make allowances for their behavior when they were winning games for our team, yet we don’t want to take the attitude that comes with it. I say if you want to cheer for a team of “classacts” then cheer for one of the service academies. Otherwise accept the fact, like I have; that thuggery is par for the course in Division I football.
Jordan
July 12th, 2010
2:49 pm
As a college student who spent a few years down at Georgia Southern I partook in my fair share of underage drinking and partying and NEVER got arrested. I never even got close to being arrested really. It’s sad that these players put themselves in situations that they can be arrested. I truly believe that some of these players see 100k people worshiping them on big plays and think they are above the law. You want to blame someone blame EVERYONE.
Get inside these players heads and tell them football is not as important as being a good person and making sure not to put yourselves in situations where you have to try to get out of it by being a UGA football player.
It’s just sad.
Reality
July 12th, 2010
2:49 pm
No one blames Richt. No one cares. UGA is irrelavent in today’s college football. They cannot even win their division much less their conference.
Only the ajc writers that graduated from uga with journalism majors seem to give a darn about those over in that village about 2 hours from Atlanta.
Paddy
July 12th, 2010
2:50 pm
longtimedawgfan….zero tolerance does not work. You must have commom sense which is not part of zero tollerence. Example: I gave my 7 yr old grandson a 4″ lead gun for his lead soldier collection. He took this to school for “show and tell”. He got suspended for 7 school days. When I asked the assit administrator to explain this policy and punishment, he said there is no explanation needed with zero tollerence. For the first time in my life I was speechless. I just left and told my daughter and son-in-law that a new school system with intelligent life should be considered.
ac
July 12th, 2010
2:50 pm
BEAST FROM EAST…I lived in AL and it is know that players have a long leash. If it physical in nature, then police act.
Bumble Bees Yay
July 12th, 2010
2:50 pm
Also Mark its pretty funny to look at all your blogs and see the haters posting things about UGA ever since this blog was created but yet you told UGA fans to cool their loathing of Da’Rick getting in trouble. Maybe you should write an article about all the pricks on here trashing UGA. And this alcohol incident is not even comparable to the Tenn. assault, which I feel bad for Dooley having to deal with but do not feel bad for the thugs that were involved.
Dawgtard thUGA
July 12th, 2010
2:50 pm
Our main goal for the upcoming season is to dance on the 50 yard line. That’s what we do best!!
Things that make you go hmmmm....
July 12th, 2010
2:51 pm
Jordan
July 12th, 2010
2:49 pm
I’m having a hard time connecting “Statesboro” and “partying”. Just sayin…..
ac
July 12th, 2010
2:51 pm
There is no proof…What part of “Cover Up?” do you not understand?
New Week - New Arrest
July 12th, 2010
2:52 pm
It’s a story as old as time itself. UGA player/faculty member arrested. The AJC should start writing stories when someone doesn’t get arrested. That would be more newsworthy.
Dan
July 12th, 2010
2:53 pm
I tend to think that at some point it’s the culture of a program.
The other issue is that I think it’s debatable whether a suspension for Directional Louisiana is even a punishment. Suspend them for the Florida game or the Auburn game or the Tech game and they may think twice about their behavior.
Things that make you go hmmmm....
July 12th, 2010
2:54 pm
Dawgtard thUGA
Things that make you go thUGA
thUGA
QUESTION OF THE DAY. Just how many names will this tool post under today?
Randy
July 12th, 2010
2:54 pm
TO ALL GEORGIA FANS: Your team is really really good at winning 9-10 games a year. Your coach is really really good at coming up with gimmicks to get your team fired up. Your fans are really really good at acting like UGA is the best program in the nation.
I hope you all eventually fire Richt, he is the problem.
Meanwhile, I will be at Bryant-Denny watching history be made.
Tech Lifer
July 12th, 2010
2:54 pm
Watching UGA and CMR implode has great entertainment value. The Bulldog nation must cringe every morning when they log on to ajc.com.
Let's Go Bravos!
July 12th, 2010
2:55 pm
I’m willing to bet that there are kids at other programs that are the doing the same stuff, but the cops and offer them a free pass because they are football players. I heard somewhere that a few years ago, UGA stopped allowing campus police to attend the games for free and that’s about the time that the arrests started to pick up.
OldFan
July 12th, 2010
2:55 pm
How can the university and the fans not take some responsibility for the behavior of these young men when we treat them like demi-gods whose only reason for being on campus is to generate football revenue and make us feel good about being UGA diehards. These players come as they are: great athletes, but in many cases unused to self-control or accountability. Then we tell them that all that matters is excelling on the field. So, the university either has to sign only players who possess the right character traits (youthful stupidity being what it is) or accept responsibility for being the surrogate parents they need. The idea that they should be proud to wear the red and black and behave accordingly is nonsense when all they’d done to earn that privilege is to be a good highschool athlete. If we don’t recruit character, then we better be ready to teach it, or we’re only getting what we deserve. Which is exactly what’s happening.
SteveW
July 12th, 2010
2:56 pm
3 straight articles, and 3 straight times I agree with you Mark. I don’t know who should be worried about this, you or me. But you are totally correct, and with Richt’s class attendance handicap that UGA has, he only brings in “character” guys, and won’t recruit people viewed as troublemakers. You’ll notice every year one or more of the best in GA. doesn’t get an offer from Richt because of character concerns. So you are absolutely right.
Pull My Finger
July 12th, 2010
2:56 pm
I don’t think it’s a great idea to discipline the team for one or two players’ mistakes…..unless you’re ready to see large numbers of players arrested for assault and battery (on fellow players that get in trouble).
Things that make you go hmmmm....
July 12th, 2010
2:56 pm
Tech Lifer
July 12th, 2010
2:54 pm
UGA and CMR implode? What are we up to, 8 out of 9 against tech? I wish we could “implode” like that against UF.
Damon Evans
July 12th, 2010
2:56 pm
We are fam-i-ly!! I got all my playas with me!
ac
July 12th, 2010
2:56 pm
RANDY…congrats on winning the NC when there was not any really strong teams. Winning a NC takes talent, coaching, TIMING and a little bit of LUCK. God ahead and dream a dream of another Bama dynasty that will never be. Congrats, but it is a new season.
Let's Go Bravos!
July 12th, 2010
2:57 pm
College kids drink, everyone does it. There has to be something going on here, because you know the kids in Tuscaloosa and Auburn are drinking, because there is nothing else to do there. They just aren’t being arrested!
I Could've Put Some Lame Name Here
July 12th, 2010
2:57 pm
And not making excuses but I posted this on another blog earlier.
If you are under 21 you are charged with DUI if you had 1/2 beer or drank an entire Keg by your self.
The law treats it no differently. So until the details are known why are you so quick to throw him off the team.
MAYBE he only had a beer (maybe just a sip) but the other guys were Smashed face. He acts responsibly and takes the keys so that his teammates don’t hurt themseleves or someone else . Once pulled over he gets a DUI. Should he still be kicked off the team.
blah blah blah he should have called a cab. Hindsight is 20/20 next time he will but his life should not be ruined for ONE mistake.
blah blah blah. He could have killed someone. The world could end tomorrow. We could have went undefeated last year too. The fact of the matter is he didn’t. We could pontificate all day about what could have happened but it didn’t. Punish him for what he’s done not for what he might have done.
What if the next time YOU got in trouble someone wanted to use you as the example/posterboy. Make the punishment known in advance and then they have no excuse.
richtfan
July 12th, 2010
2:58 pm
mark,
have you ever considered that the athens police dept harasses players because they are players? have you considered that police in auburn, tuscaloosa, baton rouge and gainesville, fl look the other way and call a coach instead of arresting a kid? if you don’t think it happens, you’re very naive.
JaxDawg
July 12th, 2010
2:58 pm
Can we please be rational and thoughtful here? This is a serious issue and needs to be discussed, but the conversation is being bogged down by ignorance and racism. Neither UGA or the football team are a bunch of “thugs” because some underage students got drunk or were inappropriate with women. Unfortunately, bad behavior of that type is present across the spectrum. To characterize those types of misbehaviors as “thuggish” shows your ignorance and prejudice. There were probably dozens (hundreds in the case of alcohol-related offenses) of those types of arrests last year in all demographics of the general student body. Yet, when you bunch of rednecks read the news that a (black) football player has been arrested you immediately infer that they are gang members or violent criminals and call them thugs, as well as generalize the entire football program as a gang of violent criminals. I would suspect that a similar percentage of baseball or lacross players get arrested as football players (they certainly behave in the same way), yet I doubt that you would characterize the lacross team as a bunch of thugs if two of the twenty get arrested, while you do if 10 of the 100 football players are.
How2fish
July 12th, 2010
2:59 pm
Mark good article..I’d love to see all of college sports put on a basis where you had to 1) qualify academically on the same level as the rest of the student body to even step on campus 2) Put in 1 complete year of successful study prior to even being able to go out for a sport 3) lower the drinking age nation wide to 18 4) if convicted of drinking and driving or drinking and violence your gone from any college for 1 year and lose that years illegibility if your a member of a sports team, debate team, band member etc..in other words one set of rules for all students and everyone attending school is a student first. The only guys in college sports I feel sorry for are the guys that give their all in the classroom and the field but don’t get to play because they have a classroom slacker in front of them that is a couple of steps faster,stronger etc.
Things that make you go hmmmm....
July 12th, 2010
2:59 pm
Damon,
I want my red panties back.