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
In perspective
July 12th, 2010
3:51 pm
I would really love to see the rate of nonstudent-athletes arrested for alcohol related offenses.. DUI’s and underage drinking vs. the rate for the football team. The talk radio heads and most of you should keep in mind what college kids do. I would be willing to bet most you drank when you where underage age and some of you still drink and drive and you can’t blame it on youth and a still developing frontal lobe. These are 18 to 23 year old young adults. Are they wrong to drink and drive — yes. Should they be villified for it? Is UGA’s program out of control ?? No to both. You can’t expect the student athletes to understand decision and consequences any better than the regular students. The real issue is the amount of drinking and risky behavior that happens on any college campus but the media (this includes you AJC) faculty or parents don’t want to address this issue… just point fingers
LOL
July 12th, 2010
3:52 pm
All that guy can say is thUGA. Wow you’re so clever. Did you go to school to become that clever or is it just natural? Every school has stuff like this and I believe TL has no room to talk with your players beating up their females homey.
H.I. McDonnough
July 12th, 2010
3:52 pm
They’ve got a name for players at UGAg. That name is called “recidivism.”
Repeat offender!
Not a pretty name, is it Richt?
Bride of Chucky Knapp
July 12th, 2010
3:53 pm
To paraphrase the Evil Genius: “It’s his fault, he recruited them.”
papadawg
July 12th, 2010
3:54 pm
You can’t always tell how a student is going to act once he/shes away from mommy and daddy. They could be your model student thru high school but once in college YAHOO. Where are the team leaders cause coaches aren’t going to be with them day and night
Gbal
July 12th, 2010
3:54 pm
Hotdawgette — “As a lifelong Georgia fan, alum and someone who hasn’t missed a game – home, away or bowl games – in 32 years – I’m embarrassed and angry”.
Q: When u were at UGA 32 years or so ago did you ever drink beer? Did you ever hear of any football player on campus at the time drinking beer? I thought SO. Law (18 age) is set up to fail and cause people to break the law.
ac
July 12th, 2010
3:54 pm
In perspective…So, I guess a 18 year old kid who pulls out a gun and shoots someone in head should not be villified because he is young and does not understnad decision and consequences.
Barack Dawg
July 12th, 2010
3:55 pm
thUGA – get a life.
A DUI and drinking under age does not spell thug. That would be more like UT. Getting into a bar fight and attacking a cop, running a dog fighting ring, stealing your girlfriend’s credit card and running it up – those are thug issues. Athens is a drinking town with a football problem anyway. But it is not a thug issue.
You keep mixing up UGA with GT where you get raped and robbed on campus. That is a thug issue.
TL – don’t know when the last arrest was for an Alabama player. I doubt that is in Saban’s control or discipline policy. Let’s see what he would do if Trent Richardson and Mark Ingram got arrested for underage drinking at the same time – think he would suspend both for an extended period? Doubt it. Either – the cops are paid better than other SEC school towns like Knoxville and Athens or they just don’t get reported on. There is as much to do in Tuscaloosa as there is in Athens….
AMG
July 12th, 2010
3:55 pm
Sorry Mark, but yes Mark Richt is embarrassing UGA. Did you follow the story about the 5 star wide receiver at Tenn.? That was UGAs prize recruit they lost that beat a cop half to death. Richt is recruiting the worst kind of individuals with NO reguard for the character of the person or the program. What makes it worse is he is still losing. So don’t try and write some BS that Richt is not to blame with the 9, yes, 9 players that have been caught doing things they should not have been doing. UGA is the biggest mess in the SEC and really the entire country. I guess USC beats them out for worst off but UGA is right there with them and ONLY Mark Richt can take the blame for this many problems. So the book on Richt is not a clean program AT ALL and no signs of change anytime soon.
Ace
July 12th, 2010
3:55 pm
If you don’t blame daddy, who do you blame ?
Ed McDonnough
July 12th, 2010
3:55 pm
Turn to the right!!
ac
July 12th, 2010
3:56 pm
The issue is Driving under the Influence. It is very dangerous and has serious consequences for not only the violator, but the victim.
In perspective
July 12th, 2010
3:56 pm
To Shreveport Sam. What is illegal about having red panties between your legs.. Truth be told the officer never should have put that in the report. The panites had absoultely nothing to do with the DUI..It was none of the troopers business why her panties were in between his legs.. but I guess you are just a mindless lackey who doesn’t bother to think for himself.
Ace
July 12th, 2010
3:56 pm
AMG – Get you fact b/4 posting, DaRick didn’t do that.
FLA DAWG
July 12th, 2010
3:56 pm
Mark,
On the surface it would appear Richt has little to do with this ongoing problem. But why is this happening on a fairly regular basis? There must be a problem somewhere. Are some of these players known to have had problems and their parents think Pastor Richt will help put them on the right path?
Joe Namath
July 12th, 2010
3:57 pm
Let’s call Suzy & go to Bar Knoxville for some drinks in the VIP room and talk this all out…I won’t mention anything about how perfect ‘Bama is (minus the probations) and maybe that Gator player can bring that credit card he stole from the girl that was killed by his Gator teammate in the motorcycle crash…and pay the tab with it!
You guys are so perfect……
The Dogfighter Returns
July 12th, 2010
3:58 pm
Richt is from the big city, Miami. he is playing the country bumpkins like a fiddle. He can field a team of choir boys if that is the goal but you will get your behinds kicked every saturday.
He knows in order to field a championship caliber team you need some players with a ruthless mean streak (gang bangers, aka thugs as some of you call them) to play this game.
Football is a ruthless, painful sport. You literally have to be on the edge to play it at a top level.
Besides boys will be boys, cheers, drink up and a toast to youthful exuberance. makes for great stories when you get older.
RxDawg
July 12th, 2010
3:58 pm
DSGB: “They (the athletes), like every other student at the university should hold THEMSELVES responsible for their actions. Non-athletes do not get special treatment in situations like this, so why should they?”
I agree with your first sentence, but not your second. Unfortunately in these days a football player at a large school can’t live their life without it making the papers. If a regular student gets arrested, it doesn’t make the five o’clock news.
ac
July 12th, 2010
3:58 pm
It’s AMAZING to me those of you who shrug off the seriousness of a DUI and do not consider a grave transgression. Obviously, you have not known someone who was killed by a drunk driver. A fatality, that could have been avoided had the drunk decided not to drive or drink.
Barack Dawg
July 12th, 2010
3:58 pm
Bruce Mac – thanks — excellent comments!
Chronos
July 12th, 2010
3:58 pm
if we were talking about a few incidents, I wouldn’t blame Richt either. Unfortunately because of the win at all costs mentality at UGA, they recruit primarily on skill, not character. So in the end, this is what you get.
Jealous Much?
July 12th, 2010
3:58 pm
Go to athens, they’ll pull you over for looking like a college kid. Thats all they need to begin harassment there. Go to Tuscaloosa, they’ll (the po po) hand you a beer if you look underage. UT too. Same with UF. They are all the same. Tech kids don’t have lives usually, so they aren’t in trouble as much, but they still do get into trouble. Glad our players aren’t beating up cops and stuff though.
sam
July 12th, 2010
3:59 pm
I played college football and let me share a little “secret” with you. Football is a violent game played by large men who are rewarded for being physically aggressive. And with the premium placed on winning, coaches do sacrifice character at times for men with these other needed attributes. I’m not defending the behavior, but no one should be surprized when some of these guys get arrested – anywhere.
dawgster
July 12th, 2010
3:59 pm
TL, iwas going to give some more info on Bama arrests but i think the above posts will shut that argument up…A lot of you so called dawg fans and others on here have all the answers it seems, yea lets just kick them all off or better yet don’t even recruit them, let the other schools recruit them so we want be embarrassed…Hey, lets just blame Coach Richt for what happened to our AD….I’m sure Saban or Meyer could have prevented that incident…There are a lot of incidents at other schools, and no that doesn’t make it right or acceptable, but we just don’t get alot of info as we do with all the local stuff…I will agree that we need to resolve some of the continued issues and i beleive Coach Richt has done that, he has kicked several players, starters or possible starters, off the team, but if you want to have “0″ tolerance then maybe we should, no matter what the issue is, but is that completely fair and is that how the SEC programs handle their individual cases…i think not…Maybe we should punish the whole team when someone messes up, but is that fair to the ones who have done it correctly their entire carreer..I would love to see some of you know it alls on here try to run a major football program or a business have knee-jerk reactions whern a kid or employee makes a mistake…Yes some do deserve to be kicked off and some deserve to be terminated from their employment, but as a leader and manager you try and make the most appropriate decisions based on the info you have and you try and be consistant on how you handle each issue…I’m sure Coach Richt has had some decisions that didn’t go as planned, but you also have to remember that these Coaches go into the living rooms of these young men and asure the parents that they will take care of them and do what is their best interest…pulling a young mans scholarship is a serious punishment and it may be warrented but you can’t have knee-jerk reactions as some on here want…..
DP
July 12th, 2010
4:00 pm
Dawg Nation is never short of an excuse. It’s the Athens Police Department staking out UGA players! Never mind that Mettenberger was arrested in Milledgeville, AD Damon Evans was arrested in Buckhead because he couldn’t keep his car in one lane and the latest UGA kid sped past an Athens police officer who had made a traffic stop in the lane closest to the stop. And never mind that there was already a description out on the car for a hit and run. It was those overzealous Athens police! Anywhere else in the SEC that would have been overlooked or covered up! Ask my imaginary friends in the police departments throughout the SEC!
Mark Bradley
July 12th, 2010
4:00 pm
Don’t believe Zach Mettenberger was arrested in Milledgeville, DP. Perhaps you’re thinking of another quarterback who ran into some trouble there.
Glen
July 12th, 2010
4:01 pm
That Dontavius is a sly one. Already knows his ABC’s.
Grandpa Right, formerly of Cochran
July 12th, 2010
4:01 pm
Wiley-
So you think pulling a young girl from a TAXI and arresting her for MIP when she has no alcohol on her and she registers less than 0.02 is indicative of proper use of police resources?
I think anyone with a DUI should have the book thrown at them. But you sir, must neither have any children, were never young yourself, or you and your children are/were socially retarded. I have 4 children in 4 different colleges right now, and I assure you that the Athens law enforcement is made up of a lot of over-zealous guys arresting the jocks that they were once jealous of and the girls who wouldn’t date them.
The law enforcement in Athens IS a joke- they are rounding up MIPs like there is no tomorrow, but my daughter had 4 locals try to break the windows of her car with bricks- with her in it- in a down town parking lot, and the police report didn’t even reflect what she told them. I guess hot MIPs were escaping in taxis.
DUI’s- throw them out of school for all I care. MIP’s, riding scooters without a license or the wrong way down a small alley, or some of the other offenses that students are arrested for- is just overzealous stupidity.
And you sir, are entitled to tour opinion, but if you disagree with me, you are a jack-hole. I so declare because I’m old and I’m “Right”.
AMG
July 12th, 2010
4:01 pm
Darick DID do that , read then talk
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5366458
He may, i repeat may not have beaten the cop, but he was there and resisted arrest.
SuperB
July 12th, 2010
4:01 pm
If every student who downed a few beers got kicked out of college, the taxpayers would save a lot of money because they could close the colleges down. The athletes have to walk a much finer line thena the rest of America’s college students! It’s a double standard.
Cover Up
July 12th, 2010
4:02 pm
My son against my wishes attends Florida. Last year he attended an off campus party attended by several Gator football players who got out of control due to thier drinking and began fighting and tearing up the property. The police were called and so was Meyer. Not one arrest was made. Meyer even drove two of the starting gator players home.To say he controls the Gaineville police department is an understatemnent. It happens all the time and none of it is ever reported.My son was ticketed for underage drinking as were several other non athletes who attended the party. NONE of the gator players got a ticket..NONE.. even though at least three starters on the Florida team were underage and caused the majority of the problem. Don’t let Meyer fool you his program smells. He knows it and so do the local Gainesville and campus police.
Athens and UGA
July 12th, 2010
4:02 pm
Anybody familiar with most of the college towns around the southeast knows that Athens and UGA police crackdown on alcohol related offenses more than most. Athens and UGA have tougher alcohol policies than Tuscaloosa and Bama, Gainesville and Florida, Baton Rouge and LSU, Knoxville and Tennessee, etc.
Chris S
July 12th, 2010
4:02 pm
I’m not even sure I see what the issue is with the two most recent arrests. 75% of the UGA undergraduate population–at a minimum–has been guilty of underage possession at one point or another. If you compared the percentage of the UGA football team arrested for alcohol-related offenses to the percentage of the student population arrested for the same, I doubt you’d see a difference. Tavares was a kid being a kid–I’m more worried about the kids who don’t drink before they turn 21 than the ones who.
Remerton, home of law abiding folk
July 12th, 2010
4:03 pm
You’re right, Mark. Young Mr. Mettenberger is invited not to visit our town anymore.
ac
July 12th, 2010
4:03 pm
Grandpa Right, formerly of Cochran…very well stated.
ugaman
July 12th, 2010
4:03 pm
program is not a dissaster. even with penalties enforced it still happens. i don’t like it nor should any bulldog. maybe tougher penalties like 4 game minimums would help. by the way no alabama fan needs to say anything about code of conduct. there are no excuses for it. but it does happen. it just needs to happen less.
wiley
July 12th, 2010
4:03 pm
ac…I agree completely. I still dont understand why people think DUI is no big deal. It kills people every day…and guess what….its completely preventable. Ive lost someone to a drunk driver…I would give anything to stop that person from making the decision to get behind the wheel. Those making light of DUI just simply dont get it….sad honestly. I hope to god that some UGA people understand the real issue…havent come across one yet.
T3
July 12th, 2010
4:04 pm
There’s a VERY HIGH correlation between bad grades and bad behavior.
There’s NOTHING new here.
ac
July 12th, 2010
4:04 pm
super B…It is not about underage drinking…It is really about a DUI that makes this serious.
Gbal
July 12th, 2010
4:04 pm
Enter your comments here
DAWGS LICK BALLS!
July 12th, 2010
4:05 pm
How can you not blame mark he is the one recruiting them right? You can make the arguement that this could happen to anyone, but this quanity? Because its not happening to any other school, not like uga.
bdawge71
July 12th, 2010
4:05 pm
It never fails to amaze moi, a TECH PLAYER gets caught pushing and transporting DRUGS it is no big deal. The only time you hear from these people is when they can say anything after getting their butts beat year after year. Thats a big 10-4 TECH GRADS.
Seven Bulldogs Arrested This Calendar Year
July 12th, 2010
4:06 pm
Prison life is structured – more’n some people care for
Athens cops R evil
July 12th, 2010
4:06 pm
I love the guys from Bama saying no one has been arrested. Find me one cop near that school that wouldn’t shoot his own kid if it would help that team score another touchdown, and you have found the cop who is an Auburn fan. I am pretty sure charging a player with a crime in Bama will cost you your pension and probably get you run out of town. In Athens, the cops hate the students. End of story. The number of players who get arrested is not that much different that non athlete student body. They gave my forty year old mother of 3 sister and $140 ticket for drinking on public property because she stood on the sidewalk instead of the muddy grass on a rainy game day. Had she taken 1 step forward she would not be breaking the law. 1 beer. Not drunk. Nice a she could be and still got a ticket. They should fire every jerk with a badge in that city. Find anyone who went there and they will tell you about some run in that had with a power hungry cop. Never had problems anywhere else. I think their motto is “Athens police… We don’t wan’t you here!!!!”
Sick of It
July 12th, 2010
4:06 pm
Richt and his staff ARE responsible for the conduct of the misbehaving nimrods that they bring into the program. Recruit more high-quality people, and you won’t have these types of problems.
Einsteindawg
July 12th, 2010
4:06 pm
I guess this answers my question of two weeks ago to Chip Towers, “How’s Dontavious Jackson figuring in ‘10 plans?”
Grandpa Right, formerly of Cochran
July 12th, 2010
4:07 pm
Huh?- Can you say Reuben Houston?
Mettenburger was arrested in Remerton- in his case he EARNED his arrest, but Remerton law enforcement and Athens law enforcement have a lot in common-
Little Joey Hamilton
July 12th, 2010
4:07 pm
Drug trafficking is A LOT less serious than underage alcohol possession. EVERYONE knows that.
kb
July 12th, 2010
4:08 pm
Well said Gbal, the MIP is a joke.
wiley
July 12th, 2010
4:08 pm
I’m 20 sir. But listen I agree that MIP is not a big deal…I drink sometimes but I do so responsibly at my house and keys are taken. I think DUI is the big issue here…and that is something that should never ever be ignored. I’m not retarded either…I’m a Junior at Georgia Tech with a 3.93 gpa…and I should be attending Duke for law school shortly…just gotta keep my GPA up and I recently got a 171 on the Lsat. Maybe the Athens PD is a little over zealous with MIP but they are spot on with the DUI efforts.