Freshman leaves UGA football team (UPDATED WITH RICHT REACTION)
Six months after signing with Georgia’s football program, and without participating in a single practice, freshman outside linebacker Dexter Morant left the team.
“Football’s just not for everybody,” coach Mark Richt said at his post-practice media briefing Wednesday. “I think he felt like he lost the desire to play. We tried to convince him that it would be in his best interest to stay and fight through it. . . . In the end, he felt like it wasn’t for him, at least not right now.”
Morant, a 6-foot-7, 240-pounder from Manning, S.C., signed with Georgia in February. He played defensive end in high school but was projected as an outside linebacker in new UGA defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s 3-4 alignment.
Coming out of high school, Morant was rated the nation’s No. 15 defensive-end prospect by Rivals.com, No. 44 by Scout.com and No. 73 by ESPN.com.
Morant, who had been in Athens since June, informed Richt of his decision to leave before Tuesday’s practice.
“He told me a couple of times,” Richt said. “We were working hard to try to keep him. He was leaving; then he was staying. He was leaving; then he was staying. He finally decided he wasn’t going to stay.
“He came to me with his keys in his hand and said he wanted to go. I sat with him and tried to get him to stay. He didn’t want to do it.”
Richt isn’t sure of Morant’s plans.
“As I spoke to him, it didn’t seem like he was that interested in playing football. Period,” Richt said. “He said, ‘Coach, if I really wanted to play football, Georgia is where I want to be. It’s just that I don’t know what I want to do right now.’ It was more of a feeling like he lost the desire to play the game.”
(AJC correspondent Andy Johnston contributed to this blog from Athens.)
Other UGA coverage:
Contracts reveal UGA basketball non-conference opponents, dates, payouts.
Kansas junior college welcomes former UGA QB Mettenberger.
Coaches challenge UGA offensive line to be ‘dominant’
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374 comments Add your comment
CLEVON LITTLE
August 4th, 2010
4:26 pm
6′ 7″ ??? If they moved him to LB from DE then he must have not been very good. A LB needs to be around 6′.
LOL
August 4th, 2010
4:26 pm
“Your academics are now where near as tough as Tech and you know it!”
Careful, your GT education is showing!
CLEVON LITTLE
August 4th, 2010
4:27 pm
cantondawg, so did you cry???
Mental Health Counselor
August 4th, 2010
4:28 pm
To the relatively small number of rival fans who come on UGA blogs to actually talk about the subject, this is not aimed at you. To the rest of the rivals, here is some friendly advice:
Going through life full of bitterness and UGA envy, is no way to live. So, maybe you or a loved one could not get into UGA. The majority of applicants cannot. It is no disgrace. You can get a good education at ANY SEC school. Granted, it is not Athens, but look at it as the glass half full, not half empty, and enjoy yourselves in Auburn, Fayetteville, Starkville, K-town, wherever.
Finally, remember this- if you are among the tiny percentage of humans on this planet blessed to live in the South, count your blessings. And Go Dogs!
wes
August 4th, 2010
4:29 pm
UGA is a “Cesspool”. See the campus of your urine-soaked, trashy campus after a game. The smell is atrocious.
GT Complex?
August 4th, 2010
4:29 pm
Man, you guys have a real complex about GaTech don’t you. I don’t see a single post from a GaTech person yet that is all you can talk about.
DawginLex
August 4th, 2010
4:30 pm
Nah Wes that’s just you smelling your upper lip.
Or your momma’s armpit.
DawginLex
August 4th, 2010
4:31 pm
Complex,
Can you read?
you must have missed the 1st page of comments from Moire and reality.
Go back to page one.
It is marked with a “1″
Papadawg
August 4th, 2010
4:31 pm
Man if it wasn’t for Damons red panties deal the GT NERDS couldn’t come up with anything original.
coach smith
August 4th, 2010
4:32 pm
you jealous Techies with your constant “red panties” comments show a complete lack of original though and your complete obsession with ALL things that have to do with UGA
Delbert D.
August 4th, 2010
4:33 pm
layinlow – It’s the blogging experience that has turned up more idiots that we once thought on both sides. They used to just throw beer cans at each others’ trucks.
cantondawg
August 4th, 2010
4:33 pm
Clevon,
Where did your wimpy ass play football? In the backyard with your redneck inbred cousings
Dorsey Hill
August 4th, 2010
4:35 pm
Direct from the Tech Dictionary:
cesspool- n. Used to describe place where physical relations occur between members of the opposite sex. Usage: “The Tech campus is not a cesspool.”
gdawginkalamazoo
August 4th, 2010
4:36 pm
I wish all you people on here calling the kid names would get the opportunity to say it to his face. He made a decision none of us know anything about other than he doesn’t want to play football at UGA any longer. Good luck to the kid whatever he chooses to do in life.
fan
August 4th, 2010
4:38 pm
why do tech fans constantly talk about who has better academics? who cares, this is a sports blog where people come to voice their opinions about sports. 30-24
Here you go
August 4th, 2010
4:39 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI9i4IqeOcY
Check it out – South Carolina knows ugag is the “cesspool of the south”
cantondawg
August 4th, 2010
4:42 pm
I would be willing to bet ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS that when all the facts come out the main reason that he left was for a girl. They will get you in trouble and screw up your life every time.
cantondawg
August 4th, 2010
4:43 pm
In my college days, i have seen several good football players quit and go home because of a girl at home.
adawgfan
August 4th, 2010
4:44 pm
Moire = Moron,
You are on a SPORTS BLOG! What the heck do you think most people came on here to discuss? Warcraft? Quick get back to your game before you get squashed nerd….
Dawghater
August 4th, 2010
4:45 pm
Typical Dawg fans. When this kid signed with UGA he was an all SEC Defensive player and now he’s a “loser”. We heard the same thing when Mettenburg left and now Muarray the next Stafford?
Cesspool
August 4th, 2010
4:46 pm
To Hell with Georgia
(to the tune of Glory, Glory Hallelujah)
Don’t send my boy to MIT
The dying mother said,
Don’t send my boy to Emory
I’d rather see him dead,
But send my boy to Georgia Tech
‘Tis better than Cornell.
And as for the University of Georgia
I’d rather see him in hell!
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
The cesspool of the South!
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the stomping of the Dogs
We will teach the poor dumb farmboys
They should stick to sloppin’ hogs
When the Jackets are triumphant
There will be a mighty cheer
We’ll do the same next year!
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
The cesspool of the South!
On the Field between the hedges
There arose a mighty stench,
In the Dogs’ machine the engineers
Had thrown a monkey wrench.
When the Jackets are triumphant
We will raise a mighty yell,
Them Dogs can GO TO HELL!!
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
The cesspool of the South!
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the N.C. Double-A
They’re investigating GA players
To see how much they’re paid
After counting all the cars
And the loans Alumni made,
They out pay the NBA.
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia,
To Hell, to Hell, to Hell with Georgia
fan
August 4th, 2010
4:49 pm
tech fans=EXTREMELY JEALOUS that everyone in the STATE only cares about UGA
Cesspool
August 4th, 2010
4:49 pm
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~herrington/3020sp99sites/tbook/traditions/cheerssongs.html
adawgfan
August 4th, 2010
4:50 pm
Cantondawg,
Just coulda been homesick, remeber that kid Chad Young a few years ago from Dalton? He simply just didn’t like life away from home, but he was a good kid and wound up a HS football coach back here in Dalton. Everyone’s different, I for one loved my years in Athens and still love my Saturdays in the fall.
GO DAWGS!
fan
August 4th, 2010
4:50 pm
30-24
Pago Pago Dawg
August 4th, 2010
4:50 pm
So is this a flaw in UGA recruiting procedure?
Here is the real story
August 4th, 2010
4:50 pm
Another day, more Tech fans obsessing over The University of Georgia.
It’s so tiresome having to remind Trade School Nuggets of thier place in the world.
1) The Georgia Institute of Technology was concieved, planned, chartered, financed, and launched almost entirely by UGA graduates. Tech’s ENTIRE academic legacy exists but for the foresight of Georgia graduates. Classes were being held in Athens when North Ave & 10th was a turnip patch. And in fact UGA is the oldest public school in the country.
2) Tech is a limited curriculem Trade School. Meanwhile UGA bears the responsibility of being the The liberal arts university in the South.
3) And the component most relevant to this blog…………Georgia’s dominance over Tech in every sport the two compete in save Men’s Basketball is just laughable. No team has so completely jack-slapped another for 100 years………in everything as UGA has GTU.
Dawg House
August 4th, 2010
4:51 pm
its really sad that a team hates a rival that absolutely OWNS them, more than they love their own.
What??
August 4th, 2010
4:52 pm
Kid talked to the wrong “Mark”. He should have connected with Fox!
fan
August 4th, 2010
4:53 pm
60-39-5 the facts speak for themselves
Cliff Claven
August 4th, 2010
4:53 pm
Actually, the term “cesspool” was a Middle English word describing a vault or cavern where the riches of the noblemen were secured. According to legend, even priceless books of wisdom and valour were also placed there for safekeeping. Some time along the turn of the 19th century, a group of GT frat boys who were jealous of their Athens bretheren, decided to use the term “cesspool” to describe their run-down and deployable living conditions, hoping it might give them some status; hence the term became what it is today. So, the North Avenue nerds are good for something.
beatdowns galore
August 4th, 2010
4:53 pm
I wonder if CMR will remember the kids name who quit at today’s press meeting?
fan
August 4th, 2010
4:55 pm
amen dawghouse and the real story
savannahdawg
August 4th, 2010
4:56 pm
He quit! Wasn’t going to be a starter, bad work ethic, lazy, whatever……..he quit. Maybe he can go to Tennessee. They seem to be grabbing up what we get rid of!
Circus Act
August 4th, 2010
4:56 pm
Mr. Morant must have finally realized what a bunch of clowns that are in Athens.
Back to "Reality"
August 4th, 2010
4:57 pm
The fight song is only sang like that against Tech…Not the official song dork! One of the best athletic programs in the country every year! Vet school, Law school, and one of the best Business schools in the country, with a MBA program that many Tech grads are attending! As for SAT scores being higher…levels out when you factor in social skills, street smarts, campus life, safety, SEC sports, socializing with females! My brother was in a fraternity at Tech I know what campus life is like there…It’s not pretty! Seriously nerds you sound uninformed, you must be incoming froshmen duped by admissions!
ugag is irrelevant
August 4th, 2010
4:58 pm
maybe not a cesspool … but then who really cares?
Here you go
August 4th, 2010
4:58 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jccTH2cX6c&NR=1
Florida knows it too!
UGADaddy
August 4th, 2010
4:58 pm
@Gators R US:
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT! HAHAHAHAHAHA SCRUB!
no matter
August 4th, 2010
4:59 pm
I remember (quiet a few years ago) a few “draftees” that tried to “quit”. That never did work out well.
ps….would rather talk football that “edumaction”….any day.
UGADaddy
August 4th, 2010
4:59 pm
I love all these jealous posts.. KEEP EM COMIN!
Here is the real story
August 4th, 2010
5:00 pm
As a Tech fan there is a lot of time to make up nursery rhymes on your way back to the Tailgate after another loss to the Dawgs. What else is a Techie to do?
The bitter inferiority complex is just sad.
And to Tech’s favorite retort…………sorry maggots, the Gators still have a losing record to Georgia.
atl1netime
August 4th, 2010
5:00 pm
Reality….Just so you get the record straight….Your facts are a little off. If you look at the SAT scores of any State schools.vs..most “Technical Schools” ie. Ga Tech….over Ga…will have higher SAT scores based on the students and the degrees in which they are striving to obtain. Va.Tech for example is going to have higher rates than the Univ. of Va. look it up…..
fan
August 4th, 2010
5:04 pm
hey did anybody see Caleb King run for ANOTHER touchdown against GT??? GIVE ME A HELL YEAH IF YOU DID. UGA’S WORST>TECH’S BEST
amen the real story
August 4th, 2010
5:06 pm
tech is the same as any other tier-1 school, they just appear to be selective because (like all nerds) they are so small. If Tech was MIT/Stanford/whatever caliber then you people wouldn’t be boasting about how much smarter you think you are then everybody else.
?GT Complex?
August 4th, 2010
5:08 pm
GT Complex, give me a break. I don’t generally post, but I am amazed at how many Tech people feel the need to say negative things about UGA on OUR articles. I don’t really care too much about GT, or I am indifferent, so I say nothing. I guess most of the UGA folks who post “smack” are the same as GT fans posting – probably never attended either school.
dawgster
August 4th, 2010
5:09 pm
Gator R us, and RecruitinGuru, what a bunch of idiotic posts…enough said for your intelligence…And why don’t we wait before we condemn the coaching staff or the young man and find out what his reasons for leaving were…I’m not going to call him a quitter as so many on here want to…Maybe he has personal issues or unbelievable as it may be he may be tired of the grind of football…who knows, but what i do know is that not a single person on here knows what this was about…Lets wait and see what Coach Richt says regarding this issue…..
fan
August 4th, 2010
5:10 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-zZ_qIJ3aQ
WE RUN THIS STATE!!!!!!!!!!!
R
August 4th, 2010
5:11 pm
Hell Yeah!!!!
Murray the Midget
August 4th, 2010
5:20 pm
I thought UGA fight song sounds just like….I been working on the railroad………