UGA’s Adams on (1) A.J. Green case and (2) football arrests
ATHENS – University of Georgia president Michael Adams said the school did everything it could to get star wide receiver A.J. Green’s suspension reduced, but he did not quarrel with the NCAA’s rejection of the appeal.
“It’s certainly not too light,” Adams said of Green’s four-game suspension,”and yet I’m not in a position to criticize the NCAA. They are trying to send a message about contact with agents and agent runners and representatives.”
Green was suspended for selling his Independence Bowl jersey to a person the NCAA considers an agent, former North Carolina football player Chris Hawkins. An NCAA committee late Friday rejected Georgia’s attempt to get the suspension shortened.
“I don’t think A.J. knew what he was dealing with,” Adams said, meaning an agent. But the fact Hawkins met the NCAA definition of an agent is “part of why I believe they stuck with four games instead of less,” Adams said.
Adams, in an interview before Saturday’s game against Arkansas, said the university got “the best counsel and advice you can get to make an appeal. . . . I think the university did everything to help [Green] that the university could have done.”
Adams acknowledged it “clearly” would be against the rules for a player to sell a jersey to a non-agent as well.
“It was a mistake, and frankly I think it’s time to move on,” Adams said. “He’s a star player and an important player, I understand all of that. . . . But you don’t build a whole season around one player.
“At the end of the year, maybe he’s fresher than some of the defensive backs that are covering him. I’ll try to look on the bright side.”
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On another topic, Adams said he spoke to “every employee” of the Athletic Association in a recent staff meeting, delivering the message that he wants a stop put to the off-field problems on the football team. Nine players have been arrested this year.
“They don’t like it any better than I do, and I think they’ll deal with it,” Adams said of the athletics staff. “You’re dealing with 19-year-olds, and we have more [arrests] in the general student body than I would like. But we have had too much in the football team. And so we expect the coaches and the AD’s to provide role models and leadership for their players, and I told the whole Athletic Association staff that.”
He reiterated what he calls the “three Adams rules”:
“You follow NCAA and SEC guidelines. You go to class. And you stay out of trouble.
“You don’t have to be Phi Beta Kappa, but you have to do those three things to play here,” Adams said. “It’s an honor to put on the jersey that says Georgia. And so we expect people to represent us in a positive fashion, on and off the field. That is not an unrealistic expectation.”
Adams wasn’t specific on how the coaches and athletics staff should address the problem. “I don’t tell them how to do their jobs, and they don’t tell me how to do mine,” he said. “But the message there is pretty clear, and I think everybody is in sync now.”
Adams said new athletic director Greg McGarity “feels as strongly or more strongly about [the issue] than I do, and I’m going to depend on him and the coaches to manage it.”
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185 comments Add your comment
M.Richt
September 20th, 2010
3:12 pm
We can’t win without AJ. It’s not my fault.
WonderDawg
September 20th, 2010
3:27 pm
You know, your team is in the right conference when you can come off of a loss to a team that gets beat by North Dakota State, then play in your cozy ACC.
Yeah, this ACC who is (as quoted by ESPN): “The first three weeks of the season have been a disaster for the ACC, which has a 1-9 record in games against opponents from other BCS conferences.”
Yep. The ACC. Where conference teams breath a sigh of relief when it time to get into the “meat” of their schedules . . .
Skeptical dawg
September 20th, 2010
3:41 pm
I been a DAWG fan for 40 years, This clown Adams says the same thing politicians say. Everything coming out of their mouths are nothing but lies and false hopes. I for one and tired of the multiple player arrest, the sub par play from so called experienced morons who portray the university of georgia players, and the imbecilic coaches that are happy with this team being 1-2
gdawginkalamazoo
September 20th, 2010
3:43 pm
Spurrier, “Who knew all of those 5* players were lazy drunks.”
Lazy drunks? You ever run bleachers hungover? That’s not lazy. And FYI breakfast taste better going down than coming up.
GStateBen
September 20th, 2010
3:54 pm
And at the end of the year, Georgia fans and coaches will blame a 4 loss (or more) season on the AJ suspension and not the terrible play of the offensive line, running backs or complete lack of discipline within their inept coaching staff.
Good is the enemy of great and Georgia’s not even good right now.
CATERDAWG
September 20th, 2010
3:57 pm
SandySpringsJacket, you beat NC who did not have 12 of their best palyers on defense!! You still almost got beat, let;s wait and hear the GT babies cry when you lose 4 more games including the one in Athens!!! Jackets still 2nd rate program!!!
Red
September 20th, 2010
4:04 pm
Michael Adams is the very definition of bullsh*t.
Red Panties, Anyone?
September 20th, 2010
4:06 pm
You Dawg fans who keep repeating “30-24″ like a mantra enjoy yourselves all you want. The thing is… Tech alumni and fans have lives that don’t depend entirely on what a bunch of kids does on Saturday afternoons. College sports are fun to follow, but the biggest reason for going to college is to get an education.
UGA fans don’t seem to care about anything but football, and they don’t care if their players are enrolled in silly majors that no parents who are paying the bills would send their kids to UGA for. The very few football and basketball players who graduate have no job opportunities and end up unemployed or working in menial jobs that hardly require a college degree.
Georgia Tech is a real school with serious academic standards, and that includes scholarshipped athletes. UGA has a long history of being a party school, where parents send their kids for an easy degree, even if the degree itself is practically worthless.
Jan Kemp exposed the crap going on at UGA with athletes being enrolled in courses a ten-year-old kid could pass. That was almost three decades ago, and nothing has changed. If anything, the abuses are more blatant today. Way too many illiterate morons are being recruited, and the very high arrest rate shows clearly that Richt does not care if his players have any morals or self-discipline.
The bottom line is that most Tech fans have very good jobs and productive lives that don’t depend on Tech’s football record for their happiness in life. It would be great to beat UGA more often, but when you put scholar-athletes up against thug-athletes, it’s usually no contest.
It’s pretty pathetic to see UGA fans who typically have never been within miles of a college classroom and who live or die with UGA’s weekly results on the football field.
So keep on posting your “30-24″ all you want, especially since you’re home with plenty of time on your hands. I wish you well, maybe you’ll get lucky and get your old job back at the Waffle House before your unemployment checks stop coming.
hornblowermg
September 20th, 2010
4:15 pm
too bad that FSU (a.k.a. Jimbo Fisher) won last Saturday. if he were to tank badly this year, then maybe FSU would “steal” CMR from us, and we could(would) hire a real coach like
JIM HARBAUGH.
Gary
September 20th, 2010
4:27 pm
I would like to see the NCAA ban the sale of player Jerseys. No names, just numbers. Why should a school be able to profit off of a students name. Have it say Georgia on the back. If you are older than 13 and not playing in the game you should not be wearing one anyway.
UGA IS DONE
September 20th, 2010
4:28 pm
Your program, coaches and players are louzy. You are now cellar dwellars in your almighty SEC. Say hello to a losing season. Congrats for underachieving once again. Hey, maybe a few more players will get arrested and you can have more excuses. 1-2 and 0-2 in SEC. Now, that’s Georgia Football. Sickem Woof Woof woof Meow.
UGA IS DONE
September 20th, 2010
4:31 pm
CATERDAWG
We can tell you are a UGA fan. What is a palyer? LMFAO! No, we are 2nd rate in Georgia, we are better and ranked higher in football. At least we are getting votes. I don’t see the georgia palyers getting any votes. Your program, school and academics are a JOKE. Georgia State is better than your program.
Lattimore
September 20th, 2010
4:32 pm
I am still running two weeks later……………………..it’s another TD.
Clueless
September 20th, 2010
4:34 pm
WonderDawg
Idaho State = FCS, Louisinna whomever = joke, Vandy = Joke, SC = LOSS, UF = LOSS, GT = LOSS, AUB = LOSS, TN = LOSS, Miss St = LOSS, KY = win, man, your team and schedule suxs.
Murray da Midget
September 20th, 2010
4:36 pm
Is Murray icing his azz today. The midget took a beating. Bluechipper my azz, more like blue bruises. Get a real QB. hey, at least you have a great punter and FG kicker. I will give you that much. Break out the panties, and partay……………….
crabapplejoe
September 20th, 2010
4:39 pm
Geez…A.J. Green is the most over-hyped WR in college football history. Kris Durham is just as productive and maybe better than Green. The team and fans need to move on from this clown Green who cost UGA the LSU game last year with his selfish actions.
wildbill
September 20th, 2010
4:46 pm
Like most UGA fans, I have seen a lot more downs than ups lately. Players getting arrested really peeves me and any self-respecting UGA alum. There is a wide communications gap between how the players think they can do what they danm please, and what UGA alums think is acceptable. Will SOMEBODY stand up and tell the players to behave or get the helle out of UGA, and pay back every danm cent they have ever taken from the athletic scholarship program. I get razzed nearly every day about the gangbangers at UGA.
Timmy Dog
September 20th, 2010
4:53 pm
Richt sucks and has no control over his OC. Our DC sucks too. Where did this overrated clown come from. Our QB is a midget that doesn’t know when to get rid of the ball and our D just got lit up by Arkansas. Arkansas???? We suck!!
Sautee Dawg
September 20th, 2010
5:07 pm
A walk across campus now before a home game seems like just a normal walk anywhere because of Adams.
He shouldn’t even be allowed in the stadium to give an interview.
t dawg
September 20th, 2010
5:09 pm
Alabama Player: 1) gets on a plane to attend a party hosted by an agent 2) the agent paid for everything ($1,700) 3) 2 game suspension
Georgia Player: 1) is contacted by an individual about purchasing his jersey 2) the individual buys a jersey given to green for $1,000 3) the “individual” happens to meet the definition of an agent by the NCAA 4) 4 game suspension
Which is worse and who should recieve the harsher punishment? Take this example and flip the teams. Would you get a different result? Hell yes you would. Green would still get 4 and BAMA’s DL would get 2 games. you know why?? Michael Adams doesn’t give a flip about the football team! We need to stop talking about firing CMR and make sure we get Adams out of Athens!!!! And Quick!!!
dawgsfan
September 20th, 2010
5:13 pm
I am trying to understand how Caleb King misses a block against Florida in 2008 and rides the pine for two games because of it but Washaun Ealey misses THREE blocks against Arkansas and is named starter for the next week. What the heck is going on???? Start Carlton Thomas if you have to, send a freaking message about what Ealey did in that game!!!
Win P.
September 20th, 2010
5:15 pm
Message business…If the NCAA is sending a message by giving A.J. a 4 game suspension for dealing with a drug dealer/NFL agent, why can’t UGA use A.J. to send a message too and kick him off the team for being selfish and stupid.
wildbill
September 20th, 2010
5:22 pm
Win P., I agree with you 100%.
Dawg Dude
September 20th, 2010
5:45 pm
I would be slow to comment on Georgia’s recent troubles if I were Tech fan. Just makes it look worse when we whip that butt again this year to make it 9 of 10.
JB
September 20th, 2010
6:17 pm
Let me start by saying I hope we run the table the rest of the season. Back to earth tells me we have some issues. Issues usually breed more issues. We appear to have a talent problem and a coaching problem. I give Grantham and co. a pass. He’s working with what we have, and did hold Carolina to 3 second half points. I knew Saturday was going to be not good for two reasons. I knew Arkansas could score. I knew we couldn’t. RF QB aside, with 10 returning starters, this should not be happening. How hot does it get in Athens? Does Mark have this year and next to work things out ? Will he be TOLD to can Bobo? This year is going to hurt. We have always looked at our schedule and asked who we’ll beat. The question now turns to who can we beat. Go Dawgs !
I pity the haters
September 20th, 2010
6:46 pm
Am I disappointed that UGA is 1-2 with 2 losses in the SEC? Of couse I am. Despite the fact the Dawgs have a redshirt freshman at QB as well as a brand new defensive scheme installed that is making use of players that were not recruited for this new defense I like many fans ignored logic that said we should expect a learning curve and set my hopes high. Unfortunately logic won out over the words of the sports pundits, but I think the Dawgs will turn this season around.
What never ceases to amaze and sadden me are the haters who get so much joy out of UGA’s football team suffering from a down period. I can sort of understand how a fan of a rival program would smirk or laugh with friends when their opponents lose etc… but I have never been to a rival teams message board or posted about a story concerning a rival team that didn’t mention UGA.
No matter how bummed out the Bulldog’s losses make me, it must be nothing compared to the misery these haters live with every day. How pathetic and miserable does a person have to be to haunt websites every day so he can gloat not about his teams fortune but about another teams misfortune? Maybe these sad pitiful haters have been crapped on so often every day these anonymous diatribes are an attempt to get even with what they see as an unjust world.
I’ll leave the armchair psychiatry for someone else for now as I await the response from some of the sad truly pitiable haters that so love the AJC sports pages. I am sure they will insist they are oh so successful and really quite happy and popular. Sadly that will make them not only haters but liars as well.
dawg4u
September 20th, 2010
6:51 pm
Please fellow Dawg fans lets stop beating our chests about owning the state of Georgia and bad-mouthing Tech. That has been obvious since the sixties. We need to concentrate on winning SEC games and getting our arrests and losses down. CMR looks totally stressed out and overwhelmed on the sideline shots of him during games and I’m sure the players must see that also. Our offensive line looks average and Ealey looks average. Murray will eventually be a good qb but it will take time. I feel Grantham will be a fine DC in time also. The bottom line is that UGA athletes are just not as talented as some of the other SEC schools so we need to be very resourceful and strategic in our play. This is definitely a rebuilding season but let’s just focus on trying to improve from game to game. We were better against Arkansas than we were against SC.
JOE
September 20th, 2010
6:56 pm
To deal with the football players troubles and arrests, the coaches….COACHES need to recruit better people and not just thugs that want to play ball. Definetely there has to be some sort of psychological analysis, background check, teacher/admisnistration (at the HS level) recommendation aboiut that student’s behaviour, accountability, honesty, moral, attendance, study skills, commitment, norm follower, etc., etc, etc……………..
If a student athlete shows borderline grade on these and other objectives, then………………..I don’t give a rats ass about having a so, so student at my university, period. I don’t care if he is Clark Kent in disguise.
CDAWG
September 20th, 2010
6:59 pm
If the Dawgs had played with intensity we would be 3-0 right now even without AJ and that’s a fact.
JOE
September 20th, 2010
7:11 pm
to Win P. (above)
.
Uiniversities get the by product of the GREAT public education we have. When the HSs start kicking ass and players out of teams for not going to school, missbehaving in class, giving the grade so they can be elegible, stping the balloney the parents (rich) throw at the schools and padd the pockets of cxoaches to MAKE their “children” startno matter if they deserve it or not, the….., only then, colleges and universities will get a quality HS by product. And as such, colleges and universities won’t have to worry about the students stupidity they get into. There are honorable academic schools in ythe country. But they work hard at it and make no appologies for being tough on academics and student’s responsibility a primary taget. But….the leftovers are not QUALITY and so….the colleges and universities must make the best of that thin line that exists between academics and pro wannabe athletes.
doggletinthecountry
September 20th, 2010
7:35 pm
Hate to say it but, those in charge at UGA are too soft. And that Ealey or easy dancing around beside the huddle at the Ark game—man –I dont care if your 12 or 70 years old. Get out there and play football and then go home. We dont care about your j—gle habits. And if you dont like it—take that Green loser with you and get out of TOWN!!!!!! Man Georgia has turned into a laughing matter. It is truely hard to relate to.—Gotta go kill some mosquitos and cook hamburgers on the grill.
Foster Brooks
September 20th, 2010
9:10 pm
I got a great idea. Let St. Richt suspend anyone arrested for the first game of the season against the sisters of the poor. That would really teach them a lesson and put the fear into the other players. Or how about recruiting some character kids instead of just 5 “star” guys that will listen and give it their all on Saturday for UGA instead of just looking for a way to the NFL. Say what you will, but this is some of the problem. Besides, we do not seem to be doing to well with our 4 and 5 “star” recruits as it is right now.
Man of the Swamp
September 20th, 2010
9:31 pm
Coach Steve Spurrier would be in contention for a national championship if he had the players Georgia does. Hey coach Richt, let your quarterback throw the ball. you got plenty of good receivers. Im a gator but you all need to get some swagger back
Bubba Dodd
September 20th, 2010
11:28 pm
Please…..A.J Green’s Agent / Drug Dealer was just arrested again on I-20 near Madison with a sizable amount of Crack Cocaine…wrapped in foil…covered with peanut butter and doused with pepper. How, if you’re a true American citizen can you condone the criminal, immoral behaviour that has occurred in the UGA athelitics department over the past decades??? Do you have no shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dawg Tired
September 21st, 2010
2:27 pm
I’m just glad Frank Lane the poster is not the coach.