Grantham regrets choke sign: ‘Sometimes you get caught up in heat of moment’
(Updated 7:15 p.m.)
ATHENS – Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, caught on camera making a choking gesture toward Florida’s kicker near the end of last Saturday’s game, expressed regret about the incident Tuesday.
“As a competitor, sometimes you get caught up in the heat of the moment,” Grantham said. “I wish the situation hadn’t happened.
“It was a tough, hard-fought game. They won it, and I’m ready to move forward and finish out the year strong.”
Grantham said he has talked with Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity and coach Mark Richt about the incident, “and we’re ready to move forward.”
Asked if he feels that he owes an apology to the Florida kicker, Chas Henry, Grantham said: “I’ve kind of basically said what I’m going to say.”
Earlier Tuesday, at his weekly news conference, Richt also addressed the Grantham controversy.
“I’m aware of it, and I would just say that emotions run high,” Richt said. “People do things they probably wish they didn’t do. I think that was what was being communicated. I don’t think he’s necessarily proud of it. We’re just going to learn from it and move on.”
A screen shot and video from Florida sports cable network Sun Sports showed Grantham making a choke sign – grabbing his neck with his right hand several times — before Henry attempted a 37-yard field goal in overtime.
Henry, a Dallas, Ga., native, made the kick to give Florida a 34-31 victory.
In an interview on CBS after the game, Henry said: “Some of [Georgia's] coaches on the sideline were over there giving me a little grief, saying I was going to choke.”
Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray, asked about the controversy Tuesday, said he hadn’t seen the video but had heard about the matter.
Grantham “was probably just like the rest of us, just hoping [Henry] missed the kick,” Murray said. “I don’t think it’s anything too much to get worked up about. It’s not like he charged the field at the kicker and tried to do something to him. . . . I think people are trying to make too big a deal about it.”
McGarity discussed the matter with SEC commissioner Mike Slive, according to UGA spokesman Claude Felton. “To the best of our knowledge,” Felton said, “the SEC is not pursuing anything on that.”
Durham likely out
Georgia wide receiver Kris Durham likely will be sidelined for Saturday’s game against Idaho State but should be available for the Nov. 13 game at Auburn, Richt said.
Durham suffered a bruised lung as a result of a fierce hit on a second-quarter catch against Florida. He returned to the game in the third quarter.
“I was a little upset because at first [doctors and trainers] told me I wasn’t going to be able to go back in,” Durham said Tuesday. “I mean, I wasn’t hurting. Well, yeah, I was a little sore, but that’s nothing.
“The only thing that really scared them was when I started kind of coughing up a little blood. But I felt fine. I could take deep breaths. They listened to my lungs and to my heart and took some vitals. I felt like I could play, so they allowed me back in. … I was very, very grateful for that because it was my last go-round against the Gators.”
Commings’ misplay
Among the Georgia players second-guessing themselves for misplays against Florida: cornerback Sanders Commings, who attempted to scoop and run with a first-quarter Florida fumble inside the Gators’ 10-yard line.
“I wish I would have just fallen on the ball now,” Commings said Tuesday. “It would have given the offense great field position to score, but I guess all I can do now is learn from it.”
Richt said the rule of thumb is to simply jump on the fumble “if there are bodies around” or to scoop and run with it “if you’re out in space.” He said Georgia twice Saturday tried to scoop-and-run with fumbles that should have been jumped on.
The Gators recovered the fumble that eluded Commings. It proved to be the first play of a 91-yard drive to the game’s first touchdown.
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752 comments Add your comment
Richt the Hypocrite
November 2nd, 2010
11:35 pm
Does RIcht regret lying about it on his call in show, indicating it was a signal to the Kick Block team? What a joke and a hypocrite!!!!!!
Dawg Whisperer
November 2nd, 2010
11:37 pm
I say it was swallowing a wad of chew but the lesser evil might be directing it at the gator kicker.
Kevin
November 2nd, 2010
11:39 pm
Come on you wanna take a trip over to wamby-pamby land? How about a tissue? Lee Irmey could teach you all something.Give me a break it was a close game. I bet everyone on here that watched the game said things. I got up on more than one time and walked out on the porch to vent some anger. Congratulate the winners and move on.
Foster Brooks
November 2nd, 2010
11:41 pm
Go ahead doggies, make all your excuses, oh it was nothing, its football. You dog fans have the audacity to berate and call other teams classless. Look in the mirror you inbred rednecks. Your so called “university” is a digrace with all your arrest over the past 3 years, your former AD, a coach who doesn’t even know what the word discipline means and a president that shows no leadership whatso ever. You recruit low class or character kids because they have 5 stars. You do no homework in this area, and I guess that applies to coaches now also, even though you paid $750,000 for your forth choice. Your whole school is an embarrassment to the state of Georgia, but your fans can’t see it or demand it be cleaned up, which is an indictment on your fan base as a whole. You really do not care what kind of imagine you have as long as you are winning football games. Well you aren’t even doing that very much and you are still the most classless school in the south, sorry the nation. You are a national laughing stock, and your degree is worthless outside of this state where all the other inbred rednecks live. So go ahead and berate other real “schools” that do not have near the problems you guys have, you are the most classless bunch there is, and it would seem that some of your graduates would stand up and demand change, but then we forget who your real fan base is.
Kevin
November 2nd, 2010
11:42 pm
I always read these but hardly ever post but this is crazy.Murray will be fine give him a break, he made mistakes that he will correct. How many of us have ever been put in the situation these kids are in week after week he’s a freshman. If you love the DAWGS you love them for better or worse so suck it up and move on!
THOROUGHBRED
November 2nd, 2010
11:43 pm
He is just sorry he got caught.
Dawg Whisperer
November 2nd, 2010
11:49 pm
This is a non-issue. Do you think the gator players are really steamed over this, and if they are, they can hold a candle vigil. Here… allow me to apologize for coach Grantham…I’m really sorry that you didn’t shank that kick like you did in other games. And I’m sorry that coach Meyer put you in that position to serve as the back-up kicker which you had no reason to expect since, after all, you’re the punter. Now, can we all just be friends. Sorry.
Dawg Whisperer
November 2nd, 2010
11:57 pm
Foster, are you saying that you don’t like UGA? That does it. Our feelings are really hurt. Last time I read a biology book, I discovered that UGA fans have the same DNA as Florida fans and Tech fans, and Bama fans… well you get the message. I’m sorry (again), you really don’t like us. I guess that trumps reason.
David
November 3rd, 2010
12:01 am
To expect an apology was just asking too much. This sounds like something Tn would do. Oh yea, I forgot, CMG is real strong on discipline.
Dawg Whisperer
November 3rd, 2010
12:03 am
Midnight has struck and I’m tired of watching the election returns. Good night everybody!
David
November 3rd, 2010
12:14 am
The real question is, how many times has Ga choked against Florida in the last 20 years? Punks
G8TR
November 3rd, 2010
12:33 am
Of course UGA backers think this is a “non-issue” (as do most Gators). If it happened on the opposite sideline, however, we’d never hear the end of it. And end up watching the highlight forever. Or listening to the wait ’til next year revenge talk. Or getting all the holier-than-thou lectures. Bottom line = Dawgs, 31 Owners, 34.
Flo-Ri-Duh!
November 3rd, 2010
12:52 am
Chillymutt – when a team has three turnovers by it’s offense in the first half they are going to give up more points and yards on defense. By the way UGA had just as many yards as Florida – not that it is important.
Flo-Ri-Duh!
November 3rd, 2010
12:57 am
Glad to see King Roy get his…. worst excuse for a governor (besides Jimmy Carter) that Georgia has ever seen. I’m pulling for Richt to turn things around. Georgia gave a strong effort but made to many mistakes on both sides of the ball. Florida did not play so great but Georgia gave them the game.
hobnailboot
November 3rd, 2010
1:01 am
I absolutely love it! Coach Grantham has been a breath of fresh air on a much too stale staff.
Florida Dawg
November 3rd, 2010
2:07 am
It just seems to be a little childish for a $750,000 a year man, who’s defense has let the gators score 31 points (with the generous help of the offense) to be doing some kind of choke hold on the sidelines….maybe he should have been encouraging his players to storm the center and block the kick.
Anyway, time to move on and worry about something else.
Jen
November 3rd, 2010
2:40 am
It’s not like he was telling his players to do it.
No big deal……geeze people
I’m actually glad we have a DC with some passion and heart(already) in this program.
This is no different that a coach calling a tim-out to freeze a kicker!!!!
Let it gooooooooooooooooo!
3rdgenDawg
November 3rd, 2010
3:22 am
At least he didn’t tell the punter “time to die”.. Oh the firm slap on the wrist he would get from that.. Of course Grantham could have stolen all the video equipment in the stadium, get fired, and Auburn would offer him a job as their new DC with a raise..
Notso Fast
November 3rd, 2010
3:30 am
I’M SURE THIS ACT DID VERY LITTLE TO UPSET THE FLORIDA PLAYER, IN FACT, PROBABLY DID MORE TO MAKE HIM EVEN MORE DETERMINE TO MAKE THE KICK. THE PROBLEM IS THE COACH SHOULD HAVE BEEN USING ALL OF HIS FOCUS ON TRYING TO CALL A PLAY THAT WOULD GIVE THE DAWGS A CHANCE TO PUT MORE PRESSURE ON THE KICKER. COACH R GET MORE CREDIT THAN ANY COACH IN THE SEC FOR BEING A GOOD CHRISTIAN MAN. I THINK HE IS BUT YET THE QUESTIONS REMAINS, WHY DOES THIS NOT REFLECT IN HIS TEAM ACTIONS ON AND OFF THE FIELD? ALWAYS SOMETHING AND WE KEEP SAYING ” NO BIG DEAL”.
tote that pill
November 3rd, 2010
3:40 am
As a UGA fan I am not proud of this but I really really don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Much worse things happen all the time. Honestly if a UF coach had done this to Walsh I wouldn’t think much of it.
gator aide
November 3rd, 2010
5:52 am
Not a big deal. Shouldn’t suprise anyone your players act like a bunch of thugs. Extend Marks contract to a life contract. Next year will be the same thing. Mark went to the championship game three times in the first three years. Who recruited those players. He is from FSU and his players act just like they do.
Animal Control
November 3rd, 2010
6:13 am
It’s never a “big deal” until some gets arrested…and kicked off the team…and suspended…and your team goes 4-4 for the season! The example that has been set is very telling of why the players are acting like morons!
rcgator
November 3rd, 2010
6:14 am
Throw some jorts and a goatee on this guy and he is no different from thousands of mouth breathing GA fans on this board. Go Gators.
JB
November 3rd, 2010
7:15 am
REALLY?!?!?!
This is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I’d aslo say that calling time outs, late in a game, when you’re up by 30 pts, oh say like Meyer did, is a FAR bigger punk move.
That said, Murray has it right when he says,
Grantham “was probably just like the rest of us, just hoping [Henry] missed the kick,” Murray said. “I don’t think it’s anything too much to get worked up about. It’s not like he charged the field at the kicker and tried to do something to him. . . . I think people are trying to make too big a deal about it.”
HBTD!!!
Barrack on Crack
November 3rd, 2010
7:16 am
Fleabags even embarrass me. And I’m the worst president in history.
JB
November 3rd, 2010
7:17 am
We don’t have to apologize for making them go to over time do we………..Geez…….
Dumocratic Losers
November 3rd, 2010
7:19 am
The whole team is a bunch of classless thug punk losers.
coondog
November 3rd, 2010
7:22 am
Shut up Buzz!!! Who cares what a Tech thinks.
Buckeye
November 3rd, 2010
7:28 am
Say it, Bruce…..
BIRMINGHAM BOWL
HA!
Princess Pelosi is goners
November 3rd, 2010
7:41 am
Even without the Grantham incident, I’ve never understood how anyone – even an alumnus – could support and take pride in UGA’s football team. When you look at their history for the past forty years, how can anyone ignore Jan Kemp and the “remedial studies” scam, the Jim Harrick fiasco, the DUIs in the athletic office, the DUIs and other arrests of players, the #1 party school tag (i.e., the most drunk students), the suspensions and outright dismissals, the Fulmer Cup, and on and on?
As disgraceful and humiliating as it is, I don’t see many alums and fans demanding an end to this sordid activity. It sets UGA apart as the kind of school most people abhor, and it’s become an embarrassment to the whole state of Georgia.
Will it never end? Apparently not while Mark Richt is at UGA. Richt is perhaps the biggest hypocrite in the United States. But even with all the cheating and lawlessness that he ignores, he still can’t win the SEC.
So you’re paying him to be BCS champions, but he can’t even win his SEC division. So why do you pay him millions of dollars a year?
WinderDawg
November 3rd, 2010
7:46 am
Wow! Is this what has came out of one of the best games played on TV this year! Coach G said it best I’m sorry I did it now let’s move on to Idaho State. Our culture will give robbers, thieves, con artist second chances but not a coach or player. I not proud of what he did but I’m not ready to throw him under the bus. I was on my couch saying CHOKE! just like the Gator fans when we had the ball in OT. Great game let’s win out Dawgs!
Munson's Toupee
November 3rd, 2010
7:48 am
What Would Damon Do?
What?
November 3rd, 2010
7:50 am
Can we have some counselors present on the sideline for the next time this sort of thing happens?
My 6 year old daughter was frightened.
—————————————————–
So your okay with her saying the F word too? Wow, cause he screamed it about 3 times at the kicker, and he is a coach and supposed leader, not a fan in the stands.
SadDawg
November 3rd, 2010
7:57 am
Looks like Grantham needs to apologize to the nerds. Those girls are the only ones weeping about this . . .
Orange & blue
November 3rd, 2010
8:04 am
We promise never to use the choke sign again
provided you (Gators) do away with the chomp
———————————————–
Okay we will only do the chomp when we win.
OB
November 3rd, 2010
8:07 am
3rdgenDawg November 3rd, 2010 3:22 am
At least he didn’t tell the punter “time to die”.
————————————-
Or ask for his girlfriends panties.
What's the fuss?
November 3rd, 2010
8:07 am
The defense did not fumble a single game away. They are near the top in several defensive categories as a team. First year in a new scheme. WTF do you people want? You got your wish to get rid of WM – give TG a chance – take away some offensive miscues and we would be 7-2 right now.
OB
November 3rd, 2010
8:12 am
The gesture was no worse than Meyer calling all his TO when leading UGA by about 40 a couple years ago.
————————————–
Yeah that had nothing to do with the dancing on the field by UGA the year before. At least he wasn’t dropping F bombs at the opposing team as he did it.
munsondawg
November 3rd, 2010
8:16 am
At least Todd Grantham has a pulse. Mark Richt should show some sort of enthusiasm about wanting to win a game.
John
November 3rd, 2010
8:22 am
What’s the big deal? This isn’t golf. Last I checked, football was classified as a contact/collision sport and decidedly not gentlemanly.
Didn’t UGA deploy the last-second time out to “ice” the Gator kicker? What’s that about if not implying “Hey bud! We just gave you the opportunity to chew on the import of your imminent endeavor. And just so you know, it’s our fervent hope you seize up like a Yugo engine that just consumed its last drop of oil.”
Henry was looking at the Dawgs sideline before the kick. What the heck did you want Grantham to do, blow him a kiss – or give him a thumbs up perhaps?
So some nimrod from a two-bit Florida TV station scouring every second of game/sideline footage found this “outrageous” breach of decorum. And the Gator lunatic fringe is in a tizzy.
More disgusting is that UGA movers and shakers dignified this nonsense and made a spectacle of implying Grantham was reprimanded for his crime against all football humanity.
Mr. new UGA AD, do we hate Florida or not? What happened to your manhood? They used to be just south of your belly, inside your pants. Tell UF to get over it and move on. Or better yet, ignore this tempest in a teapot altogether.
I consider this a mini-test for McGarrity. I think he failed.
Who cares what I think?
I’ll get back to you on that.
munsondawg
November 3rd, 2010
8:25 am
John,
UGA has a bunch of pansies from the top all the way down.
John
November 3rd, 2010
8:29 am
munsondawg,
Hard to refute that statement when you see the folks in charge knuckle under to this BS. Maybe McGarrity figured he better do something so his weekend golfing partners at UF won’t get mad at him.
Hey Mcgarrity! You don’t work for the Gators anymore. Or do you?
munsondawg
November 3rd, 2010
8:33 am
Let McGarity fly home for the next 8-10 years from Jax after losing to FL almost every time. I’m guessing he will get tired of it after awhile.. I thought maybe GA had an Athletic Director who would spark some life into a very mediocre football program.
BirdDog
November 3rd, 2010
8:34 am
Who freakin cares? I just wish it had worked!
WTF
November 3rd, 2010
8:39 am
What a bunch of whiney babies. get the hell over it.
DJS
November 3rd, 2010
8:41 am
Florida Fan
November 2nd, 2010
6:47 pm
As a Florida graduate I just want to give a big “thank you” to all you folks who are making a big deal out of a meaningless hand gesture while simultaneously ignoring the fact my head coach reinstated a domestic violence offender
———————————-
Really who was that? I don’t remember anyone getting charged with domestic violence, but hey who cares about facts right?
.. Choking Hazard ..
November 3rd, 2010
8:42 am
Grantham acted like an immature jerk.
Anchorman
November 3rd, 2010
8:42 am
You stay classy, San Diego!!!!!
John
November 3rd, 2010
8:44 am
Good point DJS! Way to put that night law school degree to use.
Double Standard
November 3rd, 2010
8:45 am
Real cute posts about GT Mr. AJC Moderator/Jeff Schultz. Do you really want to bring up whether any team is relevant or not? Last I looked, GT still has a chance to win their conference (regardless of whether it is down or not) while UGA has been ELIMINATED from what is a very subpar SEC east. Last I looked GT still has a winning record while UGA does not. The only thing irrelevant that I see related to your posts ARE your posts since they are completely off topic – this is a blog about Todd Grantham. I would think that the focus should be on how to solve the many problems at UGA including the PR hit they are taking on Grantham’s childish behavior on the sidelines. Let the folks over at GT worry about their own problems including how to beat UGA even in a down year.