First day on the job for Georgia’s new offensive line coach
ATHENS – Will Friend was a two-time All-SEC offensive lineman at Alabama in the 1990s, but by the end of his playing days there, it was obvious his future was in coaching.
Friend, who started work Tuesday as Georgia’s newly hired offensive line coach, recalled a meeting about his future with his position coach, Neil Callaway, after his senior season at Alabama:
“Right after the season, he called me in and said, ‘Hey, listen, whatcha going to do?’
“I said, ‘Well, I don’t know.’
“He said, ‘Well, you ain’t going to be able to play any pro ball.’
“I said, ‘I didn’t think so.’
“He said, ‘I think you can coach.’”
That’s how Friend’s career started. He worked three years as a graduate assistant coach under Callaway at Alabama, then one year as an assistant at West Alabama, one year as a high school coach in Tuscaloosa, two years as a graduate assistant at Georgia (under Callaway), two years as offensive line coach at Gardner-Webb, four years as offensive line coach at UAB (again under Callaway) and now back to Georgia.
He started work Tuesday morning at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall in a much larger office than the one he shared with other graduate assistants in 2003-04.
“There were three or four of us in there,” Friend recalled. “We had to fight for chairs. If you got in early, you got a chair for the day.”
Friend’s daughter, Katie, now 6, was born in Athens while he was working here as a grad assistant.
“I told her . . . ‘you’re getting to go back home,’” Friend said.
He said Georgia’s offensive linemen will find him to be consistent and honest.
“I think it can be a very good group,” he said.
He phoned the Bulldogs’ six offensive-line signees Monday night “and told them, basically, ‘You guys don’t know me and I don’t know you, but we both picked Georgia. . . . We can build our relationship off that.’”
– Tim Tucker, UGA Blog
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139 comments Add your comment
The Problem in Athens as I see it.
February 9th, 2011
3:39 pm
Lex you gotta give him credit, he tried to help us out.
jerry
February 9th, 2011
3:45 pm
He probably did not get the job because he developed All Americans. He probably got it like a lot of people- he knew somebody.
Whiskey Clear
February 9th, 2011
3:53 pm
What happened to Friedgen? I thought he was the leading candidate..
SClanding
February 9th, 2011
4:13 pm
“QB, WRs and with crowell, maybe the best RB in the SEC.”
Good lord???
What kind of delusion is this? Best RB in SEC from a High school recruit who missed parts of or all of several games this year due to injury? Good luck with that…
WR? AJ Green is going pro and the remaining cast of nobodies could not catch a cold.
Murray has no weapons around him and looks adequate when he is not throwing INTs.
Lots more issues on the UGA offense than lack of OL play.
woebegong
February 9th, 2011
5:57 pm
Well, now that all you UGA haters have spouted off you B.S., all that remains to look forward to is next season. Until then, you can brag, fumble with your words, act like you know what you are talking about but it means little or nothing at all. Let’s just wait until the season gets going and then, we will see if any of the opinions on here amount to a hill of beans. The simple fact, that there are so many UGA haters on a blog about a UGA coach hire, tells me two things. 1. You are worried about UGA football giving you a butt whipping. 2. Your own teams blogs, do not provide you with enough intellectual stimulation to keep you interested. Now I know that may be a stretch from our neighbors to the west, but tech fans, I would expect better of. If you are all such giants of academics as you profess, why come onto a blog concerning UGA, and do all you can to disprove that theory.
tide roll
February 9th, 2011
7:17 pm
Why didn’t Texas offer this guy? Can you imagine. Their fans wouldn’t stand for it. This guy is a friend of Bobo’s, and it was too much work for Richt to find the right guy! What a program!
KimZ'spackage
February 9th, 2011
7:57 pm
hi
Delta Flight Attendent
February 9th, 2011
7:58 pm
Was his first stop a tour of the Athens Clarke County Jail? He will need to know where to go to find his players when he posts bail.
Peach Fuzz
February 9th, 2011
8:05 pm
I’ve heard it said that the reason Ky has won so many bb games is because in the old days most SEC schools had football coaches coaching BB. Maybe UGa ought to go back to having a FB coach coach B B as well.
PreyDawg
February 9th, 2011
8:15 pm
I still cannot for the life of me, figure out what happened with Searles. This guy came in billed as a world beater. A fiery coach we were told. I real disciplinarian. And yet this line underachieved something awful and got stoned over and over. I thought the line he had his first year here was a strong point. What the heck happend?
Larry
February 9th, 2011
8:34 pm
How can you introduce a person’s first day and not include a photo of the person?
Can you describe what he looks like?
Good grief!
Sportrealist
February 9th, 2011
9:04 pm
SClanding, you lost any credibility with your comment about Murray being “adequate when he is not throwing INTs.”
Murray had 24 touchdowns and 8 INTs last year.
It obvious you are uneducated about the subject. I think that’s your Mommy calling you for bed.
You’re an idiot
Your an idiot
Sportsrealist
February 9th, 2011
9:20 pm
Top five receivers at UGA for 2010.
A.J. Green 57 receptions 848 yrds 9 TDs
Kris Durham 32 receptions 659 yrds 3 TDs
Tavarres King 27 receptions 504 yrds 3 TDs
Orson Charles 26 receptions 422 yrds 2 TDs
Marlon Brown 11 receptions 133 yrds 1 TDs
Aaron Murray had a total 3049 yards passing to19 different receivers.
QB rating was 154.5.
I’d say he spread the ball around pretty well.
Do some research before you start spouting off at the mouth. We all know that SC will be back to its regular (7 & 5) form next year. Oh, congratulations on making it to the SEC championship for the 1st time. Great moral victory….Pfft
Eaassyy
February 9th, 2011
9:38 pm
BP Class of ‘85: Best post in quite some time. Well played, Sir.
Bulldawg Richie
February 9th, 2011
10:50 pm
Myabe the dawgs just needed a new Friend on the offensive coaching staff. Best of luck to him.
1980 National Champions
February 9th, 2011
11:07 pm
Welcome to LOSERVILLE pal….. your along way from Tuscaloosa aka Title Town
AltamahaDawg
February 9th, 2011
11:15 pm
layinlow, I’m not sure honest fans are saying that Searles was that bad. But it’s for certain he wasn’t working out here.
Oh My
February 9th, 2011
11:55 pm
An offensive line coach will get the mutts back to the national championship. You flea bags are delusional as usual.
Warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreagle!
Shawn
February 10th, 2011
12:01 am
I am sick of people blaming our O-line woes on our S&C coaches last year! Did any of You watch our guys get bullied around. No, that was not what happened. Our guys simply missed assignments or whiffed on blocks. I don’t care how well conditioned You are, if you don’t make contact or miss your assignment someone is getting hammered in the backfield. King’s fumble in the CU game happened because a DE met him as he was taking the hand off after a missed assignment. Watch some film and You will see this happening in every game. That was poor coaching. It can only get better from here with the new hire. Welcome aboard Friend!
Big L
February 10th, 2011
12:16 am
I’m tired of hearing about Searels being a S&C victim. If it was the problem, he should’ve addressed it and got something done. If the tread on the tires are wore out and showing metal, I don’t wait on a blowout on side of the road, I get it fixed. Plain and simple.
JE
February 10th, 2011
6:28 am
You are going to give up more sacks if you pass more than you run the ball. Since we lost seven games we probably passed more than we ran in hopes to catch up. But we also threw early in the games we lost too. You have to evaluate every aspect of the game to determine how terrible the team or the offensive line was.
jim
February 10th, 2011
6:36 am
What is the most important part of a team other than QB?
Who is friend?
February 10th, 2011
6:48 am
The answer is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2oZWpqtNi4
Truly study the game of football, the trends, and what's going on
February 10th, 2011
7:18 am
The last four years, UAB was … 2-10, 4-8, 5-7, and 4-8.
» SEC: Florida improves to 8-2; Mississippis get wins John Clay’s Sidelines
February 10th, 2011
7:24 am
[...] Georgia’s new line coach is on the job, reports Tim Tucker of the AJC. [...]
Dawg Gone
February 10th, 2011
8:25 am
Shawn, did you not watch the Ga Tech game. Our OL looked like they were on roller skates.
James Taylor
February 10th, 2011
8:25 am
You got a Friend.
James Taylor
February 10th, 2011
8:26 am
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
How he got the job??
February 10th, 2011
9:25 am
Coach Friend heard ( like we all did ) that UGA needed a new O line coach. It started right there. He very likely phoned Richt and or he emailed Richt. Either way, Richt talked with him, then very likely said” fax me your resume” and I will look at it for sure.
At some point, CMR called Calloway to get his take and then, the guy was hired.
There were tons of applicants. Now, did a “name” NFL O line coach contact CMR? Probably not. Did a big time SEC O line coach contact MR, probably not.
Were there probably 20+ or 30+ well known up and coming high school coaches trying to go to Athens in that job? This scenario is also very likely. The fact that a head coach is on the hot seat might affect the number of applicants for sure, BUT at the end of the day, there were tons of good coaches looking to make a name for themselves.
Folks ………….. this is how it is done, if you have ever tried to advance a career. It would make no sense even if CMR had won the SEC for a big name coach somewhere to take a lateral job. It does not happen this way. Searels? He was DUE for a change and so was UGA and that “decsion” was 100% mutual. That happens too in any business.
Goooooooooooooooooooo Dogs.
kevin
February 10th, 2011
10:52 am
Friend is an underwhelming hire, but with good reason. McGarity was only offereing a 1 year contract for the position; so, no big name coach would bit at that. However, what this does mean is that McGarity means business–if Richt does not perform this year, he’s gone.
JumpShip
February 10th, 2011
1:28 pm
Hiring a mediocre oline coach from uab is not going to get it done. Richt probably asked a bunch of big name coaches but they turned him down since he will probably be fired in a year after a bunch of losses in 2011.
South GA Dawg
February 10th, 2011
6:23 pm
I say UGA has a real good year. South Carolina and GT will be the only games we lose. I only say GT because I believe UGA will come into the game way over confident and GT will take advantage of it. GO DAWGS.
5150 UOAD
February 10th, 2011
7:44 pm
ARE the dogs here?
Freddie G
February 10th, 2011
8:02 pm
Well CMR had another chance to upgrade his staff, we will see in seven months whether he has done so. We can only hope this time will be better than the other hires he has made, namely Bobo and Martinez.
Bobby Bulldog
February 10th, 2011
8:16 pm
Scenario described above is not quite accurate .Bobo’s friend Friend was annointed by Bobo, who was allowed to make the pick before any other coaches even knew about it. Either way both Bobo and Friend will be gone by 2012. With a good season Bobo moves on to a head coaching job at a smaller school, taking friend Friend with him. “Bad” season and Richt negotiates big buyout and retires from coaching and Bobo and friend Friend move on.
kral
February 10th, 2011
9:40 pm
so your scenario is accurate …thank the lord a man who knows the future
Still@theBAR
February 10th, 2011
10:18 pm
It is GAME TIME
5150 UOAD
February 10th, 2011
10:20 pm
WORK DAWGS Work Hard
Richie_Rich86
February 13th, 2011
11:08 pm
Hope he’s aggressive and straight out blunt!!! We need to light a fire under that OL and make some holes for Crowell and block for my boy Aaron Murray!!! Lets Go Dawgs!! BTW ITs Baseball season!! LETS GO BRAVOS!!!