Q&A: UGA’s Mark Richt discusses recruiting philosophies, ethics
Q&A WITH MARK RICHT
As there will be a whole new round of discussions and interviews at the SEC Meetings today, I figured I’d just share pretty much all of what Georgia coach Mark Richt said on the record yesterday as it’ll be rendered mostly moot after lunch. I’ll also provide a Q&A of the media’s session with UGA basketball coach Mark Fox a little later. Here’s what all Richt had to say:
Q: So where do you stand on the over-signing issue and the roster management proposals?
Richt: “I’m just going to listen to what everybody else has to say before I decide. Sometimes you think you know the right answer and then you hear someone elses’s opinion or rationale and you may feel differently. It’s like when we were talking about an early signing date a few years ago. I thought one way going into the meeting and I came out of the meeting feeling differently after hearing everyone’s thoughts on it. So I really don’t know what I think right now.
Q: Does 28 seem like a good number?
Richt: “Same answer. I’d like to hear what everybody else says about it before I canreally make a good decision on that.”
Q: Rightly or wrongly, fairly or unfairly, it has been characterized that you’re pitted against Coach Saban and Coach Nutt and some others regarding your philosophies on signing players. Is that accurate?
Richt: “I was asked my opinion on the oversigning thing. First of all, I think everybody should have a right to manage their numbers. I think every university should he able to do that. I think over-signing is OK, in my opinion, if you sign over the number.
“Let’s say you have space for 15 on signing day and you sign 20. Well, if five of those guys know up front if there’s no room in the end and they’re willing to grayshirt and willing to come in the next January in the end, if the kid knows, the mom and dad knows, the high school coach knows, everybody involved in the recruiting process knows, if they know there’s a chance there’s no space for you, if everybody knows that on the front end, then I don’t see anything wrong with it ethically. I personally think if everybody knows it on the front end, that’s fine.
“We all know from signing date until they enroll in school, there’s usually attrition historically and usually there’s enough attrition to make room for any over-signing. If those five guys know they can come in if there’s room when everybody else comes in, come in with your class. If there’s not, you’ll come in in January. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
“What I’ve said is, if you sign five over and you get to that moment of truth and you have to tell two or three kids who thought they were coming in with everybody else and then all of the sudden you spring on them that there’s no room for them, they ave to come back in January, I don’t think that’s right. But I never said anybody did that. I wasn’t accusing anybody of anything. I was just saying if everybody knows on the front end I don’t have a problem with it.”
Q: Where do you stand on grayshirting?
Richt: “Some kids just want to come to Georgia. Some of them are willing to take that chance of being grayshirted. But if there’s room they come in their class. If there’s a guy that you sign that you know will not qualify, then you know you might have signed one over or however many over that you had available. But you know 100 percent that guys’s not going to qualify and he’s going to go to junior college, I don’t see a problem with that. So that’s a lot of what’s been going on.
“But if there is a kid that gets shocked, or there’s group of 25 guys there in the summer and there’s only room for 20, at the end of the summer you decide which five have to come to school in January, I don’t think that’s right. Is that what the legislation is going to come ouot with, I don’t know. That’s all I’ve said about it. If somebody wants to spin it another way, that’s fine. But I’ve never accused anybody of anything.”
Q: Football scholarships are renewable on an annual basis. Why not just not renew players that aren’t contrinuting late in their careers?
Richt: “hey all know it’s a one-year renewable deal. But if a guy in your mind isn’t good enough, I personally don’t think you should be pushing the guy out the door because we didn’t think he was good enough. Guys develop and get better. . . . You’ve got to do what’s in the best interest of the kid. You’ve got to do what’s in the best interest of your program, but there’s a right way of doing those things, I think.”
Q: With what happened recently to Jim Tressell at Ohio State and at other places in the last year, is there an integrity problem in college football?
Richt: “I can only speak to the way we do it. We try like mad to do it with integrity; we try to go by the rules.”
Q: Is negative recruiting prevalent in the league?
A: “We try to talk to the recruits about Georgia. I always take it with a grain of salt if another school is talking about somebody else’s school. We really try to just talk about the reasons why Georgia is a great place for whoever we’re recruiting. We try not to tell a kid about another school. We stay away from that. I’m not going to say people don’t ever pull out depth charts and look at situations at a position ot something like Other than that we don’t get into telling anybody what’s going on at another school.”
Q: Is it possible to win big any more without pushing the limits on rules?
A: “Again, everybody’s human. Everybody’s going to make mistakes. The rule book is sometimes very specific and sometimes it’s kind of vague. So it’s hard to sit there and never have any kind of secondary violation or anything like that. I don’t think that’s possible. But from a gut-level, philosophical point of view, do I think you can win and do things right and do things within the rules? Yeah.”
Q: Do you think there’s growing pressure on coaches to break rules in order to win big?
Richt: It’s up to them to decide if there’s pressure to do that. I’ll do something else for a living if I have to do that to succeed and win. I had the same conviction when I was being interviewed by Coach Dooley and President Adams. I asked them the question: Do you think you can recruit in this league 100 percent above board and win. Their answer was yes. And I said, ‘Good, because that’s the way we’re going to go about our business.’
Q: The last five national champions have come from the SEC. Do you think that’s puts more pressure on the coaches who have not won a BCS title?
Richt: “I think everybody wants to win. I think the only thing we can truly control is whether or not you win the SEC. We can control winning the SEC East, we can control winning the SEC. A national champion, you can’t control that. In 2002 we were 13-1 and were a pretty good football team. But Ohio State and Miami were undefeated and we weren’t able to get in. Even if we were undefeated that year, I’m not sure we would’ve gotten into the game. That happened to Coach Tuberville when he was at Auburn; they were undefeated and didn’t get to play for the national championship.
“So you can only do what you can do. But every year, if you’re a competitor, you want to win the league. The bottom line for me is, I’m going to go about my business the best I possibly can, do the very best I can and hopefully the results are what I want and what everybody else wants in the Bulldog Nation and that’s to win the Southeastern Conference and hopefully have a chance to win the national championship.”
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105 comments Add your comment
1eyedJack
June 1st, 2011
12:45 pm
“I don’t see anything wrong with oversigning and taking scholarships away from the deadweights.”
Then don’t recruit and sign deadweights. Instead of the shotgun approach how about due diligence.
Oversigning
June 1st, 2011
12:46 pm
Much ado about nothing. When its all said and done everyone plays with 85 or less scholly players a year. Now quit whining.
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
12:50 pm
I can understand why Spurrier needs to oversign. That stict policy on player walking a narrow line really bcatches up to him.
Rooster
June 1st, 2011
12:51 pm
Richt’s philosophies don’t mean jack squat. He can’t win the big games.
Joe Idiot
June 1st, 2011
12:52 pm
Yeah! I agree with “Oversigning”. What is the big deal? Who really thinks it’s a problem that high school kids are being conned into believing that they are going to get a free college education for 4-5 years. I don’t care about those kids. I care about my team winning games. Screw them.
Win at all costs!
Coach Grohbo
June 1st, 2011
12:58 pm
Georgia fans,
Your milquetoast coach is the reason you will never win it all.
Read the interview above for Exhibit A.
DawgTough
June 1st, 2011
1:02 pm
If oversigning is what it takes to beat Florida, after losing to them 8 out of the last 10 meetings you may have to do it to get some wins. It may not be right,but what is right in this crazy world ? Surely not our beloved Dawgs losing 18 times out of the last 21 games in Jacksonville. UGA needs to win this game on
Joey
June 1st, 2011
1:03 pm
Haha.
Yeah, has Garcia ever “walked a narrow line” without falling down?
Yet, you can bet he will be running on the field for SC’s first possession vs UGA.
Still DawgTough after another loss 2 UF
June 1st, 2011
1:13 pm
No knock against the kids, but do you honestly see any of the running backs on UGa’s spring roster playing for Saban at ‘Bama ? LOL , it’s not funny but, hey oversign if that’s what it takes to build a consistent winner. To win you have to compete on and off the field with your competitors. It’s a mean world, but life goes on.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 1st, 2011
2:01 pm
The job of a university or college is number one, educate a kid and improve his life and enrich it. Blackoutanyone and baller, act as if the kids that play football are pieces of meat, to be either cooked or thrown away. If the kid does somehow survive this mentality of thinking, what example have these coaches shown about honor, commitment or keeping one’s promise. They would be better served to go into the military where at least those traits are still valued and taught. The only entity that let’s down military personnel is the government’s politicians and governments have a long history of doing that, so the kids already know what all adults do. Trust them, and if they turn out to be less than they profess, vote them out. Too bad the kids have no say in that way, when a coach lies to them and under hands them. I think we would see a whole new scenario then. As long as the only thing that matters is the bucks, things will not change though.
Dawg4ever
June 1st, 2011
2:03 pm
Richt doesn’t have to worry about oversigning, hell after Bama,Auburn,Tenn,and Fl get the kids they want from the state, UGA is lucky to have 25 players that want to sign with them. Thank God UGA only has 12 or 13 scholarships to offer this year, because there want be any top players left after these schools rape the state. As it stands now, only one of the top 11 players in the state has committed to UGA, and only one other top 11 player has UGA in the lead. So forget about oversigning at UGA, ain’t gonna happen.
Saban 'da crook
June 1st, 2011
2:11 pm
It is very simple. The student/athlete should be aware of the situation before they arrive on campus. Unlike what Saban and Nutt have done and continue to do.
Saban 'da crook
June 1st, 2011
2:14 pm
Dawg4ever’s IQ is just above the IQ of a rock.
Saban's Creampie maker
June 1st, 2011
2:22 pm
Still DawgTough after another loss 2 UF, Caleb King was heavily recruited by AL. But you were in middle school then and probably didn’t pay attention to who was recruited.
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
2:23 pm
Joey, you underestimate the dedication and determination it took for him to rejoin the team this time. Showing up for back to back team functions not drunk would surely deserve a 4th chance anywhere.
Buzz2010
June 1st, 2011
2:34 pm
Dawgs will oversign and do anything for wins.. It may help as they should win five or six
games this season……………Richt will receive a raise and the dream team will thrive..
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
2:37 pm
I get the feeling that Spurrier is not long for this (SEC coaching) life. Folks getting all in your bizness, having to put up with clowns like Garcia, just to maintain a very average team……..the links are looking mighty good. He’s all in this year, but I’d give him 2 max.
When TN, GA, FL all get back to even normal, that’s the end of that ride.
Bully Dawg
June 1st, 2011
2:39 pm
He’s not sure where he stands on it until he talks with others? A coach devoid of ethics is what we have here. No wonder so many of the players stray when they get to Athens.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 1st, 2011
2:57 pm
Bully Dawg,
Those kids strayed a good deal of time before they arrived at UGA. The difference is, CMR tries to change them and help them get ahead in life. A lot of other coaches recruit them, and could care less about them as people. If they can’t hide the trouble the kid gets in, then and only then does the kid get kicked off the team.
dapperstomach79
June 1st, 2011
2:59 pm
I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, http://GoGetBids.com
Unbelievable
June 1st, 2011
3:02 pm
What Richt just flip flopped on and said he is ok with is EXACTLY what Saban has been doing all these years. But now that Richt says it it’s ok? Do ANY of you idiots do any homework of your own or do you just spout off what the other idiots say? Saban is completely up front with every recruit and their families and they know what they’re up against coming in. There is no bait-and-switch and NO ONE forced them to sign with Bama.
What happened to you Georgia fans? Most of you guys used to be pretty smart and savvy football fans…now it’s just pathetic the outright lies and mistruths you all spout on these blogs. Has losing 18 of 21 to your rival killed every last brain cell in your heads? Please get it together folks because you are rapidly becoming the joke of the SEC.
4th in the WEST
June 1st, 2011
3:06 pm
Scared? Yes you are sir! If you were not then you would not be hating on the DAWG NATION.
Good luck with the smack down the JUNKYARD wood will lay this season. The D will be nasty and there is nothing you can do about it.
O- They only score 30-35 a game this year on average. Good luck with that too. Upper hand goes UGA’s way for years to come.
D BAG TROLLS!
June 1st, 2011
3:11 pm
Honestly, other than talking about the best University in the WORLD UGA, we really do not care about what you have to say about your low life cheating University. Ramble on my doucher, no one cares!
jimmy
June 1st, 2011
3:33 pm
I will only comment after everyone has posted their comments…
Tech Guy
June 1st, 2011
3:38 pm
Richt says it wrong unless we need more offensive linemen or running backs, then its permissible. Typical preacher bs.
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
3:54 pm
Didn’t realize that preacher’s had typical bs. Care to clarify that?
Bodda Getta
June 1st, 2011
3:58 pm
“I personally think if everybody knows it on the front end, that’s fine.”
Recruits, parents, guardians, and most high school coaches likely did not know the specifics of Alabama’s roster management strategy back when they were minimizing the scholarship impact of the Albert Means pay-for-play penalties.
But given how successful this strategy proven to be and how much it has been adopted by other schools committed to winning, there are very few secrets now on how this process works. There has been tons of media coverage on this in the past year.
It is hard to imagine today’s recruits, parents, guardians, and high school coaches NOT knowing the specifics of the spring and summer tryout process now in place at most schools in the SEC and other conferences.
All but the most naive recruits know that fall enrollment day has surpassed national signing day in importance.
Well Coach Richt, if it’s fine as long as everybody knows it on the front end, then why are you asking the SEC to change the rules?
Is it because the other coaches have innovated and adjusted to changes in the game and you have not?
Druid City
June 1st, 2011
4:07 pm
@Bodda Getta,
As much as it pains me admit this to an Auburn fan, I agree with you. This is why Coach Saban has said repeatedly, the key to winning is in our process.
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
4:10 pm
You’ve got to respect a man like Coach Richt who force an entire conference to completely change how they operate from a quick response to a simple interview question by a local newspaper reporter. I am sure they were never going to even bring this up at the meeting till he threw out his 2 cents. Certainly it wasn’t the incredibly bad national PR which brought up that question to him in the first place.
We Dawg Fans deserve a lot of credit as well. Obviously we are holding the cards. Evidenced by all these other rivals need to plead their case.
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
4:25 pm
Unbelievable, you do realize that we Georgia fans didnt bring this topic up to the SEC commisioner, right?
Richt didn’t bring it up, and it’s not about him. Somebody asked his opinion a few weeks back, he gave it, they chose to make him the posterboy, he didn’t. He can say anything he wants and it has has nothing to do with it, other than his 1/12 of a voice in “recommending” to larger body who then “recommends” to a voting body.
You Alabama fans sure do give Richt WAY more credit for influencing an entire conference agenda than he deserves.
WHY IS THE SEC COMMISIONER WASTING TIME ON THIS IF ITS NOT A PROBLEM???????
psst. Its not because of Dumb Georgia fans.
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
4:28 pm
Some “savvy” fan please tell me. Why is this being discussed at the SEC meeting? Why?
AltamahaDawg
June 1st, 2011
4:34 pm
anyone?
MOMINGA
June 1st, 2011
4:41 pm
Oversigning is a dirty little secret. It gets kids hopes up and then dashes their dreams. Have you ever thought about if that happened to your kid. Go to the dream school and then is told sorry we signed too many and you are just not as good as we told you when we recruited you away from another school who just may have given you an opportunity to live your dream.
SecGuy
June 1st, 2011
4:49 pm
Richt now says over-signing is ok if the kids know about it up front. It’s good to know he has seen the light. That has always been the only uncomfortable issue with the practice, and it is largely a phony issue since the schools who use over-signing and gray shirting lay it all out in the beginning to the kids and parents, a fact that goes largely unreported by the media. In the last two years, the only known instances of a kid being blind-sided in the SEC was LSU last year and South Carolina this year. Two instances out of hundreds of signees, yet the media has demagogued it to the point you would think it is a chronic problem. In the LSU case, the kid affected actually returned to LSU willingly after leaving the school. Obviously he wasn’t as scarred-for-life over the disappointment as the hand-wringers in the media would have us believe. Over-signing is a legal business model available to hedge against uncertainties. Whether a coach chooses to use it is not based on good or evil, but pragmatism.
Gay Dawg
June 1st, 2011
4:56 pm
Is it me or does CMR sound like he is back to the old dominater?
Junkyard Dawg eats gator flavored ALPO.
June 1st, 2011
5:16 pm
Oversigning players won’t help UGa at this point, because Richt doesn’t have that much time to worry about that now. I know he’s studying “cutting edge” football now, but talking about what our rivals recruiting tactics won’t translate into wins for UGa. This is the win or go home season at Georgia. It may be a mean thing to say but, we are stuck with a bunch of players and coaches who wouldn’t play or be hired to coach for our rivals. Coach Dooley would toss his hair piece before he got stuck with the material our spring break tailback roster. UF would have kicked his butt too if he dared show up in Jacksonville with a mediocre running or passing attack. If you don’t recruit the proper athletes at tailback, what else can you do but pass more ? And how can you win the big games when your qb is only good passing against inferior talent of losing teams. The best returning and experienced RB was a fall guy and rightfully left the program and as good as IC is he won’t be able to make us forget the great Herschel as a freshman with this coaching staff in place. We must face it Dawgs we are in big, big trouble and in for another long year of pain and suffering.
Real Dawgs don't drink kool-aid or gaiterade.
June 1st, 2011
5:41 pm
Hey MOMINGA,
Little Junior has to know when he comes to UGa he better have what it takes to hold his scholarship down. There are no entitlements anymore. If you or he thinks he won’t have to work hard on and off the field at Georgia, then maybe you guys need to look into an entitlement school or a school where losing in football is acceptable like Washington St. or New Mexico.
Real Dawgs don't drink kool-aid or gaiterade.
June 1st, 2011
6:22 pm
It may be cut-throat and unfair, but it happens everyday in the real world. But the good thing is a kid can transfer if he gets a raw deal or fails to reach expectations at a major program. You are right it’s wrong for a coach to lie and mislead a kid, but it happens and eventually lying coaches get caught up. Nowdays a coach’s days may be numbered and that’s why many recruits avoid programs with lame duck coaches on the hot seat like the plague. They have no choice because there’s no guarantee the next coach will honor scholarships passed out by a coach who quit or was ran out of town. Excuse the pun but it’s a dog eat dog world and you already know that. It’s just tough on the kids who have to learn how to accept it and go through it as a part of growing up.
Little Junior
June 1st, 2011
6:45 pm
Does this mean Coach Richt is going to stop giving us days off and taking us to the pool when we party too much?
Little Junior
June 1st, 2011
6:48 pm
Does this mean we have to practice in pads and start hitting other people?
D Bag Trolls!
June 1st, 2011
7:03 pm
Just manage the current rule of 28 recruits better and move on.
You trolls are funny. Just wait until this season starts. We have filled the gaps girls and this team is going to be pain in every opponents rear end this year and years to come. Regardless of the head coach.
Jason Anders
June 1st, 2011
8:22 pm
Coach Richt:
Thanks for doing things the right way. I rather have Georgia recruit players with the intent of playing them or letting them know up-front that they aren’t going play right away. It protects the University, the coaches, the potential recruit and the recruit’s family.
I refuse to make any comments about any coach that is involved in over-signing.I”m just glad the guy at the helm of Georgia football is Mark Richt. It is also about other things along with winning that shows the true metal of character and professionalism. Thanks Coach Richt.
If the recruits that have signed with Georgia ever doubted their decision then maybe this will let them know that it was “them” that Coach Richt and his staff wanted and they have to feel a sense of pride about that.
Best of luck against your opponents this up-coming season. Looking forward to the first two games against the #5 team in the rankings and as always South Carolina.
Score Check
June 1st, 2011
9:58 pm
The problem isn’t 25 versus 28 scholarships.
The problem is coaches (Satan) who run off players with no hope of contributing in order to make room another group of prospects.
M-E-D-I-C-A-L H-A-R-D-S-H-I-P
Dawg
June 1st, 2011
10:44 pm
“Richt: It’s up to them to decide if there’s pressure to do that. I’ll do something else for a living if I have to do that to succeed and win.”
I LOVE CMR!!! I WOULD RATHER LOSE EVERY GAME WITH CMR RATHER THAN WIN BY LYING TO YOUNG STUDENT ATHELETES SABAN.
Thomas Brown
June 2nd, 2011
12:13 am
5 consecutive years, he has not done that – win The SEC. If it’s his goal; he has Failed.
Real Dawgs don't drink kool-aid or gaiterade.
June 2nd, 2011
2:23 am
Creampie: Caleb King was heavily recruited by almost everyone including Bama until he broke his leg while he was still in high school. Then everyone backed off except Richt & co.at UGa. The story on King is he is a shadow now of the player he was prior to the broken leg. And anyway if Saban was as pious as Richt and signed him at Bama, he would have got caught up in failing to live up to expectations via oversigning or off the field issues and been kicked out of the program. Caleb King based on his performance on & off the field at UGa would never have seen any playing time for the Tide. But Creampie only a real genius like you would think Caleb King would beat out Mark “Heisman ‘09″ Ingram and Trent Richardson, who many think is better than Ingram. UGa is a pretender and not a contender because of delusional fans like you Creampie. Throw the kool-aid away and spit out the gaiterade you Creampuff, Creampie
Real Dawgs don't drink kool-aid or gaiterade.
June 2nd, 2011
2:36 am
Little Junior: It means you don’t sign with a program that features a lame duck coach on the hotseat. I told you that once already, but its obvious from your rants you suffer from a learning disability. How you like me now MOMINGA ? Have a nice day.
Tard Dawg
June 2nd, 2011
8:48 am
3rd in the SEC East is a realistic goal for this year.
Dawg Tired
June 2nd, 2011
10:07 am
Sort of looks like our play calling during games. No real solid philosophy. As my grandaddy used to say, “Son, know what you believe and live by it.” Being a waffler is not a good thing. My confidence level in seeing the program turn around is not getting any higher. But, I’m still hopeful, just not confident.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 2nd, 2011
10:18 am
Do you think that any college coach recruits a kid and tells him up front, that if you sign, you will be gray shirted? Nope, didn’t think so. Gray shirting hurts the athlete but let’s the school hold up his progress while the coach decides, who will be replaced. To think otherwise is naive. Do away with gray shirting.