I read yesterday that two UGA football assistant coaches recently received raises, due to the fact they were offered jobs at other schools. The two coaches, Bryan McClendon and Tony Ball. It is further interesting that McClendon drew some questions recently at the Bulldog club meetings, prompting Coach Richt to talk about what a great coach he is and what a great recruiter he is. Ok, so let's look at it this way, as a coach he has been on staff now for a couple years, coaching running backs. This would include the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Granted, we didn't have a Moreno back there but let's be honest here, our running backs have been very average at best the past two years, save maybe a 4 game stretch at the end of 2009-the best game of course being against the Nerds over in Atlanta-the famous, "WE RUN THIS STATE" game. Bryan is a legacy kid, meaning the kid of a former UGA star player, Willie of course from back in the late 70's. Bryan himself was a good player for us back in the mid 2000's as a WR. He is a young guy and so there is no doubt I think he IS a great recruiter-a recruiter on the rise in fact. Now he will get the chance to coach a great back, let's see how that goes before we say he is a great coach. I would say at this point, he is pretty good coach and a great recruiter-nothing wrong with that but just keeping it real.
As for Tony Ball, he came to UGA from VaTech-and had done good work for the Hokies. He has coached RB's and now WR's at UGA. During his time at RB position, he got to coach Thomas Brown and Knowshon Moreno, while at WR coach, Kris Durham and of course AJ Green. So, you could say he is a great coach or has he just been fortunate to have great talent working for him?? He also is a solid recruiter as well so for Tony, I give him a slight edge over Bryan in coaching but probably McClendon the nod in recruiting. I would have to do some research to see exactly what recruits each brought in for this past years class but I am pretty sure, McClendon was involved with more of the dream team than was Ball. Of course the best recruiter we have going right now, especially of QB's and in south Ga, is Mike Bobo. People will constantly talk about his play calling, myself included, but he has emerged as a top flight recruiter-no doubt about that. If you want a brief update on the rasises to the two coaches, click below. Considering that assistant coaches put in a TON of work and their contracts are for one year (except Grantham), I am all for paying these guys as much as it takes to keep them, provided they are doing a good job of course.
http://dogbytesonline.com/hefty-raises-given-to-dogs-assistant-coaches-45283/
I will now turn my attention the hoops program. We have five kids now that have officially signed letters of intent, meaning they will be part of our program if they graduate and get past our admissions board-sometimes easier said than done. However, we continue to hear about Kevin Ware considering UGA, and now another name I have mentioned, Ryan Harrow who would be a transfer from NCST. Both kids are guards which we NEED, both can play point although Harrow is a true point guard and many have said Ware is not really a true point, he has been compared to Mike Mercer in that regard. Harrow is a true point guard, was a 5 star recruit coming out of HS. Currently claims he has offers from Kentucky, Louisville, Texas and UGA. I have heard Harrow's dream school is Kentucky?? If so, did they not offer him out of high school, he could have come in this year and competed with Brandon Knight but in reading an article about him, I think he wants the starting spot to be his after he sits out a year. In that regard, UGA certainly would offer that opportunity because we lose two guards after this season, we don't have another PG on campus now (unless you count Vincent Williams) and most of our targets for 2012 are wings and forwards, not point guards. So, you have to figure we have a legit shot with him and if I were our Coaches, I would stack all my eggs in the Ryan Harrow basket. Kevin Ware, I am just not sure he is the answer honestly. Now, technically we have two spots, with Nolte and Bucklin both getting our last two spots, those two guys could come off scholarship and thus we would have spots open. But, then that leaves only two spots for the class of 2012, one of the best and deepest classes in quite some time. I think you could probably see some attrition from the team after next year though, Vincent Williams being one that I could see leaving the program to go back to a smaller school in Florida, so that would possible open up a 3rd spot. That being said, I would love to add Harrow, then save the other spot and thus have at least 3 spots for 2012.
Below is an interesting blog from the great Schultz of the AJC, ranks our basketball program 4 and our football program 6 while the Nerds check in at 7 and 10, reverse order football and then hoops.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/2011/05/03/how-they-really-stand-from-braves-1-to-jacket-hoops-10/?cxntfid=blogs_jeff_schultz_blog
I would have to trade Falcons for Braves on his list, I would go with Hawks as third but not sure I could put our hoops ahead of football after just one good year. Football yes had a bad year in 2010, I STILL don't consider 2009 that bad of year, I have mentioned before, we started 2009 at Okie State-they actually had Dez Bryant for that game and he made a BIG impact. We lost Strudivant early in that game, we were playing a QB that had the flu, we had ZERO running game and Carlton Thomas put the ball on the ground, yet the game was very close thoughout. The UK game, Joe Cox and Branden Smith basically handed that game to the Cats on a silver platter. Our turover ratio was beyond pathetic that year, I mean every team in our neighborhood in that category had losing records. We still managed to win 8 game despite all of that. SO again, a step down from the previous years yes but not a horrible season all things considered. Last year, that was a HORRIBLE season, I know Miss State was much improved but Ealey's fumble changed that game-we score there and I honestly think we win going away. Miss State was a team that had yet to prove to themselves they could beat one of the big boys, our game with them finally proved they could win against a traditional power in conference and I think the win against us propelled them to the season they had-I really do. The Colorado game, simply no way we should have lost that game.
My point is, this year is HUGE for our program but I am not ready to say our hoops program has passed our football program just yet. I guess I am shocked that our football program is now ranked ahead of GT's football program, maybe the AJC love affair for Coach PJ is over, at least with Schultz who also took a shot at what a jerk Johnson is. Tech hoops, well, new coach and now without Shumpert, still not sure they should rank below the Thrashers but they certainly are not a very solid program right now.
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