Very Happy for Coach Mark Richt

Goes to the U.

I'm sure his psyche took a hit.  He handled it all with class, of course.  Wouldn't have expected anything different.  At the same time, no one wants to get summarily fired.

Seen another way, however, things could scarcely have gotten better than they are now for Coach Richt and his family.  The Richts are now $4 million richer.  Overnight.

Coach Richt gets to move home, to sunny Miami, live in a great neighborhood, somewhere not too far from the beach, no doubt, and he still will be coaching at a top-level university making $4 million a year.  He will have the full support of the University of Miami administration and the appreciation of the fan base.

From a personnel perspective, Richt gets to pretty much cherry-pick the assistants he wants to take with him.  He didn't have to fire anyone when UGA's results weren't up to par.  Further, he gets to recruit southern Florida where he has already mined guys like Sony Michel, and although he wouldn't go out and attempt to do so, he may end up attracting some of UGA's current recruits, or transfers from the program.  He even gets to call more of the plays if he wants.

Sometimes God brings a man down a peg to move him up.

I'm still sticking with my prediction that Richt wins a championship.  Hoped it would be with Georgia.

Things are working out great for Coach Richt.  We'll see how UGA fares in about a year.

If I'm Mark Fox, the Mark Richt Firing

had to be unwelcome news.

If you win 75 percent in SEC football and lose your job, then having a record of barely eclipsing 50 percent in basketball and never winning an NCAA Tournament game has to have a coach feeling unsettled.  

Fox seems to have McGarity's support for the immediate future, but should things not turn out well with Georgia basketball this year, then all bets could be off.  The SEC will be tougher next year.  I'm only so worried about guys who make 7 figures during sports, but it has to be disconcerting to fight like crazy, try to build a great team, and get told at the end of the season that your services are no longer needed.

Could absolutely happen to Fox.  McGarity isn't a home-run hitter.  He is, however, a guy who swings for the fences when he comes to bat.

Mark Richt Speaks of Perseverance

Good article from the Lagrange News.

Richt Speaks

Particularly enjoyed this story:

In the first week of preseason practice of his freshman year, Richt said David Pollack "was literally crying saying, 'I'm not good enough, coach, I made a mistake, I'm not an SEC player.  Coach (Rodney) Garner doesn't like me.'  Everything was wrong.  He literally was ready to quit.  We had to talk him off a cliff and convince him to hang in there."

How about that?  Three-Time All-American almost threw in the towel just before he was about to do great things.  Easy to see how bad a decision that would have been for Pollack and for the Dawg Nation.  But Richt's comments were not about Pollack, and not about something that happened 15 years ago.  His remarks were aimed squarely at my chest and yours.  Those of us who are facing our own personal mat drills today.    

Don't give up on your family.  Don't quit in your career.  You can lose the weight, write the book, achieve the goal.  Keep fighting.  Become an All-American in life.  

Oh well, on to basketball

Wait, Tech beat us at that, too.

Pretty miserable year, but then at least a down year for Mark Richt is a 9 and 3 season.

Has Mark Fox surpassed .500 since he's been here?  I think he had a 85 and 77 overall record before the season started.  We're 3 and 3 since then, so Fox is barely managing .500 in year six of his tenure.  

Don't remember what I was expecting when Fox was brought on, but it wasn't losing to Tech four times in a row, and it wasn't playing .500 ball.  We can beat the scrubs who have to travel by bus to Stegeman, but I'd like to see us beat some solid Division I teams.  

We'll have our chance soon.  We play Colorado and Kansas State in December.

Maybe we'll go on a run.  In all honesty, though, I don't see how without a real post game.  No slight meant to Thornton and Djurisic.  They try hard, and they're great representatives of the program.  Yet and still, they're forwards who have to match up with other team's centers.  Thornton had the knee surgeries and never really regained his rim-rocking physicality from high school, and Djurisic is more of a stretch four. We don't have a big skilled guy in the middle, and Kenny Gaines' sickness has exposed our lack of scoring everywhere else.

The SEC slate did us well last year, now that SEC basketball got rid of the division format.  We don't have to play Florida and Kentucky twice each year, and South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn and Texas A&M are in about as bad a shape as we are.  Other than Kentucky, I think we match up pretty well with just about everybody.  The problem is that judging by the games played so far, UGA looks like a border-line NIT team, not one that will do real damage in the NCAA Tourney.

I would be a lot more optimistic on the whole if we had bagged one of the Wheeler players for the 2015 recruiting class.  We didn't get it done.  6' 10" big man Daniel Giddens got scooped up by Ohio State and it appears that athletic small forward Jaylen Brown is headed elsewhere.

Wish we would have hired an Atlanta high school head coach to see if we could get a pipeline going in recruiting.  Maybe the incoming recruits we did will play above their ranking.  Jackson, Ogbeide and Wilridge may help next year.

 In the meantime, we'll adjust expectations downward and hope for the best.

Four Trips inside the ten-yard line

at home, and we can't punch it in against Tech?  They hustled to the ball and got our guys stopped.  Then our vaunted o-line can't create a seam.  Didn't this happen a long time ago?

Meanwhile, they run the ball up the gut all day long.

Totally disgusting.

Paul Johnson has a team, folks, and we may not win again for a while.  Hate to say it, but when we can't stop the dive play, we're in big trouble.  This game amounted to UGA being hopeful for opportunistic miscues.  And with a good quarterback, there will only be so many.

I'm way too old for this!

4th down from the three.  22 seconds left!

When Tech's Line Outplays Ours,

we're in a heap of trouble.  Even if their line plays us even, with the option trickery, they may one day blow us out.

Won't be today, but our 17 to 14 lead is very slim.

We may win, but this game could be the start of a very troubling trend.  They can run the ball, but we can't.  And then on defense, seeing Tech stone us on three separate possessions from within the five yard line, makes this the type of game that they might steal.

Four Fingers Held Up

Game has moved fast.

I think Paul Johnson has his qb.  It's a real series, now.  They're playing hard.

Georgia has the ball at the beginning of the fourth quarter.  Let's score a td, Dawgs.

Jarvis Sanks is Smiling

They deserve that one.

Reminds me of the Tony Taylor (?) snatch and score.  Think we had one like that a couple of years ago, too.  Didn't we?  Who was our linebacker that ripped the ball out as Tech was about to score?  That play changed the game around.

Maybe Tech will feel so down, they'll fold the tents.  Our defense better get bowed up.

I Take That Back!

Touchdown!  Damian Swann runs it back 97 yards.  Previous play is under review.

Touchdown!  Woo-Hoo!

Looks Bad, Folks

They took the ball first in the second half and drove it down our throats.  Ball is at our two-yard line.  We can't stop the run.

Quadfecta?

Ughh!

1.  Yesterday afternoon, Mizzou beats Arkansas, keeping Georgia from winning the SEC East and ending all hope of UGA advancing to the first NCAA football playoffs.

2.  UGA loses last night in basketball to Minnesota, a game that on paper we probably should have taken.  Mark Fox and the hounds are playing .500 basketball yet again.

3.  Now, two UGA lost fumbles at the goal line.  Tech has their option game going, converting two fourth down plays and moving the ball 80 yards.  They even scoring on a fade route.  Tied at half.

4.  Losing to Tech at home would be unthinkable, especially during a season that they won their division and we didn't.

What's that, a "quadfecta?"  Is that even a word?  Hard to describe how bad that would be.

I think Georgia still wins by 14, but they're scaring me.  We'd better play hard during the second half.  Four sports reversals in one weekend is too much to bear.

James Eunice

I am posting this article in its entirety.

If I like an article, I normally just link it.  This time, I'm taking a different track.  The article is too important not to be preserved somewhere.

Not sure when the Athens Banner Herald gets rid of its old links, and they may even ask that I take this post down (which I will, if requested), but I didn't want to risk looking for it one day, and finding that the story is unavailable.  Such was the case when I tried to read a couple of old articles about James Eunice.  Both the Thomasville Times Enterprise and the Valdosta Daily Times had great stories about Eunice, but the links don't work any longer.

This 2011 article by Marc Weiszer gives insight into UGA, Coach Mark Richt, college athletics at its best, and life.  Great writing.  Great story.

Here it is:

Touching Tribute: Bulldogs continue to honor memory of James Eunice

Posted: Friday, September 16, 2011

By Marc Weiszer

For several anxious hours on Dec. 3, 2010, James Eunice checked and checked until he was finally able to log onto the University of Georgia website to view the answer he was hoping to find.

 Back | Next 

Special

He was accepted to the school for early admission.

“I want to try and walk on to the football team,” James later told his mother Tammy.

Eunice was a backup wide receiver at Valdosta High School who made his mark on special teams with the kickoff and punt return units.

Georgia was recruiting two of Eunice’s teammates who eventually signed with the Bulldogs — highly-recruited tight end Jay Rome and receiver Malcolm Mitchell.

One day, Valdosta coach Rance Gillespie called James out of class to come to his office.

Georgia coach Mark Richt was there on a visit.

James just happened to be wearing his favorite shirt that day — a Florida Gators’ T-shirt, of all things. He was still excited to meet Richt and phoned his father when he got out of school to describe the moment.

James Eunice never had the chance for that walk-on tryout at Georgia.

The 17-year-old drowned while duck hunting in January.

This past Thursday marked eight months since that tragic day.

Memories of James certainly live on for those who loved him, for the lives he touched and those that learned about him after his passing.

Word spread last winter about James’ funeral.

Rome and Mitchell spoke — Rome referred to James as “his brother from another mother”— and presented the Eunice family with a Georgia No. 23 jersey — James’ number at Valdosta High — that Richt had sent.

Eunice’s pastor read aloud a note written by Richt.

“Oh yeah, James made the team,” it said.

The entire Valdosta football team was there wearing their jerseys. The coaching staff served as pallbearers.

“I’ve been to a fair amount of funerals in my life and I’ve never seen a reaction from the crowd that that presentation got,” said his brother John, a former Valdosta City councilman now in his second year at the UGA law school. “There wasn’t a single person in there that wasn’t standing and applauding and just overcome with emotion. It was a unique moment that I know I’ll never forget.”

The gesture lifted the spirits of a community and family in mourning.

“I think about what if something were to happen to Jon or David?” Richt said recently of two of his sons. “Your heart goes out to them. If there’s something I can do to bless the family right this minute, however small, I’d like to do that, so that’s what we did.”

CLOCK IS TICKING

Take time to love someone. Today, Tomorrow, For the rest of your life. Because when that unexpected day comes that they pass on, you’ll be left wondering what you could’ve done better. How you could have made them feel more welcome, and show that you do care for them. Don’t wait until it’s too late like I did. Show the love that Jesus has for you to everyone you see. Let your heart break for what breaks His.

That’s how James Eunice began a note he posted on Facebook in April of last year that he titled “The Clock is Ticking” after the death of a schoolmate in an auto accident.

On the morning of Jan. 15 — a Saturday — James came into his parents’ bedroom before he left to go duck hunting to get some money to purchase shotgun shells.

“We told him we’d see him after lunch,” his father John said.

James, who also enjoyed turkey and deer hunting, went with his friend, Drew Pipkin, to Ocean Pond, about 30 minutes from Valdosta.

They took turns about every 20 minutes with one in the boat and the other in the water, Eunice’s father said.

James was in the boat, his father said, and went to reach for something that flew out. As he reached for it, his seat broke, which threw off his balance.

James got out of his waders and was away from the boat, but the water temperature was about 38 degrees.

“He just ran out of time,” said his father, a retired U.S. Air Force colonial. “He was a strong swimmer, but the hypothermia sets in within three to five minutes in those temperatures.”

For 17 days, search and rescue teams looked for James’ body before it was found 7 feet below the surface, according to a report in the Valdosta Daily Times.

Search teams from near Atlanta, South Georgia, Alabama and Florida attempted to find James.

“The communities and surrounding area came together,” his father said. “It was amazing to watch. People donated their lake homes across the highway for us to stay there while the search was going on. They donated them to the dive teams. ... The community just poured out to us.”

‘A FRIEND FOR EVERYBODY’

James Eunice was 17th in his Valdosta senior class, but his interests went well beyond his schoolwork.

He liked to play contemporary Christian, country and rock music on his guitar, sometimes while on Skype with his friends.

He laughed watching YouTube videos when Rome visited the Eunices about once a week to study and eat dinner. Rome loved the Mexican dip and a punch that included banana and ginger ale.

James also played outfielder for the Valdosta baseball team. His brother John remembers a 5-year-old James being the loudest person at Little League games cheering for his big brother.

“That never changed the older he got,” he said. “He wanted to be a friend for everybody. I can’t tell you the number of people that came up to me at the various things throughout high school and said James was the only person that would ever come and check to see how the day was going, check to see how I was doing. … He was everything you’d envision for a true friend and a brother to be.”

James was considering joining the ROTC program at Georgia, his brother said. His father was taught Air Force ROTC at Georgia when James was born in Athens.

He wasn’t a lock to make the football team as a walk-on, but he thought about trying to hook on as a student assistant and perhaps pursue coaching one day.

“In a lot of ways, he was just like a typical upcoming freshman in college,” his brother said. “He wasn’t sure exactly where his life path would take him, but he knew he wanted to play a role in helping other people and be an encouragement to others. His gift was dealing with people and talking with people so he wanted to have a lot of interaction with that.”

James was considering going into broadcast journalism, his father said.

Mitchell called him “a good person, always stayed in church. Prayed for the team.”

John Eunice calls his son a “devout, sold-out Christian. On his door at the mausoleum, we have ‘Faithful Follower of Christ.’ ”

James’ father and brother visited Richt’s new office in the Butts-Mehre building the week after James’ service to thank him for what he had done for their loved one. They spent about an hour with him, telling Richt more about the person that James was.

They presented Richt a T-shirt with “The Clock is Ticking” on the back, which was sold to help raise money for a scholarship fund.

“It’s helped define James and helped us keep his legacy going,” his father said.

DREAM COME TRUE

Months later, Richt still had the T-shirt on his desk.

Richt told them he wanted to do something for the family.

A couple of weeks before the Sept. 10 South Carolina game, the Eunices received a package in the mail with tickets to sit in Richt’s box at the game and a note explaining how they would honor James at the game.

“I was kind of overcome with emotion,” said James’ brother. “It’s really kind of hard to put it into words how something like that means to us, considering that James was a great kid, but James was not a standout in football by any means.”

Georgia already had listed Eunice with his No. 23 on the Georgia roster.

“For his dream really to come true and for him to be on the roster really means a lot to all of us,” his brother said. “It means the world to us.”

Georgia players wore a black No. 23 decal on the back of their helmets with the initials “J.E.”

James’ parents, brother and sister Lindsey were guests of Richt and Georgia. The Eunices toured Butts-Mehre after the game and spoke with Richt, whose team had just lost by three points. He took pictures with them and again told him he was sorry about James.

Tammy Eunice wrote on Facebook after last weekend:

I am stunned and completely amazed at the kindness and generosity of Coach Mark Richt. …We felt he had done so much for us and honestly if that had not happened we would have understood. True to his word though, 2 weeks ago we got a package in the mail with tickets to sit in his box and a letter stating that he wanted to honor James with the number 23 on all the helmets. I was stunned! James was a young man who never practiced one time with the Bulldogs ... wasn’t being actively recruited by the Bulldogs . ..and was not promised a slot on the team. Did Coach Richt have to do this? Absolutely not. Did he do this to garner praise for himself? No way. The reason I believe he did this was again to honor the life of our boy.”

Eunice’s spirit will live on not only on the Georgia football team and those that knew him and loved him in Valdosta, but through money raised  in his name since the drowning.

About $20,000 came through private donations and the T-shirt sales for a scholarship fund, which supports graduating high school seniors from South Georgia high schools. There were six awarded this year.

Additional funds were raised — $148,000 — to purchase 24 dry suits, a dive boat, a motor, trailer and sonar and other equipment for the Lowndes County Sheriff’s dive team.

It was donated on June 16, James’ birthday.

“We understand God has a bigger purpose in all this,” his father said. “So we’re moving forward. That’s what James was all about. James invested in people, so we’re looking to invest in those same young men and women and tell James’ story every chance we get.”

Hats Off to Auburn

They did what we could not do.  Took it to Alabama and beat'em.

We came close.  They finished the drill.

Hoping that Missouri beats Texas A*M.  Much rather have Missouri represent the East than South Carolina.  While I'm in prediction mode, I think Texas A*M beats Missouri.  Hoping I am wrong again.

I tell you, Nick Marshall is going to be a tough guy to deal with.  He's got serious wheels and a powerful arm.

Maybe Hutson Mason can use today's game as a springboard and give us a championship next year.  Still football to play this season, but if Mason can get the job done, our defense will have a year to grow, we get several skill guys back, our backfield will be loaded, and it could be our year.

Great, Great Win for The Dawgs

I gave up.  Shouldn't have.

Maybe I should stick to basketball.

Great win for Mark Richt!

How about Grantham's D?  Did they step up or what?  Incredible.  20 to nothing and they held those guys to 7 more points in regulation.

Wow!  Great job by all the Dawgs.  Congrats to all!  Go Dawgs.  Tech, losers again!  12 out of 13!

Finally, a call on a cut block!

And they call it on us.  They'd better call it the same way when they have the ball.

Proud of Hutson Mason.  He's made good throws.  We've had some drops and some penalties.  If the D can give us a three and out, then maybe we can get back into this thing.  I'll gladly eat crow if UGA can pull out a win here.

Having Todd Gurley Helps

a little bit.

Dawgs up 14.

Coach Mark Richt Speaks about his Faith

Recounts the 6 and 7 season and the impact of starting the next year 0 and 2.

Great read.

Hot Seat

Arrgghhhh!

So disappointing to finish that way.

You've got to spike it in that situation. Give yourself a little time. Then throw it into the end zone. Hats off to Alabama for running it down our throats. I thought we had enough magic left to eke out a win.

Great season for the football Dawgs, but we didn't get it done.

Coach Richt is Excellent

He gets it. I love to win. Loved it when I was involved in athletics and love it now when I win vicariously through the young bucks out there on the gridiron and the court.

Yet, winning isn't everything. Trophies, at the end of the day, are just shaped and shiny rocks. What is really meaningful is life. Guys who play hard, do their best, and graduate and make us all proud. Now, if we can win the national championship in the process, then all the better.

I remember people complaining about Tony Dungy, how he couldn't win the Super Bowl. He didn't win it in Tampa, but he set the stage. And when he got to Indiana, he put it all together. Turns out he was a pretty good coach after all.

Mark Richt is a lot like Dungy. Hope the guys who harp on the lack of a national championship don't get what they want and chase Richt out of town. Think of all the programs across the college football landscape which made a coaching change and ended up much worse. Meanwhile, Richt would probably go to a new school and win like crazy.

Who knows? Richt may win it all this year, at Georgia. In the meantime, he is doing things with excellence. Whether he wins or loses the biggest game, Georgia is very fortunate to have Mark Richt as coach of the Dawgs.

Faith and Football