Dogs and Roomie a month after The Altercation: good, but not normal, and normal was awesome

            A month after The Altercation – God, a month? - it’s mostly good, and became mostly good after about a week.

            Not me. On the inside. Better, yes, but not necessarily all that good.

            It was Jan. 22 when the two dogs who had never growled at each other suddenly were beating the crap out of each other, and of me, in the middle trying to break it up.

In seconds: two dogs, mellow 'brothers', are fighting; an altercation becomes a nightmare, and a week of pain - more for the human than the hounds

            One minute, I'm on the edge of the bed changing into my "we're gonna go for a walk" clothes and sneakers.

            Vander and Coop are on the bed, a pile of pillows and comforters, going through their little wrestling dance, which I let go for about 10 or 15 seconds on average just to keep things cool at all times.

This is them.

            Didn't get that chance.

            Within seconds, I had two dogs - within the previous hour, one was laying on the couch having his face licked by the other one - at each other like a bad dogfighting evidence tape.

            I screamed. Did exactly what you're not supposed to do, and dove into what couldn't - could not, no way, not this nightmare - between two dogs who are different, but so silly in how well they've always gotten along. Always. One was the annoying little brother, the other the chilled older brother. They'd wrestle, and then when I yelled to stop - it was normal dog stuff - they'd look at me, panting, and tails wagging, with this, "Oh, come oooonnnn, Grampaaaa, we just playin."

            And I'd laugh. All these two did all day everyday was make me laugh, individually or together.

            Just like that, I'm yelling and wrestling and pulling and trying to cover one up with a blanket so they can't see other - one of the things you're actually supposed to do - and break up the momentum. Didn't work. They were both so unbelievably pissed at each other. They'd get a grip and shake their head back and forth - a vision that won't be leaving my head soon - and snarled and just everything.

            I'm trying to get in the middle, screaming "noooo" because this is simply a scenario I never, ever, ever expected with these two, and am literally putting my hands in there to pry a mouth from whatever the mouth is on. There's my left index fingernail bleeding and not looking good.

            We roll off the bed, my britches actually come down, and there go my glasses, while they roll from one bedroom to the next. I was dazed for a few seconds, and dove back in. Grabbed a pair of jeans to cover one up, and they were so active, there was no way for one person to slow them down.

            The snarling and gripping continued, the bait-dog pitbull mix who I would clone a thousand times if I could and the remarkably affectionate hound, these two life-improving glorious dogs.

            My brain was frying.

Who's actually seen Jake Fromm play live a lot? This guy

            Not long after Jacob Eason’s clumsy post-push stumble out of bounds, the analysis started.

            The Jake Fromm experts got busy, moreso as he came off the Georgia bench and looked like somebody who probably shouldn’t be on the bench.

            And it’s continued, daily and hourly proclamations and speculations and discussions and confident postulation of a player few actually saw in a game situation at all or more than a little.

            Games are a wee bit different than a highlight or video or offseason camp, yes?

            Hmmm.

            As it goes, pretty much everything said is still on point.

What do I have in common with Mark Richt, James Comey, a bunch of ESPN folks recently, among others?

            Those people were, in simple terms, fired.

            Other variations for other situations: laid off, involuntary separation, downsizing, restructuring.

            And another one.

            "... As a result, I need to tell you your position is being eliminated."

            It started here on Aug. 10, 1998, and the announced end came at 3:04 p.m. on Thursday, June 22, 2017.

            Yessir. Indeedy. Alllllllrightythen. Wish I'd have worn a cup to that meeting.

            Thus ending a stint that included some Super Bowls, some NCAA Final Fours, scores of state high school championship games and events, my first trip to Starkville, Mercer beating Duke in the NCAA Tournament, and probably around 4,500 game stories, features, notebooks and columns.

Coaching searches=dogs chasing tails, heads banging against walls, and helium flying through brains

10:15 p.m. Tuesday update:

               All accounts are Kirby Smart has the job. Not that this is a moot topic, because a hire is a forever topic.

               Warning: have full beverage or plate in front. This will take awhile.

               Having dealt with coaching searches on the high school and college level for decades, and watching what tends to work and not work for decades, and having a grip on reality and objectivity, the AD in me has certain things I just about have to have to consider somebody.

Early November draft: Richt's time is running out, and perhaps should

(Note: This was written earlier this fall, and is presented untouched - and I think, maybe unfinished - in light of Sunday's announcement.)

 

 

 

The friend in California, who was pretty connected back in the day in the land of Bulldogs, would reguarly call after certain games and demand that I get on my meds before we talked.

Well, I had no meds, and I recited the Mark Richt resume: around a 75-percent winning mark, wasn't Ray Goff, program was cleaner than under Jim Donnan, national reputation was good, the world is much different and college football much tougher than in the early 1980s.

No, Richt is a farce and Georgia's a joke and this has to be his last year, because this is embarrassing.

And then I'd suggest the he had, in fact, missed his meds.

The calls were regular, about once a month, and ever so slowly, I started to budge.

Couldn't tell him that, though.

Until this year.

The ceiling has been reached.

Listening to knee-jerk yammering - emphasis on "jerk" - from corners of the state and hidden behind keyboards, I'd hoped for a certain scenario, that Richt would win a national championship and walk off the field waving with one hand and flipping the bird with the other.

He would, of course, never do that. ... But he'd sneak one in from the tunnel.

The reality that it wasn't going to happen hit awhile back. The examples are many.

And they got no shaft back in WHAT,. They deserved to be close to No. 1 at the end, and was No. 2. But I sure didn't see them worthy of No. 1 going into the next season.

And they just never did it for me on that  level. A nice team, flashes of greatness often matched by bouts of South Carolinaness.

There remain defenses of Richt, and deservedly so.

One thing lost in the debate is the regular correlation between salary and outright wins, and what Richt's job is.

The CEO of GM is to run a successful and profitable car company. The CEO of a football program - and a program is so much more than just a team, the duties so much more than just on Saturdays - is to run a successful and profitable program.

No, cars and football aren't the same, but the jist of the job is.

 

Parents hand over their teenagers to the head coach, athletics director, assistants, staff, trainers, dorm managers and other athletics department personnel. They're in college, where the instruction is to be vast and broad.

 

I've had the longstanding belief that I'd much rather my kid play for Richt and never get the big ring than play for assorted other head coaches and get one.

A head coach is, as we're told by 93 percent of the players, a father figure, an adviser, a career counselor (for careers that may or may not include the NFL), disciplinarian and teacher.

Period.

Amazingly, thousands of parents and otherwise narrowminded folks who lose their fractured minds on game day never, ever realize that. As Jim Mora and Peyton Manning say, they don't get it and they never will. And they'll be the loudest in showing it. But that's part of his job, being in charge of other people's kids. There's more to that than the playbook.

Wish folks would realize that just a little bit.

Alas, growing the company/program is part of the job. And that's where, finally, I see the need for a change.

It truly grumbles people that I really have no team, and that leads to some blood-pressure-raising debates, where objectivity and facts aren't part of the conversation.

But yeah, at this point, if I woke up tomorrow in another profession or finally won my lottery and was a Georgia fan, I'd be ready for a change.

I've always liked Richt, even if he wasn't flashy or chatty or a quote machine.

For several years, there were regular dealings with him, from Athens to the Macon Touchdown Club to the visits to the local Bulldog Club, and he was measured and friendly, and consistent.

Another view I've always had regarding people in the spotlight is if you saw them in a store or somewhere and didn't know who they were, you wouldn't know who they were. They weren't 'on.,' they were humans.

Richt is that way.

Nevertheless, I've always had issues with his offensive philosophy, from the start. A very finite selection of plays used in predictable situations, and there was always a reason not to do something. Coaches are an annoyingly stubborn species when it comes to logic and wide-open eyes, and Richt is right there.

A staggeringly large faction was misguided in overall complaints about Mike Bobo. Situations? Yeah, all coaches have iffy calls. But the subordinate had to call what was in the boss-authored playbook, and I always thought that if Richt completely washed his hands of the offensive game plan, other than to peek in every so often with an idea, the offense and Bobo would be better.

As it was, the numbers  under Bobo were pretty fantastic, but there seemed to be the Richt influence in situations that were sometimes maddening. (And don't bring up the pass-instead-of-Gurley against South Carolina because there was plenty of logic behind that).

Fan criticism can often be baseless and reek of entitlement and a lack of information, and I thought Richt caught more harsh grief than he deserved. Parts of all fan bases don't have much substance, indications whch have increased with the anonymity of social blathering.

As for who's next: For the love of God, stop talking about Kirby Smart and Jon Gruden. Holy cow, just stop. Stop, stop, stop, and for scores of logical reasons, not enough room to list here.

Big-name coaches rarely make lateral moves, so stop with other names. There are dozens of jobs that are pretty much the same - TV long ago more than leveled the playing field - contrary to the "analysts" and those who love their school.

And Georgia will have better legitimate candidates than Smart - what can he do without Nick Saban? - and Gruden - he's done what as a head coach that's so inspiring and fantastic? - that many folks won't know because knowledge-seeking isn't a major hobby.

No matter the results of this season, Richt deserves more praise, respect and thanks than many in the stands and at the baseman computer will give him.

But Georgia will lose something when Richt leaves, something a little more special than those who have the hardware and jewelry.

 

 

Richt's time had come, but this is still a monster day

It was inevitable.

It was probably time.

            Still, to see the phrase "Georgia has fired Mark Richt" is an absolute hammer.

            We should all execute at a 74 percent success rate at our jobs - and better in our lives - with all sorts of hindrances and impediments to deal with.

            I've always said that I'd rather my kid - who, like Barney Fife's often-discussed boy, is nonexistent - play for Richt and never get a ring than play for assorted other coaches and get a ring.

            That will always be the case.

            But the bottom line is that Georgia reached its ceiling under Richt. And it hasn't really been that low a ceiling. Nevertheless, with the tools in place, Georgia should be in the national title conversation more.