THE LATEST: (11 p.m.) FOX Sports is now reporting that Jeff Capel has returned to the top of Georgia's wishlist. The story also says that Frank Haith is next on Damon Evans' radar. Again, I had been told that yesterday, but as time has passed, I'm more and more wary of the accuracy of that.
MORE: Missouri has put out a release saying that a deal is, in fact, done with Anderson. It is for seven years and various reports have it at 1.6 million with incentives that could take it to around 2.3 million per year. I'll have more shortly.
BIG UPDATE: (8:45 p.m.) Missouri's Rivals.com site is reporting that Mike Anderson has reached an agreement to remain at Missouri.
UPDATE (7:15 p.m.): OK, so this is old news since I spent the past hour doing football interviews, but Calipari has accepted the Kentucky job, according to CBS Sports.
How does that affect UGA? Well, it adds another potential bidder for Mike Anderson's services. The media around Missouri, however, seems to think Anderson isn't going anywhere, and for what it's worth, Georgia quarterback (and Missouri native) Logan Gray agrees. "I think Missouri's got a good basketball program rolling right now, and they've got some awesome basketball facilities," Gray said. "But I read Georgia was going to offer him something like $2.2 million, and it's about the money, I guess."
See... even during football practice I'm still working the hoops story!UPDATE (2:18 pm): A Memphis TV station (which we know can be a bit unreliable) is reporting that John Calipari has decided to head to Kentucky. This was the next domino to fall. Now we wait and see if Memphis gets involved in the Mike Anderson sweepstakes.
UPDATE (12:55): Sources close to the situation confirmed that preliminary discussions have occurred between Georgia and Anderson, but that no official offer has been made, which fits with the AJC's story quoting Jimmy Sexton, Anderson's agent.
UPDATE: ESPN's Andy Katz is also floating two more names out there for the job: Clemson's Oliver Purnell and Miami's Frank Haith. To unravel the mystery I started yesterday, I'll add that Haith was the name I had heard most often yesterday. There is definitely not an offer on the table for him, but I would be willing to bet that Katz's sources on that know what they are talking about.
The AJC reports that Anderson's agent said the reports that Georgia offered the job are false.
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ESPN is reporting that Missouri's Mike Anderson received an offer last night from Georgia somewhere near $2 million per season.
It isn't known whether Anderson will or has accepted. Regardless, Georgia appears to have its guy, and I'm told there are options should they swing and miss on this one. Either way, there should be a coach in place within the next couple of days.
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6 comments:
That's encouraging. I hope we land him.
David:
What's your feel on this thing?
Is Anderson the clear guy or are we negotiating with more than one candidate?
Seems like we should be if Sexton is going to negotiate with three schools and drive the price up to Top 5 money.
Not liking our chances if both Memphis and us are negotiating in positions of weakness against each other.
Quite frankly, Anderson is not a 2.5-3M dollar coach. He has never shown himself to be an elite recruiter. At some point tomorrow, we've got to move on to other options. There should be someone else willing to take 2.5M, and if not, we should find ourselves a suitable young mid-major with promise and call it a day, and put a happy face on this thing.
Anon -- I think Damon has his back-up plans, but I'm not sure how stoked UGA fans will be with them. One way or another, something gets done soon. If I were a betting man, my money's still on Anderson.
Could it be that made an offer but, not fomally so that is he turns us down we can say we never offered?
If they go after Purnell or Haith, Evans should kiss his ass goodbye. It would be a monumental screw up.
Hello, epic fail.
Young AD + First-time major hire + Big-time Agent = Schooled.
Nice work, Damon.
Time to pick yourself up, get a serviceable mid-major and spend the savings on fixing Stegeman so it's not such a buzz kill for potential coaches and recruits.
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