Barring any late snag, Will Friend should soon be announced as Georgia’s next offensive line coach.
Friend, a former Georgia graduate assistant, has served as the line coach at UAB the past four seasons.
Neil Callaway, the UAB head coach and former Georgia offensive line coach, wouldn’t confirm Friend’s hiring when reached on Monday.
“That’s something they’ve got to announce,” Callaway said of Georgia.
UGA spokesman Claude Felton said earlier on Monday that he wasn’t aware of any scheduled announcement yet. Attempts to reach Friend have not been successful.
Friend, who grew up in Mississippi, played at Alabama from 1993-96. He coached at the high school and small college level, including Gardner-Webb for two seasons before going to UAB.
He was hired at UAB before the 2007 season, after Callaway was announced as head coach. Callaway’s departure to coach UAB led to Georgia hiring Stacy Searels – whose departure to Texas last month ended up paving the way, apparently, for Friend.
UAB yielded 12 sacks this year, tied for 15th in the nation. The Blazers ranked 59th in the nation in rushing offense last season.
One of Friend’s best coaching jobs was with a lineman named Matt McCants. The 6-fooot-7, 295-pound McCants only played one year of high school football, playing tuba in the school band before joining the team his senior season.
Under Friend’s tutelage, McCants started seven games at offensive tackle as a true freshman, including the season opener against Michigan State. After sitting out the 2008 season with academic issues, he returned to the left tackle spot and became an all-conference selection.
Here's a link to Friend's bio on the UAB web site.
Monday, February 7, 2011
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40 comments:
Great hire. With an improved offensive line, Murray should be even more spectacular as a sophomore than he was as a freshman.
Friend, UAB, tell me this is a joke. This is the best Georgia can do? Guess so, with the 1 year contracts and low pay offered.
So I guess that whole Friedgen thing was just wishful thinking.
Position coach contracts are always 1 year deals clueless and the pay is gargantuan compared to your unemployment check.
To assume someone is not going to work out because they're not from a power conference is short-sighted. Everyone has to start somewhere. Van Gorder came from Western Illinois, btw.
Coach Friend from.... UAB? I guess ALL the other coaches must have said No.
Friend was a four year starter at Bama, he knows SEC football.
Wait til the new O-Line Coach tries to keep sacks from happening to Ice Age slow release indecisive Aaron Murray. Searels went from 10 sacks with immobile Cox to 24 with slow release Murray. Murray makes such slow reads, no O-Lineman can hold a block THAT long.
So we're going to bag on a hire from a small school like UAB because...the last hire from a big school like LSU turned out so well?
Wonder how many O-Lineman will transfer after hearing about this hire? 2, 3 or 4?
Great hire McGarity. This guy was at the top of every coach's wishlist. Wow, what a find.
Yeah, and Murray's also going to tie the O-linesmen's shoelaces together and drop the ball at Crowell's feet instead of handing off. That guy's a dick.
59th in rushing? You've got to be joking?
Why wouldn't kids want to play for an ALL SEC Lineman from Bama? All 90's decade team for them too, from what I've read.
UAB, I thought that was related to suntan lotion ratings, UAB is a real school, who knew?
How exciting, with this hire at O-Line, can't wait to see where they get the new LB coach from, Troy State?
Friend's offense ranked #7 in rushing in 2009 @225 yards a game.
After all the top lineman flocked to Georgia without a coach, it just proves It's Great To Be A Georgia Bulldog!
Bitter anon- don't worry, maybe Tech will win more than 1 game next decade.
Apart from the last name, I like the hire. I have a feeling this has been in the works for some time, as seem-less as the process was. What worries me more is the loss of Belin.
Bitter anon- but I doubt it. HaHaHa
Bulldog Blog: Where fans who aren't happy in life take out their frustrations on a College football team.
How can Saban be any good when he came from lowly Kent State?
Gotta love it. Clueless morons complaining about a coach they know nothing about.
I would love to hear or read a list of candidates they feel worthy of a shot.
It's just one Tech moron posting over and over that's upset. I guess our domination over them has clouded his judgement.
Paul Johnson coached at football powerhouse Navy before Tech. Ewwwww!
Will Friend is so stupid, he thinks Taco Bell is a Mexican Phone Company.
Seth, we have got to lock this blog so people can't post Anonymous anymore. It's getting out of control. This guy is just trolling the hell out of this place.
+1 - absolutely agreed - require registration. Hell, charge $5 a year and 90% of these "Anon" a**holes would be gone
This anon agrees wholeheartedly - we need to rid this blog of anonymous posters - they contribute nothing.
Anon posters keep this website running. NO ONE would visit this site if they had to pay for it! They would just wait and read it in the paper or on the hundreds of other UGA blogs and boards out there.
Seth does a great job, but you can get this info in more than just one place.
Yeah let's get rid of the Tech anons.
I just got dumber...
Nobody thinks that reading the site should cost money...posting mindless drivel here is another story altogether.
Why do you guys get your panties in such a wad when someone post as anonymous. Would it really make any difference if I used Bob or Carol or Ted or Alice - I mean really.
I do it because is it easier to click anonymous rather than log in to an account. On most blogs I visit I am automatically identified and post under the name I used when creating the account. But again you know nothing about me name or no name. Get over it!
it amazes me how certain people react to this hiring as if Richt put 10 names in a hat and just said 'go nuts'. i don't have any football coaching experience (outside of the U10s at the Y in Athens, hah) and i'm certainly not in a hiring/management position with my company, but I would have to think that there are a number of strong o-line coaching candidates out there that no one has heard of. from his comments, Richt was clearly looking for a young, seasoned, up-and-coming coach with a hell of a work ethic, and we won't know for at least 2 years if Friend is that diamond in the rough. if Richt thinks Friend is the guy, then i'm on board. if it was up to some of the posters on this blog, we would have gone down the final AP poll and tried to steal away the o-line coaches from every team in the top 10. BRILLIANT.
Geez, bunch of cry babies crying to Seth to turn his blog into a 1 sided propaganda piece for Georgia and to abandon all jounalistic principles. Look, this is America, we like to look at issues from more than 1 point of view, if you don't like, head to a communist country.
Will is a poor hire, Richt needed a quality coach with top 20 experience. UAB? Wow.
Why not hire an up and comer? Young up and comers have career aspirations and want to advance. If we get 2-3 years of this guy's best effort then so be it. Better than a career O-Line coach in my opinion.
Let's see ... get a O-Line coach who has spent 30 years coaching the O-line and has no other aspirations or get one who is young and shown serious promise who will kick ass to prove he is good so that he can continue to advance.
He doesn't have BCS coaching experience but was all SEC for two years in college, went to the SEC championship for 3 of 4 years, graduated with degree in human performance and has proven himself as worthy of having a shot at Div 1A. Seems like a good hire.
Word is that he was UGA's top choice and the only person interviewed.
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