UDPATE: If you haven't checked it out already, Chip Towers has the details from Rodney Garner, himself.
From UGA Athletics:
University of Georgia defensive line coach Rodney Garner, the first assistant coach hired by Mark Richt at UGA, will remain with the Bulldog coaching staff after considering an offer from the University of Tennessee to coach on the offensive side of the ball.
"Certainly I'm flattered and am sincerely appreciative of the interest shown by Tennessee," said Garner. "But in the final analysis the positives at Georgia were the determining factors. My heart is coaching on the defensive side of the ball. I enjoy working with Coach Richt and the rest of the staff and our family loves being a part of the Athens community. And we have some really good defensive linemen returning next year along with some outstanding newcomers. Our family felt that we wanted to continue with the goals we had set when Coach Richt came in December of 2000 of helping build the Georgia program."
"Rodney has been an integral part of the success we've enjoyed over the past eight years," said Richt. "He's produced some outstanding defensive linemen and is nationally known as one of the country's very best recruiters. But he also has been instrumental in many areas of our football program in addition to coaching on the field and recruiting. He's done an outstanding job in all areas of his responsibility and we're excited about moving forward with Rodney, Kim and their daughters as part of our coaching family."
A native of Leeds, Alabama, and All-SEC offensive lineman at Auburn, Garner served as defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator on Richt's first staff and added the title of Assistant Head Coach in 2005. He participated in the inaugural Minority Coaches Forum in 2006 and was selected one of ten coaches from throughout the country to participate in the 2004 NCAA Expert Coaching Academy in Indianapolis. Garner was also chosen in 2004 as one of 20 coaches selected for the NCAA Advanced Coaching Academy.
Prior to joining Richt's staff, Garner served two years with former Bulldog coach Jim Donnan after assistant coaching tenures at Auburn and Tennessee. Since coming to Georgia he has coached four NFL first round draft choices--Richard Seymour, Marcus Stroud, Charles Grant, and Jonathan Sullivan.
Monday, January 5, 2009
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5 comments:
I'm sure you'll get to it but I was wondering if you were still on the teleconference today when the last question was asked about UGA going to sleep on in-state players per something Lane Kiffin said.
I couldn't hear (via the Rivals podcast of the TC) who asked the question but I was wondering if you had a take on that question and Coach Richt's answer...
He didn't seem pleased with that information but again, the Rivals podcast was a little quiet as I tried to listen...
Thanks again for your coverage.
I'm not 100 percent sure who the guy was, but I believe its a radio guy who has been in on several of Richt's teleconferences this year. The question went like this: The radio guy told Richt that Lane Kiffin said Georgia "went to sleep" on some in-state recruits. Asked to clarify by Richt, the guy backtracked a little, saying Kiffin told him that he felt Georgia was soft on recruiting in-state kids because they assumed those kids would come to Georgia anyway. Richt clearly wasn't pleased, and his response was "I'll talk about our program, and other people should probably do the same."
Ok...that's what I thought I heard and I apologize for commenting under this post rather than waiting for the other post but I really couldn't believe that I heard that and wanted to confirm.
Thanks again and is this an angle that intrigues you for a continuing story or is it a dead issue?
Well, here's the problem from my angle: Richt is too classy to fire back at anyone, so that tends to make it harder to give a lot of life to the story. But I have no doubt that we'll hear more of this budding rivalry throughout the offseason and obviously it'll be a good talking point prior to the UT game next fall.
Makes sense...thanks alot and get some rest.
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