SEC Looks Into Grantham / Franklin Mess; UGA Assistant Meets With A.D.

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The SEC has asked both Georgia and Vanderbilt officials to file reports with the league regarding the postgame flap between VU’s James Franklin and Georgia’s Todd Grantham.  SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said today that it’s “too early for any decisions yet” as the league continues to gather information.  The league could reach a decision by sometime tomorrow.

Here’s a quick breakdown on the latest:


* Franklin was asked about the mess today at his weekly presser.  He said that he spoke with Mark Richt “man to man” yesterday.  Asked if he regretted his own behavior at game’s end, Franklin said:


“I’m not a guy who really has a whole lot of regrets.  I’m pretty calculated and pretty well thought out for the most part with the things I do.  I am an emotional guy, as you guys now.”


* Grantham told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today that he regrets his actions:


“First of all, I love my players and appreciate their hard work and investment in our program.  I feel a responsibility and loyalty to protect and stand up for them.  However, I feel it’s important to educate them in all areas of life.  While my intentions were genuine, I feel it was unfortunate that things escalated to a confrontation.  However, I’ll use it as a learning experience for myself as well as my players so that we all become better men.”


* Meanwhile, Georgia AD Greg McGarity has gotten involved.  He spoke with Richt by telephone yesterday and then met with Grantham in person today.  Of those conversations, McGarity would say little:


“There were lessons to be learned here.  Obviously the conduct that was displayed was not representative of how we want to conduct ourselves after a hard-fought game.”


* McGarity spoke with the Touchdown Club in Atlanta today and had the following to say to that group:


“I think the whole story will come out at some point in time.  Right now both institutions are basically filing a report to the Southeastern Conference office on really what happened from Todd’s standpoint and, I’m sure, from Coach Franklin’s standpoint…

I won’t get into specifics, but I think if you ask Todd if he had to do it over again, I think he definitely would do some things differently.  I think that’s not the way you want to represent your institution on either side.  At the end of the day, I think you’ll see that.  But I know Todd is in the process of making a statement.  We want to get ahead of this and deal with it up front to where there’s nothing out there that we need to be worrying about the rest of the week…

So it’s something we’re really not proud of, and we’ll deal with it and learn from it and also teach our student-athletes on the positives and negatives of situations like that.”