The University of Georgia has announced today that the contracts of head coach Mark Richt and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham have been extended.  Richt’s deal will be extended three years through the 2016 season.  Financial details of the new pact aren’t yet finalized.

“The extension is a statement that we are excited to have Mark as our coach and that he is excited about being at Georgia in the years to come,” AD Greg McGarity said via press release.

Richt makes $2.81 million per yer under his current deal.

Grantham has been given a two-year extension which takes him through the 2014 season.  Again, the finishing touches have yet to be put on his new financial package.

“I’ve said for many years that I wanted to be at Georgia as long as Georgia wanted me,” Richt said in the release.  “I’m excited about where we are with our program and looking forward to the years ahead.

With a 10-win season in 2011, Richt was able to turn around and walk back down from the gallows that many UGA fans had prepared for him.  But after more than a decade in Athens, the clock is still ticking for Richt.

That’s simply a reality of the current college football culture and the 24-hour media cycle.  Coaches don’t stay in jobs as long as they once did.  Fans tire of them more easily.  And with what fans are coughing up for tickets and parking spots and concessions, they want more bang for their buck.

We applaud Georgia’s extension of Richt’s deal.  He’s the tip-top best ambassador the SEC has, bar none and his track record of success at UGA would make him an instant-hire elsewhere if he ever departed.  But the next time his team loses four or five games in a season, the talk will once again be about letting him go, not about giving him extensions.  That’s just the world we live in today.

Another Georgia cornerback is in trouble with Johnny Law today.  Starting corner Branden Smith was arrested early this morning in Alabama for possession of pot.  Smith was pulled over for following too closely and for not having a tag light, but the police officer found a “baseball-size package of marijuana” when he looked in the back seat.

UGA’s other starting cornerback — Sanders Commings — has already been suspended for the Dawgs’ first two games next season following a January arrest for striking a woman outside a downtown Athens club.  Two other freshmen who were slotted for the secondary have been dismissed from the team and another player — Jordan Love — who was expected to get some playing time in nickel and dime packages has transferred away.  (Sounds like Smith was getting ready for the nickel or dime bag packages.  Rimshot.)

Due to depth issues, Georgia was already toying with moving Malcolm Mitchell from receiver to corner.

The Bulldogs open the 2012 season at home against Buffalo before traveling to Missouri to serve as the Tigers’ first-ever SEC opponent.  Mizzou is expected to debut top receiver prospect Dorial Green-Beckham the week before against Southeastern Louisiana.

If Mark Richt can’t manufacture some corners quick, Green-Beckham’s SEC debut could be a good one.


UPDATE — Richt announced today that Mitchell will indeed be a cornerback this spring.  He was the Dawgs top receiver last season.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the fall whether he’ll go exclusively defensive back or not yet, but you can’t be in both meetings at the same time,” the coach said.  “Early on, we’re going to have to have him help at corner.”

Which is a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Georgia’s Greg McGarity was one of four SEC ADs to enter last week’s scheduling talks in Nashville hoping to save “permanent cross-divisional rivals” when the league adopts its new scheduling format.

He told The Chattanooga Times Free Press that he feels better about the odds of Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee being preserved:


“I do feel better.  The tone of the conversations that everyone had sort of gave the impression that everyone had a sense, at least the majority had a sense, of liking the rivalry game with an opponent from the opposite division.  The tone led us to believe that this has a good opportunity moving forward…

I think everything is still on the table.  We spent one full day on it, and I’m sure we’ll spend one full day on it in New Orleans once everybody’s had a week to think about it.”


From what South Carolina president Harris Pastides says, it sounds like things are further along than McGarity wants to say.

And this is why you can’t get too excited about recruiting rankings and signing classes — you never know who’s going to wash out of a program.

Georgia defensive backs Nick Marshall and Chris Sanders and receiver Sanford Seay have all been dismissed from Mark Richt’s football program for the dreaded “violation of team rules.”

“It’s a privilege to play college football and to be a part of this team and University,” said Richt via press release.  “Along with that privilege comes certain responsibilities.  Mistakes were made and part of our job is helping them learn from mistakes.  Going forward, we are committed to assisting them find opportunities where they can continue their education.”

According to The Athens Banner-Herald, Seay and Marshall have been connected to the theft of cash from a fellow student’s dorm room.

Marshall was a four-star prospect while Sanders and Seay were three-star recruits.  All three were part of UGA’s in-state “Dream Team” class last February.

Darrin Horn is in his fourth year at South Carolina.  He has taken the Gamecocks to a single NIT appearance (and that was during his first year).  This year his team is 8-10 overall, 0-4 in the SEC.

Mark Fox is in his third year at Georgia.  He took the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament last season, but the two NBA-level players he inherited from Dennis Felton bolted for the pros early this past offseason.  His squad is 10-10 overall, 1-5 in the conference.

Suffice it to say, the natives are getting restless in the Peach and Palmetto states.  Thus the calls for calm from Fox himself at Georgia and from Horn’s boss at Carolina.

After last night’s loss to Kentucky, Fox gave his take on the state of the UGA program:


“I think the educated fans and media members can look at us and know what we’ve lost.  But I have no issues with the way we’re going about things on the court.  We have no academic issues.  We have no social (off-court) issues.  When I first came here, there were some issues.  But now we’re two years into changing the culture of Georgia basketball.”


Meanwhile, in defending Horn’s work, Carolina AD Eric Hyman reminded fans that nine of the Cocks’ 11 scholarship players are freshmen or sophomores:


“I know our teams ant to do the best they can and try to perform up to expectations.  Sometimes it happens on their timeline, sometimes it takes longer.  If you’re going to do it the right way, it just takes longer.  You have to have the patience and understanding that if you’re going to do it the right way, it takes a little longer.  I understand the passion and I understand the feeling.  A program has to create hope.  But on the flip side, it takes time to do it the right way.”


Think Hyman had any recent, fast SEC turnarounds in mind with all those “do it the right way” remarks?

Are Fox and Hyman correct in their assessments?  Does it matter?

We now live in a world where I can immediately find the lyrics to the Lithuanian National Anthem with a touch of my iPhone.  It’s a world in which college football coaches are now being canned after two years.

So while Georgia’s coach and Carolina’s AD are preaching the truth, the word “patience” can no longer be uttered in connection with athletics.  Fair, not fair, that’s just the way things are today.

So forget the teams’ depth and inexperience issues and the positive comments coming from both camps.  If Georgia and South Carolina want their fans to stop grumbling they’ll have to start winning.

The favorites took care of business in the SEC last night as Vanderbilt thrashed Tennessee in the opener and Kentucky cruised past Georgia in the nightcap.


Vanderbilt 65, Tennessee 47

The Commodores rebounded from their overtime loss to Mississippi State with their ninth win in 10 games last night.  Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins combined for 39 points on 13-of-26 shooting from the field.  While Vandy raced out to a 9-0 lead, Tennessee continued to go cold on the road.

The Vols — who beat defending national champ UConn on Saturday — clanked in just 35% of their shots against VU’s stingy defense.  The Dores also forced Tennessee into a season-high 25 turnovers and held true freshman hotshot Jarnell Stokes to just 6 points.


Kentucky 57, Georgia 45

Georgia played nip-and-tuck basketball with the nation’s top-ranked team for about 10 minutes.  And then Kentucky came to life.  Senior Darius Miller led the Cats with 19 points as they pulled past UGA before the halftime break and then coasted to their 12th win in a row. 

Despite the win, John Calipari wasn’t pleased with his team’s uneven performance.  “Last year’s team, I couldn’t believe we were as good as we were so I didn’t have to say a whole lot.  This year’s team, we could be really special and we’re not right now.”

When a college athlete finds himself afoul of the law, it’s usually safe to assume that alcohol or marijuana will be mentioned somewhere in the police report.  No surprise then, that’s exactly what University of Georgia police are saying about the arrest of Bulldog starting cornerback Sanders Commings.

Commings was arrested on misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and simple battery Saturday morning.  The police report claimed that Commings “made unwanted physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature” with a 23-year-old UGA student who happens to live with him.  The incident occurred in downtown Athens.  According to police, “Bystanders got involved (in the disturbance) and separated the parties and it became apparent that during the separation of them that (Commings) struck her in the face.”

A police report obtained by The Athens Banner-Herald states that the investigation into the incident concluded that alcohol did play a role.

Another night of life on the road in the SEC.  Two home teams win, two home teams fall.  There’s nothing surprising about that.

So far this season, home teams are 17-5 in SEC action.  And of the five road-team wins to date, two were pulled off by the best team in the league (Kentucky won at Auburn and at Tennessee) and two occurred at the home gym of the league’s worst team (South Carolina lost to Florida and Vanderbilt).

If you’re looking at your team’s schedule and trying to figure out what their final record will be just count road games as losses (unless you’re a UK fan).  You’ll be close in the end.


Georgia 57, Tennessee 53 in OT

It wasn’t a pretty game to watch, but it did have an exciting finish.  In the end, Gerald Robinson scored 16 to lead the Bulldogs past the Volunteers in overtime in Athens.  You can credit good defense (or blame a lack of offensive weaponry) but UGA shot just 35% from the floor while UT hit 40% of its shots.  U-G-L-Y.

On the plus side, neither team could build more than a five-point lead throughout the nip-and-tuck battle.  The Dawgs erased Tennessee’s five-point lead in the game’s final six minutes to force overtime. 

With the win, Georgia avoided an 0-4 SEC start.


Ole Miss 75, Mississippi State 68

In Oxford, MSU came in with a five-game winning streak over their rival.  But with the exception of a brief flurry mid-first half, it was Ole Miss that controlled last night’s game.  Thanks to Reginald Buckner.

Buckner — who came in averaging 6.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game — exploded for a career-high 19 points and 15 boards to lead the Rebels.  “He was tremendous,” Andy Kennedy said afterward.  “Obviously the difference in the game.”

Renardo Sidney led the 18th-ranked Bulldogs with 17 points.  Arnett Moultrie — who transferred to Starkville from UTEP — logged his ninth double-double of the season (10 points, 12 rebounds).

All-American tight end Orson Charles will bypass his senior year at Georgia for a shot at NFL fame and fortune, according to ESPN.com.  Charles caught 45 balls in 2011 for 574 yards and five touchdowns.

The former high school teammate of Aaron Murray had become a security blanket for the Dawgs’ quarterback and his talents will certainly missed next season.  When it comes to blockers, the UGA run game will lose Charles, fullback Bruce Figgins and O-linemen Ben Jones, Justin Anderson and Cordy Glenn.

Georgia’s latest five-star running back is already on campus, in class, and giving his head coach reason to smile.  Here’s what Mark Richt had to say about Keith Marshall yesterday:


“He’s a very talented young man.  He’s very focused.  As a matter of fact, I walked into the meeting last night and he had a playbook in his hand and he was looking over assignments.  It just gave me a moment to grin seeing how excited he was about being at Georgia.

I’m sure he’s a little nervous, too, like a lot of guys.  I remember my first night I spent away from home.  There’s a little bit of anxiety, but it’s mixed in their with a lot of excitement.”


Speaking of nervousness and anxiety, sophomore-to-be tailback Isaiah Crowell — the Dawgs’ five-star signee from a year ago — might want to pay attention to his coach’s praise of Marshall.  If Crowell doesn’t live up to his promise of becoming more responsible, it’s his playing time that Marshall might nab.