ATHENS, Ga. -- The University of Georgia athletic board discussed but did not finalize a new contract for head football coach Mark Richt on Wednesday.
“We’re pretty close,” said UGA president Michael Adams. “There’s some lawyering to be done yet, but we’re in 98 percent agreement. The other two percent is just minor details.”
Adams did not want to get into contract details, other than to say, “We believe in our football coach, and we think he’s gonna be here a good while.”
Meanwhile, a new deal for defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is further from completion. Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity spoke to Grantham on Wednesday and a deal could be done in a few weeks.
“I’d probably have to give him something in writing when we talk about the general parameters of what we want to do,” McGarity said. “I don’t know if there’s really any urgency there.”
SEC schedule update
SEC athletics directors will meet later this month, at the conference’s women’s basketball tournament, to go over future scheduling for football and basketball. Could Georgia’s annual cross-division rivalry with Auburn be in danger? McGarity said he hopes not.
“I think you have to have an open mind and consider everything,” McGarity said. “But we just haven’t studied enough to be able to come out and say: This is where we are.”
One way to solve it is to expand the SEC schedule to nine games, thus allowing for six division games and three against the other division. The ACC has decided to go to nine games, following the lead of the Pac-12.
But the SEC doesn’t want to do that, according to McGarity, who cited the non-conference schedule being squeezed. He pointed out that most teams have a traditionally non-conference rival, a la Georgia Tech.
“Nine games and Georgia Tech, that makes 10 games,” McGarity said. “If you ever wanted to schedule Clemson or Ohio State, like we have, then that only leaves one guarantee game. That’s a pretty tough schedule. Fans would love it. But I don’t know if your coaches or players (would). That’s strapping it up 11 of 12 weeks there. You have to have some time where some players play who never get a chance to be on the field. That’s why you schedule some of the I-AAs, and some of the other games, to let some of those kids grow, let those kids get their experience.”
