See ya Rodney

Who knows what's actually going on in Knoxville, but if Garner threatens to walk for more money, I hope Richt lets him go. This routine every year is getting old and I for one am sick of it. Garner obviously thinks he is DC or HC material and since no one has offered him that yet, he's going to use every offseason to hold UGA to ransom. A couple of huge points stick out to me. First, depending on what you believe, Garner and BVG HATED each other. The story goes that BVG gave Richt an "it's either him or me" ultimatium and Richt felt Garner's recruiting was too important so BVG took off to Jacksonville. Anyone that know the affinity I hold for BVG can imagine how much that makes my stomach turn.

Secondly, Garner has an outstanding reputation as a recruiter. He raided Georgia while at Auburn and then pulled Donnan's pants down in Atlanta while at Tennessee. However, at the time that was going on, Garner was the first "hot" black recruiter in the South. Other schools soon copied that model and since then, I question how effective Garner has actually been. Yes, we've had tremendous recruiting classes, but have we ever had the top ranked class in the SEC? The fact is, UGA is located in a state that produces A LOT of HS talent. Historically, our objective has just been to clean up GA. However, in the last 5 years or so, it seems that Richt's strategy has changed. Now we seem to be just getting who we really want in the state, and then recruit nationally for our pressing needs. This isn't unlike the method used at FSU forever. With the arrival of Lilly, who just coincidentially happened to be FSU's recruiting coordinator, it seems to me that Richt has been planning for when Garner leaves for some time now.

I appreciate everything Garner's done for the program, and certainly as a DT coach, he's pumped out some talent. However, nothing is going to be good enough for him except a HC or DC post, and he isn't going to get that at UGA. It's time for both parties to go their seperate ways.