Georgia Bulldogs Saturday Summary: Men's Tennis Team Hitting Its Stride, but Change Needed in Women's Gymnastics
by T Kyle King on Mar 19, 2011 9:21 PM EDT
in Georgia Bulldogs News
Email
PrintIf you’re like me, you’re watching the Georgia Bulldogs take on the Alabama Crimson Tide in women’s softball on ESPNU, and you aren’t happy about the way the wind is blowing. What follows may not make you any more pleased, but, for what it’s worth, here is your Saturday summary to get you up to speed on other Georgia sports of note this weekend:
- The SEC Championships went about as expected, as Alabama claimed the women’s gymnastics title with a 197.225 team score. The Gators, ranked No. 1 in the nation, finished second in the conference with a 196.975 tally. The Gym Dogs carded an overall 196.625 to finish third. When Suzanne Yoculan stepped down, Georgia boasted the best women’s gymnastics program in the country, without question, without exception, and not by a narrow margin. Two years later, the Red and Black aren’t even among the top two teams in the league. It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that promoting the gymnastics version of Ray Goff to take over Georgia’s most successful program was Damon Evans’s worst decision not involving women’s undergarments. Greg McGarity needs to fire Jay Clark now and do what his predecessor should have done two years ago: conduct a national search to hire an experienced head coach to take what still is one of the premiere jobs in the sport.
- The eighth-ranked Georgia men’s tennis team extended its winning streak to eight matches with a win over LSU on Saturday. The 7-0 victory boosted the Bulldogs’ overall record to 13-3 and gave the Athenians the longest winning streak in the league. The Red and Black now stand at 5-0 in SEC competition.
- The Georgia women’s swimming and diving team is in competition right now, but, at last report, the Red and Black remained in the hunt for the national championship, along with a pair of Pac-10 squads.
- Andy Landers’s Lady Bulldogs are in Auburn, Ala., for tomorrow’s first-round game in the NCAA Tournament. The Georgia women will take on Middle Tennessee State at 7:30 Eastern Sunday night. The Red and Black are 11-1 all-time over the Blue Raiders in women’s basketball.
That should bring you current this Saturday evening. I’ll be back tomorrow to bring you the latest on the Bulldogs’ weekend series in baseball and softball.
Go ‘Dawgs!
16 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Gym Dawgs
I appreciate the majority of the writing on this blog, and I love the community here. The humor and intelligence shown makes me laugh daily at work. I have only one problem with the path of this blog. The standard that Jay Clark and the Gym Dawgs are being held to is unrealistic and ridiculous. Suzanne Youclan did not win a national championship until her fourth year at Georgia and the competition at that point in women’s gymnastics is not even comparable to today’s game. You can cite individual matches (Auburn), and even the NCAA regionals last year, but to discuss these issues without even mentioning the loss of the most decorated college gymnast ever (Kupets) or the greatest gymnast by number or All-American Awards (Tolnay) is useless analysis. I understand that it is fun and easy to compare Clark to Goff, but it is not the right thing to do. Give Jay his time, I would love to hear who you and your gymnastics savants suggest as the next coach to take over the UGA program. When only four coaches in the history of the sport have won a national championship, it is hard to find other coaches with a level of success to match the standards that are being set by this blog, a blog that does such a great job of reading and transcribing the statistics of each match on a weekly basis for the masses that only pay attention for one day a year, as to whether our girls win a national championship or fail as student-athletes.
Thanks for the tone of your comment, Pablo.
I believe the Ray Goff comparison to be apt, and the brevity with which I called for Jay Clark’s ouster was due both to the nature of a posting providing bullet points covering a number of sports and to the fact that I have been questioning Coach Clark’s credentials for many months.
It is true that Suzanne Yoculan did not win her first national championship until her fourth year in Athens, but, unlike Coach Clark, Coach Yoculan did not take over a program that had won five straight national titles. Obviously, the loss of Courtney Kupets was significant, but the program has lost great gymnasts to graduation before, from Hope Spivey to Katie Heenan, and been able to withstand the loss. Besides, Coach Clark (like Coach Goff) was the Bulldogs’ recruiting coordinator during his days as an assistant; if the cupboard was not fully stocked upon his arrival in the top job, it was no one’s fault but his, and, anyway, how hard is it to recruit to a school that has won five straight national championships and has never had an athlete transfer out of the program?
I do not expect national championships every year. I expect to see the Gym Dogs at their best when the stakes are highest, and I expect them not to fall flat in meets they ought to win handily. Coach Clark, like Coach Goff, was a young first-time head coach when he took over the program; given the condition the program was in when Coach Clark inherited it, Damon Evans could have gone out and hired an experienced collegiate gymnastics coach with at least some history of achievement. Outside of Alabama, UCLA, Utah, and (possibly) Florida, any collegiate gymnastics coach in the country would have jumped at the chance to take over in Athens in 2009. In that respect, calling Jay Clark the Ray Goff of women’s gymnastics was unfair; in 1989, Coach Goff was the best Georgia football could get, but, 20 years later, Georgia gymnastics could have done much, much better than Jay Clark. He is good man, but he was a bad hire, and this program will continue to underperform as long as he is in charge of it.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Mar 19, 2011 10:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Kyle,
I kinda agree with Pablo. For the first 10 years of Yoculan’s tenure, she really only needed to worry about 2 other programs- Utah & Bama. There might be 1-2 programs that would have a good year, but seriously, without looking, I would venture, that the number of teams that won a gymnastics title between 1988 – 2000 was probably 4, maybe five different teams.
Georgia might be slipping, but I think the bigger issue is that other teams are catching up. More schools are fielding competitive teams, which isn’t too surprising. It isn’t like you can hoard all the top gymnasts.
And without doing a statistical analysis and working just off memory from 92-94 when I was at just about every home meet and several away or regional meets, 196.625 would have won most meets in those days. I could be wrong, but that sounds like an average UGA score during much of the 90s. I am not as up on gymnastics now, so there may be new rules that make that score not as impressive, but best I remember if you carded a 197.225, you would have won 90% of the time and if you scored 1996.625, you probably would have won.
Should we fire Clark? I don’t know. I know a few years back there would have only been 1-2 candidates that could have even come close to filling Yoculan’s shoes and she would have personally bitch slapped one of them if they came to Athens to take her job.
Other teams are certainly catching up to the 4-program peloton at the top...
… but those “other teams” were also catching up during Georgia’s run of 5 straight national championships, as well.
I don’t think a “depleted cupboard” or an “everybody else is catching up” argument really works in this case, primarily because of the longevity of Suzanne Yoculan’s success at literally the highest level. When you win a national championship over the course of 5 consecutive years, the cupboard is necessarily full every year, because that time frame spans more than the full college career of one recruiting class (and, in reality, is made up of many). And as Kyle said, if for some reason the cupboard was not full in 2010, then as recruiting coordinator it was Clark’s fault.
Also, over a period of 5 years, the athletics landscape can change significantly. During the Gym Dogs’ 5-year title reign, a total of 10 different teams made the Super Six group in the NCAA tournament, and only the Utah Red Rocks made the finals (along with the Dawgs) every year. Even the powerhouse Crimson Tide and Gators missed the final cut at least once, while Georgia was racking up title after title.
Jay Clark took the reins of a program that was poised to continue its national dominance and proceeded to finish third in the SEC and completely miss the NCAA Tournament. Then, the following year (this year), his program has once again finished third at the SEC championships. If the Gym Dogs miss the NCAA field again this year, then there won’t be any point in debating it, because Clark will be gone.
If Georgia manages to surprise us all and land in the Super Six this year, I would be more willing cut Clark some slack. I don’t expect a championship every year, even if that’s what Suzanne Yoculan provided for half a decade. I do expect, however, that the Gym Dogs program should be one of the top six gymnastics programs in the country absolutely every year.
It’s not unreasonable to expect a Super Six-level of accomplishment every year, since that’s what Suzanne Yoculan provided throughout her entire career at Georgia. Alabama, Florida, and Utah have sustained programs at that level over the long term, and Georgia should be able to, as well. So far, Clark doesn’t appear to be the man to do this, so we need to bring in a person who will be up to the challenge.
by vineyarddawg on Mar 20, 2011 6:15 AM EDT up reply actions
You "give them time" when...
the program is in re-construction mode. Yoculan left a dynasty in Jay Clark’s hands, and it’s been the metaphorical equivalent of giving the keys of a Ferrari to an 82 year old woman that can’t see over the wheel.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect Clark to lead them to a national title every year, but I do think it’s unreasonable to believe it’s OK for him to finish 3rd in a conference which we have dominated for years.
Better to fire him now and move on before we find ourselves stuck under Florida in yet another sport.
by georgiadawg85 on Mar 20, 2011 2:30 AM EDT up reply actions
Not a problem.
I knew who you meant! :)
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Mar 19, 2011 10:55 PM EDT up reply actions
Update:
For what it’s worth, the Georgia women’s swimming and diving team came in second at the NCAA Championships. California won, 424-394.5.
This is the sixth time in school history that the Red and Black have finished as the national runners-up.
Go 'Dawgs!
Like georgiadawg85 said, you give time to people rebuilding.
Jay Clark inherited the #1 best gymnastics program in the country – BY FAR. To go from 5 titles in a row to not even making the Super 6? Really? That’s inexcusable.
And now 3rd in our CONFERENCE?
Its time to stop the bleeding and get rid of him.
Tough crowd
Yoculan is a smart lady. She knew when to get out – and that time was when the best gymnast in the history of the NCAA graduated. Courtney Kupets led the Dawgs to 3 of those 5 titles and she was the inspiration for the 4th after her injury. It also may not be as easy to recruit as you think when your legendary coach is on the brink of retirement. Alabama was already a huge rival with UGA (as evidenced by Yoculan’s and Patterson’s personal rivalry), and UF was already making great strides after hiring Rhonda Faehn as coach – with both the Gators and Tide capturing SEC titles even while the Dawgs were capturing the national titles.
UF has still never one one – but we’re close. I believe that UGA, Utah, UCLA and Bama are the only 4 programs to ever win it. That also brings up the problem of who else are you going to hire?? I think UF is Faehn’s first head coaching job after serving as an assistant at Nebraska.
While I don't have a specific name in mind, . . .
. . . my inclination would be to look at some of the smaller schools that consistently show up in the rankings and regularly make the NCAA postseason field. Just as one example—-I know nothing about the head coach at this school, so I’m not suggesting that particular person, simply describing the sort of person we should go after—-the University of Denver springs to mind. Basically, I think the idea of hiring a head coach with some success from a smaller school, which has worked well for several SEC schools in basketball (Billy Donovan, Mark Fox, Anthony Grant, Bruce Pearl), is preferable to promoting from within.
Your point about Rhonda Faehn is a good one, though. I don’t know how much of a hand Greg McGarity had in that particular hire, but, hopefully, he shares Jeremy Foley’s commitment to excellence and eye for emerging coaching talent.
Go 'Dawgs!
A funny thing about Kyle's early choice.....
Denver is the host site for this year’s North Central Regional where the Gators will be competing. While reading the preview story, I came across this nugget:
Denver head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart is a Florida graduate and was a freshman on the Gators’ 1989 SEC championship team.
Maybe McGarity needs to tag Kyle as an assistant AD for coaching changes, as he can obviously spot a winner!
It's true that Courtney Kupets was one of the best collegiate gymnasts ever...
… but she was preceded by a litany of great collegiate gymnasts, as well. While none racked up all of the individual achievements Kupets did, we’ve still had the likes of Cory Fritzsinger, Suzanne Sears, Karin Lichey, Kim Arnold, Jenni Beathard, and other past individual event champions.
And, perhaps just as importantly, the Gym Dogs won the national championship in 2005 without having any individual national champions on the roster (and without Kupets, who was a freshman in 2006).
And perhaps most important of all, Georgia had never missed a Super Six before Jay Clark became the head coach, and that statistic goes far beyond any single gymnast or recruiting class.
by vineyarddawg on Mar 20, 2011 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Exactly.
There were four great programs in NCAA women’s gymnastics: Alabama, Georgia, UCLA, and Utah. The ascension of Florida added a fifth. That ought to allow the Gym Dogs to slip slightly yet still be in the top six . . . yet, last year, Georgia couldn’t even make it out of the region. That’s not just other programs moving into the elite; that’s the Red and Black dropping back to the pack.
Go 'Dawgs!
The hiring of Rhonda Faehn was a brilliant move. But that’s the M.O. of Jeremy Foley – he seeks out the best and brightest young coaches, regardless of whether or not they have been a head coach. In gymnastics, you’re likely going to have to go the route of hiring a top young assistant, because there are fewer programs out there. So, who is the next Rhonda Faehn? It’s up to the ADs out there to scour the ranks of top assistants and find her.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Dawg Sports
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
