Happy Independence Day to all of you, and congratulations to David Hale on his wedding yesterday! Yes, I am still on vacation, and, yes, we still have guest posters who are picking up the slack in my absence, but, every now and again, there are events in Bulldog Nation that prevent me from bailing on my blogging duties entirely. Our athletic director being arrested for drinking and driving qualifies, particularly when that arrest is followed by revelations of the sort that have come to light subsequently.
Although I regret this fact, I am ready to move on to finding a new athletic director, and I agree with Bill King’s choice. It is time to call Greg McGarity home. McGarity is from Athens. He is a University of Georgia graduate. He has prior experience working in Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall. He currently works as the executive senior associate athletic director for the University of Florida, where his job description is as follows:
Oversees the swimming & diving and women's tennis programs, event operations, facilities, video services, risk management, information technology and communications, purchasing, auxiliary services, aviation operations and strength and conditioning programs. Assists Athletics Director in supervision of football and men's basketball programs.
Say . . . the Gators have been doing all right in athletics since McGarity went to work in Gainesville in the early 1990s, haven’t they? Yes, they have. During that time, McGarity has been working for Jeremy Foley, whose hiring and firing decisions suggest strongly that he is a man with an eye for talent and a lack of tolerance for mediocrity; the fact that McGarity has spent nearly two decades working for Foley (who rose to the athletic directorship from the post of senior associate athletic director) speaks volumes about his abilities.
In Greg McGarity, we have a man with all of Damon Evans’s positives (including being Bulldog-born and Bulldog-bred), none of Evans’s baggage, and a championship pedigree. Michael Adams needs to hire Greg McGarity as the University of Georgia athletic director before I get back from vacation.
Go ‘Dawgs!