New Georgia head coach Kirby Smart once played for the Bulldogs.
One would think that’s enough to get a dialog opened between the university’s athletic department and the Alabama defensive coordinator after the decision was made to remove Mark Richt as the Georgia head coach after 15 seasons.
Instead, the first call was made to a search firm to handle the initial discussions, according to a report from the Athens Banner-Herald.
Marc Weiszer reports that Bill Carr of CarrSports Consulting was the man hired to help conduct the search, and that his firm will receive north of $42,000 for the work done.
A snippet of his report:
Georgia will pay Carr’s firm $42,175.08 for his work in Georgia landing Smart, according to an invoice obtained by OnlineAthens and the Athens Banner-Herald in an open records request. That covers $40,000 in fees and $2,175.08 for search related expenses. Most of those search related expenses were for hotel, food and travel costs for Carr. Georgia was charged $500 for candidate background checks.
He also quoted Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity on the usage of a search firm to hire such a familiar candidate.
“Bill is a veteran of 20 years, he used to be an athletic director,” McGarity said of the former Florida AD. “Certainly he’s able to perform certain duties, among them discuss certain things with certain candidates. That did happen contrary to what people believe. I’m not at liberty to talk about who we talked to but I can certainly validate that.”
That’s an intriguing statement.
While it certainly makes sense to utilize a search firm to feel out other head coaches, it has been widely assumed that Smart was Georgia’s man all along.
McGarity’s statement implies that there may have been some other high profiles coaches the Bulldogs were interested in as well.
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
