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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

UPDATED: Three Coaches Out

Per UGA release...

Contracts of three Georgia assistant football coaches will not be renewed following the 2009 season according to an announcement Wednesday by UGA head football coach Mark Richt.

Defensive coordinator and secondary coach Willie Martinez, defensive co-coordinator and linebacker coach John Jancek, and defensive ends coach Jon Fabris will not return in 2010 according to Richt; however, he indicated that all three have been asked to coach through the bowl game.

“I cannot express enough my thanks to all three for their contributions to our program,” said Richt. “However, in the final analysis I’m charged with providing the leadership and direction for the Georgia program and sometimes that means making difficult decisions. This was one of them.”

Martinez and Fabris are members of Richt’s original staff that came in 2001. Jancek joined the Georgia staff in 2005.

***Richt will be holding a teleconference this afternoon at 5. I'll keep you posted.

----

Fun afternoon, eh?

Some quick updates...

-- Yes, I have seen Joe Schad's tweet about Willie Martinez getting the axe.

-- No, I cannot confirm it at this point (2:30 p.m.).

Here's what I can tell you...

As of about 2 p.m., Georgia's players had not been told anything about changes to the staff.

There is expected to be a players meeting later today, but this would not be entirely uncommon regardless of the coaching situation.

Willie was out on the recruiting trail as recently as this morning.

I haven't been able to speak with Willie directly, so no confirmation or comments from him.

I'm obviously staying on top of this, and for the latest updates I get, follow me on Twitter.

I'll post updates on the blog when I have something concrete, but I'm not going to post any speculation here.

Also, I apologize for not returning emails or responding to comments on the blog. My email account is completely screwed up at the moment (hey, makes reporting so much easier!) and I'm working on getting that fixed, too.

As for the initial reports, I think the AJC's Jeff Schultz does a nice job of summing them up (with an excellent use of quotation marks to indicate sarcasm). Remember folks, "unconfirmed reports" and "I'm hearing" are far from facts, so treat them accordingly.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What time is the players mtg?

David Hale said...

I was only told "this afternoon." I've been told by a few people at UGA that it is to discuss the bowl game though.

For Sale said...

Schad reconfirmed just now.

jferg said...

player is 4pm per Dash at ugasports.

I hope all 3 coaches are gainfully employed soon and hope they have great success wherever they go. Prayers for their family cause this is a tough day for them.

Now the interesting part...who in the world can Evans/Richt find to replace these guys? And how high is the bar from the fans stand point?

rbubp said...

+1, jferg.

E.C.K. said...

David, would you agree Fabris couldnt have been fired for his coaching on D? Look at the DE's he's put into the NFL. Was he not willing to give up the Special Teams responsibilities.

WHM said...

I wonder what this means for CRG. I guess it's difficult to renew a contract that never existed...

E.C.K. said...

David, would you agree Fabris couldnt have been fired for his coaching on D? Look at the DE's he's put into the NFL. Was he not willing to give up the Special Teams responsibilities.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know where I can listen to Richt's teleconference at 5pm on the internet? Great news today!

David Hale said...

Erik... I think it was simply a matter of cleaning house to let the new DC have as much room to operate as possible, so Fabris became a casualty. I agree... his work on D this year was very strong. And while the former players I've spoken to today are bummed about the whole thing, they seem to be taking the Fabris part the hardest. Funny... what we see from the outside so rarely reflects what goes on inside.