McGarity introduced

Whew. Kind of a whirlwind time here at the Georgia Center in Athens. Greg McGarity has been officially introduced at a news conference. Here are some quick highlights from that:

- McGarity, 55, agreed to a five-year contract with terms identical to what Damon Evans was getting before his last raise. He will get $420,000 the first year, and increasing by $20,000 each year.

Evans started his new contract, worth $550,000 per year for five years, about an hour after he was arrested in Atlanta.

But Georgia president Michael Adams added that if McGarity does well, as Adams felt Evans did, the contract would be subject to improvement.

- McGarity will start on Sept. 1. Why so soon? Adams quipped: “It was also clear to me that anyone who spent 18 years at Florida had suffered enough.”

But on a serious note, Adams said there was some “part-partem depression with the events relating to Mr. Adams.” But he wanted it to be done by the start of the academic year.

- Adams said he was looking for “somebody that had been there, at the highest levels of intercollegiate competition. You could argue that he has not sat in the chair, as an A.D. But he’s been about as close as you can get to it.”

He was also looking for “personal integrity.” He ran background checks in Florida.
“I got a little bit worried when I couldn’t find anybody to say anything bad about him,” Adams said.

- McGarity said not getting the job in 2003 was “a shot to the gut.” But now he said he was more ready.

- McGarity may have been gone 18 years, but some coaches – like swimming coach Jack Baurle (who was on the search committee) and women’s basketball coach Andy Landers – were in their positions when McGarity left for Florida.

- McGarity has not met Mark Richt, but added “But I plan to very shortly.”

-Adams said McGarity was chosen from a field of more than 70 candidates, including sitting A.D.s.

-Adams said Foley told him that McGarity was involved in every critical decision at Florida.

- An interesting Adams quote: “Given the circumstances that … there is some healing to be done.”

Adams also said this has been an “almost full-time focus for me for the past six weeks.”
Frank Crumley, the interim A.D. who was also a candidate, was the third man on the podium. He embraced McGarity before the news conference.

- McGarity pointed out that his son Alex is a senior at Florida.

“I’m not sure what he’ll do this year in Jacksonville.”

More to come.