New A.D. wants football team "in the hunt"

On his second day on the job, Greg McGarity was asked a thinly-veiled question about the future of the football program, and presumably head coach Mark Richt.

As you’d expect, the new boss demurred.

McGarity was asked Tuesday, during a quickie news conference at Stegeman Coliseum, about his expectations for the football program this year.

“You never put a win total on any sport,” McGarity said. “You just wanna be in the hunt. Every sport that we sponsor, you just want them to be in the hunt for championships. And there could be circumstances that lead you to not be in the hunt in a certain year due to various circumstances. But you want every sport at the University of Georgia just to be in the conversation. ”

McGarity later pointed out that the SEC is a “meat-grinder,” with as many as nine schools entering this season thinking they have a shot at the league title.

“I think it’d be really unfair to coaches to tell them you’ve got to win 10 games, 11 games, whatever that number is,” McGarity said. “It’s how people go about their work. Do you see improvements made. And do you see people giving 100 percent effort everyday. I think those are the things that I would be looking at that’s more important than a number of wins.”

In other words, McGarity wasn’t about to sit there and throw the gauntlet of expectations down on head coach Mark Richt. The belief continues to be, after nearly five weeks on the beat, that Richt’s seat is not quite as hot as you’d think if you listened to some national media types.

That could always change if the season crumbles, but at the moment you’d much rather be Richt than Les Miles.