On Monday, the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta played host to UGA fans and alumni for the UGA Day, the final fan event of a series in the lead-up to the fall semester…and football season. Coaches, players and fans enjoyed the evening catching up and talking about Georgia athletics. Legendary Georgia broadcaster Chuck Dowdle, himself a former UGA basketball player, was the emcee for the evening. For just about an hour, Dowdle spoke to a series of UGA luminaries discussing the upcoming school year and the outlook for athletics in front of a crowd of nearly 500.
First up was UGA president Jere Morehead. Morehead talked about some the exciting academic related endeavors UGA is undertaking this year. Dowdle kicked the discussion off by noting UGA is one a few state universities recognized as “public ivies.” Required criteria to be considered a public ivy include admissions selectivity, education that includes liberal arts and investment into reputed faculty and an attractive campus. UGA is one four southern universities to be included on the current list, the others being UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Texas-Austin and the University of Florida.
Morehead highlighted a few things he is particularly proud of as the academic year kicks off. He mentioned that starting this fall, every undergraduate is going to participate in an “experiential learning opportunity” prior to graduation. Morehead laid out the program in his “State of the University” speech earlier this year but the aim of the program is to ensure that each student has an experience outside of the traditional classroom environment and one that is “tailored uniquely to aspirations beyond graduation.”
Morehead also noted how proud he was that UGA has opened an economic development office in Atlanta. The office opened in 2013 and has been working closely with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, headed by a UGA alum, Chris Carr, to broaden UGA’s economic development arm beyond its traditional agricultural roots. The office has been working to help lay the foundation for job creation in Georgia and meeting with companies while touting an educated workforce.
Following his talk with Morehead, Dowdle also talked baseball with coach Scott Stricklin and a little basketball with coach Mark Fox, who enjoyed some mild ribbing of football coach Mark Richt regarding a bit of a quarterback controversy. Fox’s advice to Richt was to use Keith Marshall, UGA’s star tailback, in a Wildcat formation. Fox did say though that UGA has “got the best football coach in America. He’ll figure it out.”
Last on the stage was Coach Richt. This being UGA and it being 39 days before the start of the season against Louisiana-Monroe in Athens, all focus was on football and Richt’s entrance to the stage got a resounding applause. Richt gave no clues as to where he was leaning on the quarterback question but made clear that the official depth chart, released a couple weeks ago, was incorrect to list Brice Ramsey as the starter. The chart should have also listed Faton Bauta as a possible starter, Richt said.
Richt expressed his confidence in Brian Schottenheimer, the Bulldogs new offensive coordinator, and said Schottenheimer is likely to be calling plays from the field, in a break from recent history as previous coordinator Mike Bobo had stayed up in the box the past few years.
Coming off his 15th straight year at the circus that is SEC Media Days, Richt seemed ready to get the season started. “We’re ready to go. Everything is in place,” said Richt. Well, almost everything, there is still a starting quarterback to decide on.
