Mark Richt & The Paul Oliver Network

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It would be called the Paul Oliver Network, after the former defensive back who shot himself in front of his family the previous September, distraught about the end of his career.

And this is how the Paul Oliver Network is set to work:

Richt, Van Halanger and Greg Bingham (a former Georgia walk-on quarterback and now a staff member) are running the network, as far as connecting athletes. Rhonda Kilpatrick, an assistant athletics director, is helping with degree audits. Associate athletics director Carla Williams helps when it comes to getting former players back into school.

There’s also the group of businessmen in Atlanta whom Richt wants to remain anonymous. While Richt is happy to publicize what he and Georgia are doing, he is wary of people getting involved with the network just to get publicity. The group is helping to screen former players and help place them at job interviews.

In March there was a network event. More than 100 former players, including a couple who had been dismissed from the team, congregated at the team’s athletics facility. Players with successful post-football careers (Williams, David Greene, D.J. Shockley, etc.) mingled with ex-teammates needing a job.

Richt said for years he was helping players get jobs and go back to school, but it wasn’t organized and was more on an “as they come” basis. A former player would call him, and Richt or an adviser would put him in touch with someone they knew. But Richt found that often a former player needed more help than that.

Hence the network.

“I believe that the Georgia Bulldog nation is a real thing, and they love our guys, and they respect the guys that come through,” Richt said. “I tell (players), ‘If you come here, and you behave, and you play hard, there will be so many people who want to help you down the road, to just get started.’ So I want to tap into that in an organized fashion.”

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