Dr. Adams has passed

The HOPE Scholarship got the ball rolling on UGA beoming a smart school, and then Dr. Adams came in and took it to the next level. Good for him.

There were some scary stories about how cheap he was with football, however. Donnan a few weeks ago said that he took a paycut to come from Marshall to Georgia and flirted with the North Carolina job the following off-season to get a payraise. And then there was the infamous 30 yard indoor practice facility.

We won many SEC Championships and a Natty with grass practice fields and a “facility” in the basement of Stegman. Kids these days with their internets

I have no clue the veracity of that story but Adams was notoriously cheap. That was obvious in the way he did/didn't spend money in relation to athletics from salaries to facilities.

And on a more personal note...when I was at UGA I briefly worked part time at Bulldog Carwash. Great gig for a youngster. Easy as hell, outdoors, limited hours a week in my spare time, and cash tips daily. Anyways I was working one day when Adams came in to get his Mercedes washed. Everyone there knew he was, and you would presumably think that he has to know almost all the people working there are either UGA students, or at list young people that live in Athens. As luck would have it I was in line to get his car so obviously I did a bang up job, I might as well have been washing the car of the president of the US. Then at the end he tipped $2. Which of course I split with my partner, so $1 each.

In the car wash world (at the time, idk about inflation), getting a $1 tip was like a C or a D on a test. It was objectively bad and disappointing. $2 was like a B, not bad at all. $3 or above was like an A, you were happy if you made $3 on a car. So for the president of the University to tip $2 total was pretty deflating.
On another personal note I got my picture taken with him in the team hotel at the 2002 Sugar Bowl and he was wearing an FSU necklace. He may have been shitfaced at that point idk but still it was...offputting.

I could tell numerous stories about it that don't place him in a great light as a person, but they don't diminish the results he achieved as president, and it IS an academic institution.

What policies did he put in place that raised our standard?

Fred was a good old boy and ran it as such. I still have respect for him though. I hope Kemp struggled mightily. Our peers were not worried about what autistic UGA professors thought..