re: RB AJ Turman leaves UGA football program....

Leave it to Chip Towers to write a piece that takes a rational decision by the University and Smart and make it a knock against them as a "step back"... LINK
I love that they also reference our shitty substance abuse policy which while admirable is another competitive disadvantage which neither the conference nor the NCAA seem interested in catching up to.

ETA: Smart addresses in presser today: LINK

quote:

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“I wanted to set the precedent for the future that kids would not be able to go to Miami right away,” Smart said. “It’s very important that we understand that, and that’s pretty much standard operating procedure when a coach leaves one place, that a kid can’t go there with the coach. That’s important to me that people understand that.”

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quote:

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“Please understand that A.J. Turman is going to be able to go where he wants to go,” Smart said. “Part of the reason A.J. is leaving is he did not play here. He played two springs here and played pretty good, and we need A.J. Turman on this team. We tried to keep A.J. Turman on this team. But he is not being blocked to where he wants to go. Let’s make that perfectly here.
Because he did not play here, and the person that was coaching him here is now there at Miami. So that has nothing to do with where he wants to go. He doesn’t want to go to Miami, he’s made that perfectly clear to me.”

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This was the part that was of interest to me... I don't understand why Turman would have been interested in going to Miami when he never had a shot to see the field under Richt before. To me it just seemed like it was an explicit statement to set a precedent for any other players that were uncertain following spring ball... no easy outs.