Jim Donnan’s Advice Echoes Mark Richt’s Parting Words
Seven months after Mark Richt’s final press conference, previous Georgia head coach Jim Donnan has given Kirby Smart some advice that echoes Richt’s parting words.
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When Mark Richt spoke for the final time as a member of the Georgia Bulldog family on November 30, 2015, he reflected on what he would change if he had the chance to do it all over again. His answer? Spend more time coaching in the offseason rather than attending every alumni meeting, booster meeting, or public appearance put o .
"In season, people don’t always expect a lot from me in regard to speaking engagements or be there for this or that or the other. As soon as the season ends, everybody’s like ‘Coach is free, he’s not doing anything. Let’s see if we can get him to help us out here and there.’ I enjoy doing a lot of those things. But you don’t really have the time, in my opinion, that you need to do it.If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t say so much as going backwards as much going forwards, if I do decide to coach again that especially as a head coach and trying to do these things, which I would want to do, I have to make sure there’s enough support around me to do certain things. Also let people on the front end [know], I’m going to be coaching in the offseason too. I’m going to be preparing for the season and just get the expectations to where everybody understands where I’m at on the front end.Mark Richt, Former Georgia Head Coach"
Now, almost seven months later, Jim Donnan has given some similar to advice to Richt’s replacement: Kirby Smart.
“The one thing that I told him was that the biggest mistake that I made my first year was that I spent way too much time with the alumni clubs speaking and trying to promote the program rather than being with the players,” Donnan told Bleacher Report.
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Donnan joined the program under similar circumstances to Smart. He took over as head coach in 1996 after Ray Goff’s team struggled with him at the helm over a six season span.
This time around, Smart seems to have taken heed to the words his predecessors have spoken. Smart has scaled back his alumni club commitments from those Richt was set to attend, in hopes of spending more time with his team.
Although you can never get away from every outside commitment as a head coach, those watching the first year coach with a close eye will likely be more thankful rather than ungrateful for this decision as he attempts to pull a team together and produce a winning season in his first year.