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Rodney Garner to remain with UGA
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Rodney Garner, the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator for the University of Georgia, is staying in Athens after all. Garner briefly flirted with taking a similar position at the University of Tennessee under new head coach Lane Kiffin, but chose instead to remain with the Bulldogs. Garner is entering his 11th year with UGA and was brought in under then head coach Jim Donnan.
While it was speculated that Garner was being offered upwards around $400,000 for the new position—his current position pays him $231,000—but Garner insists the main draw to the Tennessee job was working under new defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin. Monte Kiffin is the father of head coach Lane Kiffin and is a very well respected defensive coordinator. The elder Kiffin left his position as defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to join his son, and is known for inventing the “Tampa 2” defense that made the Bucs so competitive for so many years.
Garner noted that the draw to work with Monte Kiffin was huge because of the elder Kiffin’s coaching pedigree. Monte Kiffin, like Mike Holmgren of the Seattle Seahawks, has had many assistants under him who have learned and went on to bigger and better coaching positions. Garner has made it very well known that he aspires to be more than an assistant coach and one day become a head coach.
At the end of the day, however, Garner chose to remain with UGA and Mark Richt. Per Garner, “Our family felt that we wanted to continue with the goals we had set when Coach Richt came in December of 2000 of helping build the Georgia program.”
