Ex-UGA coach Jim Donnan brings insight and humor - plenty - to Macon TD Club visit

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

            Not that he had one much when he was coaching, but when Jim Donnan went from the sideline to civilian life, the muzzle came off.

            And he’s been entertaining and honest ever since, as the Macon Touchdown Club was reminded Monday night.

            The former Georgia head coach can be sharp and blunt without being mean, and he has always been one of the smarter people in the coaching business outside of the coaching business. He wasn’t all that cuddly with the media when coaching, but has become quite the member of the media.

            Interestingly, for many reasons, he still lives in Athens, home to where his coaching career ended with a firing despite plenty of success. And he stayed there through a financial scandal in which he was accused of participating in a Ponzi scheme and faced 41 counts of fraud-related charges. He was found not guilty in 2014.

            And he mentioned that while discussing the joy of being a coach and being a former coach, and the relationship with players.

            “One of the best things you can ever do as a coach … is when your guys start calling you up and they come by and they still call you ‘Coach,’ ” he said. “It makes you feel good when sometimes things aren’t going as good.

            “I know most of you have seen I sorta had some issues in my own life,” he said. “But one of the most important things for me was to clear my name and make sure I could stand up here and still be ‘Coach.’ That means a lot to me.”

            That was after he came out on a roll.

            The club has a spot where a representative of a major sponsor gets a few minutes to promote the business. This go ‘round, it was OrthoGeorgia and State Bank. Add to that the introduction from Les Jones, a district manager for Kroger, who humorously injected some Kroger specials to the crowd before bringing up Donnan.

            Donnan interjects “stories” and jokes with his experiences, and he’s quick on his feet and pays attention.

            He told a story about a Kroger “superstore” in Athens, and an employee in the produce department who was asked by a customer for a half a head of lettuce. The employee and customer went back and forth about it, and then to a manager.

            “Some jerk in the back wants a half a head of lettuce,” the employee tells the manager, before realizing the customer was right behind him. “And this nice guy wants the other half.”

            The manager is impressed, and chats with the quick-thinking employee and finds out he’s from Canada. Surprised, the manager asks how he got to the Kroger in Athens.

            “Well, there’s nothing but prostitutes and hockey players up in Canada.”

            “I’m going to tell you something right now. I take offense to that. My wife’s from Canada.”

            “No (bleep), what team’s she play for?”

            OrthoGeorgia CEO Bill Lindsey earlier had recited the stats of how many different patients had visited and how many procedures the facility had done in the past year, figures that would grow with the eventual opening of its spine center on Northside Drive, as well as new advances.

            Donnan remembered that in the middle of his Kroger tale.

            “I guarantee you, if you operate on everybody in this place at that ortho place …” he said. “Everybody in town has had a hip replaced down there. You guys have got some stats, man, I’ll tell you what. Can I get a deal? I need a new shoulder, I’m (coming down here).”

            Donnan had a few such stories – yes, there was a shot or two at Florida in there - before he got into some college football.

            He wants to see an eight-team playoff on the FBS level, citing college basketball and that it’s hard to figure out who the top four are for the football playoff. The first playoff poll comes out Tuesday, and after Alabama and Clemson, Donnan noted how many teams could be in that third and fourth spot.

            One of those candidates is LSU, which welcomes Alabama on Saturday in one of the season’s most anticipated games, thanks in part to the Tigers dumping of Georgia a few weeks ago.

            “I think Alabama at this point hasn’t really been challenged because (of) their schedule, but I don’t know if anybody can really challenge them right now,” he said. “You got to pump the breaks a little bit, because you never know how a team’s going to handle adversity.”

            As good as LSU was against Georgia, the Tigers will need to be substantially better against the Tide.

            “What it’s going to come down to is can LSU manufacture enough points,” Donnan said. “ You’re not gonna beat Alabama kicking five field goals like they did against Mississippi State, and four like they did against us. We were very fortunate the game wasn’t worse.”

            Donnan clearly remains close to the Georgia program. He said his relationship with successor Mark Richt was fine, but his connection to Georgia got a little stronger once Kirby Smart – who played for Donnan – took over, and Donnan sees many of his former players more.

            Still, he’s honest.

            “Made some mistakes his first year, but really ratified the things that were hurting them,” Donnan said of Smart. “This year … I think they’re not quite as talented as people want them to be. Sixty-three percent of the team is freshmen and sophomores, so I think everything’s ahead of them.”

            It’s pretty much a good thing that Donnan was done before the social media explosion took place.

            “I tell ya, Twitter’s tough,” he said. “I say some stuff to my neighbor sometimes and the next morning, it’s on Twitter. I like to go into Kroger, but I don’t want the cashier to ask me what I think’s gonna happen.

            “Can you imagine Bear Bryant being on Twitter?”

            He was asked about college players being paid.

            “Are you talking about over the table or under the table,” he said, laughing with the audience. “Is that a rhetorical question?”

            On other topics:

            He doesn’t think Notre Dame will join – or be forced to join – a conference. The targeting rule is good, but tough. He said Barry Switzer, under whom he coached when Oklahoma won a national championship, was one of the smartest people he ever coached with.

            He likes instant replay: “I guarantee you, I’d have given everything I got to have instant replay against Tech in ‘99”. The Jasper Sanks fumble.

            The menu for the evening included fried chicken and dirty rice and green beans, and Donnan again showed he pays attention.

            “Whatever y’all gave Paul Johnson to eat when he came down here … you did the right damn thing,” he said of the Georgia Tech coach, whose team went on to hammer Virginia Tech on the road. “He really came on, didn’t he? That was an impressive win over Virginia Tech. Man, it scares me. We gotta play them in three weeks.

            “Is there any way y’all can get that kid (quarterback and Northside alum Tobias Oliver) to miss the bus?”