Georgia football coach Mark Richt received a one-week ban from calling recruits after committing an NCAA secondary violation for impermissible contact with a recruit on Aug. 20. The school admitted to the NCAA that it had

Todd Grantham should be fired. Now. The Georgia defensive coordinator who made a “choke” gesture and yelled obscenities at Chas Henry as the Florida kicker was lining up for the winning overtime field goal in last Saturday’s game, should be relieved of his employment. He won’t be, of course. Georgia Coach Mark Richt has already downplayed the incident, but the SEC should step in and at least suspend Grantham for one, if not multiple games. — Lexington Herald-Leader

Todd Grantham, Georgia’s defensive coordinator, was shown seemingly giving the “choke” sign before Florida’s Chas Henry lined up to attempt a winning field goal in Saturday’s game in Jacksonville. Attempts to reach Grantham since this morning have been unsuccessful. Georgia sports information director Claude Felton said Grantham has been in meetings all day and can’t be reached. Now, it would be understandable if Grantham thought, “Choke!” or “Miss it!” in his head. It wouldn’t even be surprising a Georgia player yelled, “Choke!” or grabbed his neck. But for a 44-year-old college coach to be grabbing his neck when a 21-year-old is lining up for a field goal? That would be a bit much. It would be over the line — certainly not to the point of when Woody Hayes punched a Clemson player in the 1978 Gator Bowl, but excessive nonetheless. Grantham was hired from  the Dallas Cowboys to replace the fired Willie Martinez and given a three-year contract worth $750,000 per year.  — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia tailback Caleb King thought the fine for his speeding ticket had been paid and said a miss-communications was to blame for his Oct. 11 arrest for failure to appear in court. Speaking to the media for the first time since the arrest, King wouldn’t name who he thought had paid his fine for a speeding ticket in Walton County on June 20. Subsequently, he didn’t attend his Aug. 6 court date. “It was a miscommunication, and unfortunately I had to get in trouble for it,” King said Monday. “I thought it was taken care of.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

At one time Mark Richt’s record at Georgia was 56-13 in five-plus seasons during which he led the Bulldogs to two SEC titles. The Bulldogs’ record since then under Richt is 35-17, including 1-3 this year heading into Saturday’s game at Colorado. In the aftermath of a 24-12 loss at Mississippi State on Saturday night that gave the Bulldogs three consecutive losses for the first time in 20 years, even some long-time Richt supporters are wondering whether his time with the Bulldogs should be nearing its end. “There’s no doubt that it’s the toughest bit of adversity that we’ve faced since I’ve been here,” Richt said. Richt was referring not just to on-the-field performance, but also several players arrested off the field. On the day after Georgia slid to 0-3 in the SEC for the first time since 1993, Richt had to deal with the arrest of a 10th player this year. Linebacker Demetre Baker was dismissed from the team Sunday after his arrest on DUI and two other charges.

• Starting with a 45-19 loss at Tennessee on Oct. 10, 2009, Georgia has gone 6-6 in its last 12 games.

For Georgia to extend its nation-leading streak of consecutive seasons of eight wins or more to 14 would take a big turnaround.

With eight regular season games to go, Georgia needs to:

• Go 5-3 just to finish the regular season with a .500 record at 6-6 and become bowl-eligible.

• Win five games to avoid its first losing season since going 5-6 in 1996.

• Win three of its final five SEC games to avoid its first losing record in the conference since 1996. Georgia still has to play Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, No. 7 Florida and No. 10 Auburn.

The Georgia Bulldogs are off to an 0-2 start in the Southeastern Conference for the first time since 1993, making their first goal every season – to win the SEC East and get to Atlanta – already appear out of reach. Only twice has an SEC team started 0-2 in conference play and reached the league’s title game: LSU in 2001 when it won the league championship under Nick Saban and Arkansas in 2002. No SEC East team has managed to climb out of an 0-2 hole and reach the title game. Georgia would seem hard-pressed to do it considering the Bulldogs have lost six of their last eight SEC games dating back to last season. — Athens Banner-Herald

Bobby Bowden on Georgia coach Mark Richt’s players having problems off the field. “I don’t know of anybody that works harder than Mark to try to get his boys to go by the rules and do what’s right. It just shows you. The kids have to live their life. They have to make that decision. To me, one of the biggest problems we’ve got, some of them are not getting the training at home. Just think about it. Here’s a kid that’s raised by his parents 17, 18 years. Then he comes to Florida State, gets in trouble. The parents say, ‘Why can’t you keep my kid out of trouble?’ I say, ‘Look, you had him for 18 years. I’ve had him one. Give me time. I’ll get it straightened out.’ That’s kind of the way it’s going now.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By the time Georgia hired Greg McGarity as its athletic director, 88 people had applied for the position, many of them with little or no experience in sports management. Georgia released the full list of applicants Wednesday morning in response to an open-records request from the AJC. Forty-nine of the names, including McGarity’s, were released Aug. 5 in response to a previous request by the AJC. New names on the latest list included former Georgia football player Matt Stinchcomb, Missouri executive associate athletic director Whit Babcock and Sacramento State athletic director Terry Wanless. — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s official. Georgia had to report a secondary NCAA violation to the Southeastern Conference because of a picture I took at the end of UGA’s “Dawg Night” prospect camp on July 16 in Athens. I’ve come to call it “Picturegate.” UGA’s paperwork was sent to the SEC office by Interim AD Frank Crumley on August 9, copies of which I obtained last week via a Freedom of Information request. To be accurate, I should say “copy,” as in a single page. Not much to it really. Just a letter from Crumley to SEC Commissioner Mike Slive stating Georgia was reporting an “institutional violation” because “an assistant football coach posed for a picture with a prospective student-athlete (PSA)” at a camp and the picture ran on a newspaper’s website (wonder which one?). After that the letter essentially apologizes and says they’ll try not to let it happen again. “We regret the violation occurred and will work towards implementing a policy for attendance at camps that specifies the media may not be present on the field when camps are over,” UGA suggested. — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Florida associate athletic director Greg McGarity and long-time NFL executive Jim Steeg are among 49 people who have asked to be considered for the vacant athletic-director position at the University of Georgia. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday obtained, under Georgia’s Open Records Act, copies of e-mails, letters and resumes submitted to UGA by McGarity, Steeg and others applying for the position vacated by the resignation last month of Damon Evans. McGarity — an Athens native, a UGA graduate and the No. 2 athletics official at Florida -– made a pitch for the job in a letter to Tom Gausvik, UGA’s associate vice president for human resources. “I have been very fortunate to work alongside the very best in collegiate athletics at two outstanding institutions, the University of Georgia and the University of Florida, over the last three decades,” McGarity wrote. “I know what it takes to lead and direct an athletic program at the highest level, and am ready to lead the University of Georgia Athletic Association into the future. “I look forward to having the opportunity to compete for this position.” Steeg, who recently resigned as president of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, wrote to UGA President Michael Adams, asking to be considered for the job despite having no experience in college athletics. — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Despite 90 wins, two SEC titles and complete dominance of instate rival Georgia Tech, Mark Richt is still fielding questions about if he is coaching for his job this season. While there is evidence to build a case against Richt — a 2-7 record versus Florida and last year’s eight-win season — the past decade as been one of the most successful eras in Georgia’s history.   For those arguing one way or the other, Richt isn’t paying much attention. “Not really. I understand the business,” he said. “I understand just how things go. So I don’t worry about it. My goal is to focus on the important things and the things I can control. I can control my attitude. I can control my effort. I can control, you know, certain things. That’s what I focus on. Then the things I can’t control, I just trust the Lord with that. That’s kind of how I’ve been operating since 1986.” — Macon Telegraph