UGA Head Coach Caryl Smith Gilbert… Worth the Hype?

Like any job, get the results or get replaced.

unlike real life, the student is paid in advance for a year without having to produce.

Totally agree, if you don’t produce there’s consequences. However the athletes that were producing got removed over the athletes that were running slower.

Many sides to a story.
let the head coach be the head coach. She’s been excellent everywhere she has worked. the athletes are subordinate to the coaches. The coaches are subordinate to the administration. Allow everyone to do their jobs.

She's been better to boling then Thomas was already

I think it's a positive to have a head coach who looks at the track team as something other then a vehicle to build a multis pro group

This is not true. You can't take someone's scholarship for underperforming or being injured. Basically the only way you can get someone's scholarship back is if they're doing bad academically and are ineligible, or they get in trouble with the law/school. Even then, most of the time people appeal these decisions and keep their scholarships. Telling someone they're cut and then them transferring is different. You would get that money back. If you tell them they're cut and they don't transfer, there isn't anything you can do about them keeping their scholarship because you've signed a 4 year agreement.

With that being said, if a school gives you a ton of money and it's clear that you don't care about contributing/trying to at least progress in the sport, scholarship reductions should be allowed.

Stop stirring up garbage rumors. UGA hired her to WIN. The administration fully supports her doing whatever it takes.

Do you remember with Beth Alford Sullivan cut freshman and took scholarships away during the 1st week of practice when she got hired at Tennessee? Nothing happened to her.

I agree that CSG is 100x better than A. Thomas.

However your statement is disrespectful to Petros because he did bring team championships to both the men's and women's teams.

Well… since she’s new, technically she can reevaluate the whole team after one complete season as head coach. That’s what she’s doing, so she’s fully able to remove athletes’ scholarships. If the athlete chooses not to transfer (and… honestly, it’s already so late in the year to enter the portal anyway) then, from my knowledge, the athletic department pays that former athlete for their school and upholds the “scholarship”. But they can’t be on the team. This way, CSG gets that money to redistribute to another athlete, usually an incoming freshman, on the team.

Does she HAVE to wait one full year? Or is she allowed to get rid of someone's scholarship the first day she takes the head coaching job if someone is clearly not pulling their weight?

The only reason she is winning on the guys side is due to her inheritance of great athletes. Her women’s team has been doing poorly. She only took 3 female athletes to nationals.

Also, winning isn’t everything. I understand it’s a business at the end of the day, however is winning more important than the health and livelihood of your athletes?

Scholarships are year to year.

She can't do what you're describing (have the department uphold the scholarship without it counting) unless that athlete has a medical issue.

She can reduce a scholarship for a variety of reasons and hope the athletes leaves/transfers. Technically you can't for under performance, but lots of coaches do.
They document athletes missing practice, being insubordinate, failing a class, and so forth, and use those as excuses to cut. Some programs will try to cut a scholarship and push the athlete to transfer.

The athlete can also appeal the reduction and go into a kind of appeal process. Most athletes are ignorant to that.

Her women's team is doing poorly because several of the top Georgia women transferred when the coaching change was made, including one woman, Anna Hall, who just made the World Championship team in the heptathlon. And another women who is the top NCAA long jumper and triple jumper in the country also tranferred. Georgia lost A LOT of female talent.

No... this is also not true. You can't "reevaluate" the team after a year and then just take anyone's scholarships. This is not some sort of NCAA rule, which it seems like you're insinuating. An NLI is between the school and athlete and has nothing to do with current coaches/new coaches. If this has ever happened, it's been at a handful of schools that have money to blow and it was definitely under the table.

Generally, scholarships are not year to year. Most athletes sign a 4-year National Letter of Intent when they commit, so their scholarship is good for 4 years. It can only be increased from there on.

She has a great class coming in next season heading to Georgia. I thought she did a great job at UCF and definitely at USC. Do you if any of her current athletes at Georgia is in the transfer portal?

She inherited a Men’s team that’s very talented and already experienced enough to win the ncaa title.

You couldn't be more wrong about this. A scholarship is a 1 year renewable deal. Now, some schools have their own "rules" about reducing or cutting, but the documents that are signed clearly state that it is for one year. I know some schools are infamous for making a coach ride out a bad mistake as far as signing a high dollar dirt-bag who comes in and then decides they want to live the party life. Those schools will not let the coach cut the athlete no matter what. I remember Kansas being famous for this. Other schools, well, you better not look at the coach sideways, or else....

Upon leaving Central FL, CSG did an awesome job at USC.

At USC, CSG took a decent program and converted it into a great program. They utilized regular season meets to prepare for big meets (didn’t over-compete athletes). She coached up athletes on the track and off (multiple athletes became Olympic athletes for the US as well as other countries including GB, Sweden and Australia). USC athletes earned rigorous degrees and several actually earned Masters too, with the extra Covid year. The remaining USC staff that she recruited and led with a couple of replacements are now still running a strong Trojan program.