Dooley Now Wishes Georgia Would Have Stressed Academics

ATHENS, Ga. —  Vince Dooley, looking back on the controversies that have plagued Georgia’s sports programs in recent months, wishes he had required higher academic standards for athletes at the university.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the veteran football coach and athletic director expressed concern about his reputation in the aftermath of a federal trial that raised questions about the relationship between academics and athletics at the University of Georgia.

Dooley, whose statewide popularity was so high he considered running for political office last fall, said revelations about preferential academic treatment given to athletes have tarnished his image, but that he feels his integrity is intact.

“I can still feel good about myself despite the fact that the perception is not as good as I would like it to be,” he said at his Athens office.

Georgia and the private corporation which runs its sports programs have been the focus of national criticism following the trial this year of a lawsuit filed by former Georgia teacher Jan Kemp.

The lawsuit against two university officials alleged that Kemp was wrongly dismissed for protesting preferential academic treatment shown to athletes in the school’s remedial studies program.

She was awarded $2.57 million, following testimony that some athletes enrolled in the university were illiterate and others with substandard admissions credentials were admitted.

The trial led to a state audit of the remedial studies program throughout the university system, beginning with Georgia.

And last week, after the state Board of Regents withheld renewal of his contract pending the outcome of that audit, University of Georgia President Fred Davison resigned after 19 years in the post, calling the board’s actions an insult.

Shortly before Davison’s resignation, the Georgia Athletic Association Inc. announced it would open its financial records, an action not legally required because of its status as a private corporation.

Although the association is fighting a court challenge from the Macon Telegraph and News over disclosure of how it spent the $13.7 million it took in last year, Dooley told The AP that he agreed with opening the records and added he believes they should remain open.

“You could see, which you couldn’t see at first, this growing suspicion about the association, that because the books were closed that maybe they have something to hide,” he said.

During the trial of Kemp’s lawsuit, Dooley testified that it would have amounted to “unilateral disarmament” for Georgia to have raised academic standards for athletes without competing schools doing the same.

But he changed that stance Tuesday.

“As I look back on it ... I would try to have done a better job of being more selective than what we were,” Dooley said, referring to Georgia’s practice of recruiting some athletes with poor academic records.

“Obviously, anybody that would say after what we’ve been through, that I would do the same thing all over, would be foolish,” Dooley said. “I mean, it’s like my people asking me would I run the same play again after it was unsuccessful. I’m not that dumb.”

Dooley said that University Vice President for Academic Affairs Virginia Trotter, one of two defendants in Kemp’s suit and the second-highest ranking administrator at Georgia, sometimes balked at his requests that she enroll some athletes with substandard academic credentials, but she never overruled his recommendations.

“She didn’t (deny the requests), but she sent a letter back ... she was very reluctant and kind of gave a signal ‘enough’s enough.’ I got a little firmer in my recommendations as a result of a letter or two from her that we felt like maybe we were asking too many,” he said.

Dooley added that the uproar generated by Kemp’s lawsuit surprised him, although he had discussed the treatment given to athletes in the remedial program with her.

“I knew about the concerns of Jan Kemp because I had a chance to visit with (her). Then I heard that there possibly would be a lawsuit,” he said. “Then all of a sudden it was becoming a reality and I remember thinking ‘Why? Why?’ ... This time being right in the middle of recruiting, the worst possible time you could ever have anything going on that would be controversial.”

In the past, Georgia has followed NCAA guidelines that established a 2.0 high school grade-point average as the sole requirement for the admission of athletes.

The NCAA recently upgraded that standard, an action supported by Dooley and Davison.

Dooley, who is employed by the athletic association, not the university, said he does not think his job is in jeopardy and has no plans to leave.

“I’m in that kind of profession where my job periodically . . . had been questioned and I’ve had suggestions that maybe I would better serve Georgia by not being here. But I don’t think that’s the case now,” he said.

In 23 years, Dooley has amassed a 176-67-10 record, third best among active college football coaches.