ATHENS - As we await official word on Georgia's underclassmen, here are a few tidbits on the coaching front that I thought I'd pass along:

- A serious candidate for the vacant defensive line coaching job is David Turner, who was part of Joker Phillips' staff at Kentucky. Turner held the title of assistant head coach the past three years at Kentucky, then was not retained by new head coach Mark Stoops. But Turner is known as a good recruiter, and word is Phillips - now the recruiting coordinator at Florida - has put in a good word with Georgia head coach Mark Richt about Turner.

Prior to Turner's stint at Kentucky, he spent three years at Mississippi State, where he recruited and coached Fletcher Cox, the defensive tackle who went on to be a first-round pick last year.

Turner's candidacy was first reported by Dawgs247.com, then confirmed independently through a source.

Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, who is taking a key role in hiring the replacement for Rodney Garner, has been tight-lipped about the search, and after Tuesday's bowl game didn't give a timetable for a hire. Grantham left the Georgia practice facility around 10:30 a.m. on Friday to hit the recruiting trail.

- A few minutes after Grantham left his office to recruit, so did offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, who by all indications is set to get a raise, and perhaps a longer contract.

I sat down on Friday morning with athletics director Greg McGarity, for an in-depth Q&A which will run in Sunday's papers. I did ask McGarity about Bobo being rewarded with a better deal, just as Grantham was after last season.

"Yeah we’ll talk. We really haven’t had a chance to sit down in earnest with Mark, and go over a bunch of plans. We have not talked really about details," McGarity said. "We’ve talked about a few things in general that will remain between he and I. But we really haven’t sat down since the bowl game was over with and had a definite plan of action.

"But I think Mike and his staff have had just an exceptional year. Recruiting, the whole nine yards, there it’s really been fun to watch. You can’t argue the success that we’ve had offensively. It’s amazing to see how the offense has grown now that you have some quality running backs. You now have that threat back there, and will have for years to come. That’s what makes the offense so successful, is you can’t focus on one thing. Just think about your wideouts: I mean you lose Marlon Brown and you lose Michael Bennett, and boy you’ve got kids that step up. And in the bowl game, even with Malcolm Mitchell out, Justin Scott-Wesley steps up. So obviously by the practice and by the preparation, all this stuff, we pretty well got the job done with your three top receivers out and still had remarkable passing numbers."

Bobo is only signed through this summer; Grantham is the only assistant coach on a multi-year deal. So would McGarity be comfortable giving Bobo a multi-year deal?

"Those are things that Mark and I are discussing," McGarity said. "Those are the things we really haven’t sat down, face-to-face, and talked about those things. He and I are in a good place right now."