119 YEARS OF GT FOOTBALL / COACHES & RECORDS

Heisman's Ghost

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jacketup

jacketup

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Heisman's Ghost said:
Usually it does. That said, the great coaches like Heisman, Dodd, O'Leary, and Johnson begin to make a difference almost immediately. We will see if Coach Collins approach with an emphasis on recruiting works.
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So Bobby Ross is not a great coach because his first two years were bad, but Paul Johnson--who went 53-53 (FBS) over his last nine years at Tech---is a great coach because his first two years were good?

I am not following that logic. I'll quote Urban Meyer again: College football begins and ends with recruiting. Coach Johnson proved the difference that recruiting makes by his record the first two years and his record the last nine years (on average). He didn't forget how to coach, he just didn't have the talent. And what he left behind was worse than that, and here we are.....
 

Heisman's Ghost

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jacketup said:
So Bobby Ross is not a great coach because his first two years were bad, but Paul Johnson--who went 53-53 (FBS) over his last nine years at Tech---is a great coach because his first two years were good?

I am not following that logic. I'll quote Urban Meyer again: College football begins and ends with recruiting. Coach Johnson proved the difference that recruiting makes by his record the first two years and his record the last nine years (on average). He didn't forget how to coach, he just didn't have the talent. And what he left behind was worse than that, and here we are.....
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I forgot about him. He was already a great coach at Maryland. "College football begins and ends with recruiting" Oh? The coaching landscape is full of coaches that were great recruiters and little else. Coach Johnson accomplished a lot during his time here. Last time we won a Orange Bowl was during the Dodd years over a half century ago. That was after the two years you mentioned. He did about as well as expected. Recruiting by itself will not build this program but it is job one especially recruiting linemen.
 

Heisman's Ghost

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jacketup said:
So Bobby Ross is not a great coach because his first two years were bad, but Paul Johnson--who went 53-53 (FBS) over his last nine years at Tech---is a great coach because his first two years were good?

I am not following that logic. I'll quote Urban Meyer again: College football begins and ends with recruiting. Coach Johnson proved the difference that recruiting makes by his record the first two years and his record the last nine years (on average). He didn't forget how to coach, he just didn't have the talent. And what he left behind was worse than that, and here we are.....
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ncjacket79 said:
Depends on the state of the program they take over.
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Well, Alexander did not do Coach Dodd any favors. Tech was in pretty bad shape when Dodd took over in 1945 and within a few years they were playing in the Orange Bowl. Unfortunately, Coach Ross stepped into such a mess that he later said had he known it was so bad he would never have come to Tech. Coach O'Leary took over for the "one whose name shall not be mentioned" which tells you what he was facing. Collins faces a challenge every bit as much as any of them but does have the luxury of a supportive AD and a commitment to better facilities and such. Personally, the coach who had the worst situation was none of these guys but Bill Curry.
 
slugboy

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Heisman's Ghost said:
Well, Alexander did not do Coach Dodd any favors. Tech was in pretty bad shape when Dodd took over in 1945 and within a few years they were playing in the Orange Bowl. Unfortunately, Coach Ross stepped into such a mess that he later said had he known it was so bad he would never have come to Tech. Coach O'Leary took over for the "one whose name shall not be mentioned" which tells you what he was facing. Collins faces a challenge every bit as much as any of them but does have the luxury of a supportive AD and a commitment to better facilities and such. Personally, the coach who had the worst situation was none of these guys but Bill Curry.
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GT President Pettit was...well nearly unexplainable if you weren’t there when he was.

I believe Curry did have Homer Rice as AD—who was possibly our best AD.
 

Heisman's Ghost

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slugboy said:
GT President Pettit was...well nearly unexplainable if you weren’t there when he was.

I believe Curry did have Homer Rice as AD—who was possibly our best AD.
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What Homer and Coach Curry did in just a few short years was nothing short of miraculous. The absolute worst Division 1 facilities in the nation, an administration that was unrelentingly hostile to athletics and in particular football. There was actually talk of "deemphasizing football or doing away with it entirely" There were even problems with our uniforms and Curry faced a divided alumni base because of the Pepper fall out. You would have to go back about 40 years to the end of Alexander's time to find the athletic program in such disarray. Coach Collins has challenges to be sure but compared to that he has a walk in the park.
 
Gtbowhunter90

Gtbowhunter90

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Heisman's Ghost said:
What Homer and Coach Curry did in just a few short years was nothing short of miraculous. The absolute worst Division 1 facilities in the nation, an administration that was unrelentingly hostile to athletics and in particular football. There was actually talk of "deemphasizing football or doing away with it entirely" There were even problems with our uniforms and Curry faced a divided alumni base because of the Pepper fall out. You would have to go back about 40 years to the end of Alexander's time to find the athletic program in such disarray. Coach Collins has challenges to be sure but compared to that he has a walk in the park.
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Sounds like a very rough time to be around GT athletics or be a GT athlete in general..... Tech snobs are the worst
 
forensicbuzz

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To understand Pettit, you had to know Pettit. My F-I-L was pretty close with Pettit. He told me that Pettit did like athletics and wanted them to success. But, he was a staunch academic and wanted to make Georgia Tech a world-class research university. He felt to do that, GT could not set aside the academic integrity of the whole university to compete against Alabama, uga, and other schools that were willing to sacrifice academics for athletic success. He thought the GT he envisioned better fit the Ivy League model than the Div. 1A model and that was part of the downturn. He was wrong. Period. It almost killed Tech Football, but it didn't. Like a phoenix, we rose from the ashes, and under the leadership of Homer Rice and Bobby Ross, with the support of Pat Crecine, we won a national championship in 1990.

Nothing after 1990 can be attributed to Dr. Pettit. I've got to say, Homer's biggest mistake was made in 1992. That and the hiring of Clough's Clown were the worst two football-related decisions made in the past 30 years.
 
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