I realize that few things in life are either/or, and don’t know if this has been researched or quantified or not, but I wonder whether most fans would rather win, style of offense be damned, or play a particular style of offense (“big boy” football) against teams that may be better funded, better coached, more attractive to rated recruits and just more committed overall to “winning” and have a program that cannot seem to turn the corner. Somebody, perhaps the big donors, chose the latter, but I wonder if that represents the “druthers” of the majority of Tech fans.
That is an interesting question. In the current state of NIL, etc., I certainly don't think Tech can compete to be a top 10 program consistently. What I
do feel is achievable is a mostly top 25 program , with the occasional "off year", and the occasional top 10-15 year. IMO, our problems in the last 10-15 years have been building
quality depth. That has been exacerbated by the current popularity of the transfer portal. We rarely have improved our team through the portal, it has pretty much been a wash.
We need a very well coached team, with the ability to recruit and coach up in all phases of the game. We need smart, disciplined, dialed in, players- not distracted by
"sideshows" in practice or in games. And we don't just need a few of these players on the team. We need the majority , and some leaders , too.
With the above conditions, I think we can run a "conventional" RPO offense , and an attacking, ball hawking defense, with very good special teams. Can we do all that with the current staff ? Based on the first 3 years performance , NO WAY. Maybe this year will be a surprise and we will start performing better. I am hopeful, but not optimistic.