70 Years of GT Football – Comparing Teams Under Different Coaches

[GTNavyNuke]

You are spot on Nuke...if one goes back and looks at the talent Rodgers had and he has a ton.......Eddie Lee,Hill,Kent Hill,Don B,etc its clear coaching must have had something to do with our won loss record.Curry to me is good guy but was woefully inept at the start of his career at Tech and Fulcher was ready to thorwo in the towel after only year so yeah.......maybe a Goose or Ken W but we need to get the best not just the best TECH players turned coach.

I'm really hopeful we see Roof as HC one day and he breaks the trend. He had problems as Duke HC over a decade ago and has been Assistant since then. But I think he learned a lot and developed. He could well be the best coach for GT based on what I would think would be his recruiting ability and credibility with alumni. He will be getting the chance to prove his DC ability over the next few years.

 

[alaguy]

Nuke,
just now had a chance to see this-great job,thanks lot
My only thought is that some coaches had a MUCH tougher situation to start from,like GOL from Lewis,which slows their intial yrs

 

[ATL1]

Yeah really good job.
One thing that I can extract was that Gailey actually did fairly well considering his strength of schedule. It really also shows just how good O'Leary was for the program, what if he could have built a solid defense to go along with Friedgen's O.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

It really also shows just how good O'Leary was for the program, what if he could have built a solid defense to go along with Friedgen's O.

It would have been interesting to see if he could have continued to get the quality of players in here with the current APR restrictions. He also would have suffered through flunkgate and the hill's subsequent tightening of the leash.

 

[ATL1]

It would have been interesting to see if he could have continued to get the quality of players in here with the current APR restrictions. He also would have suffered through flunkgate and the hill's subsequent tightening of the leash.

I think he would have been fine.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I think he would have been fine.

I don't. The hill clamped down hard on Gailey's nuts after "flunkgate," the same would have happened to GOL. But the biggest blow to his recruiting success would be APR. GOL did improve grad rates over the last couple coaches, but nothing like it is today. Today's grad rate is no accident, it's a direct result of APR and how it limits who we extend offers to and accept into the program. Half of the guys that played for GOL would not get in today and that's the better half, most likely. We'll never know how it would have worked out, but I highly doubt he would have continued the previous status quo.

Now factor in that Fridge left to coach Maryland before GOL even left Tech and your original post makes little sense.

"It really also shows just how good O'Leary was for the program, what if he could have built a solid defense to go along with Friedgen's O."

 

[GTNavyNuke]

......... My only thought is that some coaches had a MUCH tougher situation to start from,like GOL from Lewis,which slows their intial yrs

Agree, that's why in my mind O'Leary and Ross had better team performance than CPJ so far despite the whole term average statistics being close. CPJ was blessed/cursed with very good performance the first two years which is what has made the last four so difficult for me as a fan. It was only when I looked at the six year picture that I was able to put CPJ in historical perspective.

Another way to look at a coaches success is whether he leaves on his own terms or not. Of the last nine coaches, only three that I can think of left on their own terms. Dodd- retirement from working (Fulcher retired to do non-football things), O'Leary - to go to ND before resume gate, and Ross to the NFL. When all is said and done with CPJ, how how CPJ leaves will confirm his place.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Agree, that's why in my mind O'Leary and Ross had better team performance than CPJ so far despite the whole term average statistics being close. CPJ was blessed/cursed with very good performance the first two years which is what has made the last four so difficult for me as a fan. It was only when I looked at the six year picture that I was able to put CPJ in historical perspective.

Another way to look at a coaches success is whether he leaves on his own terms or not. Of the last nine coaches, only three that I can think of left on their own terms. Dodd- retirement from working (Fulcher retired to do non-football things), O'Leary - to go to ND before resume gate, and Ross to the NFL. When all is said and done with CPJ, how how CPJ leaves will confirm his place.

One could argue Dodd left because he could no longer stomach the unlevel playing field in recruiting. I wouldn't call that leaving on one's own terms.

 

[presjacket]

Agree, that's why in my mind O'Leary and Ross had better team performance than CPJ so far despite the whole term average statistics being close. CPJ was blessed/cursed with very good performance the first two years which is what has made the last four so difficult for me as a fan. It was only when I looked at the six year picture that I was able to put CPJ in historical perspective.

Another way to look at a coaches success is whether he leaves on his own terms or not. Of the last nine coaches, only three that I can think of left on their own terms. Dodd- retirement from working (Fulcher retired to do non-football things), O'Leary - to go to ND before resume gate, and Ross to the NFL. When all is said and done with CPJ, how how CPJ leaves will confirm his place.

I thought Curry left to go to Alabama.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

One could argue Dodd left because he could no longer stomach the unlevel playing field in recruiting. I wouldn't call that leaving on one's own terms.

What you say may be true but we will never know for sure since we don't know what a person thinks, only what he does and says. I don't think it was simply the recruiting situation, but that was part of it.

This is the background given in "Dodd's Luck" (page 239 )which Dodd provided the info for is this:

"In addition to Dodd's growing dissatisfaction with Tech academic policies that inhibited his recruiting - he admitted Georgia Tech had suffered poor recruiting years in both 1964 and '65 - Dodd had health problems. A kidney and prostate condition had plagued him as far back as the previous season."

"There were other health consideration, as well. Besides the headaches, chronic upset stomach, and fever - sometimes as high as 104 degrees - which often accompanied his kidney-prostate condition, Dodd's personality and sleeping habits had changed. In recent months, Dodd had seldom slept a full night, usually waking two or three times during the night. That, Dodd said, was as psychological as it was physical. That, he said, was the pressure the football coach feels. Any football coach. Even Bobby Dodd."​

I think he just got worn out by the pressures and getting older. Dodd left on his own terms and didn't "work" after that except in an emeritus type position for GT. I would think the pressures (as well as compensation of course) are much greater for a HC today than they were then.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I thought Curry left to go to Alabama.

No, he went directly to the Chargers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Ross

 

[awbuzz]

I thought Curry left to go to Alabama.

That's correct... he basically stated he had an opportunity at a school that would fully support football (I paraphrase, but that was the gist of it as I remember...)

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I thought Curry left to go to Alabama.

Thanks, you're right. I had Ross on the brain. Curry went to Alabama on his own terms too. Curry had some good years at the end, except his last year ('85) and wasn't forced out of GT at all.
Kim King's book says the reason that Alabama wanted Curry since the Alabama president had a mission of changing the image of Alabama from a football school to an academic school. He'd also hired Steve Sloan from Duke. (I couldn't make that up. Page 73 of Kim King's Tales From the Georgia TEch Sidelines.)

Guess the Alabama president failed. Curry lasted 3 years at Alabama. Dodd reportedly told Curry that he wouldn't last at Alabama if he didn't win NCs ......

 

[GTRX7]

Curry went:
31-43-4 at Tech
26-10 at Alabama
26-52 at Kentucky
10-23 at Ga State

Think the school doesn't matter?

 

[awbuzz]

Makes a BIG difference GTRX7... makes a BIG difference.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

In '84 and '85, we were pretty good. But outside of that, not really. The sad thing is that the three times (Fulcher, Rodgers, Curry) we have tried GT players as our HC, it hasn't worked out too well. I'd like nothing better than a GT player to really succeed as GT HC.

Yes, as we have noted before, "Tech men" have not fared well as coaches here.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

We all love Dodd, and for good reason, but there is a reason he got out of football when he did. Many point to 1964-65 as a turning point in college football, not just at Tech but nationally. Back when athletes had to be legitimate students Tech could keep up in recruiting. Now the South is a hotbed of incredible high school football talent, 75-80% of which is ineligible to play for Tech, but which Alabama, Auburn, uga, and others can stock pile year after year. If and when college football quits being a minor league system for the pros Tech will again be among the elite.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

OK, Dodd would be the answer if you limit to football. But I asked this before the Clemson baseball game. I was fishing for Danny Hall ....... The trick was I also had FSU and VT in there and I don't think Dodd played FSU and VT .....

But back to football, this entire exercise made me appreciate CPJ more than I did after we lost to UGAg and the bowl game. Dodd was the master

Dodd was 4-0-1 against FSU from 1952 to 1963. The tie was the week before Tech beat Bama 7-6 in 1962. Dodd's teams never played VT.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I didn't really realize how bad we were under Curry

Few of the Johnson haters DO realize how bad we were under Curry. Hell, he was 0-1-1 against Furman, for crying out loud.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

In '84 and '85, we were pretty good. But outside of that, not really. The sad thing is that the three times (Fulcher, Rodgers, Curry) we have tried GT players as our HC, it hasn't worked out too well. I'd like nothing better than a GT player to really succeed as GT HC.

Fulcher COULD have succeeded, but unfortunately, he had a screwed up marriage that pretty much put the end to his coaching. He was the ideal Dodd disciple and one of Dodd's favorites, both as a player and an assistant.