A history lesson

[Whiskey_Clear]

One year, GT scored 110 points against our nine 1-A (FBS) opponents. That's about 12 points per game. We lost all 9 games.



Who was our OC?



Ralph Friedgen.


1987 was a similar situation to the one we have in 2019. Curry ran a "3 yards and cloud of dust" offense. Ross came in determined to install a balanced offense. It took until a 1/3 of the way through his 3rd year for things to click (and to bring in recruits). We won 17 of our next 19 games. This isn't sandlot football. Even Bobby Ross and Ralph Friedgen couldn't install a precision passing offense in 2 seasons.

Just my way of saying a high percentage of posters on this board are clueless knuckleheads.

So you are saying Pnoob is destined for greatness?

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

We are three games in. Give him a chance before hurling insults like calling him Pat Nix.

I think he was saying it’s too early to equate him with Nix but I may have misread. It’s way to early to claim he’s good or bad. It’s never to early to mention what has been good or bad however. And thus far there is more bad than we’d like. Plenty of time to change our minds either way.

 

[jacket_fan]

One of Fridgens strengths was his ability to coach quarterbacks. I believe he made Hamilton and Godsey into great quarterbacks. I think Jones will always be under rated for his ability, but I am getting off point.

Whether Pnude can do this at the P5 level is TBD. But my bet is that we will not celebrate Pnude like we do Fridgen.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Go read any of his posts, it's all in the players, none on coaching. I've already said it's tough to run any offense when you are running with walk ons on most of the line. Shouldn't have that this weekend though. And it's funny to say someone is in "protect Johnson at all costs" mode but not call out someone else who is in the mode of blame Johnson at an costs good it current issues.

Hey, wake up and smell the coffee. We’re no longer in “protect the coach” at all costs mode. The dude said said we’d be playing Big Boy football. GT’s football team needs to man up. We made excuses for 10 years. It’s time for some freaking accountability on the Flats. Beat Citadel, Beat Dook, Beat Temple, knock off UNC, Pitt, Wake or any other other ACC weaklings we play. Quit whining like a little girl all the time things don’t do your way. CPJ is gone. Get over it, he’s not coming back.

 

[Milwaukee]

Lmao #gtswarm

 

[JPaul]

Fairly good assessment. Is there any way to get a refund for FB season tickets and parking? For that matter, BB too? I may not be around when they finally get the act(s) together.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Fairly good assessment. Is there any way to get a refund for FB season tickets and parking? For that matter, BB too? I may not be around when they finally get the act(s) together.

It feels like it. We may not have a season ticket drive next year. We have officially gone from Power Five to Powder Puff. This reminds me of Curry ‘s first year and B*L* last.

 

[AE 87]

To continue with the OP's history lesson. The 1986 team was 5-5-1 (3-3 in conference). There was huge locker-room unrest because of the hire of Ross. Still, Ross contemplated quitting coaching that 1987.

 

[FredJacket]

@ilovetheoption ...weigh in with your perspective if you'd like.

If I'm not mistaken, Bronco Mendenhall is in year 4 of his "cultural adjustment" at UVA. He arrived after the team finished 2015 at an unimpressive 4-8. This is his progression:
2016: 2-12 (1-7) Season included a home loss to FCS Richmond
2017: 6-7 (3-5) UVA was destroyed by Navy in bowl game
2018: 8-5 (4-4) Shutout USCe in Belk Bowl
2019: 4-1 (2-0) Ranked & Frontrunner/Favorite to win Coastal.

Lots of apples & oranges in the details... but the fanbase was none too happy with his year #1. Lots of talk about his ideas/culture never working. In 2 more seasons...He's got UVA football relevant again.

I plan to be patient with CGC. This year is going to be an all-timer bad season. But... give the guy a chance to aquire a few of his pieces & then see about results.

Also... for the record, I know Bronco & Collins are vastly different in their approach & personality...but that is not my point. Charlottesville/UVA & Atlanta/GT are vastly different too.

 

[ilovetheoption]

@ilovetheoption ...weigh in with your perspective if you'd like.

If I'm not mistaken, Bronco Mendenhall is in year 4 of his "cultural adjustment" at UVA. He arrived after the team finished 2015 at an unimpressive 4-8. This is his progression:
2016: 2-12 (1-7) Season included a home loss to FCS Richmond
2017: 6-7 (3-5) UVA was destroyed by Navy in bowl game
2018: 8-5 (4-4) Shutout USCe in Belk Bowl
2019: 4-1 (2-0) Ranked & Frontrunner/Favorite to win Coastal.

Lots of apples & oranges in the details... but the fanbase was none too happy with his year #1. Lots of talk about his ideas/culture never working. In 2 more seasons...He's got UVA football relevant again.

I plan to be patient with CGC. This year is going to be an all-timer bad season. But... give the guy a chance to aquire a few of his pieces & then see about results.

Also... for the record, I know Bronco & Collins are vastly different in their approach & personality...but that is not my point. Charlottesville/UVA & Atlanta/GT are vastly different too.

This is largely why I'm cautioning you guys toward patience.

I've been open and honest about Mendenhall; I think he's a clown. I think he's chock full of BS, and I wouldn't send my son to play for him.

That said, he's clearly a solid football coach, and good enough that if he never gets any better, but we stay at the level we're at, they'll build him a statue in 20 years at UVa.

The point is, you don't have to like Collins' style. You can think he's a putz, and all had and no cattle, but you have to give him a chance, because maybe he can be a putz, and still win at GT.

As Taylor Rockwell likes to say, a thing can be two things.

 

[4shotB]

I've been open and honest about Mendenhall; I think he's a clown.

That said, he's clearly a solid football coach, and good enough that if he never gets any better, but we stay at the level we're at, they'll build him a statue in 20 years at UVa.

I wish you would post more often because you bring so much needed outside perspective.

GT fans were vocal in their conviction that Dabo is a cwn, Now that he has some natty's most of them just mutter that under our breath. We would only be happy with either Saban or Bellichek...the sour, grumpy old guys who happen to win championships. All others will be found lacking and crucified for their body language, semantics, press conferences, etc. Chan got this treatment, Paul did as well and now we are doing it to Geoff after 4 games. We apparently don't like coaches who are dumb enough to want to coach here.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

A bit of Georgia Tech football history.

Going back 100 years, we have 4 seasons where we won only 1 game.
1994, we beat Western Carolina by 19 points.
1981, we beat #2 Alabama on the road by 2 points.
1980, we beat Memphis State by 11 points.
1934, we beat Clemson by 5 points.

This year we beat USF by 4 points. So, sadly, if we don't win another game, this would be the single worst performance by our football team in well over 100 years. I sure hope that doesn't get hung around this staff's neck.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I wish you would post more often because you bring so much needed outside perspective.

GT fans were vocal in their conviction that Dabo is a cwn, Now that he has some natty's most of them just mutter that under our breath. We would only be happy with either Saban or Bellichek...the sour, grumpy old guys who happen to win championships. All others will be found lacking and crucified for their body language, semantics, press conferences, etc. Chan got this treatment, Paul did as well and now we are doing it to Geoff after 4 games. We apparently don't like coaches who are dumb enough to want to coach here.

Dabo is a clown. But he's smart enough and has enough money to buy the best coaching staff and players in the nation. But he's still a clown. After UNC missed the 2 point conversion and Clemson lucked out with the win, he said they're not superstars and unbeatable - they're just regular people like everyone else. That's the biggest laughable bunch of horse **** I've heard from someone in a long time. They have more 5-stars on their roster than most teams have 4-stars. They have assistant coaches making more than head coaches.

 

[Animal02]

A bit of Georgia Tech football history.

Going back 100 years, we have 4 seasons where we won only 1 game.
1994, we beat Western Carolina by 19 points.
1981, we beat #2 Alabama on the road by 2 points.
1980, we beat Memphis State by 11 points.
1934, we beat Clemson by 5 points.

This year we beat USF by 4 points. So, sadly, if we don't win another game, this would be the single worst performance by our football team in well over 100 years. I sure hope that doesn't get hung around this staff's neck.

Well, half the posters here would hang that around the players necks instead.

 

[ilovetheoption]

Well, the thing is, it's entirely possible that Collins is, in fact, a clown.

4 years from now people could be saying "man, you could tell right away, he had no effing idea what he was doing, and he was all hat and no cattle from day one". That's possible.

It's also possible that he is the second coming of dabo Swinney. it could be that he's going to like the recruiting world on fire and win 3 national titles at Georgia tech.

The truth, though, is that it's probably somewhere in the middle, and the issue is that, is that if you don't support him his job gets harder, and by publicly grilling him, and making him and the program look bad to recruits and the media and doubters and anyone else, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and you contribute to his failure.

that's pretty self-evident to me, and I guess I just think it's pretty selfish to value being able to say "I told you so" more than sucking it up and swallowing your bile, and hoping that recruits by wholeheartedly into what you think is nonsense.

I feel like your fanbase would rather lose than win in a style you don't like. A large portion of your fan base was like that with Johnson, and it absolutely did not help the program and it absolutely hurt recruiting and made his job tougher.

to do that again with Collins feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[ilovetheoption]

Forgive any typos, I'm driving, and that was speech to text.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Well, the thing is, it's entirely possible that Collins is, in fact, a clown.

4 years from now people could be saying "man, you could tell right away, he had no effing idea what he was doing, and he was all hat and no cattle from day one". That's possible.

It's also possible that he is the second coming of dabo Swinney. it could be that he's going to like the recruiting world on fire and win 3 national titles at Georgia tech.

The truth, though, is that it's probably somewhere in the middle, and the issue is that, is that if you don't support him his job gets harder, and by publicly grilling him, and making him and the program look bad to recruits and the media and doubters and anyone else, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and you contribute to his failure.

that's pretty self-evident to me, and I guess I just think it's pretty selfish to value being able to say "I told you so" more than sucking it up and swallowing your bile, and hoping that recruits by wholeheartedly into what you think is nonsense.

I feel like your fanbase would rather lose than win in a style you don't like. A large portion of your fan base was like that with Johnson, and it absolutely did not help the program and it absolutely hurt recruiting and made his job tougher.

to do that again with Collins feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I am totally confident our program will be in a significantly better place in 2021 than it is right now (10 of our opponents next year were ranked last year, so I'm not expecting 2020 to be great). My main beef is that they appear to not really care about winning games this year by playing to our roster's strength on offense, but instead want to go ahead and start changing our muscle memory towards a spread offense. I don't think you have to force a system on people that can't handle it simply because you want to show people you're trying. It is what it is I suppose. If we win 8+ games in 2021 and 2022, all will be forgiven I am sure. But it sure hurts now when you see an offense act like they don't even know the playbook.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Well, the thing is, it's entirely possible that Collins is, in fact, a clown.

4 years from now people could be saying "man, you could tell right away, he had no effing idea what he was doing, and he was all hat and no cattle from day one". That's possible.

It's also possible that he is the second coming of dabo Swinney. it could be that he's going to like the recruiting world on fire and win 3 national titles at Georgia tech.

The truth, though, is that it's probably somewhere in the middle, and the issue is that, is that if you don't support him his job gets harder, and by publicly grilling him, and making him and the program look bad to recruits and the media and doubters and anyone else, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and you contribute to his failure.

that's pretty self-evident to me, and I guess I just think it's pretty selfish to value being able to say "I told you so" more than sucking it up and swallowing your bile, and hoping that recruits by wholeheartedly into what you think is nonsense.

I feel like your fanbase would rather lose than win in a style you don't like. A large portion of your fan base was like that with Johnson, and it absolutely did not help the program and it absolutely hurt recruiting and made his job tougher.

to do that again with Collins feels like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I know there’s a decade of animosity where a significant portion of the fanbase couldn’t wait for CPJ to lose enough to get run out of town but it’s not cool to constantly feed it back their way making CGC the target solely for payback. On the flip side, Head Coaches are the face of the program & it’s not like our opponents are not gloating, chuckling, laughing, mocking what’s going on and if you’re not a straight shooter you’re going to get flak. If you think competing recruiters are not using the dancing, Citadel loss, CGC’s tweets against us negatively, well I got oceanfront property in Iowa to sell you. They’re out in full force & CGC now has a harder sell on his hands.

CGC could have transitioned easier if he grounded the team in fundamentals first, then ramped up the extracurriculars as he endeared himself to the fanbase & established a favorable reputation in the ranks he has now joined. Emphasize fundamentals, strength & conditioning, hard work ethic, more open playbook, aggressive defense, etc. CGC has managed the transition poorly and from recent activity seems to be adjusting. He seems to have toned down the media, less over the top hype. That’s a welcome sign to me because we’re not da U nor the mutt. CGC sold the hype as a means to success, but the hype is just hype. It’s welcome/tolerated even encouraged by many when achieving, looks like complete foolishness and gets you ridiculed when you’re getting your butt kicked. I couldn’t see the sideline, but the team appeared focused. 1 game does not make a trend but unfortunately for him his one game negative trend where they lost control of the team against Citadel was a historic loss, the 1 game favorable trend at Temple also resulted in a notable loss. Both will stay with us for a while.

Let’s see what we get next week. More positive change is required than we have seen the last 3 weeks.