A Thread to Rehash GT HC Comparisons

stech81

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,721
Location
Woodstock Georgia
I have never seen anyone post that Collins is going to recruit with the factories. That’s just message board folklore that those of you who don’t like Collins throws out there as if any of us believe that. The truth is that in the recent past under O’Leary and Gailey we did recruit a lot of NFL players and had depth. That all went away with Johnson. To think Collins can’t recruit to that level is just not being honest since he is already doing it. Gibbs is the best recruit GT has signed since Calvin Johnson. No one can dispute that and it took all of a half of his first game for the entire sports world to notice. Sims is going to be special as well. A lot of QB’s struggle against Clemson, BC, and ND. I’m just perplexed why a bunch of highly successful people aren‘t willing to give him time. We gave Johnson 11 years and y’all are ready to turn on your coach after 1 season. That’s just being a bad fan. But I guarantee y’all will be here cheering when he starts to win.
Yes they did but understand most were 3 stars and a 2 star that were coached up. CGC is doing fine recruiting it's the coaching up some are waiting on and waiting on maybe he will soon if not it won't matter.
 

AlabamaBuzz

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,005
Location
Hartselle, AL (originally Rome, GA)
I get the "This is the greatest sports transformation in the history of the planet." .... the Gladiators moving from being eaten by tigers to being eaten by lions. Peach baskets. The forward pass. And ... Tech football moving away from the TO. Volumes will be written. Statues erected. Holidays celebrated.

The reality is that as the talent gap closes, Tech will win games based on the hidden yardages ... kickoff returns, punt returns, interception returns. When you look like everyone else ... you better have an edge. I don't think Geoff has an edge. But then again .... he may not have been hired to win .... but hired to make the transition.

Who knows?
Great insight. I really appreciate your posts.

But, if, and this is a big "if", he was signed to make the transition, a 7 year commitment seems like overkill, unless he would not agree to less? I would think 5 years would have been enough to commit to for an unproven HC.
 

THWG

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,996
Great insight. I really appreciate your posts.

But, if, and this is a big "if", he was signed to make the transition, a 7 year commitment seems like overkill, unless he would not agree to less? I would think 5 years would have been enough to commit to for an unproven HC.
I think this just shows that the first 2 years were for him to overhaul the roster, and then he gets a "normal" 5 year contract. TStan and CGC both knew what they were getting into with the transition.
 

Vespidae

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,950
Location
Auburn, AL
Never thought so many Tech people had such a defeatist attitude. We may never be what Clemson is today. But if all we strive to be is 7-5 with a good year every once in a while why bother? If we aren’t trying to move up in the college football hierarchy we should drop the sport.
You can’t. I think league rules require you to field a team.
 

WreckinGT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,964
I have never seen anyone post that Collins is going to recruit with the factories. That’s just message board folklore that those of you who don’t like Collins throws out there as if any of us believe that. The truth is that in the recent past under O’Leary and Gailey we did recruit a lot of NFL players and had depth. That all went away with Johnson. To think Collins can’t recruit to that level is just not being honest since he is already doing it. Gibbs is the best recruit GT has signed since Calvin Johnson. No one can dispute that and it took all of a half of his first game for the entire sports world to notice. Sims is going to be special as well. A lot of QB’s struggle against Clemson, BC, and ND. I’m just perplexed why a bunch of highly successful people aren‘t willing to give him time. We gave Johnson 11 years and y’all are ready to turn on your coach after 1 season. That’s just being a bad fan. But I guarantee y’all will be here cheering when he starts to win.
Yes, CPJ wasn’t criticized for 11 years. No one turned on him. That is totally a thing that didn’t happen. The truth is if your team isn’t playing well, then the head coach is going to take some heat. There is no way around that. No matter how much you try to convince people that playing well simply won’t be possible for several years. Those who criticized CPJ after the MTSU game weren’t being bad fans. The guy who asked for CPJ to be fired as part of his last wish in his obituary in 2014 wasn’t a bad fan. Nor are the fans who have not been happy with the play under Collins so far. There is a simple solution. Win some games, or at least look like you belong on the field.
 

JacketOff

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,818
Yes, CPJ wasn’t criticized for 11 years. No one turned on him. That is totally a thing that didn’t happen. The truth is if your team isn’t playing well, then the head coach is going to take some heat. There is no way around that. No matter how much you try to convince people that playing well simply won’t be possible for several years. Those who criticized CPJ after the MTSU game weren’t being bad fans. The guy who asked for CPJ to be fired as part of his last wish in his obituary in 2014 wasn’t a bad fan. Nor are the fans who have not been happy with the play under Collins so far. There is a simple solution. Win some games, or at least look like you belong on the field.
I’m still in the camp that thinks a lot of people are going to be surprised with the on-field product next year. I thought this year’s record would be around 4-8 before Covid hit, and changed to 4-7 after the schedule change (which is still very much in reach.) But I didn’t think the losses would look as bad on the scoreboard as they have. I think the pandemic and lack of spring/summer practice has hindered the team much more than some on here believe.

CGC seemed to really believe this year’s team would be Bowl eligible heading into the spring. Something he never brought up last year, and hasn’t really mentioned since. I think the pandemic really threw a wrench in a lot of his plans, including the 2021 recruiting class. I think this year’s spring game was going to be a pretty big spectacle, and was even going to be broadcast nationally. Losing any momentum he had going into the spring and summer really hurt. Plus, the 2 QBs with the most starts in the CGC era (Graham-8 and Sims-6) have combined to have basically no spring or summer practice. An offensive line that has completely changed its fundamentals, along with the body types of its players lost out on valuable practice time.

Going into the UCF game with momentum from a big win, the top 2 TEs were out, the starting RB was out, the best DB was out, the DPOTW from the FSU game was out, arguably the best DL on the team in Clayton was out, Tech was on the short end of some questionable calls, turned the ball over 5 times, and still found a way to play the game within 1 score in the 4th quarter. On the road at Syracuse the next week in a bland dome with no fans (after playing the first 2 games with fans), the game gets delayed for 40 minutes prior to kickoff with key players still missing.

I truly believe the turnaround from this year to next year will be massive. I don’t think CGC would have insinuated this year’s team would be bowl eligible if he didn’t mean it, the pandemic just had different plans.
 

cthenrys

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
942
Location
Highland Village, TX
I’m still in the camp that thinks a lot of people are going to be surprised with the on-field product next year. I thought this year’s record would be around 4-8 before Covid hit, and changed to 4-7 after the schedule change (which is still very much in reach.) But I didn’t think the losses would look as bad on the scoreboard as they have. I think the pandemic and lack of spring/summer practice has hindered the team much more than some on here believe.

CGC seemed to really believe this year’s team would be Bowl eligible heading into the spring. Something he never brought up last year, and hasn’t really mentioned since. I think the pandemic really threw a wrench in a lot of his plans, including the 2021 recruiting class. I think this year’s spring game was going to be a pretty big spectacle, and was even going to be broadcast nationally. Losing any momentum he had going into the spring and summer really hurt. Plus, the 2 QBs with the most starts in the CGC era (Graham-8 and Sims-6) have combined to have basically no spring or summer practice. An offensive line that has completely changed its fundamentals, along with the body types of its players lost out on valuable practice time.

Going into the UCF game with momentum from a big win, the top 2 TEs were out, the starting RB was out, the best DB was out, the DPOTW from the FSU game was out, arguably the best DL on the team in Clayton was out, Tech was on the short end of some questionable calls, turned the ball over 5 times, and still found a way to play the game within 1 score in the 4th quarter. On the road at Syracuse the next week in a bland dome with no fans (after playing the first 2 games with fans), the game gets delayed for 40 minutes prior to kickoff with key players still missing.

I truly believe the turnaround from this year to next year will be massive. I don’t think CGC would have insinuated this year’s team would be bowl eligible if he didn’t mean it, the pandemic just had different plans.
I’m not a fan of CGC and don’t think we will see what you describe, but I like your thinking. There’s little doubt that COVID threw a monkey wrench into Collins plan and out of all the stupid stuff we get from him, I do buy this - he really does care about his guys and has done a pretty damn job keeping them safe and healthy. And yes, that is more important than W’s at this point.

The Syracuse game, as much of a s**t show as it was, was a dead *** environment. We’ve done that more than a few times at Duke under a variety of head coaches....

I’m still not shopping at CGC’s store, but let’s see how things look next year, as I see little to no chance we see any more GT football this year.
 

Vespidae

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,950
Location
Auburn, AL
Auburn announced today that they had a $62 million dollar deficit in the athletics dept due to COVID. If the GTAA, on a smaller total, has even remotely the same percentage change ... that is going to be very, very challenging for the future.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,332
Location
Oriental, NC
Auburn announced today that they had a $62 million dollar deficit in the athletics dept due to COVID. If the GTAA, on a smaller total, has even remotely the same percentage change ... that is going to be very, very challenging for the future.
Just a guess, but I can imagine Auburn has relied in prior years on ticket sales for a bigger piece of their revenue than GT. I would welcome real data on this if anyone knows where to look.
 

SOWEGA Jacket

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,864
Yes they did but understand most were 3 stars and a 2 star that were coached up. CGC is doing fine recruiting it's the coaching up some are waiting on and waiting on maybe he will soon if not it won't matter.
What do you consider waiting? The guy was hired less than two years ago. Did you really believe he was going to take this team that every coach in the ACC said was horrible and win 8 games or something? The problem is that people lack patience and us GT fans prove that the “instant gratification“ crowd spans all generations.

There is no coaching up players who are small and slow or big and slow. I could name many offensive linemen and defensive players who are just slow or too small. It’s not their fault. It’s genetics. But our previous brought them to P5 level where their lack of athleticism is exposed every week. Collins could have processed them all two years ago but he tried to play nice to keep piece in the family.
 

stech81

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,721
Location
Woodstock Georgia
What do you consider waiting? The guy was hired less than two years ago. Did you really believe he was going to take this team that every coach in the ACC said was horrible and win 8 games or something? The problem is that people lack patience and us GT fans prove that the “instant gratification“ crowd spans all generations.

There is no coaching up players who are small and slow or big and slow. I could name many offensive linemen and defensive players who are just slow or too small. It’s not their fault. It’s genetics. But our previous brought them to P5 level where their lack of athleticism is exposed every week. Collins could have processed them all two years ago but he tried to play nice to keep piece in the family.
you can coach player up every week small big slow fast , point blank they are not being coached up they look the same now as they did at the start of the season. They still make the same mistakes over and over.
 
Messages
2,034
I have never seen anyone post that Collins is going to recruit with the factories. That’s just message board folklore that those of you who don’t like Collins throws out there as if any of us believe that. The truth is that in the recent past under O’Leary and Gailey we did recruit a lot of NFL players and had depth. That all went away with Johnson. To think Collins can’t recruit to that level is just not being honest since he is already doing it. Gibbs is the best recruit GT has signed since Calvin Johnson. No one can dispute that and it took all of a half of his first game for the entire sports world to notice. Sims is going to be special as well. A lot of QB’s struggle against Clemson, BC, and ND. I’m just perplexed why a bunch of highly successful people aren‘t willing to give him time. We gave Johnson 11 years and y’all are ready to turn on your coach after 1 season. That’s just being a bad fan. But I guarantee y’all will be here cheering when he starts to win.
And if we recruit like O'Leary and Gailey....we will be a 7 win team on average with a few good seasons and a few bad....just like those two were.
 
Messages
2,034
You must have missed O’Leary once he got things rolling? I kind of miss being ranked 5 years in a row.
I loved O'Leary but here are his numbers wins losses. 5-6. 6-5. 7-5. 10-2. 8-4. 9-3. 8-5. He never beat FSU and the ACC was not what it is now. Some really good years but basically what I said 7 wins on average with a few very good seasons.
 

4shotB

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
4,615
I loved O'Leary but here are his numbers wins losses. 5-6. 6-5. 7-5. 10-2. 8-4. 9-3. 8-5. He never beat FSU and the ACC was not what it is now. Some really good years but basically what I said 7 wins on average with a few very good seasons.
Consider what GOL inherited. If the results GOL achieved after years 1 and 2 are not satisfactory you probably won't like anybody we trot out there. His last 3 years we were competitive against FSU which is equivalent of being competitive with Clemson over the last several years. LIke CPJ, he couldn't solve the defensive issues. But he did keep us from reaching the lows. I for one would be happy with another CGOL.
 

ncjacket79

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,237
I loved O'Leary but here are his numbers wins losses. 5-6. 6-5. 7-5. 10-2. 8-4. 9-3. 8-5. He never beat FSU and the ACC was not what it is now. Some really good years but basically what I said 7 wins on average with a few very good seasons.
Like I said, ranked for the last 5 in a row. When was the last time we did that? Plus he had to rebuild first. And at that point in time there weren’t many teams beating FSU
 

Augusta_Jacket

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
7,875
Location
Augusta, Georgia
What you really miss is the ability to be ranked if you win 7 or 8 games. That doesn't exist anymore. Even if you win 9 games these days you probably wont be ranked.

This is mostly true. In the final 2019 AP poll, there were only three teams with less than 10 wins: #14 Auburn (9-4), #18 Michigan (9-4) and #25 Texas (8-5). The teams in the final AP poll last year averaged 11.28 wins...
 
Top