I'm a CPJ fan. It was time for him to go, which he did. I hate the posters who consistently slam the former staff with untruths - don't mind the criticism as much as I hate the "he hated recruiting and loved only his offense so much he didn't care about winning". I don't like Collins' radio personality (perhaps if I met him personally I would feel differently). I like almost all of the assistants under the current staff. I am actively trying to like Pnode - I am liking him more after initially strongly disliking his personality. I want this staff to succeed because I hate when GT is this bad.
This is largely my take. I was a big CPJ fan, also understood it was probably time to move on from the option, and am very hopeful and supportive of CGC.
That said, I do think there are many legitimate reasons to criticize the early performance of the current staff:
(1) I think our failure to pick a QB and a system and go with it from the start was a really poor decision. If we didn't have one QB that was clearly head and shoulders above the others, we should have picked the QB that gave us the best potential to grow and develop in the system we ultimately want to play and start that QB from the beginning. That is why I am 100% behind going all-in with Graham now and letting him learn. But delaying that decision set us back 1/3 of the season (where we had the easiest games too).
(2) Our defense and special teams seem not to be showing much if any improvement either. I feel like it is the same performance on D that we would have gotten with Woody this year.
(3) Our short yardage play calls on offense are frankly embarrassing for a team that, if nothing else, should be able to do that pretty well.
(4) I get tired of anyone bringing up Gardner Webb as if it is a legitimate comparison to the Citadel game. Winning with the third-string QB we had to start on last-minute notice due to injuries is different than losing with 2 QBs the staff apparently thought were 1a and 1c on the depth chart. Totally different situation. If we found out that only Yates was available the week before Citadel, I would agree that would be more similar. I was at the Citadel game and there is no excuse for that loss except coaching.
(5) While the TOP-end talent when CPJ started was better, we have much better depth across the board now (at least that is what the recruiting rankings say). I thus believe without any doubt that CPJ and his staff did a better job handing the transition than this staff. That said, I think CPJ and his staff did a historically impressive job of teaching those players to play in their new offensive system in year 1, so that isn't necessarily a huge knock on this staff.
All that said, I am not counting this staff out. CGC is still a relatively young and inexperienced head coach and needs time to learn and grow too. If we can really step up our recruiting like they hope we can, I think we can get right back to where we want (bowl 4/5 years, ACC title appearance 1/4 years, BCS level bowl 1/6 years, beat UGA 2/5 years). Anything more than that is gravy for me.