CBK Presser

[HurricaneJacket]

He sounds so different when his vocal cords have had a chance to heal

 

[SandySpringsJacket]

I have that book and it is signed by Dodd. Bought it for my dad for a Christmas present when Dodd was signing them at the bookstore.

I have the signed copy too and got it the exact same way, buying it for my Dad as a gift. Dodd had a book signing at the mall.

 

[GT33]

Man it sure feels like we are going to be a tough football team if nothing else. He’s setting that tone for sure.

That will be an awesome change. So tired of the soft football we've been playing for the last 4 years. Adios matador OL, sayonara 2 hand touch D, auf wiedersehen cheer & dance squad, etc. We're gonna hit some MFers this year and make them hurt like we used to do.

 

[g0lftime]

I arrived in '67, the first season after Dodd retired, and heard some of the same things.

They would play volleyball in the end zone with a football using the goal as the net is what I was told.

 

[stinger 1957]

Man it sure feels like we are going to be a tough football team if nothing else. He’s setting that tone for sure.

To add to what you're saying I like the coaching staff he's put together, think they will put together ways for our kids to win, the only ingredient left is adding some players and I think that is going to happen, at this point I'm not sure how quickly but I'm guessing quicker than we think, we'll see. Think we probably have already added a few, but will need more going fwd to compete at the highest level which Angel said we'd do and I also believe we will do.

 

[Root4GT]

So far all talk and a typical recruting year with a coaching change. Lots of the new coaches seem promising. Still until we play a game against Louisville we have no clue how good or bad the team will actually play. There is hope which has been missing the last two years.

 

[jacketup]

Don't know if you guys would remember this but back in the Dodd era, GT would go to bowl games and while the other team was practicing and beating each other up, GT players were playing volleyball to maintain their timing but the bowl game was their reward. At least that is what I was told when I arrived in 1966.

From 1957 to 1966 (when Dodd retired as coach) Tech went to 5 bowl games with a 1-4 record. From 1957-1965 Dodd won 58% of his games. What happened to Dodd is that Broyles went to Arkansas and Graves went to Florida. The latter Dodd years were not stellar without them. Then Dodd became AD, didn't raise money, and pulled us out of the SEC. It has been a struggle ever since.

It goes to show---being charismatic is more important than being effective.

 

[stinger 1957]

From 1957 to 1966 (when Dodd retired as coach) Tech went to 5 bowl games with a 1-4 record. From 1957-1965 Dodd won 58% of his games. What happened to Dodd is that Broyles went to Arkansas and Graves went to Florida. The latter Dodd years were not stellar without them. Then Dodd became AD, didn't raise money, and pulled us out of the SEC. It has been a struggle ever since.

It goes to show---being charismatic is more important than being effective.

I always have wondered why Dodd never seemed to be able to hire effective assts after losing Broyles and Graves, at least that is what it always looked like to me. When I lived in Arkansas I heard Frank say that Coach Dodd always kept schools away from hiring his assts, I'm guessing the word got around and that is what was causing the hiring problem until it got closer to Dodd retiring and coaches knew he was retiring.
Frank always helped his assts get better jobs while at Arkansas and IMO it was a direct result of his experience with the opposite under Dodd.
I really like CBK wanting to help good assts advance in their careers, Saban has done that and it seems to work pretty good for him.

 

[croberts]

From 1957 to 1966 (when Dodd retired as coach) Tech went to 5 bowl games with a 1-4 record. From 1957-1965 Dodd won 58% of his games. What happened to Dodd is that Broyles went to Arkansas and Graves went to Florida. The latter Dodd years were not stellar without them. Then Dodd became AD, didn't raise money, and pulled us out of the SEC. It has been a struggle ever since.

It goes to show---being charismatic is more important than being effective.

I think it was more than that. Dodd always had 15-20 very good players. That is enough when you play single platoon football. Not so much when the landscape shifted to two platoon.

 

[stinger 1957]

I think it was more than that. Dodd always had 15-20 very good players. That is enough when you play single platoon football. Not so much when the landscape shifted to two platoon.

Extremely ltd substitution came along in fall of '53 and before that Dodd was light years ahead of everyone with unlimited substitution and he thought it was the reason General Neyland and Fritz Chrysler got the NCAA to install the very ltd sub rules if I heard him or maybe read him right. So I have to disagree with you about your theory. He was not recruiting well mid fifties forward. Losing Broyles and Graves and not effectively replacing them was very costly IMO. Yes, until they got back to complete unlimited substitution rules you did not need to recruit as many good players as you do today under the old ltd sub rules. Not sure but don't think they got back to unlimited sub rules until late fifties or first half of sixties. They kept loosening them a little each year beginning some where in mid fifties.

 

[danny daniel]

I think it was more than that. Dodd always had 15-20 very good players. That is enough when you play single platoon football. Not so much when the landscape shifted to two platoon.

Agree about Dodd losing two great assistances and the platoon football issue but also two other things were developing in college football. Drastic changes to offensive football combined with much better skilled athletes led to being able to score more points and to score on long plays from anywhere on the field. This meant that you could no longer consistently win with defense and a good kicking game playing field position. Dodd's health issues played a role also.

 

[stinger 1957]

Agree about Dodd losing two great assistances and the platoon football issue but also two other things were developing in college football. Drastic changes to offensive football combined with much better skilled athletes led to being able to score more points and to score on long plays from anywhere on the field. This meant that you could no longer consistently win with defense and a good kicking game playing field position. Dodd's health issues played a role also.

Loosening the substitution rules which allowed kids with special abilities for the offensive side of the FB to play had more to do with opening up the game than anything else IMO. Having been there in the fifties, when they went to extremely ltd substitution rules the coaches let kids know that if you could not play defense well you would not play much, thus the kicking game and defense dominated. Sometimes a one yard play decided a game.

 

[Flajacket]

What I took from his comments about toughness toward the end was akin to Vince Lombardi and 'Gentlemen, this is a football'.

Fundamentals are more important than schemes. He's planning of fielding a football team that knows why they are on Grant Field at BDS.

I recently watched a replay of the 1990 Citrus Bowl game. Outside of a lost fumble, that team played fundamentally sound football.

The future does look bright with CBK.

 

[GoldZ]

From 1957 to 1966 (when Dodd retired as coach) Tech went to 5 bowl games with a 1-4 record. From 1957-1965 Dodd won 58% of his games. What happened to Dodd is that Broyles went to Arkansas and Graves went to Florida. The latter Dodd years were not stellar without them. Then Dodd became AD, didn't raise money, and pulled us out of the SEC. It has been a struggle ever since.

It goes to show---being charismatic is more important than being effective.

With all due respect Sir, which you have earned as far as I'm concerned, you were doing well until the part about getting out of the sec. As for ***'t coaches, he did hire Steve Spurrier and Bud Carson, whose careers weren't too shabby. As for players in the not too shabby club, we have the likes of Lothridge, Martin, Baynum, King, Snow, and many others. Keep up the good work jacketup. Z

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Dodd (to my knowledge) never operated in conditions that were as polarizing as what we have today.

Today, if you relaxed at a bowl game and subsequently lost the game, you'd be pilloried on everything from ESPN to this message board.

This is true but Dodd was miserable in the late 1950s because of recruiting pressures. His wife, Alice Dodd remarked in a biography about Dodd that he went around with this hang dog look complaining about calculus. "Worst thing that any school can do to mess up football." he would whine. He was so despondent that he entertained offers to become the head coach at Texas. Just to balance this out a bit, Dodd could still recruit when it struck his fancy and got some very good players during the 1960s.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

That will be an awesome change. So tired of the soft football we've been playing for the last 4 years. Adios matador OL, sayonara 2 hand touch D, auf wiedersehen cheer & dance squad, etc. We're gonna hit some MFers this year and make them hurt like we used to do.

You know who Coach Key kind of reminds of? Former Tennessee head coach Phil Fulmer who was an offensive line coach himself back in the day. He kind of looks like Fulmer but not as um, well, overweight. Frankly, Coach Key looks to be in far better shape physically than Phil who took a lot of heat for how big he was.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

With all due respect Sir, which you have earned as far as I'm concerned, you were doing well until the part about getting out of the sec. As for ***'t coaches, he did hire Steve Spurrier and Bud Carson, whose careers weren't too shabby. As for players in the not too shabby club, we have the likes of Lothridge, Martin, Baynum, King, Snow, and many others. Keep up the good work jacketup. Z

Jacket Up has a point. I much preferred Coach Dodd as a coach than as an AD. He was lazy and did not adjust to the new realities presented by integration and most importantly getting money to upgrade facilities that were very poor. He did have the good sense to get out of coaching when he did as the game was about to pass him by as the expression goes.

That is not to say he was not a good coach in his last year. He got more out of a team that year that had little depth in the line than any coach Tech has had. That 1966 team had good players but little depth but Dodd steered them to a 9 win season and an Orange Bowl berth. It would be decades before Tech would go back to the Orange Bowl. Among their other wins were victories over 8th ranked Tennessee and Joe Paterno's first Penn State team. Paterno in his autobiography stated that Tech that year was the quickest team he had ever seen up to that time and convinced him that he needed to recruit more speed on defense.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I always have wondered why Dodd never seemed to be able to hire effective assts after losing Broyles and Graves, at least that is what it always looked like to me. When I lived in Arkansas I heard Frank say that Coach Dodd always kept schools away from hiring his assts, I'm guessing the word got around and that is what was causing the hiring problem until it got closer to Dodd retiring and coaches knew he was retiring.
Frank always helped his assts get better jobs while at Arkansas and IMO it was a direct result of his experience with the opposite under Dodd.
I really like CBK wanting to help good assts advance in their careers, Saban has done that and it seems to work pretty good for him.

I don't know about the offensive assistants under Dodd during the 1960s but Bud Carson lit a fire under those defensive players let me tell you. I was on the field for a short time during the Penn State-Georgia Tech game in 1966 and Tech was bringing some serious lumber. The pads were popping that day and it was primarily due to the influence of Carson whose teams were noted for hitting hard.

 

[stinger 1957]

I was told by someone that knew, it seems that coach Dodd had a lot of personal problems in his later years, so much so some of his players had to help him out of at least some of his problems.

 

[iceeater1969]

I don't know about the offensive assistants under Dodd during the 1960s but Bud Carson lit a fire under those defensive players let me tell you. I was on the field for a short time during the Penn State-Georgia Tech game in 1966 and Tech was bringing some serious lumber. The pads were popping that day and it was primarily due to the influence of Carson whose teams were noted for hitting hard.

I remeber jerry glanville hollering during some practices - hit or get off the field. That may have been later than 66