Coach Brent Key Scenario

[gville_jacket]

I will support the next head but at this time I hope it is Key I have liked the way he talks and the players same to play for him.

I definitely agree with this. I hope it is Key but only because it would mean Key absolutely crushed it in the second half of this season. I absolutely like the idea of Chadwell at GT so Key will have to make himself the obvious choice.

To be fair, if Key wins 6 he would have met the bar many of us said was required of Collins to keep his job. Has the bar been raised?

With that in mind, then yes, the bar has been raised. He's not competing against Collins expectations but competing against what is perceived that Chadwell (or any other potential coach) could do.

 

[Skeptic]

This talk of offering Key a short contract is ridiculous. There is no way we are ever going to offer him a short contract (less than four years) and there is no way he would ever accept it.

Either he does enough to warrant a real offer or we go with someone else.

Guaranteed contract for three years at $4-$5 million a year? Lots of coaches would jump all over that. But a more favorable view to me is a 5-year deal with no guarantees past the third year. If a coach won't take it, move on. Somebody will.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

"My super special contact told me nothing and I trust him implicitly"

CSB

I guess I deserve the snarkiness for sharing, but I was merely responding to the people saying nothing has been going on, which is not exactly true.

I was also not trying to impress anyone, but whatever..

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Guaranteed contract for three years at $4-$5 million a year? Lots of coaches would jump all over that. But a more favorable view to me is a 5-year deal with no guarantees past the third year. If a coach won't take it, move on. Somebody will.

No one that we would want would jump all over a three year contract. In fact, name one head coach who has ever signed a three year contract that was not an extension.

 

[gville_jacket]

I guess I deserve the snarkiness for sharing, but I was merely responding to the people saying nothing has been going on, which is not exactly true.

I was also not trying to impress anyone, but whatever..

Can you share the news in a DM? Then I could definitely defend and verify that it's legit news.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Can you share the news in a DM? Then I could definitely defend and verify that it's legit news.

I cannot, sorry.

 

[roadkill]

I definitely agree with this. I hope it is Key but only because it would mean Key absolutely crushed it in the second half of this season. I absolutely like the idea of Chadwell at GT so Key will have to make himself the obvious choice.

With that in mind, then yes, the bar has been raised. He's not competing against Collins expectations but competing against what is perceived that Chadwell (or any other potential coach) could do.

Your point has merit. But again, to be fair, this would imply that Key's competition such as Chadwell should be expected to win 5-6 of the next 6. A high bar indeed.

 

[gville_jacket]

Your point has merit. But again, to be fair, this would imply that Key's competition such as Chadwell should be expected to win 5-6 of the next 6. A high bar indeed.

I don't think it's necessarily who would do better the next 6 games, but who would do better over the next 6 years. Key is competing against perceived potential and best way to prove he has a higher ceiling is to win more this season. Then the conversation is "imagine what he could do with a whole offseason." Same for Chadwell though. If McCall (the QB at Coastal) got injured and Coastal completely crumbles, what would that say for Chadwell? These are all hypotheticals the new AD and the rest of GT will have to consider and of course fans will always play the "what if" game.

 

[CTJacket]

I think the missing element in a lot of these conversations (and a long-time problem at Tech) is that we put too much expectation on the coach and give the AD a pass. The head football coach should not be driving branding, fundraising, politicking with the hill, media relations, keeping the boosters happy, etc.

C**** came in with a lot of branding and culture ideas. A lot of them were good. But that shouldn't have been taking up his time. The AD and the GTAA should have been handling that so the HFC can focus on football. Yes, the coach has duties that support those functions - appearances, meet and greets with donors, lunches, media appearances, etc. But those should pretty much be: 'Show up at X time, here's your talking points'. Of course, any messaging the coach wants to send for recruiting purposes should be incorporated. But the GTAA should be freeing the coach up to spend every possible minute on football issues.

CPJ wasn't real interested in that nonsense and so, under M-Bob, it just didn't happen. C**** was too concerned with that and, IMHO, it distracted him from doing his real job. (These things are relevant to every other team as well. C**** shouldn't have wasted bandwidth brainstorming branding ideas that the basketball and baseball team adopted. The AD and their staff should be doing this for the whole AA.)

Key has shown, as much as possible through two games, that he can motivate a team, manage a staff, implement a vision. He has a tough nosed no nonsense demeanor. I believe that was one of the two things that made both O'Leary and CPJ successful at Tech. The drive to push the team to work hard and achieve their maximum potential. (Saban also has this attribute.) The other thing that made them both successful was having a great OC.

Long way around to say that (based on limited evidence) I think Key could be a great coach for Tech. But the next AD needs to handle the non-football stuff. The AD/Hill/Donors need to provide the resources to hire a good staff.

I agree with everything you're saying here, but especially the bolded.

It's clear Key loves the players, but it's also clear that he demands performance. I think players respond to that in general, you're their coach not their buddy. My .02 cents.

 

[gville_jacket]

I cannot, sorry.

Ahh yes I see. I definitely didn’t get anything in my inbox, it’s completely empty.

(Now that they’re off the trail, send me what you got)

 

[iceeater1969]

The 100-0. , the red out, and 2 blocked punts in one game embarrassed Angel.

He temp hired Key to stop the embarsement.

Asked Answered. Defense was set on back up and key switched it to attack. Sims was on the gradually get better path. Key switched it to do it now. Sims got it and stayed focused the whole game.

While Key has had some in games coaching issues which he needs to fix. Imo he is a real coach and will take corrections of his oversites.

Assuming defense stays positive, Key fixes the minor issuses and AND A BIG IF Key gets sims slinging it, what more does anyone expect? Suppose it peaks on defense and offense in our next big hype game is with a media star FSU?

Just keep getting better

Doesn’t take much to get a gt fan to have irrational exuberance!
Go jackets

 

[bke1984]

There's been relatively little talk of the coaching search outside of the initial flurry, which is to be expected since we likely will focus first on getting an AD and we're a month and a half out from the usual coaching hiring season.

Also expected given that we haven’t lost since we dropped Collins. If we keep winning we won’t hire a different coach

 

[lv20gt]

To be fair, if Key wins 6 he would have met the bar many of us said was required of Collins to keep his job. Has the bar been raised?

Well by virtue of Collins being let go prior to playing 6 games I would think it obvious that wasn't the actual bar.

But regardless, it's a different situation. By firing Collins and Tstan mid year, the president made it clear he had reached the conclusion that the current path wasn't the one we needed to be on, and that not only was it a problem with Collins, but we need to completely reset by also getting a new AD. Hiring Key would be done to keep continuity. You likely wouldn't be making many coaching changes because the argument for keeping Key despite his role in the last 3 years can be applied to anyone on staff and the new guys would have even less baggage. That would be a shockingly complete 180 in terms of direction since the midseason firings. Going from everyone, including the AD, must go, to keep most of the staff is drastic. So yes, something drastic is needed to cause that. Just making the bowl isn't that, to me.

Look at our upcoming schedule.

UVA is 2-4 with wins over ODU and Richmond. This is a bad team.
FSU. People are hyping this game up. It's very likely they will come into that game riding a 3 game losing streak, and if we beat them, it would be 4 in a row. More on this in a second but I doubt they look anywhere near as good a win at the end of the year as people are envisioning it now.
VT - they're probably worse than UVA. Do have wins over Wofford and BC but lost to ODU and the other 3 games by an average of 3 TDs.
Miami is 2-3 with wins over Bethune Cookman and Southern Miss. Probably will get a couple more wins before then because they play Vt/Duke/UVA the next 3 games, but it's likely if we beat them it will be either the middle of a three game losing streak, or the FSU game looks even worse as it would mean they are likely on a 5 game losing streak then.

The truth is, barring the UGA game, Key won't have much chance to do anything drastic unless we go to the ACC CG. Lets say we win the above 4, then lose to UNC and UGA to close out the season, hiring Key would be underwhelming to say the least. Removing the interim label before the UNC game and then losing two in a row would look even worse.

 

[RonJohn]

By firing Collins and Tstan mid year, the president made it clear he had reached the conclusion that the current path wasn't the one we needed to be on, and that not only was it a problem with Collins, but we need to completely reset by also getting a new AD. Hiring Key would be done to keep continuity. You likely wouldn't be making many coaching changes because the argument for keeping Key despite his role in the last 3 years can be applied to anyone on staff and the new guys would have even less baggage. That would be a shockingly complete 180 in terms of direction since the midseason firings. Going from everyone, including the AD, must go, to keep most of the staff is drastic. So yes, something drastic is needed to cause that. Just making the bowl isn't that, to me.
....................
Removing the interim label before the UNC game and then losing two in a row would look even worse.

If they wanted to completely clean house, they could have immediately fired all of the coaches and all of the athletic association staff. It seems very apparent to me that the issues with the team were not all on the assistant coaches. There were people on this forum a few weeks ago saying that very good coaches wouldn't be able to win with the talent on the team. The head coach was fired. The assistant coaches look much better. The players look much better. It doesn't take a leap of faith to come to the conclusion that the fired HC was responsible for a lot of the issues.

When a new head coach is named, I am pretty sure that he will bring in whoever he wants to be his assistants and will not be tied to keeping anyone on the staff currently. That would include Key. If it is someone from the outside, I think they would probably clear house and start over. If it is Key, he might keep some, but probably has people he would prefer in at least some of the positions. I don't think next years staff will look exactly like it does now even if Key becomes the HC.

As to removing the interim label before the end of the season, has anybody actually suggested that, or are you creating a strawman to try to force your view on everyone else?

 

[roadkill]

Well by virtue of Collins being let go prior to playing 6 games I would think it obvious that wasn't the actual bar.

Perhaps not the actual bar for Cabrera, who had seen enough after 4 games (as had many of us) to conclude that this season was not going to be successful. But I was referring to this board's discussion where a lot of us landed on 6 games (bowl eligible) as the minimum to retain Collins. Wouldn't Key winning 6 games be a "shockingly complete 180" in terms of the direction of the program, after witnessing our performance in the first four?

 

[gorcone]

Well by virtue of Collins being let go prior to playing 6 games I would think it obvious that wasn't the actual bar.

But regardless, it's a different situation. By firing Collins and Tstan mid year, the president made it clear he had reached the conclusion that the current path wasn't the one we needed to be on, and that not only was it a problem with Collins, but we need to completely reset by also getting a new AD. Hiring Key would be done to keep continuity. You likely wouldn't be making many coaching changes because the argument for keeping Key despite his role in the last 3 years can be applied to anyone on staff and the new guys would have even less baggage. That would be a shockingly complete 180 in terms of direction since the midseason firings. Going from everyone, including the AD, must go, to keep most of the staff is drastic. So yes, something drastic is needed to cause that. Just making the bowl isn't that, to me.

Look at our upcoming schedule.

UVA is 2-4 with wins over ODU and Richmond. This is a bad team.
FSU. People are hyping this game up. It's very likely they will come into that game riding a 3 game losing streak, and if we beat them, it would be 4 in a row. More on this in a second but I doubt they look anywhere near as good a win at the end of the year as people are envisioning it now.
VT - they're probably worse than UVA. Do have wins over Wofford and BC but lost to ODU and the other 3 games by an average of 3 TDs.
Miami is 2-3 with wins over Bethune Cookman and Southern Miss. Probably will get a couple more wins before then because they play Vt/Duke/UVA the next 3 games, but it's likely if we beat them it will be either the middle of a three game losing streak, or the FSU game looks even worse as it would mean they are likely on a 5 game losing streak then.

The truth is, barring the UGA game, Key won't have much chance to do anything drastic unless we go to the ACC CG. Lets say we win the above 4, then lose to UNC and UGA to close out the season, hiring Key would be underwhelming to say the least. Removing the interim label before the UNC game and then losing two in a row would look even worse.

So if we were to win the 4 games above that you identified and lose the final two, we would end the season at 7-5. I believe I am among many people here that never believed GIF coach would win 7 this year. I support the idea that BK becoming ICBK was good for this team and the players bought into it.

I hope you are correct on those 4 wins and we get some bowl game in Florida because I will show up for that one.

 

[Randy Carson]

"My super special contact told me nothing and I trust him implicitly"

CSB

I pretty much rely on this board, and I'm in the same boat.

 

[bobongo]

As to removing the interim label before the end of the season, has anybody actually suggested that, or are you creating a strawman to try to force your view on everyone else?

Seems to me a deal would be worked out before the end of the season and the coaching merry-go-round starts up, whether it be with Key or another coach - either before UNC or before Ugag.
Otherwise, you forfeit the advantage of firing Geoff early.

 

[lv20gt]

If they wanted to completely clean house, they could have immediately fired all of the coaches and all of the athletic association staff.

This can't be a serious response. Who would manage the team in that scenario.

As to removing the interim label before the end of the season, has anybody actually suggested that, or are you creating a strawman to try to force your view on everyone else?

Totally creating a strawman and totally not looking at the very real likely scenario and addressing both the scenarios of making the usual decision at the end of the year and making the decision when it would be best received by the fanbase and how both cases don't lend itself to the hire. You got me.

Wouldn't Key winning 6 games be a "shockingly complete 180" in terms of the direction of the program, after witnessing our performance in the first four?

Not really. Going by current RPI the scenario I talked about has us losing to the top 5 highest rated teams we faced and losing to the lowest 7. It'd be shocking in the sense that nobody expected it, either before the season or after 4 games, but if you assumed we'd go 7-5 this year you would still likely predict we'd start 2-3 with losses to Clemson and Ole Miss and then one of either Pitt or UCF depending on how you felt about what Pitt gained/lost in the off season.

So I wouldn't call that a shockingly complete 180 in terms of direction of the program. It was an expected shift in the difficulty of our schedule. Our schedule went from 3 of the first 4 games being against RPI top 35 teams to 6 games where the average opponent is RPI 84.7 currently. Then ending on the road against two teams currently ranked in the top 25 RPI.

 

[RonJohn]

Seems to me a deal would be worked out before the end of the season and the coaching merry-go-round starts up, whether it be with Key or another coach - either before UNC or before Ugag.
Otherwise, you forfeit the advantage of firing Geoff early.

I don't think you really gain any advantage in firing the coach early with respect to finding a new coach. I don't think a potential coach like Chadwell is going to leave his current team before the end of the season. Such a coach would leave between the end of the season and miss the bowl game, but most likely would not leave before the last regular game. If such a coach did leave, they wouldn't start coaching the team immediately. Even someone who isn't currently coaching, like Mullen, would not start coaching immediately.

There could be an agreement in place, but I doubt that a new coach will be signed and named before the mutt game.