Coach Prime to Colorado

yeti92

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I don’t know how much he’s thrown his players under the bus compared to other coaches vs people being out to get him. Both are going on—some coaches would cut off the fuel to the fire by watching what they say, but he hasn’t.

Domineck is one of Colorado’s best defensive linemen—wish we’d been able to keep him. They have some game changing players, but lack depth.

it also seems like he’s making some bad strategy decisions. Cal has poor blocking, so they have a short passing game. Colorado has poor blocking, but they hold the ball waiting on deep routes.

That recruiting ranking, if accurate*, is the thing that would really burn him. There are B12 teams with star players that will push him around. He needs to shore up his lines.

*I don’t think recruiting ratings give the whole picture. 63 is pretty low, though. It’s high enough for Duke to have built a good team with that kind of class ranking
Domineck is definitely their best DL (although he's listed as a LB on espn?), he's 5th on the team in total tackles and has 2 more sacks than anyone else on the team. He's also a senior. 60% of their sacks are from current seniors and 5 of their top 7 tacklers are seniors. That's a lot of lost production for next year, before you even consider younger guys who may portal out.

Agreed on the poor strategy. Their OL has not been good, but they aren't doing anything to work around that.

Duke has definitely overachieved relative to their recruiting rankings, Elko appears to be a really solid coach. He does have their 2024 class sitting at 36 right now with a 4 star qb leading the way. Will be curious to see how long he's there before getting poached.
 

Ibeeballin

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Idk, he keeps throwing his players under the bus which is going to eventually turn guys off. They have three 4 star commits currently, same as Tech, but only 10 commits total and are currently 63rd overall, and we are getting close to ESD. He likely won't be able to flip as much of the roster this year, so he's going to have to coach up the guys he's got, which he hasn't shown any ability to do.

Interestingly, 4 of their 10 commits are from Georgia and the top 2 are DL guys we've offered. I wonder if we have stayed in their ear...

What’s considered throwing under the bus was considered tough coaching and player accountability under other regimes including CPJ. They are expected to finish strong in recruiting and also have some hogs come in thru the portal.
 

yeti92

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You know it was bad when a WSU DE had as many touchdowns as CU's entire offense, and WSU's defense outscored CU's offense.
 

Northeast Stinger

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I’ve seen some harsh headlines about Sanders. There are a ton of people who would like to see him fail. ESPN is taking a more measured approach


Comparing Key and Sanders, Key is more transparent and takes more accountability than Sanders (and much more than TFG). Sanders has so much buzz and there’s a ton of excitement around Colorado football. Unless he really gets tarnished, they’ll do well recruiting and in the portal. The offensive play calling is open to question. Any offense looks terrible when you can’t block, though.
Yeah, after all these years human nature shouldn’t surprise me but the inordinate desire of so many to see him fail just seems over the top.

And, yes, Key gives the kind of press conferences I’ve been yearning for. Some on here insisted with TFG that press conferences weren’t all that important but I think they are an important indicator of the health of a program, along with TV times for games, attendance and locker room morale. Sander’s isn’t as bad at press conferences as our former coach but he does lean toward the style over substance approach which I’m not fond of.
 

TooTall

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I had set a reminder to come back to this post (and other similar posts) 1 year later. And here it is. We've arrived.

1 year ago today, Coach Brent Key had the interim title removed.

I'm glad that those of us who were cautiously optimistic - and apparently the greater college football world at large - recognize the results we've seen.


The Deion crowd certainly is quiet....
 

Northeast Stinger

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The Deion crowd certainly is quiet....
I was in favor of giving Deion a go here. In hindsight that was a desperation moon shot based on the notion that Tech football would be gone forever if we didn’t try radical surgery. Instead we are building slowly and steadily from the ground up. So glad no one listened to me. We are doing it right.
 

Pappa P

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Sanders would never fit in at Tech (culture), nor the demands of our institution (academics). HCBK obviously knows what it takes. That said, a lot has changed (quite rapidly) in the CFB space and we still don’t know how it will all play out - so many unknowns in how schools like Tech will be able to adjust (or should adjust). I love to win - but hope we never compromise our values. No doubt UGA FB is highly successful - but what values have they compromised? Too many for me.
 

slugboy

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There are so many areas where luck comes into play. Making a bowl game is huge for this team. And it gives the coaching staff time to work on issues and install new plays. We may still need to fix big problems on defense (our opponents aren’t breaking down our complex defenses, but they are talking about our offense).
There are games we could have won and games we could have lost. A few seconds in the Miami game this year might be the difference in whether Key is a success here.
But, those plays happened, and Key has a chance to build something.

Going bowling and having a cool offense will get offensive players here. He needs to do the same on defense and special teams. He has a few weeks to spruce up that part of the program

As for Deion, he has star players. He has an Aflac commercial and media attention. He has an off season to get competitive in the Big 12. He probably has NIL, even though he will pretend that’s not how he gets players—it will be how he gets a couple of players. He ain’t done for yet, but he needs to string together some recruiting wins. He needs an OL and to fix up his DL. And, he hung out his OC to dry when he shouldn’t have.

Back to Key—successes lead to more chances. His gamble this season was making a bowl. Now, he has to use the bowl to build a better team. Win or lose—and winning is better—he can’t waste the time he has for bowl preparation and for recruiting players to stay and players to come.
 

yeti92

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Sanders would never fit in at Tech (culture), nor the demands of our institution (academics). HCBK obviously knows what it takes. That said, a lot has changed (quite rapidly) in the CFB space and we still don’t know how it will all play out - so many unknowns in how schools like Tech will be able to adjust (or should adjust). I love to win - but hope we never compromise our values. No doubt UGA FB is highly successful - but what values have they compromised? Too many for me.
ugag didn't compromise any values, they never had any in the first place.
 

WreckinGT

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The Deion crowd certainly is quiet....
In one year he went from 1 win to 4 wins, and went from losing by 29 points per game on average to losing by less than a TD on average. Against common opponents he improved from losing by ~30 points a game with no wins to losing by 8 points a game with 2 wins. Frankly, I think he should have done better, but if the crowd here thinks that Key moved mountains this season then im not sure why you wouldn't think Deion did a decent job as well.
 

yeti92

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In one year he went from 1 win to 4 wins, and went from losing by 29 points per game on average to losing by less than a TD on average. Against common opponents he improved from losing by ~30 points a game with no wins to losing by 8 points a game with 2 wins. Frankly, I think he should have done better, but if the crowd here thinks that Key moved mountains this season then im not sure why you wouldn't think Deion did a decent job as well.
So you can see progress for Colorado but not for Tech? Interesting...
 

TooTall

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In one year he went from 1 win to 4 wins, and went from losing by 29 points per game on average to losing by less than a TD on average. Against common opponents he improved from losing by ~30 points a game with no wins to losing by 8 points a game with 2 wins. Frankly, I think he should have done better, but if the crowd here thinks that Key moved mountains this season then im not sure why you wouldn't think Deion did a decent job as well.
Perception is reality. Even though I hate that saying; it is true to that person's perception.

Deion isn't on Coach of the year lists, HCBK is. What you said about Deion and Colorado may be true (I don't care enough at this point to go and check) but HCBK did much better than anyone projected (preseason 12 to end of season 4). We were in a tail spin for almost 3.5 years. We would have won only 1 game last year if not for HCBK.

Deion's brashness is who he is and it's why he was a great player. But as a coach, he's become a laughing stock. The OC debacle. The OL nonexistence. He doesn't have the luxury of blaming anyone from a previous staff, these are all his guys, his "Louis Vuitton". We have receipts from a complete year, and many are looking for a return line. The same brashness that made him a great player, will prevent him from becoming a good coach.
 
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