Coaches we interviewed in 2007

[Techster]

If that is factual, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, that is an amazing statement. It would indicate that Paul Johnson had an interest in being the coach at Georgia Tech for quite a while. Will Muschamp was never "interviewed". Our people talked with his people, briefly, to gauge interest. The West Stands Mafia were very resolute that any Georgia player was never going to be accepted ever again, and the talks were broken off. Muschamp was probably not a good fit for the Tech culture, but he is a good coach, a good recruiter and might have been very successful in the ACC. The Florida job, his first HC job, following Urban Meyer, is a pretty big task playing in the SEC, etc. I still think he will get it done in Gainesville.

GT is NOT a bad job. It's well documented that if a coach succeeds at GT, it usually opens the door to perceived "bigger" jobs (Curry-Alabama, Ross-Chargers, O'Leary-Notre Dame...even Gailey was able to get pro jobs after GT). Even CPJ was in demand after 2008 and2009. GT also has a lot of resources to give coaches, and it's located in hotbed of recruiting. GT is like New York...if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!

 

[DSGB]

We are located in a hotbed of recruiting and afraid or unable to go after the bulk of the good players.

 

[00Burdell]

We are located in a hotbed of recruiting and afraid or unable to go after the bulk of the good players.

We are also in a hotbed of not so good public education. Included in the 15 states with the lowest ACT scores in the nation are Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.

This is not helpful when recruiting for Georgia Tech.

 

[alaguy]

It is ironic that with both CG and PJ ,it was recruiting which was their weakness esp at first.CG actually told me in beginning that he was amazed at all the NCAA regs and restrictions,etc which he sloughed off by hiring a recruiting "disaster"coord from Ms ST.PJ didn't exactly hit the ground running on the recr trail either.
Edsall was probably in middle-maybe he is not as good a coach but he may have recruited better from the start.

 

[Techster]

We are also in a hotbed of not so good public education. Included in the 15 states with the lowest ACT scores in the nation are Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.

This is not helpful when recruiting for Georgia Tech.

There are certain counties that are pretty awful in terms of education, but Metro Atlanta schools (the hotbed for GA recruiting along with S. GA) usually has high scores. Cobb and Gwinnett schools generally test very high.

 

[LargeFO]

Edsall is a massive tool. I'm glad we did not hire him.

 

[DCSS]

We are located in a hotbed of recruiting and afraid or unable to go after the bulk of the good players.

Afraid? What?

 

[daBuzz]

If that is factual, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, that is an amazing statement. It would indicate that Paul Johnson had an interest in being the coach at Georgia Tech for quite a while. Will Muschamp was never "interviewed". Our people talked with his people, briefly, to gauge interest. The West Stands Mafia were very resolute that any Georgia player was never going to be accepted ever again, and the talks were broken off. Muschamp was probably not a good fit for the Tech culture, but he is a good coach, a good recruiter and might have been very successful in the ACC. The Florida job, his first HC job, following Urban Meyer, is a pretty big task playing in the SEC, etc. I still think he will get it done in Gainesville.

I would think that the statement is true. But it doesn't portend that Johnson had a secret wish to become the GT head coach; only that he wanted to become the head coach at a major-level D1 program. He wanted to: a) make more money but more importantly b) prove that his system works in a BCS conference.

 

[DSGB]

We are also in a hotbed of not so good public education. Included in the 15 states with the lowest ACT scores in the nation are Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.

This is not helpful when recruiting for Georgia Tech.

There are enough players with the grades that we are unable to land. Stanford and Vandy have at least 10 players from the state of GA that we offered. Do we have a smaller pool than most schools? Yes. But to say that GA doesn't have enough smart guys for GT is a farce.

 

[ClydeBrick]

Georgia has enough smart guys for the Institute.

The biggest problem is that with most of them they have been trained to be UGAg supporters since they were in diapers by damn near everything in this state.

Better to go out of state and not to suffer the shame of going against UGAg. You could be a 4 year starter at Vandy and still claim to be a bulld@#g at heart when you come home.

IMO, this factor is one of the biggest issues we have.

A 17 year old kid with a closet of UGAg clothes, and all his friends love UGAg. Recruiting against that has got to be a huge problem, regardless of the coach, scheme, or anything else.

 

[AE 87]

There are enough players with the grades that we are unable to land. Stanford and Vandy have at least 10 players from the state of GA that we offered. Do we have a smaller pool than most schools? Yes. But to say that GA doesn't have enough smart guys for GT is a farce.

Do you have a source that verifies that all 10 of those players met GT's math requirements and in terms HS coursework and SAT scores? There's a difference between getting an offer based on the expectation that requirements can be met and actually having met the requirements. Do you have a source that says that all ten of those players were taking a calculus level math class at university? There's a difference between getting an offer from Tech and having any kind of interest in attending Tech. There's also the perceived difference in playing in the SEC or Pac 12 over the ACC.

When people talk about the reduction of the recruiting pool because of GA public education, it doesn't eliminate the other systemic factors that affect GT recruiting, regardless of coach.

I think that we should be able to recruit better more consistently, but I don't think it helps to sugar coat the real challenges we face.

 

[jacketup]

We are also in a hotbed of not so good public education. Included in the 15 states with the lowest ACT scores in the nation are Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.

This is not helpful when recruiting for Georgia Tech.

True. So why does this staff sign so few players from other areas? Almost all of the signees are from within about 300 miles of campus.

Contrast this with 1990. 10 players on the pre-season 2 deep were from states non-contiguous with Georgia. 3 more were from the Dade-Broward County area. Does GT even have 10 players on scholarship from non-contiguous states? No players have been signed from Dade-Broward in the last 2 years.

I get tired of the academic excuse for poor recruiting for this very reason. You can't expect to catch the big ones fishing in a pond.

 

[00Burdell]

True. So why does this staff sign so few players from other areas? Almost all of the signees are from within about 300 miles of campus.

Contrast this with 1990. 10 players on the pre-season 2 deep were from states non-contiguous with Georgia. 3 more were from the Dade-Broward County area. Does GT even have 10 players on scholarship from non-contiguous states? No players have been signed from Dade-Broward in the last 2 years.

I get tired of the academic excuse for poor recruiting for this very reason. You can't expect to catch the big ones fishing in a pond.

There is little I can say that would change your dislike for our current staff so I won't. However, for the benefit of others unfamiliar with your campaign to malign our staff, I will simply point out that over the last 12 or so months, we have greatly expanded our recruiting staff (which will allow us to cover much more territory) and relaxed the academic constraints that forced us to abandon various prospects before we even got off the ground.

And don't forget that in 1990, our staff still had very good recruiting connections in the north east where they came to Georgia Tech from (Maryland for those who didn't know).

So there is a relatively straightforward answer to all three of your points. But you already know the answers but pretend you don't so you can cast doubt on the quality of our current staff. So I took the time to reply but not to you, to members and guests of this board who aren't as familiar with your tricks as I am.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

A prime example of the risks involved in hiring any coach. There are 8 or 10 proven coaches out there, but the odds of getting them and the $$$$ would be astronomical. When you see a schools like Texas and UF go through bad seasons, with all their resources, you just have to scratch your head.

 

[daBuzz]

relaxed the academic constraints that forced us to abandon various prospects before we even got off the ground.

I'm sorry, but this simply isn't true. It should be pointed out what we really did:
CPJ has been given the ability to recruit MORE THAN FIVE exceptions per year; whereas, previously there was a hard limit of 5 exceptions per year. However, CPJ mentioned at signing day this year and in 2013 (in response to where this question was asked about # of exceptions) that he did not use all of the exceptions either year.

So, while it MAY change things in future years, it would have had ZERO effect in 2013 or this 2014 signing day class.