Coaching Acumen of the New Staff...

[link3945]

Wow I could not disagree more with the premise of the initial post.

If CGC attempts 4th conversions on our own half of the field in the first half even 5% of the times CPJ did, that will be too many. Football coaches in general are so idiotic that you can win a good amount of games with no talent as long as you don’t make game decisions like an 8 year old playing Madden NFL 19. See: David Cutcliffe

This flys in the face of most analytics. You should be attempting significantly more 4th downs, and 4th and 1 or less should be an automatic go for it no matter the field position. Coaches tend to massively overrate field position. Keeping the ball on offense is paramount for an offense.

 

[MidtownJacket]

This flys in the face of most analytics. You should be attempting significantly more 4th downs, and 4th and 1 or less should be an automatic go for it no matter the field position. Coaches tend to massively overrate field position. Keeping the ball on offense is paramount for an offense.

Someone made an amazing post a while ago about the value of being aggressive

 

[slugboy]

Someone made an amazing post a while ago about the value of being aggressive

Here you go: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/upshot/4th-down-when-to-go-for-it-and-why.html

Punting from the opponent's 40 yard line doesn't buy you a lot, unless your punter can put it out of bounds inside the 10 (hopefully 5).

ETA: Actually replying to the subject->
DC: I expect this to improve. Better than before, but not necessarily better than our opponent's DC
ST Coordinator: Multiple roles or coaches, but this should improve.
OC: I expect this to decline. CPJ was a great OC. Patenaude evidently should have thrown more last year.
OL: I expect this to be at least even, likely better
RB: Not sure, but possible improvement.
WR: Not sure, but possible improvement.
DL: I hope this is an improvement, and it should be
LB: I expect an improvement here
DB/S: I expect an improvement here

That's not a perfect alignment to coaching assignments (DE/OLB are or should be together, I think Collins coaches Corners), but that's the general gist of where I see our coaching.

 

[Vespidae]

Good grief. How many angels dance on the head of a pin?

Let the new coach coach.

 

[85Escape]

Good grief. How many angels dance on the head of a pin?
Let the new coach coach.

How big is the pin?

 

[AUFC]

This flys in the face of most analytics. You should be attempting significantly more 4th downs, and 4th and 1 or less should be an automatic go for it no matter the field position. Coaches tend to massively overrate field position. Keeping the ball on offense is paramount for an offense.

Would be interested in a citation. I really enjoy the sabermetrics/statistics/percentage games of the sport.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Um...this is a thread about our current coaching staff, not a review of our past coaching staff. Seriously. If you want to talk about the coaching acumen of the last staff, start a new thread.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

This is not/not intended to be a negative post about CGC and the new staff - I hope we exceed all reasonable expectations this Fall, and I hope we become the powerhouse we all hope the program will be...

That said, one of the things I enjoyed most about CPJ was the display of coaching ability in game - not perfect, maddening decisions from time to time, of course - but throughout his tenure, there were few times where you just know we beat ourselves based on bad coaching decisions...

My question is regarding the existing body of evidence (or lack thereof) that our new staff possess sufficient game management skills... Do they have the ability to call the right plays to exploit the demonstrable weaknesses of the opposition? Can they make the right adjustments at the right times?

I am fine with the branding thing, 404, Waffle House, the rah-rah, Morpheus, and all the stuff that people are excited about - all that is great, but it only matters if it translates to getting better athletes on the field wearing our uniforms... Perhaps the 2020 class is shaping up into something special, but not sure it's dramatically better than what we've had in recent years...

I also think the new staff will be able to get the best out of the players we have in terms of individual execution - or at least I have no reason to think they will do worse in this regard than the previous staff...

What I just don't know is if the new staff has a demonstrable record of winning the coaching battles - putting the teams they have in situations that give them the best chance to win the game... How optimistic are you in this respect? Will the coaching match the off-year hype?

Georgia Tech is never going to be a "factory". That said, recruiting is the hallmark of any successful program be it Alabama or an academic school playing big boy football like Vanderbilt or Stanford. This happens to be the one area that PJ and his staff were most deficient. No amount of game day coaching will overcome repeated recruiting mediocrity. As far back as Coach Dodd this was recognized. In his ghostwritten autobiography he said "Bad recruiting will get you beat over the long haul." Of course, getting good players is one thing, developing them into college level athletes is something else. This staff will make its mark, for better or worse, in two areas: recruiting and player development. Improve those markedly and the game day stuff will by and large take care of itself. The answers to your questions will be answered in a couple of years. The proof will be in the pudding.

Coach Johnson was the best game day coach in living memory on the Flats. Coach O'Leary and Coach Ross were very close but they had more talent to work with. Quite frankly, we beat teams that we should have had no chance against just because of the scheme and Coach Johnson's game calling. Clemson in 2011 is a good example. They were undefeated, number 5 in the country with every intention of playing for the national championship. We had Tevin Washington, Orwin Smith, Emory Peeples and a bunch of players who were pretty good but not in the same class as the Tigers. We not only beat them but ran them right off the field on national television no less.

 

[danny daniel]

This is not/not intended to be a negative post about CGC and the new staff - I hope we exceed all reasonable expectations this Fall, and I hope we become the powerhouse we all hope the program will be...

That said, one of the things I enjoyed most about CPJ was the display of coaching ability in game - not perfect, maddening decisions from time to time, of course - but throughout his tenure, there were few times where you just know we beat ourselves based on bad coaching decisions...

My question is regarding the existing body of evidence (or lack thereof) that our new staff possess sufficient game management skills... Do they have the ability to call the right plays to exploit the demonstrable weaknesses of the opposition? Can they make the right adjustments at the right times?

I am fine with the branding thing, 404, Waffle House, the rah-rah, Morpheus, and all the stuff that people are excited about - all that is great, but it only matters if it translates to getting better athletes on the field wearing our uniforms... Perhaps the 2020 class is shaping up into something special, but not sure it's dramatically better than what we've had in recent years...

I also think the new staff will be able to get the best out of the players we have in terms of individual execution - or at least I have no reason to think they will do worse in this regard than the previous staff...

What I just don't know is if the new staff has a demonstrable record of winning the coaching battles - putting the teams they have in situations that give them the best chance to win the game... How optimistic are you in this respect? Will the coaching match the off-year hype?

Depends on the O moving the sticks in short yardage and scoring TDs in the red zone and the D getting off the field on third and long. Can't do the O stuff in the gun. IMO. I have hopes for improvement overall in the D with the pressing coverage. Blitzes need that coaching help (disguising and who and when) since we are short on player skills in this area.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Not so fast!
If we go 9-3, this board would be so over the top optimistic that we will need your restraint.
Going 6-6 we will be self restrainting .

If there is one thing that is the trademark of this board and Tech fans in general is that we are "self restraining". You will seldom, if ever, see a Tech fan go completely nuts. Well, FSU 2015 and a couple of Clemson wins notwithstanding. Self restraining, gotta remember that word.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

One thing I’ve noticed about un seasoned head coaches. They blow games early in their tenure by not managing the clock at the end. Happened to Dabbo, Richt, Smart, Miles, and so many others.

Ask any Florida fan, and he will tell you that Ron Zook blew games early in his three year tenure as the head ball coach, blew games in the middle and blew games at the end. Seasoning did not seem to work for him. He could recruit I will give him that and he beat UGA in two of his three years so he has that accomplishment.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

It is not a ridiculous question considering Bill Lewis in our somewhat recent past.

I thought it was established protocol that his name was not to mentioned on this forum. But yes, that is a good point.

 

[Techster]

So does this someone has "coaching acumen"?

 

[slugboy]

Um...this is a thread about our current coaching staff, not a review of our past coaching staff. Seriously. If you want to talk about the coaching acumen of the last staff, start a new thread.

New thread on previous staff at https://gtswarm.com/threads/coaching-acumen-of-the-previous-staff.18424/

 

[takethepoints]

That said, recruiting is the hallmark of any successful program be it Alabama or an academic school playing big boy football like Vanderbilt or Stanford. This happens to be the one area that PJ and his staff were most deficient. No amount of game day coaching will overcome repeated recruiting mediocrity.

This comes up a lot, but I don't really think it is true.

Think of the players Tech lost to injury or transfer in the last few years of Paul's time:

C. J. Leggett, Jalen Ratliff, Matthew Jordan, Dedrick(!) Mills(!), Marcus Marshall, Chris Griffin, Trey Klock, Eason Fromayen, Gary Brown, Dennis Andrews - and that's just the ones on offense alone that I can remember off the top of my head. We lost a good number of good D players too.

That's a pretty good collection of football players right there; plenty of high 3 star and a couple of four star players. And, more to the point, they were extremely well suited to play in the spread option. If a few of them had stayed or survived injury, several of our seasons could have been much different; losing Leggett, Quaid, and Andrews before the 2015 season made a tremendous difference, for instance. Sooooooo … did Paul recruit well? I think so. Did he have some really bad luck with retaining those recruits? I think so. Did this make a difference in our won/loss and how people thought he recruited? I sure do think that.

Will Coach do better then Paul in this department? We'll see about that over the next two years or so. This year's class is pretty good, when you factor in the transfers, and we probably aren't through yet.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

This comes up a lot, but I don't really think it is true.

Think of the players Tech lost to injury or transfer in the last few years of Paul's time:

C. J. Leggett, Jalen Ratliff, Matthew Jordan, Dedrick(!) Mills(!), Marcus Marshall, Chris Griffin, Trey Klock, Eason Fromayen, Gary Brown, Dennis Andrews - and that's just the ones on offense alone that I can remember off the top of my head. We lost a good number of good D players too.

That's a pretty good collection of football players right there; plenty of high 3 star and a couple of four star players. And, more to the point, they were extremely well suited to play in the spread option. If a few of them had stayed or survived injury, several of our seasons could have been much different; losing Leggett, Quaid, and Andrews before the 2015 season made a tremendous difference, for instance. Sooooooo … did Paul recruit well? I think so. Did he have some really bad luck with retaining those recruits? I think so. Did this make a difference in our won/loss and how people thought he recruited? I sure do think that.

Will Coach do better then Paul in this department? We'll see about that over the next two years or so. This year's class is pretty good, when you factor in the transfers, and we probably aren't through yet.

Those are some good players but the ones that really stand out who could have been a game changer were Mills and Marshall. FWIW I still do not think the recruiting was good enough to reverse the trajectory of the program. We were not getting defensive linemen or line backers. An opposing coach in one of those preseason magazines was quoted as saying our talent level was near the bottom of the ACC. Hyperbole? possibly. Some negative recruiting and envy? Most definitely. But there was also the perception that our talent level was slowly getting to the point where the scheme and "coaching acumen" could no longer compensate.

 

[Animal02]

Those are some good players but the ones that really stand out who could have been a game changer were Mills and Marshall. FWIW I still do not think the recruiting was good enough to reverse the trajectory of the program. We were not getting defensive linemen or line backers. An opposing coach in one of those preseason magazines was quoted as saying our talent level was near the bottom of the ACC. Hyperbole? possibly. Some negative recruiting and envy? Most definitely. But there was also the perception that our talent level was slowly getting to the point where the scheme and "coaching acumen" could no longer compensate.

Lack of $$$$. Lots of posters here cannot seem to grasp the concept that spending on the program correlates to recruiting. Tech was near the bottom of the ACC talent wise as we were in spends ng on football...only slightly better than WF. Another poster....forgot who has posted the graph several times showing how the two correlate. CPJ was able to out perform almost every year. Don't think the new coach will have the same issue with $$$. What he does with it on the field is yet to be determined.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Those are some good players but the ones that really stand out who could have been a game changer were Mills and Marshall. FWIW I still do not think the recruiting was good enough to reverse the trajectory of the program. We were not getting defensive linemen or line backers. An opposing coach in one of those preseason magazines was quoted as saying our talent level was near the bottom of the ACC. Hyperbole? possibly. Some negative recruiting and envy? Most definitely. But there was also the perception that our talent level was slowly getting to the point where the scheme and "coaching acumen" could no longer compensate.

Not that you in particular are inferring this, but I don't get the counter arguments being run out. Argument 1 is that CPJ couldn't recruit and that led to the downward trajectory of this program. Argument 2 is that GT is NOT devoid of talent and we should easily win minimum 6 games and maybe 7-8 next year even though our offensive recruits don't fit the new system.

That being said, and to get back to the point of this thread, I don't think TStan would have hired CGC if he didn't trust him as a HC. He has been nominated for the Broyles award three times, so, at least as a defensive coach, his credentials are impeccable. How he does as HC at a P5 school are unknown, but the prognosis is good. Will a poor showing next year or two mean anything? No. If he wins 8+ games I think we have lightning in a bottle. Either way, I'm as excited as anyone about the future.

 

[stinger 1957]

I hope we give the man a chance, IMO this is pretty much a complete rebuild and will take 2 to 3 yrs good recruiting and then we might have expectations going fwd.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Those are some good players but the ones that really stand out who could have been a game changer were Mills and Marshall. FWIW I still do not think the recruiting was good enough to reverse the trajectory of the program. We were not getting defensive linemen or line backers. An opposing coach in one of those preseason magazines was quoted as saying our talent level was near the bottom of the ACC. Hyperbole? possibly. Some negative recruiting and envy? Most definitely. But there was also the perception that our talent level was slowly getting to the point where the scheme and "coaching acumen" could no longer compensate.

Jordan Yates says hi. Best qb recruit since Smoov. But I get your point about lb’s and dl’s.

And everybody is doing backflips about our new anointed one freshman rb, but the 3 dudes infront of him ain’t bendin’ the knee.