And if you were being honest you only want to compare the first 4 years because it was when Johnson had the most talent, largely inherited, and so had the most success and compare it to a time period where the other coach has to largely use the lower level of talent that Johnson left, and was working with the last 4 years. You don't want to compare the two with relatively similar talent because it would cast doubt on your preconceived notion about Johnson.
What we do know is that Johnson went 24-25 his last 4 years here so anything above that is improvement over what we had. We haven't had 08-09 since... well 08-09. We've fallen a lot from that time.
This is a bogus and silly argument and I will explain why.
CPJ far exceeded expectations when he first took over from Gailey. I certainly didn't expect him to win at the rate he did. Most thought it would be a difficult transition to the new offense. Some, myself included, were not even sure this experiment would work. The spectacular results cemented in most people's minds that CPJ was a better coach.
However, as time when on, and the overall winning percentage did not get appreciably better, and recruiting did not seem to improve, people began to look for different ways to compare the coaches. Who had the most wins over Uga? Who won the most division or conference championships? Who went to the Orange Bowl the most? How did the respective coaches best seasons compare to each other?
The point is, there were legitimate arguments to be made. What we realized in hindsight was that comparing one coach's last years to another coach's first years gave a false impression. More data was needed.
CGC has yet to coach his first game. That is kind of important. It means that we have no data. It also means that if you are hellbent on proving he is a better coach, you might want to wait until after his first years. If you do want to use his first years then compare first years with first years. Nobody will know for a long time what CGC's last four years will be like nor whether he will go 0-12 his last year.
I am rooting like hell for our new coach. I don't have to bash CPJ to do that nor do I need to set up arbitrary comparisons or lower expectations. I honesty think he is going to be fine. Have a little confidence in him.
