Techster
Helluva Engineer
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One of the questions I have is a little hard to encapsulate succinctly so bear with me.
Tech was once the hottest ticket in town and had a national following. Yes, I’m going way back. We don’t have to go over all the reasons for why this is no longer the case. Media has changed, entertainment has changed, sports have changed, news has changed, the country has changed, and Tech is no longer considered a national power, and these are all starting points for different conversations.
My question is, has there ever been a team of Tech’s national reputation and draw, that has gone through the decades long decline we have, who has gone back to being a nationally recognized power and has recovered the same drawing power and media share they once had?
I can’t think of any team that has done that but I don’t know which factor that is a feature of, other than failure to win consistently, but that is an interesting thought experiment to me if you have an opinion.
I was not old enough in the 1980's to remember (or care), but hasn't GT made the top 10 at some point in the season or in final rankings every decade since 1990? 1990's was Ross and O'Leary and we made the top 10 rankings under both. In the 2000's it was O'Leary/Gailey/Johnson, and we did during that time as well. During the 2010's, CPJ made the top 10 in 2014. 2020's is the only time (so far) that we have not.
Obviously, making top 10 one or a few times a decade doesn't come close to Dodd years, but that's a high bar few teams can match. Even 'Bama had periods of losing and barely being mentioned on the national level as they've been the past couple decades.
I do agree that of all the "old national powers" GT seems to have fallen the furthest for the longest amount of time. A lot of that is self inflicted, but as you said, that's a whole other discussion.