CPJ extension

[Whiskey_Clear]

First of all: you don't grant an extension based on the first 5 games of the year. If you recall, we were 6-0 at the beginning of 2011 only to finish 8-5.
Second: Any extension, if there is one, should be with non-guaranteed years, as Globalbee said. Quite a few other schools don't guarantee 4, 5, 6, etc years of salary. Doing that only handicaps the athletic department if a decision is ever made to part ways with the coach.
Finally: I have never understood the argument postulated above. I've fired quite a few people who worked for me and weren't performing up to expected standards in my career. Not once..not a single time...have I ever thought, "Well, if I fire this person, who am I going to get who is better?".

When you make the determination that your guy isn't getting the job done, you let that person go. THEN, you see who is available at the time and you go forward from there. Rarely, there will be situations where there is a coach on a staff who is being groomed to replace the head guy. But, with the exception of Jimbo Fisher, that strategy seems to have backfired more often than it has succeeded.

Lots of words and little substance.

 

[awbuzz]

Let's let the season play out.

I think CPJ has the boat headed in the right direction, maybe not as fast as we'd like, but still in the right direction. It's not that easy to speed up the improvements in recruiting with all of the various headwinds that GT experiences.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I'm not adamantly saying he has to get extension now. Waiting is fine if you have doubts about his ability and only wish to reward wins n losses.
If you want to define success in wins n losses I get that. I'll be pretty happy with a 9 win season, which was my preseason prediction. Success should not be confused with ability but often is in sports. There are few other quantifiers for success and thus ability with regards to coaching.
But if you believe CPJ is capable and should be our coach...there is little upside to dragging things out.

 

[Mack]

Ga Southern brings in about 1/6th the revenue GT brings in. They pay their head coach about as much as most BCS teams pay their coordinators. They play in a conference that makes them about half a million a year in TV money compared to 20 million for BCS teams. They are lucky to get 20k attendance for a home game. I hope they do continue to improve and build a quality program but they aren't passing us any time soon, no matter how much UGA fans say they are.

Agree with you except the lucky to get 20k there .the stadium hold only 25 k and they have packed it this year......they are not us yet........but they can be very pesky and can deal with us unless we improve also.

 

[Mack]

I have to not just look at yesterday and take a bigger view of our year so far...I have liked some things I have seen and been impressed with our 5-1 start.

I do think most of the issues I had with CPJ seem to be trending in the right direction besides the defense.

However, I would like to see the rest of the year play out before a extension is handed down.

I do have the feel that it would be the right move to keep him.

He will win at least eight...I hope and if he plays decent game vs GA he is golden.........my take on pj is why after one win vs Ga did we sell out hte farm after Blewit and Chan........we never learn I guess.I would have given him a raise and kept the same contract......

 

[Eric]

He will win at least eight...I hope and if he plays decent game vs GA he is golden.........my take on pj is why after one win vs Ga did we sell out hte farm after Blewit and Chan........we never learn I guess.I would have given him a raise and kept the same contract......

Why....because he had two good years and we had some heavy hitters knocking at the door trying to hire him.

 

[dtm1997]

Although CPJ had success by the time of his extension, let's also remember that DRad has proven lazy when hiring a coach. He just gave Brad Brownell an extension at Clemson after some reasonable success.

DRad would sell out the farm rather than deal with a coaching search later on.

 

[cyptomcat]

Let's let most of the season play out first.

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

First of all: you don't grant an extension based on the first 5 games of the year. If you recall, we were 6-0 at the beginning of 2011 only to finish 8-5.
Second: Any extension, if there is one, should be with non-guaranteed years, as Globalbee said. Quite a few other schools don't guarantee 4, 5, 6, etc years of salary. Doing that only handicaps the athletic department if a decision is ever made to part ways with the coach.
Finally: I have never understood the argument postulated above. I've fired quite a few people who worked for me and weren't performing up to expected standards in my career. Not once..not a single time...have I ever thought, "Well, if I fire this person, who am I going to get who is better?".

When you make the determination that your guy isn't getting the job done, you let that person go. THEN, you see who is available at the time and you go forward from there. Rarely, there will be situations where there is a coach on a staff who is being groomed to replace the head guy. But, with the exception of Jimbo Fisher, that strategy seems to have backfired more often than it has succeeded.

Did the people you fired make $2.5 million/year and did your company have to pay them 2-3 years worth of salary to fire them?

 

[DvilleJacket]

If we can go 9-3 with one of those being a win against Clemson or Ugag let him have one. As strong as we started to end up say 8 and 4 with losses to those two and another conference foe not sure I would give him one after such a fantastic start.

 

[Boomergump]

I don't feel firing him the middle of the season would be appropriate if we were off to a bad start. By the same token, extending him right now is not a good idea either. Everybody's focus should be on the kid's season and more specifically the next game. If I were in charge, I wouldn't consider it either way until after Thanksgiving. Now, should I decide to offer him an extension after this season, the contract would have the same base salary, but be laden with lucrative incentives that would have him paid among the highest coaches in the game if he achieves them. Under no terms would I except a lengthy guarantee of years.

 

[shockwaveGT]

I think we could certainly get better use out of buyout $$$$.Apply it to assistants and recruiting and we'd see a good ROI.

 

[swampsting]

Ga Southern brings in about 1/6th the revenue GT brings in. They pay their head coach about as much as most BCS teams pay their coordinators. They play in a conference that makes them about half a million a year in TV money compared to 20 million for BCS teams. They are lucky to get 20k attendance for a home game. I hope they do continue to improve and build a quality program but they aren't passing us any time soon, no matter how much UGA fans say they are.

The crowds this year at Paulson so far have been some of the best in GSU history. But your other points are spot on. It's a good thing for the GSU program the Eagles have gotten off to such a good start - they are rolling through the Sun Belt, so either they are good or the Sun Belt is awful and I think it's both - because that has kept the fan base in it. Keep in mind for their last home game ever against Furman last year, maybe the most hated rival in GSU modern football history, they drew just over 12K. The last two home games of this year - doormat Troy on a Thursday night and Louisiana-Monroe - may not draw the 23K plus they've had so far.
Southern's other problems are a lack of big donors. They have some very involved donors who are financially supportive but they don't have the donors who can just turn on a hose of money at the program. The exposure argument their AD and president use also are falling just as hollow and short as I thought they would. Their Thursday night game against App State drew a .1 rating, or about 156K homes tuning in. Across the nation.
Competing on the field has never been the issue for Southern, especially in a league as bad as the Sun Belt. The big hurdle has always been money - can they get enough to make the move to FBS viable and sustainable.

 

[iceeater1969]

If you aint pleased with the first half of the year you ain't ever gonna be happy. I'd grant him the extension. If you base extension on beating Clemson and UGA....both are better than us and we probably don't get those wins. Not saying we can't win but those two teams have a good bit more talent. If you don't agree with an extension who do you think we can hire who would do as well or better than CPJ? Very short list in my mind. And while I think = is possible I think new coach doing a better job is a long shot.

Extension will help him with next (2016) recruiting class also. Some of these kids will commit early. I hate dragging our feet on this.

You have a good point - fear of unknown level of improvement in getting a new coach. Could be a bust. Don't underestimate our positives - location ATL is IMO a major positive. Could be a big plus though. I am biased seeing how Bryles , who is a super positive good guy , has turned Baylor around in WACO! He did get school support because they were almost out of big 12 . Big thing was he realized that holding during pass blocking is allowed ( aka duke vs gt) and that one good qb can change the program. We could raid the tcu, Texas tech Baylor staffs and bring to tech a whole new offense that is wide open and does not require factory recruits. The folks in big twelve (OU and Texas) thought it was a gimmick! I come from the group that wants to win more than the steady 7 -7-7-7 with victories over Eons, I am a 5-6-10-10-7 of fan. Anyway there are lots of good coaches out there. But let's go slow and give this season some time. We may have a few more bumps in road, but we could and should finish strong. That's when we make the decisions. I love the triple option, but without more talent we are never going to be consistently a top program. I say we will after 2015 where we play NDAnd FSU

 

[nodawgs]

We just lost to Duke at home. This is not the appropriate time to be talking extensions.

 

[daBuzz]

I was with you until we got to the business analogy and then your argument broke down for me. You kind of threw a red herring into the mix. Sure you fire someone who is not getting the job done. And of course, you never hang on to someone just because you think you cannot find someone else to hire. But that is not what people are suggesting when it comes to a coach at Tech. The issue, to use a terribly wooden analogy, would be to say that you had hired someone to sell ice cubes to Eskimos. He did not fail at the job but, under the rather obvious disadvantages of the job, kept the company going and had some modest success. Now the question is this, do I hang on to this guy even though I know that selling ice cubes to Eskimos is going to be a slow growth venture or do I sack him because there might be some unknown guy out there who has figured out not only how to sell ice cubes to Eskimos but to do it faster and better than anyone else we have ever had in the job and to do it so well that he actually begins to compete in annual sales with the guy who is selling ice cubes in the Caribbean? That is what I think people mean when they discuss firing CPJ for some unknown option.

Yes, I agree that my analogy isn't a spot on example. But I think we both can agree that the difficulties of coaching at Georgia Tech aren't going to change anytime in the next few years. We can wish for, ask for, and/or hope for additional majors or paths through the school that don't require calculus, but the simple reality is that you and I won't see this happen any time soon. And that is regardless of who the head football coach happens to be at the time.

I'm just simply saying that making a decision not to let someone go because "well, who are we going to get who is better" is flawed thinking. By that logic, we'd still have Chan Gailey as the coach because I can assure you that I had a LOT of friends, fraternity brothers, and fellow season ticket holders who were all making that same argument as the heat was building under Gailey's seat as the head coach.

If your guy isn't getting the job done, you make the decision to switch and go from there. Besides, at the end of every season, there are a lot of coaches/coordinators available who are looking for jobs that weren't there during the season. You have to make your determination based on the available pool at that time because the pool is dynamic.

Did the people you fired make $2.5 million/year and did your company have to pay them 2-3 years worth of salary to fire them?

Nope. But I'm not advocating firing him in the middle of the season. As a matter of fact, your post actually agrees with my argument. I'm not in favor of guaranteed money in any (if any) extensions are given. I happen to completely agree with Boomergump's idea. Load his contract heavily with incentives that make him a very well paid coach when/if performance metrics are met. Conversely, if those metrics aren't being met and the AD wants to replace him with another coach, let's not have guaranteed buyout money that puts undue financial strain on the athletic department like we had/have with Gailey and Hewitt.

 

[daBuzz]

Lots of words and little substance.

LOL. Well don't read them then.

Just because I don't happen to agree with your silly idea of giving a guy a contract extension after we just lost to a team that hadn't been us in 10 years, you don't have to get your panties in a wad.

 

[Eric]

Yes, I agree that my analogy isn't a spot on example. But I think we both can agree that the difficulties of coaching at Georgia Tech aren't going to change anytime in the next few years. We can wish for, ask for, and/or hope for additional majors or paths through the school that don't require calculus, but the simple reality is that you and I won't see this happen any time soon. And that is regardless of who the head football coach happens to be at the time.

I'm just simply saying that making a decision not to let someone go because "well, who are we going to get who is better" is flawed thinking. By that logic, we'd still have Chan Gailey as the coach because I can assure you that I had a LOT of friends, fraternity brothers, and fellow season ticket holders who were all making that same argument as the heat was building under Gailey's seat as the head coach.

If your guy isn't getting the job done, you make the decision to switch and go from there. Besides, at the end of every season, there are a lot of coaches/coordinators available who are looking for jobs that weren't there during the season. You have to make your determination based on the available pool at that time because the pool is dynamic.


Nope. But I'm not advocating firing him in the middle of the season. As a matter of fact, your post actually agrees with my argument. I'm not in favor of guaranteed money in any (if any) extensions are given. I happen to completely agree with Boomergump's idea. Load his contract heavily with incentives that make him a very well paid coach when/if performance metrics are met. Conversely, if those metrics aren't being met and the AD wants to replace him with another coach, let's not have guaranteed buyout money that puts undue financial strain on the athletic department like we had/have with Gailey and Hewitt.

Very true.

 

[GTJake]

We are in a P5 conference thus included with the "haves" over the "have nots", which in todays ever changing college football landscape is a HUGE deal.
I have a problem buying into the train of thought that says we can't attract a top tier coach.
I'm not making a statement either way about CPJ, right now he's earned "the benefit of the doubt".
In terms of an extension, I suggest patience.

 

[ATL1]

Patience. Everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of CPJ but winning makes everything right by me. If it's another 7-5 season, lets move on from CPJ. 8-4 or better with recruiting still holding strong, then maybe that warrants an extension.