CPJ interview - Nov 11

[ibeattetris]

not if you listen to the current coach, or sayeth the ESPN crew doing the game Thursday night. They said Collins told them in their meeting that Tech couldn't recruit top flight DL because they didn't want to get cut blocked in practice every day.

Yet no one ever seems to ask the questions - if the PJ era D only faced the option in practice every day (which just simply is an outright myth) then how in God's name did they stop anybody on Saturdays? (granted, some days it certainly looked like that. Mostly under Roof. Our D played much better in the second half of last season under CNW. But I digress).
Here's the practice schedule, at least as I remember from going to see practice every day at Ga Southern when PJ was coaching.
Monday - cleanup and corrections and intro to other team scheme
Tuesday and Wednesday - contact. Maybe the last one or two periods on Wednesdays were devoted to 1v1s, especially for goal line and short yardage looks.
Thursday - shells, no contact.
and gassers to end every practice.
Friday - written tests.

Well, more often than not we didn’t. I think the “facing cut blocking in practice” is an ignorant statement (CPJ refuted it all the time), but our defense was bad under CPJ regardless of the reason.

 

[smokey_wasp]

not if you listen to the current coach, or sayeth the ESPN crew doing the game Thursday night. They said Collins told them in their meeting that Tech couldn't recruit top flight DL because they didn't want to get cut blocked in practice every day.

Yet no one ever seems to ask the questions - if the PJ era D only faced the option in practice every day (which just simply is an outright myth) then how in God's name did they stop anybody on Saturdays? (granted, some days it certainly looked like that. Mostly under Roof. Our D played much better in the second half of last season under CNW. But I digress).
Here's the practice schedule, at least as I remember from going to see practice every day at Ga Southern when PJ was coaching.
Monday - cleanup and corrections and intro to other team scheme
Tuesday and Wednesday - contact. Maybe the last one or two periods on Wednesdays were devoted to 1v1s, especially for goal line and short yardage looks.
Thursday - shells, no contact.
and gassers to end every practice.
Friday - written tests.

Well, the question isn't really whether our DL got cut blocked in practice every day or not. The question is whether recruits believed they did when opposing coaches said so, or thought it was a valid concern that turned them off from giving us a serious look. I think the odds are that many did. Its not always reality, but narrative that drives decisions.

In other words, it doesn't have to be true to have hurt recruiting.

 

[ScGold]

Well, more often than not we didn’t. I think the “facing cut blocking in practice” is an ignorant statement (CPJ refuted it all the time), but our defense was bad under CPJ regardless of the reason.

They weren't just bad defenses, but they were poorly coached for many of those years. Couldn't tackle or cover. Maybe that is why we had a new dc every 3 years.

 

[ibeattetris]

They weren't just bad defenses, but they were poorly coached for many of those years. Couldn't tackle or cover. Maybe that is why we had a new dc every 3 years.

I’m with you. I always thought the dc hires were at good times. It sucks none of them worked out.

 

[RickStromFan]

not if you listen to the current coach, or sayeth the ESPN crew doing the game Thursday night. They said Collins told them in their meeting that Tech couldn't recruit top flight DL because they didn't want to get cut blocked in practice every day.

Yet no one ever seems to ask the questions - if the PJ era D only faced the option in practice every day (which just simply is an outright myth) then how in God's name did they stop anybody on Saturdays? (granted, some days it certainly looked like that.

Most SEASONS, it looked like that. It's probably partly why PJ went thru 4 DCs in 10 years.

Literally no one has ever said that the PJ era D "only" faced the option in practice. But when they faced our 1st string Offense (thus our fastest, most-talented players), that's what they faced. I'm sure they got plenty of reps against a scout team offense that, in no way, shape or form resembled the actual offense they'd be facing that Saturday.

A defense that's preparing for a (example) heavy passing attack is simply going to get a better simulation of that if its 1st String Offense throws it well and often.

It's not remotely coincidental that we were mostly godawful-terrible at pass Defense during the PJ Option Era.

 

[jgtengineer]

Most SEASONS, it looked like that. It's probably partly why PJ went thru 4 DCs in 10 years.

Literally no one has ever said that the PJ era D "only" faced the option in practice. But when they faced our 1st string Offense (thus our fastest, most-talented players), that's what they faced. I'm sure they got plenty of reps against a scout team offense that, in no way, shape or form resembled the actual offense they'd be facing that Saturday.

A defense that's preparing for a (example) heavy passing attack is simply going to get a better simulation of that if its 1st String Offense throws it well and often.

It's not remotely coincidental that we were mostly godawful-terrible at pass Defense during the PJ Option Era.

But the thing we usually lacked most in that era was consistenly having pass rushers. When we did we had good defenses (not great) 2013 was a pretty good defense marred by inconsistent offensive play. And that was basically because of Jerry for instance.

On thing that playing against CPJ's offense does teach a defender is hand speed and eye discipline. The problem is and I mean this truthfully. We haven't had a good defensive scheme since tenuta that catered to our opponents. Roof was a 4-3 prostyel defense guy beign forced to play a 4-2-5 nickle package as a base. Woodies 3-4 was lacking linebackers. Womack tried to be multiple and basically do what ellis johnson was doing but worse (imagine we get him instead like CPJ wanted) In theory the bend don't break OR boom or bust defense works when paired with a ball control offense. the problem was we never did either well. Except in 2014 that was bend don't break perfection. (relying on turnovers and turnign alot of them over.)

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Well, the question isn't really whether our DL got cut blocked in practice every day or not. The question is whether recruits believed they did when opposing coaches said so, or thought it was a valid concern that turned them off from giving us a serious look. I think the odds are that many did. Its not always reality, but narrative that drives decisions.

In other words, it doesn't have to be true to have hurt recruiting.

And perhaps more money and resources towards recruiting could have helped us combat that narrative in our own recruiting. I still don’t think there’s enough evidence to assume better recruiting resources wouldn’t have helped our defensive (top recruits weren’t interested in the offense, but the offense was never the problem anyway) recruiting. I’m not saying the results on the field would have been better, but who knows.

 

[smokey_wasp]

And perhaps more money and resources towards recruiting could have helped us combat that narrative in our own recruiting. I still don’t think there’s enough evidence to assume better recruiting resources wouldn’t have helped our defensive (top recruits weren’t interested in the offense, but the offense was never the problem anyway) recruiting. I’m not saying the results on the field would have been better, but who knows.

What helped us in recent years with defensive recruiting was Andy Mac. I always say recruiting is something you are good at or you aren't. We needed more like him.

 

[jgtengineer]

What helped us in recent years with defensive recruiting was Andy Mac. I always say recruiting is something you are good at or you aren't. We needed more like him.

The problem is he was not the best inside linebackers coach and we are still running into some of those problems this year.

 

[Skeptic]

Well, the question isn't really whether our DL got cut blocked in practice every day or not. The question is whether recruits believed they did when opposing coaches said so, or thought it was a valid concern that turned them off from giving us a serious look. I think the odds are that many did. Its not always reality, but narrative that drives decisions.

In other words, it doesn't have to be true to have hurt recruiting.

I am not sure ESPN and Collins are sources considered objective. ESPN is selling the network and Collins never seems to stop deflecting blame, starting in year one. Heaven's knows what he will be saying in year three or four. I'm ready for this season to be over.

 

[ScGold]

I am not sure ESPN and Collins are sources considered objective. ESPN is selling the network and Collins never seems to stop deflecting blame, starting in year one. Heaven's knows what he will be saying in year three or four. I'm ready for this season to be over.

Deflecting blame? You must be confused with the last coach? You know it is what it is.

 

[Jim Prather]

I'm going to call bull**** on this false narrative. Did CPJ steal your girlfriend or something?
He regularly took the blame for bad losses by saying that they did not do a good enough job coaching.

 

[MWBATL]

When your defenses are consistently bad through 4 (?) DC coaching changes, that suggests to me it wasn't the coaching that was the problem....ya know, sometimes it's not the x's and the o's, sometimes it's the Jimmies and the Joes.

 

[ScGold]

When your defenses are consistently bad through 4 (?) DC coaching changes, that suggests to me it wasn't the coaching that was the problem....ya know, sometimes it's not the x's and the o's, sometimes it's the Jimmies and the Joes.

Or a lot of one and a little bit of the other.

 

[ScGold]

I'm going to call bull**** on this false narrative. Did CPJ steal your girlfriend or something?
He regularly took the blame for bad losses by saying that they did not do a good enough job coaching.

I dont have enough fingers and toes to count how many times paul would make the comment we worked on it practice, but or I can't tackle or block. The times u may recall him taking ownership were times he laid eggs. Missed assignments were always players fault never inferior coaching or scheme.

 

[RickStromFan]

But the thing we usually lacked most in that era was consistenly having pass rushers. When we did we had good defenses (not great) 2013 was a pretty good defense marred by inconsistent offensive play. And that was basically because of Jerry for instance.

On thing that playing against CPJ's offense does teach a defender is hand speed and eye discipline. The problem is and I mean this truthfully. We haven't had a good defensive scheme since tenuta that catered to our opponents. Roof was a 4-3 prostyel defense guy beign forced to play a 4-2-5 nickle package as a base. Woodies 3-4 was lacking linebackers. Womack tried to be multiple and basically do what ellis johnson was doing but worse (imagine we get him instead like CPJ wanted) In theory the bend don't break OR boom or bust defense works when paired with a ball control offense. the problem was we never did either well. Except in 2014 that was bend don't break perfection. (relying on turnovers and turnign alot of them over.)

It's interesting - we were something like 25th defensively in 2008 and it just went downhill from there. Was that due to not getting another Michael Johnson/Derrick Morgan on campus? Practicing against the Option? Lack of recruiting due to the option or PJ? Bad scheming? Poor D coaching? Who knows - I just hope we're able to get it fixed. We didn't appear to be any better in year 1 of CGC. Hopefully we'll look back at 2019 as 'bottoming out'.

 

[KCJackets]

KirVonte is nowhere near done playing football... Ill keep the particulars to myself. But out of respect for my son I won't go all the way in... but an average of 15-20 running (back) plays a game with 7-10 guaranteed to a 1000 yard back is disrespectful and letting us now that in July 2019 is a spit in our face. Fact 2 Mls severe tear is not a 2nd acl tear... 18 months without surgery and it heals on ts own, 6-12 months with surgery; the acl talk is valid but just a re-repair of the first repair that Dr X deemed was not efficient for a running back (and he still gave y'all 1000 yrds on it). Fact 3 KirVonte is squatting 495 on that leg 25 times with ease (2nd Acl tear my a$$) Finally Fact 4 a 2-10 records speaks for itself... more like 1-10, Miami was a flook win and I do not see that changing no matter how many years you give ole boy in this system. With KirVonte you probable beat everyone except Clemson, Va Tech and Georgia, and those games would have been / would be close based on his pride alone. Again out of respect for my son... no disrespect to the program... but as I stated before GT has not showed him much love over his time there and it remains the same... and that's disrespectful. There is a lot of chatter on this forum... but numbers speak for themselves. Lets let time give us the numbers that speak for themselves for Geoff.

Only thing I agree with you on is that your son played with a selfish QB. Too bad he didn't pitch it to him on the 2 point play vs Tennessee.

Hopefully you have encouraged your son to prepare for life after football.

 

[Skeptic]

Deflecting blame? You must be confused with the last coach? You know it is what it is.

I don't think I would ever be confused with the last coach. Almost positive.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

“With KirVonte you probable beat everyone except Clemson, Va Tech and Georgia, and those games would have been / would be close based on his pride alone”

Wow. JPM is an all-ACC performer and here we are. You’d have to be implying a beyond Heisman level of performance to predict 9 wins this year. Wow.

 

[Jim Prather]

I dont have enough fingers and toes to count how many times paul would make the comment we worked on it practice, but or I can't tackle or block. The times u may recall him taking ownership were times he laid eggs. Missed assignments were always players fault never inferior coaching or scheme.

Hey I get that you feel the need to tear down our previous coach in order to build up our current one. CGC doesn't have the resume and doesn't (yet) seem to have the in-game coaching chops we were really hoping for. And there are reasonable criticisms to be had. No one disputes that CPJ never managed to field a consistent defense to go along with his top notch offense.
You don't have to wholesale make things up though. That is not a good look for you, or by proxy CGC...