CPJ Press Conference #ALCNvsGT

Skeptic

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Open your ears and eyes... CPJ despises the pressers. He knows that the media would like nothing more than to see him fail or cause him harm. He hates saying the same thing over and over...

Have you heard him on the radio with neutral people not grinding an axe? He is so different!

Haters gonna hate! What is funny is you sound like CPJ at a presser.

CPJ is not a perfect person, but who is? He is not a win at at the cost of ethics, he cares for GT student athletes, he has brought some pretty high highs. Some of you think we can go buy our Saban and have a 10 year ride like Bama. The school has limitations and is an anchor that no other successful coach is going to stick around for 10 years. Really? We are lucky (except on past DC ability).

I sure hope for good things for Paul...
Now, take a deep breath. Stop blaming "the media". Get off the "haters gonna hate!! yadda yadda yadda because it is probable even his detractors don't hate the man, but now it is a word thrown out there like confetti to replace conversation. It seems apparent he was, is, not happy and was in fact deflated. If I were the AD, I'd have a talk with him because he is after all, for better or for worse, for good or bad, the face of the football program and that press conference presented a depressing face. If he hates the pressers he has had time to get over it. They are part and parcel of a head coach's responsibility and in fact in most coaches' contracts. I am fairly sure given all their other problems "the media" could care less if Paul Johnson succeeds or fails. He is the head ball coach. Every win and every loss is on him. Shoot, sometimes we make more excuses for Paul Johnson than he makes for himself. He had a bad day and has to do better. (Though seeing Marshall, supposedly a team leader, thinking a defensive player missing the game because of a silly scooter accident was funny would frost anybody.)
 

4shotB

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Now, take a deep breath. Stop blaming "the media". Get off the "haters gonna hate!! yadda yadda yadda because it is probable even his detractors don't hate the man, but now it is a word thrown out there like confetti to replace conversation. It seems apparent he was, is, not happy and was in fact deflated. If I were the AD, I'd have a talk with him because he is after all, for better or for worse, for good or bad, the face of the football program and that press conference presented a depressing face. If he hates the pressers he has had time to get over it. They are part and parcel of a head coach's responsibility and in fact in most coaches' contracts.

Great post! We all have aspects of our jobs that we don't like. I have never understood why some of these guys fight the requirement. Yes, it might be boring/difficult/etc. But it's not going away so why not own it? Guys like Spurrier, Cremins, Valvano to name a few took a 100% opposite approach with the media. )Apparently Pastner does as well).And in doing so, used the media as a tool. This to me is the better approach to a task that is mundane or unpleasant. Of course, Pepper Rogers was the same way. If you have good rapport with the press AND win, you are entertaining. If you have a good relationship with the press and don't win enough, you are flippant and/or irreverent. But if I were a coach, before I acted like Bellichik or Saban at a presser I would make sure that I had their W/L record as well.
 

dressedcheeseside

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This data sums up my overall thoughts re: CPJ and his tenure. Although I like him and want him to be the next Bobby Dodd, at the end of the day I have to say he has not moved the needle here. Yes, he has increased the standard deviation but the mean remains about the same. It is what it is. For every alleged advantage his system is supposed to bring to the table, the data says it is offset apparently by other things (defensive effectiveness being one of them).

The overall data implies that CPJ is not (to date) a difference maker really. That is going to have to come from TStan. We need a visionary (think Dr. Homer Rice) at that position to really move the needle. The guys who can come in and make quantum changes at the coaching level are rarer than hen's teeth. I have seen one for sure in my lifetime at Tech(Bobby Cremins) and possibly another (Coach Ross). Although there have been a few others I have seen - Spurier at Duke and UF, Bobby Bowden at FSU come to mind. The guys that explode through barriers and obstacles that others before them couldn't. Just like in business and politics, the good Lord didn't make many of them.
Good thing we are about to experience a whole new data set. Even looking back, the mean doesn't mean much to me. I'd rather have the higher highs even if coupled with the lower lows than not have them at all.
 

TechTyler_17

Georgia Tech Fan
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Kennesaw, GA
Don't mistake fans who understand the built-in disadvantages that GT has, regardless of who our coach is, for unconditional love of CPJ.

I’m just curious, what do you think these built-in disadvantages are? And that’s not meant to be snarky. I’m just wondering if there are things that we consider disadvantages that other schools who are thriving (or at least doing better than us) have to deal with.


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dressedcheeseside

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I had to listen to this to entire presser. After listening:

1) CPJ saying we are about a 6-6 team and 8-9 wins is a good season is correct. CPJ has been a 57% winning coach, which is 6.8 wins in a 12 game season. That's the same as Gailey. 114 Years of GT Football – How will history repeat?

2) He's right no one cares about the labor pains, they only want to see the baby. But he needs to be excited and talking about the beautiful baby. A lot of his job is to build enthusiasm. I don't think Dabo is as good of coach as CPJ but in terms of enthusiasm, he is 10,000% better than CPJ.

3) Swilling got hurt this week a a frickin scooter and won't play. All D1 football players should be banned from those things.

4) His comment about the depth chart was especially snarky. Something like "I had to do it and it may change, if it does I don't care."

5) We are losing the spending battles; need more pay for Asst's and the program. I agree. But him telling the reporters they were too lazy to look up the spending stats was petulant and unnecessary. Yes I know CPJ is the smartest guy in the room. But the smartest guy in the room should be smart enough not to act that way.

6) I liked his discussion of when to play guys up to 4 games a year.

7) Davis doing KO and FGs. Wow, King must not have recovered. Ouch. Here are Davis' stats from last year place kicking. He kicked it further than the injured King last year. His two misses in the UT game could have won the game either time. http://www.cfbstats.com/2017/player/255/1070703/kicking/gamelog.html

Overall, CPJ has said that he'll coach as long as he enjoys it. He clearly didn't enjoy this press conference.
I usually like your posts, but this one sides a bit too much with the whiners on the board. I'm getting tired of reading so many thin skinned posts about CPJ's less than sunny demeanor in post practice pressers. He's always been this way, if we're not used to it by now..... We can't praise the guy for being a "tell it like it is" and a "no sugar coating straight talker" and then bash him when he tells it like is and talks straight without sugar. You can tell he hates answering these types of question because he knows what he's gonna say and how it's gonna sound and how he's going to be portrayed but he keeps getting baited time and time again. He should have just stopped after he said answering the question is pointless. But then you guys would complain that he didn't answer the question.

I'm not put off one bit by his point blank honesty. He's tried to go behind the scenes with the hill till he's blue in the face and gotten no where. What do you want him to do, stop trying? And this rant is not directed at Nuke by any means, it's at all the guys who want a cheerleader head football coach. Maybe we should just stop the post practice pressers or not have them broadcasted. I'm all for that if you guys are so put off by coach's refreshing honesty.
 

4shotB

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Good thing we are about to experience a whole new data set. Even looking back, the mean doesn't mean much to me. I'd rather have the higher highs even if coupled with the lower lows than not have them at all.

I think most do the higher deviation around the mean. OTOH, lower standard deviation has its positive. Under CCG and his consistent 7-5 seasons, I felt like we were just one or two pieces away from jumping to the next level. That piece was either a QB and/or OC. Now, when I reflect on the past 4 or 5 years I'm not sure exactly who we are/how to take that jump. I join all GT fans in saying that I hope the DC is in fact the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
 

SidewalkJacket

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I’m just curious, what do you think these built-in disadvantages are? And that’s not meant to be snarky. I’m just wondering if there are things that we consider disadvantages that other schools who are thriving (or at least doing better than us) have to deal with.


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They've been addressed ad naseum on this and so many other GT sports forums. They are real. They do not inherently prevent us from winning championships. They make competing at the highest level in football difficult.

Good thing we are about to experience a whole new data set. Even looking back, the mean doesn't mean much to me. I'd rather have the higher highs even if coupled with the lower lows than not have them at all.

BINGO

Don't mistake fans who understand the built-in disadvantages that GT has, regardless of who our coach is, for unconditional love of CPJ.

BINGO
 

TechTyler_17

Georgia Tech Fan
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They've been addressed ad naseum on this and so many other GT sports forums. They are real. They do not inherently prevent us from winning championships. They make competing at the highest level in football difficult.



BINGO



BINGO

Are there just too many disadvantages to name?

1) academic rigor - here are the top 10 public schools according to US News (Cal, UCLA, UVA, Michigan, UNC, William & Mary, GT, UCSB, UCI/UCSD, Florida).

2) money - this school has some EXTREMELY wealthy alumni. Are we not reaching out to them? If so, why aren’t they donating?

3) playing style - hard to recruit with a triple option offense. Especially when players don’t really know which position they’ll end up playing.

4) facilities - see #2

Am I missing something? Shouldn’t being located in the city of Atlanta be a major advantage?


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herb

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I’m just curious, what do you think these built-in disadvantages are? And that’s not meant to be snarky. I’m just wondering if there are things that we consider disadvantages that other schools who are thriving (or at least doing better than us) have to deal with.


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I think that we have several. Some of which are institutional and some of which are earned.
1. Academics. It is not a coincidence that we had at one time the highest SAT scores for the football team in the country. The last numbers I found showed that from 2009-2014, we got a total of 31 special admits. When you are limited to recruiting kids with a certain GPA and SAT you are necessarily limiting the number of players you can recruit
2. Location. Believe it or not, not everyone wants to live in Atlanta. I know that shocks some :wideyed:. It can be an intimidating place for small town kids (speaking from experience)
3. Budgetary issues - until this year, we had what like 3 recruiting staff. Alabama and that school in Athens have 10 times that many. Their "school" places a MUCH greater weight on success there than we do.
4. Reputation - Tech has a reputation of being a bunch of elitist nerds. While going through getting a child in school there this year, I found that much truer than I had wanted to believe. The Hill really needs to work on this on many fronts.
 

Whiskey_Clear

Banned
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10,486
Can we just end this thread now? I’m not a fan of CPJ but I am a fan of this program and want us to win football games. I’m going to put down my gripes with him until January, when we hire Lane Kiffin


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Lol. Mods please close this thread...OR...if tired of defending your comments when they are challenged by others..... maybe just walk away? Your choice.

The rest of us will carry on :rolleyes:
 

684Bee

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Are there just too many disadvantages to name?

1) academic rigor - here are the top 10 public schools according to US News (Cal, UCLA, UVA, Michigan, UNC, William & Mary, GT, UCSB, UCI/UCSD, Florida).

2) money - this school has some EXTREMELY wealthy alumni. Are we not reaching out to them? If so, why aren’t they donating?

3) playing style - hard to recruit with a triple option offense. Especially when players don’t really know which position they’ll end up playing.

4) facilities - see #2

Am I missing something? Shouldn’t being located in the city of Atlanta be a major advantage?


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The biggest one of all is limited curriculum. We have the most limited curriculum, by far, of any teams that we play against.

Other schools can, and do, place guys in majors like “Recreational Management”. Very easy to keep them in good standing, and allows the player to focus more on football.

We can’t do that. The “easy route” for our guys is still relatively tough and demanding.

The other stuff is fixable. This one is very tough to address and overcome.
 

Whiskey_Clear

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10,486
Now, take a deep breath. Stop blaming "the media". Get off the "haters gonna hate!! yadda yadda yadda because it is probable even his detractors don't hate the man, but now it is a word thrown out there like confetti to replace conversation. It seems apparent he was, is, not happy and was in fact deflated. If I were the AD, I'd have a talk with him because he is after all, for better or for worse, for good or bad, the face of the football program and that press conference presented a depressing face. If he hates the pressers he has had time to get over it. They are part and parcel of a head coach's responsibility and in fact in most coaches' contracts. I am fairly sure given all their other problems "the media" could care less if Paul Johnson succeeds or fails. He is the head ball coach. Every win and every loss is on him. Shoot, sometimes we make more excuses for Paul Johnson than he makes for himself. He had a bad day and has to do better. (Though seeing Marshall, supposedly a team leader, thinking a defensive player missing the game because of a silly scooter accident was funny would frost anybody.)

I thought the presser was great! If I were the AD I’d slap him on the back, say “Well done!”, and go grab a beer with him.

Side note. At fan day I asked a couple of OL guys, who had been in front of the mic at presser a fair amount, how much they enjoyed answering the stupid questions of the media.

Suffice to say their reaction and replies were hysterical. One of them even mocked an example of some. Dudes cracked me up!
 

Techster

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Can CPJ be a bit "nicer"? Sure. But one of the things I appreciate about CPJ is that he has standards and he holds our players accountable. For instance:

https://www.ajc.com/sports/college/...disciplinary-measures/kZXNzPWCd8KpuilAhICIDN/

But he also asserted his belief that “little things are important. And the more I can teach the fact that little things are important, I think that has a lot to do with whether or not you win close games or whether or not you do all those things. And you just need to be accountable.”

If you watch the interview, he goes a bit deeper about holding guys accountable for little things...and what it means for them in the bigger picture of being a responsible adult. IMO, that part of the interview needs to be isolated and sent to recruits and their parents. How many schools out there are going to sit their starting RB because he missed a breakfast roll call, or didn't attend a weight lifting session? Is that one breakfast or weight lifting session going to affect their ability on Saturday? Probably not, but for CPJ it's not about one game, it's about the bigger picture. One missed session leads to 2...2 to 5...5 till ??? Eventually the player thinks there are no repercussions for missing something the rest of his teammates have to do.

Personally, and from a professional stand point, when I was just beginning my working career after graduating there were MANY nights I could have easily mailed it in and joined by buddies tossing a few back at the bar. Instead, I stayed a bit later to make sure all the i's were dotted and t's were crossed in THOUSANDS of financial models and THOUSANDS of pitch books my first few years. It would have been so much easier to just regurgitate the numbers that were given to me...but that's not what they paid me for. Out of 100 assignments, maybe 1 or 2 things may have been wrong. Maybe they would have caught it, maybe they woudn't have...but personally, I didn't want my name on it if my bosses or clients did catch it. That was in large part because my teachers and background demanded that I made a point of little details.

Part of habits are innate desires, but a large part of habits are re-enforced. I think CPJ is re-enforcing habits that will benefit our players well beyond their playing days. Out of the 100 or so kids who CPJ coaches every year, I will bet my ice cream from Jenni's (or @kg01 's Mayfield) that all them will experience similar situations once they leave GT. At that point, it's will be on them how they respond.
 

Boaty1

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After reading a couple of pages y’all had me doubting what I thought I heard CPJ say. I would suggest everyone go back and listen again. He said historically speaking we are about a 6-6 team( he is basically correct we have averaged either a 6 or 7 wins. We have .575 winning percentage of all seasons. So, and average season is 6 wins. He didn’t say he wanted or would be happy with a 6 win season. He is just saying it is average an season at GT. He also said a good season is 8 or 9 wins. I think most would consider an 8 or 9 win season a good season. He said a great season would be 10 or 11 season, again I think we would all agree that would be a great season. In another question he basically said our goal is to win them all. If anyone thinks that CPJ will be happy with a 6-6 season then you don’t have any understanding him.


Obviously I just can't let this go. GT is not a 6-6 program historically. Since 2003 we are 113-81. So over the last 15 years we have averaged 7.5 wins a season. Our 113 wins since 2003 is more than schools like Texas A&M, Tennessee, Arkansas, Ole Miss, UCLA & Washington. It is the same amount as South Carolina and that is considered their golden period of football under Spurrier. The 113 wins is 6 wins or fewer behind program like Michigan, Miami, Stanford and Notre Dame. Now imagine Muschamp telling reporters that they shouldn't be expected to beat Clemson beacause if you look at the series history Clemson has always dominated. Or Brian Kelly telling reporters that ND can't compete for championships anymore because it's been 30 years since they've won it and times have changed. Coaches aren't supposed to say things like that and they certainly aren't supposed to give reporters false information on the negative side. Come one guys!!! Why don't we have the same expectations as the programs we have proven to be on level footing with in recent history? Why do we view ourselves on par with the Pudues and Vandy's of the world rather than the programs listed above? I understand resources play a role but they are not the sole determining factor in the success of a program. We have a program that has competed over the last 2 decades just fine with the perceived bigger boys. These are statistics I have to bring up to non GT fans. I don't expect to have to do it here.
 

Cam

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Are there just too many disadvantages to name?

1) academic rigor - here are the top 10 public schools according to US News (Cal, UCLA, UVA, Michigan, UNC, William & Mary, GT, UCSB, UCI/UCSD, Florida).

2) money - this school has some EXTREMELY wealthy alumni. Are we not reaching out to them? If so, why aren’t they donating?
In terms of money, the extemely wealthy alumni are donating, it's just not going to football. It's going towards building the Coda building, Kendeda building, and Cell Manufacturing facility among other major multimillion dollar projects on campus. The school has stupid amounts of money, the athletics program does not. The one thing I heard from professors who were new to GT was that the facilities and equipment here are unmatched by any other school in the nation. It's honestly ridiculous. Most of the wealthy alumni just don't prioritize our athletics program at all, and that's fine. It's their money.

In contrast, I've heard plenty of Alabama students on Reddit complain about how they're stuck with a rundown rec facility while the football team gets a brand new dedicated massive gym. They wish they had more of what Georgia Tech provides as a school. They don't achieve any balance either, but it's more detrimental to the student body.
 
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