CPJ Press Conference #ALCNvsGT

[Boaty1]

Our AD is our lead salesman. He is the one responsible for fundraising and ensuring the GT brand grows. CPJ is our head football coach. We pay him to coach, not cheerlead. Who actually wants the coach to sugar coat things?

You are wrong. The coach has far more to do with drawing players and fans than any other individual in the program. It's really not even close.

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

I assume you meant to include 2008, 2009, and 2016 in there. Surely you just forgot.

He didn’t. He’s too busy grinding that axe and picking out random stats to prove his point.

 

[Boaty1]

I cannot wait for Saturday so some of the bulls**t being posted gets put on the back burner, jeez. SSDD and it get real damn old, unless you're going to write the check to buy PJ out and then to hire his replacement, then write the checks to get the assistant coaches to the top 1/3 of the ACC, the write the check for Edge Center rebuild. I could go on and on and on at the handicaps PJ has been working under including the last 2 ADs. Tech has finally put someone in place to try and bring the program into the 21st century so how a little patience while the process works as it should have been working the last 2 decades.

Oh I'm with you about the upgrades and writing checks. I just dropped 3 grand on season tickets despite coaching a youth soccer team and not knowing how many games I will be able to make because I know the money is needed. I get discouraged however when I am fired up for the season to start with hopes of great things only to be told by the head coach that my expectations are too high while I watch him lowball our program. Believe me I want him to succeed because if he succeeds we succeed. But him running down the program which is far bigger than him is unacceptable.

 

[ibeattetris]

You are wrong. The coach has far more to do with drawing players and fans than any other individual in the program. It's really not even close.

"The coach has far more to do with drawing players"
He has been fighting for more recruiting resources for years. He is just now getting them. Blame previous AD's.
"and fans than any other individual in the program"
We have to agree to disagree. This is marketing and branding, not on the coach. No one follows Alabama because Nick Saban is a charismatic cheerleader.

 

[OldJacketFan]

Oh I'm with you about the upgrades and writing checks. I just dropped 3 grand on season tickets despite coaching a youth soccer team and not knowing how many games I will be able to make because I know the money is needed. I get discouraged however when I am fired up for the season to start with hopes of great things only to be told by the head coach that my expectations are too high while I watch him lowball our program. Believe me I want him to succeed because if he succeeds we succeed. But him running down the program which is far bigger than him is unacceptable.

We just view what he had to say in a much different way. I simply get tired of hearing over and over and over about how PJ doesn't want the best for the program, to me that is unacceptable and ridiculous.

 

[TechTyler_17]

"The coach has far more to do with drawing players"
He has been fighting for more recruiting resources for years. He is just now getting them. Blame previous AD's.
"and fans than any other individual in the program"
We have to agree to disagree. This is marketing and branding, not on the coach. No one follows Alabama because Nick Saban is a charismatic cheerleader.

Oh come on. People are drawn to Alabama because SABAN wins. We don’t play a style of football that attracts top talent. We could have all the recruiting “resources” in the world except the most important one...


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[OldJacketFan]

oh and @Boaty1 don't think you're alone in writing that check, I've been doing it for close to 30 years including 8 years when I lived in So Cal and maybe made 1 game a year and living in TN since 2004.

 

[TooTall]

CPJ talks in public the way all coaches talk to each other and in private. But, he doesn't care who he talks to, this is the way he is. That group of men, however, know that they are they only ones who can get us wins. If the effort is not to the standards, why then should he puff them up by saying "They're the greatest collection of insects since the Beatles!"
And for the record, @Boaty1, it spelled uga, not

Not to spew the same garbage I hear from UGA fans

See, I can't even type it.

 

[ibeattetris]

Oh come on. People are drawn to Alabama because SABAN wins. We don’t play a style of football that attracts top talent. We could have all the recruiting “resources” in the world except the most important one...


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So you're saying it doesn't matter what Saban says as long as he wins?

So the problem is with winning, not with CPJ answering questions honestly.

 

[TechTyler_17]

So you're saying it doesn't matter what Saban says as long as he wins?

So the problem is with winning, not with CPJ answering questions honestly.

No... Saban expects to win a title every year and isn’t afraid to say it. He’s created a culture of winning and part of that is getting your fans, boosters, recruits, and players to buy in.


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[MWBATL]

Wow. The term "curmudgeon" comes to mind in describing how CPJ was in this presser. He is obviously sensitive about recent results, yet the criticism is valid of the program (NOT of CPJ). I think CPJ is correct that he has been hamstrung and had his hands tied behind his back. But results the last 3 years have not really been what any of us would want or expect.

I found his comments on the kicking game rather discouraging too. Basically, it sort of sounded like he was saying "well, this guy did the best but none of them were really any good especially in terms of being consistent". So, Davis beats out King as the kicker.

He also sounded rather disgusted by some of the off the field injuries.

He does not project an upbeat excited positive attitude...that's for sure. But then, he never has. He is what he is. I actually don't think you can disagree with anything he stated in that presser, but I do understand folks who wish he was more upbeat and ethusiastic.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

So tell me where I’m wrong?




Now, What do you plan to do to change our school, our majors, and total investment in football?

Don’t like the data?

You need to send this to CPJ and ask him the same because we have averaged more than 6 wins a season going back to 90. Over the last 20 years of GT football we have averaged 8 wins a year. The point is why is our head coach being negative about OUR program to make him look better? He portrays us as Vandy or Iowa State without his genius when we are nothing like that.

Obviously there are issues within the program that need to be addressed but my goodness our lead spokesman for the program shouldn't be taking it to the public. And by no means should he be underselling the history of this program. If you don't see the problem here then you are apart of the problem.[/QUOTE]

Why send this to CPJ? His answers will only make you more butthurt.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

No... Saban expects to win a title every year and isn’t afraid to say it. He’s created a culture of winning and part of that is getting your fans, boosters, recruits, and players to buy in.


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Lmao. Rich.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Oh I'm with you about the upgrades and writing checks. I just dropped 3 grand on season tickets despite coaching a youth soccer team and not knowing how many games I will be able to make because I know the money is needed. I get discouraged however when I am fired up for the season to start with hopes of great things only to be told by the head coach that my expectations are too high while I watch him lowball our program. Believe me I want him to succeed because if he succeeds we succeed. But him running down the program which is far bigger than him is unacceptable.

Sure seems like you prefer a cheerleader as a head coach. How would you feel if CPJ said our kicking game looks great only to see the same results as last year.

And did you miss the part where he said the goal is to win every game? Did you miss the parts where he said this could be our best and deepest Oline. Most depth this year at Bback.

Yeah I think you just need to focus on gold tinted glass wearing cheerleaders’ comments for the sake of your own mental well being.

 

[GTonTop88]

I'm gonna have to take up for CPJ a little here. Does his offense handicap us in recruiting top level talent. YES. Do we have more success without him? No, probably not.

We're not winning many beauty pageants with the likes of uga, Clemson, fSU, Bama etc for elite talent idc who the coach is or what offense we run. Until we have somewhat a level playing field we’re not gonna do much better than CPJ from a winning standpoint. We may get a few more NFL caliber players here but that's about it and that would be because they slipped through the cracks and developed while here.

It really seems to me that CPJ is the perfect SCAPEGOAT as a coach for Georgia Tech. I mean think about it.

1. GT can keep the academics standards high for student athletes

2. Understaff the program in recruiting resources

3. Spend the least amount of money in the league on football

4. Then we can blame all of our recruiting/branding woes on the offense we run.

So all you 1 in 6 millionaires need to put up some of that money and the “Hill” needs to quit being such a grunt about academics for players.

I too want to have an offense that doesn’t hurt us in recruiting but I dont want to sacrifice winning to recruit a little better. Until we have the facilities and a little more leniency on academics our biggest crutch in recruiting(triple-option) is our best weapon on the field.

P.S. I DO SEE US GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION SINCE TStan’s ARRIVAL.

 

[Boaty1]

Sure seems like you prefer a cheerleader as a head coach. How would you feel if CPJ said our kicking game looks great only to see the same results as last year.

And did you miss the part where he said the goal is to win every game? Did you miss the parts where he said this could be our best and deepest Oline. Most depth this year at Bback.

Yeah I think you just need to focus on gold tinted glass wearing cheerleaders’ comments for the sake of your own mental well being.

appreciate the comment.

 

[AE 87]

For the record, what CPJ said was something like, "If you go back 50 years or however far you want to go back, the average year is 6 and 6, so if you win 8 or 9, that's pretty good."

Now, I interpreted his response as saying that if you look at GT historically, this is what you've got. I did not interpret him as saying that this is good enough or that we should be satisfied with that. Earlier when asked about his expectations for the year, he said that we're going out looking to win every game. He did not answer that question by saying, well, we'll be happy if we win more than six.

While I am sympathetic to the idea that CPJ should be more politic about selling our program thru the media, I've come to accept that that's not his style nor will it ever be. Regardless of what I'd like to see.

With that being said, let's look at the data.

Regular Season Results (unverified data source):
For the last 51 years, starting with Bud's first year in 1967, GT has won 319 games or a little more than 6/season (52.9%).
Since we entered the ACC in 1983, the last 35 seasons, we've won 238 games or 6.8 games/season (55.9%).
After Bobby Ross, for the last 26 seasons, we've won 179 games or 6.9 games/season (57.4%).
For the last 20 years, we've won 175 games or 7.25 games/season (59.4%).
Under CPJ for the last 10 seasons, we've won 76 games or 7.6 games/season (58.5%).

Now, these stats obviously don't include strength of schedule. They also include Bowl wins (but maybe not every year?). Some might object that CPJ's wins include more FCS games, and others might counter that the ACC is a tougher league than it was in the past. They also don't take into account flunk-gate wins or any change in APR (which I believed became more stringent in 2006) which may have impacted recruiting.

FWIW, I think that just as might hope for a different kind of response from our Head Coach, I think that we could hope for a more thoughtful response from our fanbase. Saying, "To have a coach choose to run down the program and say 6-6 is about what should be expected and anything beyond that is good just doesn’t cut it for me" in my opinion completely misrepresents what he was saying.

IIRC, he was not responding to the question of expectations for the coming year but measuring the status of the program and whether it's had a down turn over the last few years. In 2016, just the year before last, we won 9 games. Last year, we were just a few plays from winning 8 or 9 in an 11 game season. Over 50 years, we haven't been a perennial 9 or 10 win program, so we shouldn't react like the sky is falling when we don't reach that goal every year. However, that doesn't mean that we still don't do our darndest to reach that goal.

Also averaging 8 regular season wins over the last 20 years would mean winning 67% of 12 game seasons and 73% of 11 game seasons. As I've said, we've won 59.4% of our games (about 7 and 5 on average) over the last 20 years.

 

[Towaliga]

I get what the OP is saying here. As a UK fan through family ties, I appreciate Stoops being positive every year. “I think this is the best team I’ve had since I’ve been at UK. We should win a bowl game this year and compete for the East, etc.” Those are the types of expectations we should always have for our program, regardless of funding, facilities, etc. Our coach should always expect us to compete and should want the fans to have those expectations as well. If the coach and team can’t fulfill hefty expectations then there should be a change. It’s not about him feeding us BS...


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I personally prefer a straight shooter who goes about trying his hardest to win a game against a team with greater resources versus one who is all peptalk and cheerleader, especially if the latter had his a** handed to him in the bowl game by the straight shooter.

 

[ibeattetris]

For the record, what CPJ said was something like, "If you go back 50 years or however far you want to go back, the average year is 6 and 6, so if you win 8 or 9, that's pretty good."

Now, I interpreted his response as saying that if you look at GT historically, this is what you've got. I did not interpret him as saying that this is good enough or that we should be satisfied with that. Earlier when asked about his expectations for the year, he said that we're going out looking to win every game. He did not answer that question by saying, well, we'll be happy if we win more than six.

While I am sympathetic to the idea that CPJ should be more politic about selling our program thru the media, I've come to accept that that's not his style nor will it ever be. Regardless of what I'd like to see.

With that being said, let's look at the data.

Regular Season Results (unverified data source):
For the last 51 years, starting with Bud's first year in 1967, GT has won 319 games or a little more than 6/season (52.9%).
Since we entered the ACC in 1983, the last 35 seasons, we've won 238 games or 6.8 games/season (55.9%).
After Bobby Ross, for the last 26 seasons, we've won 179 games or 6.9 games/season (57.4%).
For the last 20 years, we've won 175 games or 7.25 games/season (59.4%).
Under CPJ for the last 10 seasons, we've won 76 games or 7.6 games/season (58.5%).

Now, these stats obviously don't include strength of schedule. They also include Bowl wins (but maybe not every year?). Some might object that CPJ's wins include more FCS games, and others might counter that the ACC is a tougher league than it was in the past. They also don't take into account flunk-gate wins or any change in APR (which I believed became more stringent in 2006) which may have impacted recruiting.

FWIW, I think that just as might hope for a different kind of response from our Head Coach, I think that we could hope for a more thoughtful response from our fanbase. Saying, "To have a coach choose to run down the program and say 6-6 is about what should be expected and anything beyond that is good just doesn’t cut it for me" in my opinion completely misrepresents what he was saying.

IIRC, he was not responding to the question of expectations for the coming year but measuring the status of the program and whether it's had a down turn over the last few years. In 2016, just the year before last, we won 9 games. Last year, we were just a few plays from winning 8 or 9 in an 11 game season. Over 50 years, we haven't been a perennial 9 or 10 win program, so we shouldn't react like the sky is falling when we don't reach that goal every year. However, that doesn't mean that we still don't do our darndest to reach that goal.

Also averaging 8 regular season wins over the last 20 years would mean winning 67% of 12 game seasons and 73% of 11 game seasons. As I've said, we've won 59.4% of our games (about 7 and 5 on average) over the last 20 years.

This is a great post.

I also think it's important to note that CPJ tried to avoid answering the question by saying any answer would be an excuse (specifically because fans overreact as is apparent in this thread). He said "I can give you my opinion, but it will just be an opinion; an excuse...Some things we can do, and some things out of our control...No body wants to hear the labor pain they want to see the baby." He was repeatedly prodded for information, so he gave his honest opinion. I am not sure what else we would expect here.

 

[furant]

Our AD is our lead salesman. He is the one responsible for fundraising and ensuring the GT brand grows. CPJ is our head football coach. We pay him to coach, not cheerlead. Who actually wants the coach to sugar coat things?

Exactly right