Faulkner Raise

[57jacket]

He left for his alma mater Maryland the year before O'Leary left. He was successful early on at Maryland; no chance we pull him away when O'Leary bolted to ND.

But his success was only for a few years as I recall ???

 

[Techster]

But his success was only for a few years as I recall ???

First three years were VERY good, much better than what Maryland was used to at the time. Then it was a roller coaster ride of losing seasons and good to very good seasons. That said, Maryland only missed a bowl game 3 times in his 10 years. Friedgen was a victim of his early success and the influx of Under Armour money that raised expectations.

I believe that 10 year run of Ralph's is still the most successful run since he left.

Ralph Friedgen - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

First three years were VERY good, much better than what Maryland was used to at the time. Then it was a roller coaster ride of losing seasons and good to very good seasons. That said, Maryland only missed a bowl game 3 times in his 10 years. Friedgen was a victim of his early success and the influx of Under Armour money that raised expectations.

I believe that 10 year run of Ralph's is still the most successful run since he left.

Ralph Friedgen - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Friedgen was the third winningest coach in Maryland history in terms of total wins, and 5th in terms of winning %. (4th if you discount Bear Bryant's single season as coach there) Bobby Ross finished just ahead of Ralph in win %.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Instead of Lewis. He went to Maryland and did well there but butted heads with Yow. He had at least one 10 win season there. Gary Williams (who was a terrific coach) had some problems with her as well if my memory is correct. He must have retired or was forced out. Going to the Big10 was a financial move after they incurred a lot of debt and has not worked out well for them. Yow went to NCSU but didn't mess them up as much.
Friegden may have gone to San Diego with Ross along with OLeary. Both excellent coaches. At least we got GOL back.

He went with Ross to the Chargers, not Maryland. He went to Maryland in 2000, the year before Big Bee left, and won the ACC in year one. He was not going to leave Maryland for us in 2001. As for after Lewis, was he or O'Leary up for consideration at the time?

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

Getting prepped for football season I see. Debbie downer in the comments always

Debbie Downer? My post is talking about how successful Key will be that one day a prime time program will want him and that’s being a Debbie Downer?

Fine, I’ll play make believe like many if you - Key will never leave GT and will have no problem losing 4 games a season because other schools will give their coaches more money to buy better players. He’ll be just fine shaking Kirby’s hand every year taking another loss. Key is a real coach who wants to win but we all know GT will never buy the players it will take to beat UGA, Clemson, and others year after year. That’s just reality and Key will have a major career decision to make in another 4-5 years when his phone rings after turning GT from a 3 win program to an 8 win program.

 

[57jacket]

Debbie Downer? My post is talking about how successful Key will be that one day a prime time program will want him and that’s being a Debbie Downer?

Fine, I’ll play make believe like many if you - Key will never leave GT and will have no problem losing 4 games a season because other schools will give their coaches more money to buy better players. He’ll be just fine shaking Kirby’s hand every year taking another loss. Key is a real coach who wants to win but we all know GT will never buy the players it will take to beat UGA, Clemson, and others year after year. That’s just reality and Key will have a major career decision to make in another 4-5 years when his phone rings after turning GT from a 3 win program to an 8 win program.

I think what many are missing is the "quality of life" issue. In my career, I had numerous offers for higher paying jobs, some with part ownnership deals. But I was happy with my current STABLE situation and knew I had a job for life. I enjoyed my work, my associates, etc.. What's more money going to get me? More pressure, questionable future employment, etc. Life is not just about money.

 

[cpf2001]

Key is a real coach who wants to win but we all know GT will never buy the players it will take to beat UGA, Clemson, and others year after year. That’s just reality and Key will have a major career decision to make in another 4-5 years when his phone rings after turning GT from a 3 win program to an 8 win program.

This is where people are seeing the pessimism. (Well, that and that your definition of "succesful" caps out at 8 wins, period, aka "less than the last 3 non-joke coaches peaked at and the last coach beat several times").

We're very early in the NIL era and we have a pretty new administration, let's wait to see how it plays out if Key is that successful. Money and willpower have ways of showing up sometimes when the results are there. And Key, unlike GOL, has much stronger ties to Tech that make the purely-name-based-appeal of other places lower if GT finds the money.

(A discussion about academic requirements about players would be a different one... if Key can't win more than 10 consistently because of that, will he eventually want to try his hand at that game? Quite possibly. But if he only wins 8, he might have a tough time landing one of those jobs anyway. Chan wasn't exactly a hot commodity.)

 

[WreckinGT]

This is where people are seeing the pessimism. (Well, that and that your definition of "succesful" caps out at 8 wins, period, aka "less than the last 3 non-joke coaches peaked at and the last coach beat several times").

We're very early in the NIL era and we have a pretty new administration, let's wait to see how it plays out if Key is that successful. Money and willpower have ways of showing up sometimes when the results are there. And Key, unlike GOL, has much stronger ties to Tech that make the purely-name-based-appeal of other places lower if GT finds the money.

(A discussion about academic requirements about players would be a different one... if Key can't win more than 10 consistently because of that, will he eventually want to try his hand at that game? Quite possibly. But if he only wins 8, he might have a tough time landing one of those jobs anyway. Chan wasn't exactly a hot commodity.)

It would be impressive if we found a way to bump him from 2.8 million a year to 8-10 million a year which is now the going rate for top head coaches.

 

[cpf2001]

Nobody has said that the money people wouldn't have to pony up. But the new leadership has said that's where they want to get, and the last few years have already added tens of millions to the budget, so if someone wants to be so confident in advance that that won't happen instead of waiting and enjoying the ride, they shouldn't be surprised when they get the Debbie Downer label.

 

[UgaBlows]

Nobody has said that the money people wouldn't have to pony up. But the new leadership has said that's where they want to get, and the last few years have already added tens of millions to the budget, so if someone wants to be so confident in advance that that won't happen instead of waiting and enjoying the ride, they shouldn't be surprised when they get the Debbie Downer label.

We ALL have to pony up, small donations are important, we can’t just depend on rich people to save us

 

[stinger78]

I think what many are missing is the "quality of life" issue. In my career, I had numerous offers for higher paying jobs, some with part ownnership deals. But I was happy with my current STABLE situation and knew I had a job for life. I enjoyed my work, my associates, etc.. What's more money going to get me? More pressure, questionable future employment, etc. Life is not just about money.

Preach. When is enough enough?

 

[wesgt123]

Debbie Downer? My post is talking about how successful Key will be that one day a prime time program will want him and that’s being a Debbie Downer?

Fine, I’ll play make believe like many if you - Key will never leave GT and will have no problem losing 4 games a season because other schools will give their coaches more money to buy better players. He’ll be just fine shaking Kirby’s hand every year taking another loss. Key is a real coach who wants to win but we all know GT will never buy the players it will take to beat UGA, Clemson, and others year after year. That’s just reality and Key will have a major career decision to make in another 4-5 years when his phone rings after turning GT from a 3 win program to an 8 win program.

There it is!

 

[stinger78]

It would be impressive if we found a way to bump him from 2.8 million a year to 8-10 million a year which is now the going rate for top head coaches.

We need to wait until the $20M per year reparation kicks in. The biggest of the big will do it, but a lot of next level programs won’t be able to.

 

[jojatk]

I think what many are missing is the "quality of life" issue. In my career, I had numerous offers for higher paying jobs, some with part ownnership deals. But I was happy with my current STABLE situation and knew I had a job for life. I enjoyed my work, my associates, etc.. What's more money going to get me? More pressure, questionable future employment, etc. Life is not just about money.

I agree that’s a valid point. But not everyone is like you in that respect. Is Brent? I hope we never have to find out either way and he stays and wins and we find lots of money for him.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

If Key turns this program into a perennial top 25 team, GT could put together a campaign for raising money for his salary increase. Just like they did for building the new athlete center where the edge used to be. I really think the average football fan alumnus would support it.

 

[Techster]

If Key turns this program into a perennial top 25 team, GT could put together a campaign for raising money for his salary increase. Just like they did for building the new athlete center where the edge used to be. I really think the average football fan alumnus would support it.

If Key takes us to a bowl game this season, he's going to get a raise. Book it.

His first contract was GT friendly because Key wanted the job badly, he had the backing of certain donors, and Batt wasn't in a position to commit GT to a big contract that other coaches wanted. GT gave Key a "prove it" contract, and if Key takes us to another bowl game, along with how recruiting has gone, and the direction this program is going...Batt and some very important decision makers will reward him this offseason.

Some of what went on under Collins has come out, but the average GT fan probably doesn't understand what a hole Key dug us out of, and also what an incredible job he did as interim coach and his first season.

 

[awbuzz]

We ALL have to pony up, small donations are important, we can’t just depend on rich people to save us

Percent dead on correct!

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

You guys simply don’t get it. Key’s future at GT has nothing to do with his salary. It has to do with money available for him to buy the top players. Paying Key 10 million a year while not buying the same quality players as UGA will only frustrate Key. He hates UGA as we all just read. He can’t stand them. Do you think he is going to be happy to be at GT for the next 20 years while losing 18 or so games to them because GT does not give him a proper recruiting budget? It has nothing to do with his personal salary.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I think what many are missing is the "quality of life" issue. In my career, I had numerous offers for higher paying jobs, some with part ownnership deals. But I was happy with my current STABLE situation and knew I had a job for life. I enjoyed my work, my associates, etc.. What's more money going to get me? More pressure, questionable future employment, etc. Life is not just about money.

Key has already told us he freaking hates UGA. In what world do you believe Key will be comfortable losing to them year after year because he is stable? Sure, Gailey and Johnson were comfortable being stable at GT because they both had already climbed the mountain top - Gailey coached the freaking Dallas Cowboys and Johnson had already won Natties. Key will not stay at GT because he is stable while losing to UGA and Clemson every year. GT needs to tap their resources to buy players otherwise no coach who has any ambition and is competitive will stay here.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

This is where people are seeing the pessimism. (Well, that and that your definition of "succesful" caps out at 8 wins, period, aka "less than the last 3 non-joke coaches peaked at and the last coach beat several times").

We're very early in the NIL era and we have a pretty new administration, let's wait to see how it plays out if Key is that successful. Money and willpower have ways of showing up sometimes when the results are there. And Key, unlike GOL, has much stronger ties to Tech that make the purely-name-based-appeal of other places lower if GT finds the money.

(A discussion about academic requirements about players would be a different one... if Key can't win more than 10 consistently because of that, will he eventually want to try his hand at that game? Quite possibly. But if he only wins 8, he might have a tough time landing one of those jobs anyway. Chan wasn't exactly a hot commodity.)

It’s not my pessimism. This is what GT has shown itself to be. A mid level cheap school not willing to break open the books to give coaches what they need. We can all “hope” GT opens up the purse but the proof is in the actions. Has GT given Key the money to go buy a 5 star LB or DLinemen yet? UGA has, Bama has, etc.

Look at the 2025 recruiting rankings- GT has bought zero 5 stars, 2 4 stars, and 16 3 stars. That’s basically what Gailey, Johnson, and what the other guy recruited. Meanwhile, UGA has already bought 3 5 stars and 12 4 stars for 2025. What part of that indicates we are closing the gap or giving Key more? Dabo who supposedly is on the down fall has already bought 11 4 stars for 2025. How do you think the games in 2026, 2027, and 2028 will go when we are fielding 3 stars while Clemson and UGA are fielding 4 and 5 stars? We’ve won 3 games in 24 years against UGA with that formula.

Listen, I believe Key is a national championship quality coach. What he has done since the other guy was fired has been incredible. I believe you could take our current staff, put them in Tuscaloosa or Athens and they would be in the SEC Champ game and discussion for the Final Four. Kirby is no better a coach than Key. He simply Is given the money by UGA to buy 5 stars and 4 stars. If you were competitive like Key, wouldn’t you want that?

I’m optimistic we’ll have a good year because I believe in our staff. But that doesn’t mean we’ll be beating teams who buy better players. And if Key is fine winning 7-8 games per year then he’s not nearly as competitive as I thought. I expect him to either force GT to buy similarly caliber players or for him to go somewhere where they will.