Mostly “Fire Geoff Collins”, some reminiscing, maybe bourbon or other distractions

GTNavyNuke

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No surprise, have to put the best PR forward. I really hope we do get a lot better next year. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. But we are a lot better on O and ST than last year. D sucks, but look at how many points some other ACC teams are giving up.

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

Thank God for basketball (M&W) and baseball.
 

Jetdrive3

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If we are going to innovate on anything, let's focus on improving the things that would improve the attractiveness of this job to the best possible candidates. Correct me if I am wrong but I do not think we are perceived as a good place to coach. Collins was an exception due to his local roots. The pay is somewhat influenced by prevailing market forces. We may not like it but iiwii. But fix the other things that prevent the best of the best from coming here/
What is your plan?
 

Northeast Stinger

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If we are going to innovate on anything, let's focus on improving the things that would improve the attractiveness of this job to the best possible candidates. Correct me if I am wrong but I do not think we are perceived as a good place to coach. Collins was an exception due to his local roots. The pay is somewhat influenced by prevailing market forces. We may not like it but iiwii. But fix the other things that prevent the best of the best from coming here/
Someone should find it and repost it but there was a poll of college football coaches a few years ago asking them anonymously to name best places to coach in order. Tech ranked something like 56th in the nation as a place coaches want to coach.
 

slugboy

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Armchair analysis has the problem about frankly not understanding what the heck is going on, but I’m gonna try it anyway.

If you’re a startup and you’re trying something new or innovative, one of the hardest things to figure out is when to “pivot” and when not to. Pivoting can range from making minor adjustments to what your plan is, to major adjustments, to wholesale starting over.

One thing that makes it hard is trying to figure out when to push ahead harder because “we’re smart, we can make this work with more brains or more effort” vs “it’s time to make a small change” vs “it’s time to make a big change.

Collins is not running an innovative offense. He’s not running an innovative defense. What he is trying to do is innovate in “culture” and that shows up in recruiting, training, practice, and on gameday. He’s trying to attract and develop a winning football team through fun and positive feedback. Some of that is enthusiastic 5 am workout sessions. Some of it is DJs at practice. Some of that is the Juice Crew and Money Down. Some of that is the constant use of phrases like “high level”.

He gets players to aspire to be their best and put all their energy into being their best and giving maximum effort. In that, I think he’s been successful.

The problem is, players are blowing coverages and missing blocks with high energy. They’re unfocused and undirected and making fundamental mistakes. Players are bought in on playing at 100%, but they’re freelancing instead of following the system and doing their assignments; they’re trying to strip the ball instead of making a tackle; they’re trying to bring down a player with a big hit instead of wrapping up and gang tackling; they’re trying to make up for their teammate’s errors and getting out of position.

We are “all gas, no brakes, and not much steering”.

Collins keeps giving the players a big jolt of confidence, and it backfires sometimes. They walked into the Citadel game a couple of years ago, and were overconfident. Probably the same thing against NIU and Syracuse and a lot of other games.

He needed to make a pivot in year 1, but he didn’t “have his players yet”. He needed to pivot in year 2, but there was COVID and it disrupted his system, and he still didn’t have his players yet. It’s year 3, and he should have his players by now. He really does have his players by now. But Stansbury is saying that we need to get in more talent.

We have as much or more talent that Wake or BC or Pitt or UVA or VT. Outside of FSU, Miami, Clemson, and UNC, our guys should match up favorably against our opponents. I get that the recruiting rankings are kinda bogus, but if you look at the 247 “talent composite”, we’re 5th in the ACC and we’re 33rd in the country. That’s enough to have a winning conference record and go to a good bowl, and be “getting votes” in the top 25.

By the way, the teams leading the ACC in the “talent composite” are not having good years. Possibly FSU is not below their preseason expectations, but that’s only because they had massively lowered expectations. Clemson, UNC, and Miami are definitely below their preseason top 25 expectations.

When things go wrong, there’s no “one problem”. Problems come in bunches, and I’m just writing about one of them.

Confidently giving 110% in the wrong way isn’t going to win you many games. Getting more athletic players confidently giving 110% will get us to a Miami Hurricanes level of going 6-6 with a top 15 recruiting class.

In the past, I’ve called it “attention to detail”, but there needs to be a pivot to doing the basics before trying to do the fancy stuff. In Collins’ system, I don’t know if that’s a substantial adjustment or a major overhaul or a complete abandonment, though.

=====

@bke1984 I found the “10 points” comment to be ridiculous. My hope is for good coaching to make a positive 2 point swing. If you’ve fallen to needing a 10 point swing, you’re in the ditch with your car on fire.
 

Skeptic

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While not a surprise, Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury confirmed that coach Geoff Collins will return for a fourth season Wednesday night. Stansbury made the declaration on Collins' radio show on The Fan. ... He also made mention of the number of close losses that the Jackets have suffered this season.59 mins ago.
Leaning on keeping a game close is a game for losers. Every team has one or two on the schedule that might go the other way. Swinney even hinted at such, and in fact would be unbeaten if that standard were enough. We lost. Period.
 

bobongo

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@bke1984 I found the “10 points” comment to be ridiculous. My hope is for good coaching to make a positive 2 point swing. If you’ve fallen to needing a 10 point swing, you’re in the ditch with your car on fire.
I can easily see how good coaching vs bad coaching could swing average scores by ten points. You're talking about preparation, development, game day decisions, and everything else associated with coaching a team. Yeah, 10 points easy.
 

GTcanWINagain

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TStan has to stay the course and has to make a public affirmation of Collins. There is no other way to play it right now. This is expected.

Here is my question as I’ve stated before. If we are still playing this way 5 games into next season does TStan fire mid season? There is no reason to finish a season with Collins at that point just to say you finished the season. And a quick hook if the program is still in crisis is the only way to restore confidence that someone is in charge. Ignoring a collapsing football program at that point would be disastrous.
TStan has an interesting resume as an AD. Compare his stops at colleges to his predecessors and then tell me if he is capable of his football challenge…
 

gt02

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I’m staking my bet right now that there will be no changes to the staff this year. We I’ll run it back for a 4th year straight with no adjustments just blame shifting.
I actually don't think there can be any changes. The only place I would look for change is on defense, and the problem on defense is not Thacker.

I also think by not making any changes, next year has to be CGC's last year to show results or he is gone. If you make changes, then you may need a 1-2 years to see those changes have any effect.
 
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