From a fan of 55 years and what i see

[ESPNjacket]

I would take OP's assertion as being more genuine if he had made the same statement after 11-3 and Orange Bowl victory.

Things are never as good or bad as they seem.

The real question is why do GT fans have such short memories, accentuate the negative, or both? That Orange Bowl victory was 15 months ago. If it was 15 years ago the "we can't compete" tantrum might have a chance of making sense.

 

[OldJacketFan]

My goodness lots of folks with a serious memory issue. Remember the years after Dodd? the Curry years?, the **** ***** years? Tech today can play with, compete with and beat any team on its schedule. NO team is going to go on an Oklahoma type winning streak EVER again but for folks to think that Tech is not competitive, can't win the ACC is simply ludicrous IMO. Effing Baineless did more to hurt the program from a perception standpoint that people understand. I wonder sometimes if he did it deliberately!

 

[grandpa jacket]

Dude isn't a troll. (Well, OK, I have no idea who the dude is and whether he is a troll or not, but neither do any of you.)

I understand his point though. After a while, you get a bit tired of trying to compete on an tilted playing field. We do NOT compete in the same way as the Clemsons, Florida States and Georgias do. (they play semi-pro football. We still have some semblance of student athletes.) Under this scenario, we ought to lose to them at least 80% of the time (and we do, iirc). Against the Dukes and UNC's and others on our schedule,w e ought to win 50% of the time (and we do, I believe). Overall, this would make us about a 7-5 team in an average year, with some upside (2014) and downside (2015).

However, we are NOT like Clemson or FSU who could hope for and get excited about the possibility of being nationally prominent 3 (top 10?) out of every 4 or 5 years. I get the poster's frustration, and fell it myself from time to time. It is mostly a frustration that these limits are self-imposed by the Institute's administration (either at the GTAA Board level or the Board of Regents level). We are quite deliberately positioned by those two bodies as a second rate athletic program that can rise up every once on a blue moon to threaten the dominant programs....but we have been "sentenced" to being second fiddle athletically to UGa.

The record bears all of this out. Some portion of our fan base accepts this, understands this, and takes pride in our accomplishments in spite of these limitations. That's very cool.

Just don't pretend the limitations aren't there. Grandpa's solution of dropping down a level is not likely, nor is it what 90% of the GT fan base would want. But I do understand at an emotional level the desire to feel like we have a reasonable chance every Saturday (not just a puncher's 1 in 5 shot).

Thanks, I wasn't saying I like where we are, our record speaks for itself and I don't see a change on the horizon. I surely am not a troll, GT needs more folks like me .

 

[tech_wreck47]

What is our record under CPJ against Clemson, Ugag, Mia and Virginia Tech, add now Unc and Duke. If a 500 football team is okay, then we are okay.

We are 6 and 4 against Clemson over the past ten years and we hold a winning record over duke and unc over the past ten years.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

I'm still going to toot the horn of "what is competing"

In any competition there is a winner and a loser. To "be able to compete" is not the same thing as "win every game."

There have been very few games during the CPJ era where at the very beginning of games GT fans thought to themselves "I hope we just score something and not get shut out!" Only a few games throughout the era have been accompanied with "I'm 100% sure we lose this game."

During the CCG era there were more games a year that me personally thought GT didn't have a shot at all. I'm too young but the 80's were full of those games.

That's competitive in my mind. The UGA series (and others too,) I'm sure I don't have to tell you, has been skewed heavily to UGA but I feel a lot of those games were way closer than one would think just by looking at the series record. Our boys can compete and still fall short.

I agree that GT places itself behind an 8-ball, and dreams of a Bama type dynasty are delusions of grandeur, but GT can be competitive. I'd prefer playing in a P5 conference and having the possibility of winning every game as opposed to being a G5 school that can only hope to win vs other G5 teams.

 

[flounder]

We are 6 and 4 against Clemson over the past ten years and we hold a winning record over duke and unc over the past ten years.

If winning 60% of the time against a team that just played for the national championship is ok, then I guess ... Oh wait, I guess that is ok.

 

[GTonTop88]

I would like to see the one and done rule apply to football, that would make the dominant teams weaker by losing their superstars.

 

[MWBATL]

The real question is why do GT fans have such short memories, accentuate the negative, or both? That Orange Bowl victory was 15 months ago. If it was 15 years ago the "we can't compete" tantrum might have a chance of making sense.

Well, remember than "Fan" is short for fanatics...a term usually reserved for folks like , ummm, ISIS and that type. Not comparing our fans to ISIS, just saying that Fanatics are not renowned for their cognitive abilities. I include myself in that when it comes to GT.

 

[grandpa jacket]

What a silly quote, there is only 1 Alabama. I also grew up in the days when we could compete with the big boys and did. Those days and that scenario does not exist today. These kids aren't looking for a degree, they are looking for ESPN and NFL Sundays. The old timers on this board know what I say is true, in fact two of our former football stars one a QB and the other an offensive lineman spoke to me at length about this.

 

[4shotB]

When I was in school, the mid to late 80's, at the start of most of the games, I knew we were gonna lose. It was so bad, a good chunk of the student section, me included, just partied in the stands and only took occasional glances at the field from time to time. We were all drunk the entire game. Fast forward to today. 1) I'm not drunk... welllll, maybe. 2) We have just as good a chance to win the game against 80% of our schedule.

I'd say we've come up since I was a school boy.

If you have been following Gt FB for a long time, every time we go through 2-3 decade between winning a national championship, Tech fans go through this process of trying to rationalize why "things are different now" than when Coach X won his national championship. In the 70's there was talk of deemphasizing FB 9or even all sports), that we could no longer compete. Back then, integration was one of the excuses that was trotted out as to why the "game has changed and GT has been left behind and is no longer relevant". Another was the Falcons coming to Atlanta. Then Homer Rice and Bobby Ross came along. And the excuses stopped (for awhile). Now we have gone another 25 years and we are digging out the same excuses (or variations thereof). the say history repeats itself.

TL,DR version...imo GT has no more (or less) significant disadvantages relative to the OSU's and Alabama's of the world than they did back in '90. I am not saying that the differences aren't there. Or that things haven't changed. But (imo) the +'s and -'s of trying to recruit athletes (or coaches for that matter) are not much different than they have ever been since the '60's.

 

[Blumpkin Souffle]

I would like to see the one and done rule apply to football, that would make the dominant teams weaker by losing their superstars.

I'd like to see something similar to how baseball does it. The 5 star players that are physically ready and top level running backs who, like pitchers, probably have a clock ticking on their shelf life. Of course this would require the NFL to start their own developmental league.

 

[AE 87]

If you have been following Gt FB for a long time, every time we go through 2-3 decade between winning a national championship, Tech fans go through this process of trying to rationalize why "things are different now" than when Coach X won his national championship. In the 70's there was talk of deemphasizing FB 9or even all sports), that we could no longer compete. Back then, integration was one of the excuses that was trotted out as to why the "game has changed and GT has been left behind and is no longer relevant". Another was the Falcons coming to Atlanta. Then Homer Rice and Bobby Ross came along. And the excuses stopped (for awhile). Now we have gone another 25 years and we are digging out the same excuses (or variations thereof). the say history repeats itself.

TL,DR version...imo GT has no more (or less) significant disadvantages relative to the OSU's and Alabama's of the world than they did back in '90. I am not saying that the differences aren't there. Or that things haven't changed. But (imo) the +'s and -'s of trying to recruit athletes (or coaches for that matter) are not much different than they have ever been since the '60's.

Fwiw, there wasn't an NCAA APR regulation in the '90. Of course, it's possible that our guys back then could have made expected progress to a degree, but I don't think a high enough percentage did.

 

[croberts]

I love this team and have my house covered with GT material and have loved it since the days of Chick Graning, I have purchased season tickets several years. I may be old but, I am not blind.

Maybe not blind but maybe a short memory. I would not trade our current situation with where we were In 1967 as independent and Dodd stepping down.
Thank god for Homer Rice and others along the way. It has been a wonderful ride knowing that we compete with collegiate athletes that actually understood and embraced the challenge of what Tech is. Now going forward, we certainly have our hands full with the new landscape (Bama,Clemson and others with 45 coaches and play centers on campus for athletes) . About every 10 years for the past 40, someone will suggest that div 2 is where we belong. If we had lost our mind and followed that logic, (1990, 3 in a row with Little Joe, 2008 in Athens , hearing Papa Bowden proclaim he can't stop the dad-gum Wishbone and Listening on National TV over and over, They can't stop it folks! Would never have happened. I am concerned like many people on this site. That is what passion will do for you. Just pinch your self and be thankful Dave Braine is not over seeing things and Bill Lewis wasn't named our new coach after last season.

 

[takethepoints]

Gee, I get tired of theses kinds of posts.

Let me start by saying that I've been a Tech fan as long as Grandpa. Honest.

Second, I enjoy watching our teams (except last year) now more then any since the Dodd era. We really are outperforming our recruiting, at least on O. I love that. We have had pretty good success against our major opponents and, even when we have lost, we have been competitive. Ask the Dwags or, especially, the Tiggers; they'll tell you.

Finally - and this is the main thing - we could be a football factory. All we have to do is emulate UNC. That place is a disgrace. It's one of the best public universities in the country and it prepares it's athletes for two things: pro ball or janitorial services. Tech beats them regularly (when they don't have Marquis Williams, that is) and gives its student-athletes a competitive education that serves them well for life. UNC exploits theirs; there is no other word that describes what they are up to. I would curl up and die of shame if I was one of their fans.

I don't have to do that as a Tech fan and get to watch good football to boot.

 

[flounder]

Finally - and this is the main thing - we could be a football factory. All we have to do is emulate UNC. That place is a disgrace. It's one of the best public universities in the country and it prepares it's athletes for two things: pro ball or janitorial services. Tech beats them regularly (when they don't have Marquis Williams, that is) and gives its student-athletes a competitive education that serves them well for life. UNC exploits theirs; there is no other word that describes what they are up to. I would curl up and die of shame if I was one of their fans.

Exactly. Competing with those schools is hard. That doesn't mean our only two choices are to sell out or to curl up in a ball and quit.

 

[Sideways]

We can compete in basketball due to sheer numbers each team has. In football with the current climate, we either add a major without calculus and physics and take football serious or drop down to a lower division. We cannot have recruiting classes never in the top twenty and compete for championships. Agree or disagree

Largely agree. The recruiting odds are stacked against us so much that it is now just about impossible to scheme around it. Which, of course, was the main idea of the (expletive deleted) board of regents from the beginning. Requiring calculus for every major is nothing but a ploy by the BOR to render our football program an afterthought in this state. This goal has largely been achieved but the ever elusive national title and multiple SEC championships continue to just out of reach for our friends in red and black. Way back in the early 1960s, Dodd was complaining that requiring calculus was the worst thing to ever happen to this school. This is NOT to imply I would like to for Tech to be like the "factories". It is just frustrating to try and compete at this level with literally one hand tied behind your back. The only solution I can see is to recruit nationally especially for linemen.

 

[WreckinGT]

We can compete in basketball due to sheer numbers each team has. In football with the current climate, we either add a major without calculus and physics and take football serious or drop down to a lower division. We cannot have recruiting classes never in the top twenty and compete for championships. Agree or disagree

The real problem is with college football in general. Its not a level playing field. No matter who our coach is or what classes we have or how much we cheat, we aren't going to start out recruiting schools with massive fan bases and massive revenue streams. There is a reason that around 15 schools are in the top 20 in recruiting every year and we aren't. There is a reason that a major factory program with tons of money wins the MNC every year. We aren't the only program in this situation. About 90% of the FBS will rarely ever have a top 20 recruiting class or come close to a a National Championship. Should they all drop down a division? Maybe we should just let the top 15 programs make their own division and just play themselves.

 

[Towaliga]

Thanks, I wasn't saying I like where we are, our record speaks for itself and I don't see a change on the horizon. I surely am not a troll, GT needs more folks like me .

If GT had more fans like you, I would consider GT fans as short sighted and delusional as dwag fans. I certainly wouldn't be a sidewalk fan who has bought season tickets for the last 10 years. Like some others have said, the Orange Bowl was just 15 months ago and, if you will stop and remember, we beat......actually, we stomped a team that had spent several weeks ranked #1 in the nation.

 

[RonJohn]

We can compete in basketball due to sheer numbers each team has. In football with the current climate, we either add a major without calculus and physics and take football serious or drop down to a lower division. We cannot have recruiting classes never in the top twenty and compete for championships. Agree or disagree

We can either be a school that competes in football, or a football program that is marginally associated with a school. Football is important, but if the only choice is between harming the quality of the school and being a perennial bottom feeder in football, the school has to come first.

I disagree that we cannot compete with recruiting classes out of the "top" twenty. The recruiting "rankings" are suspect at best. Also, in 2014 we were within a few plays(less than 10) of being in the CFP. Even up to the day of the ACCCG in 2014, we were in a group of about 8 teams that could have possibly gotten into the CFP. The chances were extremely small, but if four teams had lost and we had blown FSU out, we could have made the playoffs. We had two losses, and at that point, we were the only team with two losses that had even a remote possibility. I would say that that qualifies as competing for championships. I don't recall that we had "top" 5, or 10, or 15, or 20 rated recruiting classes in any of the years that included players from the 2014 team.

 

[RonJohn]

If GT had more fans like you, I would consider GT fans as short sighted and delusional as dwag fans. I certainly wouldn't be a sidewalk fan who has bought season tickets for the last 10 years. Like some others have said, the Orange Bowl was just 15 months ago and, if you will stop and remember, we beat......actually, we stomped a team that had spent several weeks ranked #1 in the nation.

I agree. There are several current threads like this one and the DRob one that make me feel like I am reading an SEC forum with chest-bumping and grunting being more important that actual logic.