General News about Key and his Staff

[JacketOff]

The average ranking for the 3 teams Collins coached against was 26 in Sagarin as of last week. The 8 teams that Thacker faced without Collins ranked 52. Don't you think that had something to do with it? And if you take number 1 Georgia out, the 52 number goes up since none of the other 7 were even in the top 30.

Collins was nominated for the Broyles award as DC at two SEC schools but he was holding Thacker back? Right.....

GT Swarm: Emotion over objectivity.

That’s Sagarin. Not opposing offenses specifically.

Thacker alone faced the #4, #8, #21, & #30 offenses.

With Collins the 4 offenses we faced were #13, #27, #44, and Western Carolina who isn’t even FBS.

Collins was pretty open about Thacker playing a large part in last year’s UNC game where we shut down Sam Howell. Collins has a good track record as a DC, but that doesn’t mean his head coaching style didn’t put unnecessary burdens and limitations on the defense.

 

[T-Bone Burdell]

My buddy is a dwag fan. He says dwag fans are pissed because Faulkner was supposed to be the next OC after Monken leaves.

If they're mad then it's a good hire. Can't wait to see how we look next season

He still can be. They just hire him back for twice his GT salary or whatever.

 

[kittysniper101]

Didn't they have our play calls that day?

Yes they did. Scoring that many on Groh when you have our calls isn’t that impressive.

 

[85Escape]

He still can be. They just hire him back for twice his GT salary or whatever.

I hope we agree to a big 1 year buyout so if he gets fast-poached they have to pay us a bundle.

 

[ThatGuy]

Writeup on our game versus MTSU in 2012, when a team led by Buster Faulkner and Geep Wade shocked GT:

POSTGAME REPORT: Georgia Tech Falls to MTSU

A 3 touchdown loss to a Sun Belt team is hard to stomach for Tech fans everywhere.

www.fromtherumbleseat.com

I remember that game well. We didn't have an answer for that offense.

Some points from UGA fans:

1) they expected him to be next in line to succeed Todd Monken as OC, and

2) re: his offense and expectations:

He’s considered a very strong offensive mind who likes to go fast and air the ball out. His scheme also takes some time to learn, so GT may not expect overnight improvement.

 

[GTRambler]

Nothing official from the GTAA — yet.

That’s the one that counts.

 

[Techster]

For me, it's a "meh" hire (see earlier post about Faulkner's OC history EDIT: copied and pasted below), but ultimately it's what he does at GT that matters to us not what happened in the past. Todd Monken is a great OC...even before his UGA days. The hope is Faulkner was a sponge under Monken and will utilize a lot of what he learned there at GT. I wanted a "scheme advantage" coach, and just my opinion, Faulkner does not appear to be that...his history just doesn't reflect that. We'll see though, and I'm definitely hoping for the best.

Buster Faulkner OC history (OFEI)

Southern Miss OC 2019
2019 - 97
*USM previously had OFEIs of 120 (2018), 102 (2017), 86 (2016)

Arkansas State OC 2016 - 2018
2018 - 82
2017 - 92
2016 - 100
*ASU previously had OFEIs of 80 (2015), 67 (2014), 95 (2013)

Middle Tennessee State OC 2012-2015
2015 - 61
2014 - 78
2013 - 81
2012 - 61 (*This is the team that beat GT at home with Al Groh as DC)
*MTSU previously had OFEIs of 112 (2011), 114 (2010), 96 (2009)

Some video of his offenses at each stop. Not much different than what we've done under Long and Patenaude. Utilizes the H back/TE position. Zach Pyron is a plug and play QB for this kind of offense.

Southern Miss:




Arkansas State



Middle Tennessee

 

[GTRambler]

If Faulkner does come in, then hopefully we can recruit a bunch of studs.

We need studs — badly.

 

[GTRambler]

Good players make coaches look good.

Bad and/or below-average players, not so good.

 

[Techster]

Interesting tidbit regarding Faulkner possibly moving up if Monken was hired by Purdue (signs pointing to Purdue moving on due to Monken's insistence that he finish it out the playoffs with UGA):

 

[ramblin_man]

Maybe Faulkner will be given an opportunity to have a voice in WR and RB coaches? Who knows he probably already has a short list of candidates that he has provided to Key? It will be interesting to see what his ETA is to the Flats and also how quickly we pull the trigger on WR and RB coaches.
Time to get him over here and wash the uga stink off of him and put him to work. He probably had a big hand in the hire of Geep as OL coach with Key’s but in of course.

 

[Enuratique]

I’ll give him benefit of the doubt but I’m pretty lukewarm about this hire

 

[wreckrod]

My buddy is a dwag fan. He says dwag fans are pissed because Faulkner was supposed to be the next OC after Monken leaves.

If they're mad then it's a good hire. Can't wait to see how we look next season

Dwag fans are idiots and a their opinions are a terrible way to gauge anything. No indirect disrespect to you by insulting the company you choose to keep.

 

[stech81]

Please convince me. I'm initially quite skeptical.

it's good now go drink a beer

 

[awbuzz]

Looked rather good to me.
His offenses have scored well and has put up good FEI except for one year. What's your beef?

They don't like the uGA tie would be my guess and that his last job did not have the word coordinator in it.

 

[GCdaJuiceMan]

If we can mirror an inkling of what uga does with their tight ends, this will satisfy me, lol. Seriously, I love what monken does with TE's in his offense. Granted, we need to recruit the talent too. It should be easy for Faulkner to point to uga's offense and get some TE talen to the flats.

 

[Kennethshannon20]

They don't like the uGA tie would be my guess and that his last job did not have the word coordinator in it.

How dare Tech fans want a Coordinator to be hired as a Coordinator

 

[Kennethshannon20]

If we can mirror an inkling of what uga does with their tight ends, this will satisfy me, lol. Seriously, I love what monken does with TE's in his offense. Granted, we need to recruit the talent too. It should be easy for Faulkner to point to uga's offense and get some TE talen to the flats.

Ehh maybe, was I the only one that didnt like uga’s offense this year? I mean, that is in Monken rather than Faulkner but I am just saying. I hope he brings very little from what I saw at uga on offense’s to Tech.

 

[JacketOff]

Soooo, what does this mean for Weinke and the QB coach situation?

Georgia has some of the best TEs in the nation, and they are the primary focus in their gameplan. Just about everything GA does is designed to open up holes for their TEs to find space. As far as I can tell Faulkner has pretty much always specialized in QBs and hasn’t ever really worked with TEs as a group. Maybe he picked up a lot under Monken about how to properly prep TEs and will be named TE coach as well. Otherwise we have 2 people who specialize in the same thing and not really anything else. And if Faulkner is going to be solely OC without a positional group, I feel like we’re wasting a spot on the staff.

 

[Buzzbomb]

An interviewee at GT, found another gig….