General News about Key and his Staff

[kg01]

Has he announced a get-bak coach yet? Anyone know if @kg01 has applied?

Apply. Apply? One does not "apply" to become the GeT-bak! coach. Those stripes are earned.

How? Well I'll take you back to west campus. Circa 2001. A scrawny kid ambles into the classroom when he suddenly finds himself shoulder-to-shoulder with a dude. A big dude. The door spanse couldn't handle the two of 'em ..... well, mostly the big dude.

The scrawny kid recognizes him. Brent ... something or other. He's on the team. What team? Do you really have-ta ask?

The big dude turns. A sullen scowl creeps over his brow. A barely audible, "My bad" drifts across the ether. Their eyes lock and the ugly truth of the moment emerges from the fog. Scrawny kid knew this Brent guy would lead the Jackets. The big guy knew .... the scrawny kid is his GBC.

Always remember you dont choose the moment, my friend. The moment chooses you...

 

[bobongo]

I don't believe for a minute we will have any significant money to go out and get 'hot' assts.
It should be obvious to everyone we simply do not have the funds to do that. I don't believe for a minute the 'we will have the money' story we hear all the time. I've followed GT sports for too long to believe that. Actions speak louder than words and whenever the contract is signed GT is never paying that much for coaches. Even Collins contract is below the current market rate for an ACC HC based on the recent hires.
Between Collins buyout and the long term AA debt I think we are sort of between a rock and a hard place. The 'old boys club' opened their pockets when Collins was hired, that only helped so much. Basically hiring Key keeps that donation money at probably roughly the same level, maybe a slight increase if they have any more money left over.
We are likely going to have the lowest paid HC in the ACC.

We are going to need to find some new funding sources.

I don't care how "hot" they are, but Tech had best give Key the staff he needs and wants or it's being penny wise and pound foolish. The GTAA saved a lot of money not hiring Fritz and paying his buyout. It could use just part of the money it saved for a good staff.

 

[Root4GT]

And why would a coach take a lateral move from a CFP Team to GT. Answer. Not going to happen - ever!

 

[kg01]

Me thinks we worry too much about GTAA finances. Those folks have plenty of brainpower and more money than most of us could imagine. I'm sure they have a plan and a budget that allows them to implement that plan. I hear a lot of our fans poor mouthing but I have yet to see anyone in charge come begging for money.

Go Jackets!

History tells us you're wrong here.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Apply. Apply? One does not "apply" to become the GeT-bak! coach. Those stripes are earned.

How? Well I'll take you back to west campus. Circa 2001. A scrawny kid ambles into the classroom when he suddenly finds himself shoulder-to-shoulder with a dude. A big dude. The door spanse couldn't handle the two of 'em ..... well, mostly the big dude.

The scrawny kid recognizes him. Brent ... something or other. He's on the team. What team? Do you really have-ta ask?

The big dude turns. A sullen scowl creeps over his brow. A barely audible, "My bad" drifts across the ether. Their eyes lock and the ugly truth of the moment emerges from the fog. Scrawny kid knew this Brent guy would lead the Jackets. The big guy knew .... the scrawny kid is his GBC.

Always remember you dont choose the moment, my friend. The moment chooses you...

Great story. So if that scrawny kid turns him down are you gonna apply?

 

[BuzzStone]

I have no info on that. I did message Deep Throat and he confirmed to me that the Board is very well aware of its financial condition and what it can and cannot offer. Key was willing to accept an incentive laden contract, WF was not.

Key knew he could turn the program around. Why not accept this offer. In a couple years after were competing for the ACC every year he can renegotiate if he wants.

 

[croberts]

So much of what I’m seeing is just regurgitation. Our new head coach is well connected and can find young coaching talent. Once again, his time at UCF and Bama are a huge part of his value.
I’m actually interested in seeing the new name (if any) that we are not familiar with.

 

[danny daniel]

White was only suppose to shadow the RB out to flats, and the safety was supposed to roll that way for cover. Safety was looking at something in the backfield and didn't give help. This time the safety didn't do their job. The only reason why it looked like White had the entire route was because he saw our safety not rolling towards the RB and White did the best he could.

We played that type of coverage before and it was fine.

Have to disagree. We have been burned on this play this season a half dozen times + twice bad throws prevented two more big plays. White. Collins, and Kennard have all been victims. On this occasion the safety seems to be in coverage chasing a receiver across the middle of the field. Other coaches have figured this out and set us up nicely. This works only if your pass rush is predictable enough to force a quick throw. We aren't there yet.

 

[SunBum]

When considering potential H.C. buyouts (Chadwell, Fritz, etc) and what they'd command for salary, I've got to think that we've saved significant $$$ by going with Key. Right or wrong, good or bad, that's got to be the case! If, by going with HCBK, we don't have some extra $$$ to play with for staff then we're in much worse shape than I thought and we never were in the mix for any of those other coaches, right?

 

[Jacket05]

Or WOULDN'T. We really don't know which one. It's entirely possible he proposed something we could technically afford, but JBatt saw no value in.

Though with our finances, COULDN'T is likely.

I agree "wouldn't" is more accurate. From what I have read we were not willing to pay larger GUARANTEED salary, but that doesn't mean we were not willing to pay a larger total compensation. We got burned with the significant underperformance of the last contract and payed a lot of money for negaitive results. Therefore, Batt is basically saying put your money where your mouth is. If you succeed here you will get paid well in performance incentives, and if you don't we aren't crippling ourselves with your contract. Key is the only one that is willing to bet on himself, which also means he has more at stake to do what is needed to succeed.

This strategy is great cause if the coach is successful you (ideally) get more money flowing into the program and are able to pay them more to keep them or pay the next coach if they move on. If they are not you save money and are in a much better position to spend more on the following replacement coach.

 

[RonJohn]

I don't care how "hot" they are, but Tech had best give Key the staff he needs and wants or it's being penny wise and pound foolish. The GTAA saved a lot of money not hiring Fritz and paying his buyout. It could use just part of the money it saved for a good staff.

That kind of sounds like a young person shopping at the mall. "Saving" depends on how you look at it. If you go to the mall with zero dollars in your bank account and buy $500 worth of clothes because they were on sale, you might have "saved" $1,000 but your net worth still dropped to negative $500. GT didn't "save" any money by not paying Fritz's buyout. By which I mean that they didn't put $8 million that was sitting on the table into a savings account. They just didn't go into more debt and start scrambling a fund raiser to pay that money out. The $1,000 that the shopper "saved" isn't sitting in a bank account to use for something else.

 

[kg01]

Great story. So if that scrawny kid turns him down are you gonna apply?

 

[bobongo]

That kind of sounds like a young person shopping at the mall. "Saving" depends on how you look at it. If you go to the mall with zero dollars in your bank account and buy $500 worth of clothes because they were on sale, you might have "saved" $1,000 but your net worth still dropped to negative $500. GT didn't "save" any money by not paying Fritz's buyout. By which I mean that they didn't put $8 million that was sitting on the table into a savings account. They just didn't go into more debt and start scrambling a fund raiser to pay that money out. The $1,000 that the shopper "saved" isn't sitting in a bank account to use for something else.

But they had the money to pay Frit's buyout, they have the money to pay for a decent staff. Hiring Key gave us an advantage, which was to free up money for his staff. Not to spend some of it on that staff is to throw away that advantage.

The more apt example would be a person going shopping for a new suit to go job hunting in, and he gets a nice one for a decent price but wears tennis shoes with it because he got cheap and didn't want to spend a little more to finish out the look.

Key is a good leader, organizer, and motivator but he needs a good staff to be successful.

 

[Buzzbomb]

I would hope CBK will consider his buddy who enrolled at GT during the same Fall, George “Goose” Godsey? He has coached all over the offense in his career, so add him in.

 

[Thwg777]

I’m not a fan of Long but rather than paying more people to NOT work, I’d rather see what little money we have go to paying players to play. Keep the good kids others try to lure away from us and get some upgrades along the way. It’s a brave new world…

 

[slugboy]

When considering potential H.C. buyouts (Chadwell, Fritz, etc) and what they'd command for salary, I've got to think that we've saved significant $$$ by going with Key. Right or wrong, good or bad, that's got to be the case! If, by going with HCBK, we don't have some extra $$$ to play with for staff then we're in much worse shape than I thought and we never were in the mix for any of those other coaches, right?

Unfortunately, that’s similar to the money I just saved by not buying an Aston Martin yesterday. I’m not richer—I’m just not a lot deeper in the hole.

 

[RonJohn]

But they had the money to pay Frit's buyout, they have the money to pay for a decent staff. Hiring Key gave us an advantage, which was to free up money for his staff. Not to spend some of it on that staff is to throw away that advantage.

According to whom? I never even heard a rumor that the buyout money was readily available. I have heard rumors that big money donors were floating ideas that they would pony up money for NIL and possibly assistants if Key were hired. I have assumed that if we had signed a HC with a large buyout that it would start a scramble to get funds together to pay for it.

 

[danny daniel]

Yet the OL kept getting better the last few games. Almost serviceable compared to a sieve before. I dont know what all was done the latter part of the season but there were noticeable improvements. Especially in pass blocking

Moving J Williams to RG improved two positions. Leftwich did a good job at RT and I believe Williams is better at G. Also we had very good depth at G with Fusile, Valpulu, and Lay. Lay is gone. Now we need a T or two. (Green? Koots walked at Sr Day. Maybe Mooney?)

 

[Vespidae]

Me thinks we worry too much about GTAA finances. Those folks have plenty of brainpower and more money than most of us could imagine. I'm sure they have a plan and a budget that allows them to implement that plan. I hear a lot of our fans poor mouthing but I have yet to see anyone in charge come begging for money.

Go Jackets!

You must have missed the layoffs last year. GTAA generates revenue ... they also generate expenses. Lots of them. The reality is that the debt eliminates the running room that so many other equally sized programs have to do what they want. Tech does not have that flexibility.

 

[bobongo]

According to whom? I never even heard a rumor that the buyout money was readily available. I have heard rumors that big money donors were floating ideas that they would pony up money for NIL and possibly assistants if Key were hired. I have assumed that if we had signed a HC with a large buyout that it would start a scramble to get funds together to pay for it.

If they were talking to Fritz, why would they waste their time if they knew they didn't have money for his buyout?