GT hires Chip Long as new OC/QBs Coach

[MountainBuzzMan]

I don't doubt from Day 1 people saw his schtick but I doubt very seriously that anyone predicted this mess. If you want to say that some people did predict it because of his "work" at Temple, I'd put big money that those people are the absolute haters and wanted to make that prediction solely on the hate.

I did. That is why I stopped my season tickets after 20 years. I could not suffer through what he was going to do. It was obvious for those willing to take an abstract look at the whole picture.

Now, I did get a few things wrong in my initial analysis, but the end results is almost exactly how I predicted. I actually thought it would have been a bit better. 4 and 5 win seasons

I think I called it trying to sit on a one legged chair. That one leg being recruiting.

 

[LongforDodd]

I mean, I've been fairly consistent in my predictions so far. We outperformed my expectations in year one (1-2 wins), met expectations in year 2 and 3 (3-4 wins). My expectations for year 4 were always 6-7 wins, with some understanding if a series of close losses led to 5 wins. At this point, though, I don't think there is any understanding left for him and he likely needs to win 6 minimum and most likely 7+ in order to save his job.

As to the first sentence, I agree completely. Even though I am defending him and willing to give him time, his persona has caused a lot of unnecessary problems. For someone supposedly so gifted at branding and marketing, he sure managed to turn off a large portion of the GT fanbase within months of his hiring. His pot shots at the former coaching staff didn't go unnoticed and his constant blandishment grew tiresome quickly. He has brought a LOT of this on himself.

I was very much on board from Day 1, also, just hoping he could be a success. Most people here, I'd bet, acknowledged (if only to themselves with only their quiet thoughts surrounding them) that the offensive transition would take some time especially with the LOS. We've had significant skill position talent on offense but something is bad wrong on the Line. I doubt the best of coaching could have improved the performance these past three years on the Line and the play calling has always seemed "meh". DP never came across as much to get excited about. I hope Long can be enough of a change to help recruit some Oline talent and get all of our talent to mesh.

 

[forensicbuzz]

This is just wrong. Three years is more than enough time in the ACC Coastal. The Coastal is the worst division of all P5 conferences. Two teams finished above .500.

You seem to think that the entire fan base is represented by a few fans who wanted him fired after year 1. Every fan base has fans calling for the coaches firing every week. Clemson is screaming about Dabo. Yes, a few smart fans saw him for what he is after year 1. But the majority were willing to give him time. Even after year 2, many more smart fans saw him for what he is. But the majority were still on the side of giving him year 3 with Sims returning, etc. After NIU, the majority saw him for what he is. And the entire season bore that out. You think you are smarter than everyone else because you want to give X number of years. That’s fine. We could give him 7 full years and I guess you’d still be saying he needs more time. If he had shown us anything during year 3 you wouldn’t be alone. But, we didn’t advance the program at all. Lastly, I think we all agree that actions are way more important than words. If so, Gibbs told everyone the truth.

I think he's really talking about 3 years for a transition on the OL. Transfers should have helped to short circuit that, but we're still 1-2 years from having the OL we need. It's going to be when our first class are seniors that's we'll start to see the recruited players taking over. Just my opinion, but it seems to be coming to fruition that way. Linemen always take longer to develop and the changes in technique might have been too much for most of the transitioning linemen.

Should it take this long? I'm not an OL guy, but everyone I've talked to that knows OL play has said that it just takes time.

 

[85Escape]

I was very much on board from Day 1, also, just hoping he could be a success. Most people here, I'd bet, acknowledged (if only to themselves with only their quiet thoughts surrounding them) that the offensive transition would take some time especially with the LOS. We've had significant skill position talent on offense but something is bad wrong on the Line. I doubt the best of coaching could have improved the performance these past three years on the Line and the play calling has always seemed "meh". DP never came across as much to get excited about. I hope Long can be enough of a change to help recruit some Oline talent and get all of our talent to mesh.

I get it with the O-Line woes and the need to 'get old and stay old.' But that's not I see a lot of smaller G5 schools who have done well with much less talent than even we have. What's up with that? I'm sure to compete with the Bama's or even Auburn's of the world we'll need big and experienced beef. But to consistently beat NIU, VT, BC, etc...team's with lesser lines than us have beat them. There is more to it than just the OL.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

I'm not offended at all. This is your opinion and that's fine.

Year 3 shouldn't show a regression and we are not expecting world beaters. Losing to NIU in year 3 and just overall poor performance (minus UNC game which was great), seems to be beyond a transition issue.

It seems that you're very patient in the hopes that it eventually clicks, and it might I guess. It also seems like CDP was the scape goat, based on this hire. Did I unfairly summarize in this last paragraph here?

That's the thing. The offense didn't regress, the defense did. Yet our answer was to can the OC and shuffle the deck chairs on defense. The offense made slight improvements this year, which IMO, was about what we should have expected. We LOOKED a lot more competent leading to a lot more close games. (ND and uga were always going to be ugly and Pitt has proved to be a good team this year) OFEI supports minor improvements on offense, but the last two games made the entire season look worse than it was. Yet we are here talking about OCs as if that is going to solve the problem. I don't think the new OC is a world beater, but he should be an improvement over CDP and the offense is on track to make a big jump next year. It's the defense that has me worried.

All that to say, yes, you summarized the last part pretty well. CDP was a scapegoat to appease the fans but he definitely wasn't the major problem.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

I’d be ok with your timing if we had actually moved the needle much at all on offense, but we haven’t. I.e. “enough time” for what?

If you mean enough time to have a top 25 offense, sure. I’m with you. But if you mean enough time to not be in the conversation for the worst offense in D1 then I disagree. By year three we should have been much better on offense than we were. And I believe if that had been the case - maybe with some rankings in the 60s instead of the 90s then our previous OC would still be employed.

Rebuilding an OL from scratch takes time. It's a major reason why all the experts predicted us to win 3-4 games this year and finish 6th in the Coastal.

 

[bobongo]

Agreed.

When there is mistake after mistake from Year 1 starting with The Citadel game, I think it is reasonable to change your expectations. I think we were expecting someone who would have to come in and change a lot of things, but we would see improvement during Year 1, more in Year 2 and be somewhat competitive or have a winning record in Year 3. Clearly, the defense has regressed. Most people have seen it. Some what to maintain that the current coach needs more time. If there were any indication of improvement, I think we could all agree on more time. As there hasn't been, not sure what more time is going to do.

Yes. Going into this season there was generally a fair amount of optimism - maybe even more then was warranted. Then the season happened.

 

[LongforDodd]

I did. That is why I stopped my season tickets after 20 years. I could not suffer through what he was going to do. It was obvious for those willing to take an abstract look at the whole picture.

Now, I did get a few things wrong in my initial analysis, but the end results is almost exactly how I predicted. I actually thought it would have been a bit better. 4 and 5 win seasons

I think I called it trying to sit on a one legged chair. That one leg being recruiting.

From Day 1 based solely on his schtick? Congratulations.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

I get it with the O-Line woes and the need to 'get old and stay old.' But that's not I see a lot of smaller G5 schools who have done well with much less talent than even we have. What's up with that? I'm sure to compete with the Bama's or even Auburn's of the world we'll need big and experienced beef. But to consistently beat NIU, VT, BC, etc...team's with lesser lines than us have beat them. There is more to it than just the OL.

Body types and scheme fits. We had neither when CGC stepped in.

 

[LongforDodd]

....team's with lesser lines than us have beat them.

I'm sorry...what are you trying to say here?

 

[GT33]

It would be real interesting to see what people predicted over the years. I doubt there's anyone on here that guessed 3-3-3. I happen to love the number 3, but I predicted 5 wins in 2019, 6 wins in 2020 with a possibility for 7 at the bowl game then revised down to 5 once the schedule was trimmed (one of my 5 wins was Miami) and again 5 this year given the coaching difficulties. Unless you outwardly despise our coach (a rapidly growing faction), I'm not sure anyone predicted many fewer wins than I did. We do play in the weakest half of any P5 conference after all. If you were guessing lower it was either you hated the hire from the outset & your point was CGC was an inferior coach or you were a big fan of CGC & set the bar so low so you could claim he was overachieving.

Well, history has shown CGC is not much of a coach. He's got a short rope he's hanging onto for dear life and Chip Long for better or worse is his last card to play. Hope it works out for him.

 

[Pointer]

That's the thing. The offense didn't regress, the defense did. Yet our answer was to can the OC and shuffle the deck chairs on defense. The offense made slight improvements this year, which IMO, was about what we should have expected. We LOOKED a lot more competent leading to a lot more close games. (ND and uga were always going to be ugly and Pitt has proved to be a good team this year) OFEI supports minor improvements on offense, but the last two games made the entire season look worse than it was. Yet we are here talking about OCs as if that is going to solve the problem. I don't think the new OC is a world beater, but he should be an improvement over CDP and the offense is on track to make a big jump next year. It's the defense that has me worried.

I agree that the OC was not the issue this year. I am also of the belief that we were seeing the floor of CDP's system with respect to production. I just think his ceiling here will not be significantly higher than the floor. Ie the offense was in the mid 70's with respect to ranking. The ceiling of it would probably be in the 40's best case with the talent we have been getting here (even with the improved recruiting).

My personal thoughts are that CGC has a reputation for good defenses, so he should be more involved in that side (which seems to be the directional finally). I also think Tech still needs a schematic advantage on offense to get us to the next level. Not sure what you think on this, but there is generally a BIG difference between top 10 and 10-20 range and 25-35 range... With respect to recruiting. I don't believe Tech can do much better than what we have seen from CGC so far in recruiting. With that said, the air raid would have been great, especially if the defense gets fixed by facing Collins in charge the. He could pitch to the best QB's in the nation that we are running similar/same systems that Kyle Murray played in...

This hire just feels like a band aid in my mind based on his I view things here.

Edit:
So maybe you can see why I'm Meh on this hire. One, it's fixing a problem that wasn't really the problem that he'd to such poor results this year. Two, we had an opportunity to give ourselves better potential on offense, and we blew it.

 

[bobongo]

It would be real interesting to see what people predicted over the years. I doubt there's anyone on here that guessed 3-3-3. I happen to love the number 3, but I predicted 5 wins in 2019, 6 wins in 2020 with a possibility for 7 at the bowl game then revised down to 5 once the schedule was trimmed (one of my 5 wins was Miami) and again 5 this year given the coaching difficulties. Unless you outwardly despise our coach (a rapidly growing faction), I'm not sure anyone predicted many fewer wins than I did. We do play in the weakest half of any P5 conference after all. If you were guessing lower it was either you hated the hire from the outset & your point was CGC was an inferior coach or you were a big fan of CGC & set the bar so low so you could claim he was overachieving.

Well, history has shown CGC is not much of a coach. He's got a short rope he's hanging onto for dear life and Chip Long for better or worse is his last card to play. Hope it works out for him.

In my view, the best we can hope for is that Collins becomes one of these coaches who win only because they have good assistants. And Collins himself will apparently be one of those assistants. He's obviously a lot better DC than HC. I just wish he could bone up on game management. If he does that and toughens up the "culture", this could turn out well.

 

[UgaBlows]

That's the thing. The offense didn't regress, the defense did. Yet our answer was to can the OC and shuffle the deck chairs on defense. The offense made slight improvements this year, which IMO, was about what we should have expected. We LOOKED a lot more competent leading to a lot more close games. (ND and uga were always going to be ugly and Pitt has proved to be a good team this year) OFEI supports minor improvements on offense, but the last two games made the entire season look worse than it was. Yet we are here talking about OCs as if that is going to solve the problem. I don't think the new OC is a world beater, but he should be an improvement over CDP and the offense is on track to make a big jump next year. It's the defense that has me worried.

All that to say, yes, you summarized the last part pretty well. CDP was a scapegoat to appease the fans but he definitely wasn't the major problem.

If the rumors are true then Collins taking over DC, demoting Thacker to LB coach (where he did a decent job imo) and firing both DB coaches is a pretty major shakeup. Collins will be coaching for his life next season and we know he has had success as a dc before. Hopefully he can handle the extra work of being DC on gameday, maybe it will focus him and reduce some of his tendencies that drive fans crazy.

 

[SowegaSting]

That's a good question, and also, whether Key is still going to be the run game coordinator. I hope and guess that he won't be. We need one coordinator on offense.

I believe Key was on the OC interview team with Collins. I assumed they discussed this during the interview process.

 

[jandrews]

I agree that the OC was not the issue this year. I am also of the belief that we were seeing the floor of CDP's system with respect to production. I just think his ceiling here will not be significantly higher than the floor. Ie the offense was in the mid 70's with respect to ranking. The ceiling of it would probably be in the 40's best case with the talent we have been getting here (even with the improved recruiting).

My personal thoughts are that CGC has a reputation for good defenses, so he should be more involved in that side (which seems to be the directional finally). I also think Tech still needs a schematic advantage on offense to get us to the next level. Not sure what you think on this, but there is generally a BIG difference between top 10 and 10-20 range and 25-35 range... With respect to recruiting. I don't believe Tech can do much better than what we have seen from CGC so far in recruiting. With that said, the air raid would have been great, especially if the defense gets fixed by facing Collins in charge the. He could pitch to the best QB's in the nation that we are running similar/same systems that Kyle Murray played in...

This hire just feels like a band aid in my mind based on his I view things here.

Edit:
So maybe you can see why I'm Meh on this hire. One, it's fixing a problem that wasn't really the problem that he'd to such poor results this year. Two, we had an opportunity to give ourselves better potential on offense, and we blew it.

How was the OC not the issue? Sims didn't progress at all. He was making as many mistakes he did last year to this year. He couldn't coach the brain of the operation on the offensive side.

The play calling was predictable. He had a generational talent (and future Alabama running back) in the backfield and wouldn't get him 20+ touches a game. Not designing plays to get it to Gibbs as many times as possible is alone a good enough reason for me to change direction. His scheme was nothing special.

CGC is going to have to fight to stay around. I'm not sure I would have trust the former OC with that task if my job was on the line.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

From Day 1 based solely on his schtick? Congratulations.

Nope it was the lack of any real Schtick. No plan, nothing to address the realities of Tech to be able to get past them. Anyone who could look at everything in a non biased way could have seen it coming. But the hard part is looking at things in an un biased way. Basicaly it was nothing but recruiting and not doing the 3O. Well that was nothing but an obvious plan for failure. I was fine moving past what we did, but I wanted to see where we were moving too and how we were going to get there.

A lack of a plan is planning for failure and that is exactly where we went.

now we are starting to see some planning but is it enough and is there enough time. He wont get 3 more years again that is for sure so he blew his window

 

[Techwood Relict]

He's got a 'circle the wagons' mentality where he sees the people reporting to him (coaches and players) as "his team" and all the other stakeholders (alumni, press, real fans) as 'them'. I struggled with that myself during a bit of my career, and it took some good coaching (and a good book) to help me break out of that trap. And it is a trap.

Hopefully he can get some coaching on what being a real leader looks like (hint, it's not repeating the word 'elite' in hopes of fooling people.)

And the book was?? Asking for a friend

 

[kalld12]

How was the OC not the issue? Sims didn't progress at all. He was making as many mistakes he did last year to this year. He couldn't coach the brain of the operation on the offensive side.

The play calling was predictable. He had a generational talent (and future Alabama running back) in the backfield and wouldn't get him 20+ touches a game. Not designing plays to get it to Gibbs as many times as possible is alone a good enough reason for me to change direction. His scheme was nothing special.

CGC is going to have to fight to stay around. I'm not sure I would have trust the former OC with that task if my job was on the line.

100%. Nothing made me more furious than that damn dive play 5 yds behind line of scrimmage on 3rd and 15. Over and over again many times for no gain.

 

[Pointer]

How was the OC not the issue? Sims didn't progress at all. He was making as many mistakes he did last year to this year. He couldn't coach the brain of the operation on the offensive side.

The play calling was predictable. He had a generational talent (and future Alabama running back) in the backfield and wouldn't get him 20+ touches a game. Not designing plays to get it to Gibbs as many times as possible is alone a good enough reason for me to change direction. His scheme was nothing special.

CGC is going to have to fight to stay around. I'm not sure I would have trust the former OC with that task if my job was on the line.

I should have clarified, relatively speaking, the defense was a much bigger issue. Certainly not saying offense was good.