Novajacket
Jolly Good Fellow
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Interesting information about our talent level.
Strength of scheduleThere is some interesting disassociation between the alleged talent and record.
Kansas St. ranked with the 2nd worst talent in the country, yet had a winning 36-28 record during the relevant period.
Washington St. ranked with the 10th worst talent in the country, yet had a winning 43-22 record during the relevant period.
Minnesota ranked with the 11th worst talent in the country, yet had a winning 38-26 record during the relevant period.
Wake also had a winning record and a number of other teams were not that far off of .500. Either this is not particularly accurate or says as much or more about coaching than it does about talent.
No surprises there.
I will be very interested to see how Leach recruits at MS State. He hasn't ever been somewhere that you can really recruit before and I always felt his scheme had less baggage than CPJ's, due to being pass heavy. If he can maintain top 25 classes there, they may do quite well.
There is some interesting disassociation between the alleged talent and record.
Kansas St. ranked with the 2nd worst talent in the country, yet had a winning 36-28 record during the relevant period.
Washington St. ranked with the 10th worst talent in the country, yet had a winning 43-22 record during the relevant period.
Minnesota ranked with the 11th worst talent in the country, yet had a winning 38-26 record during the relevant period.
Wake also had a winning record and a number of other teams were not that far off of .500. Either this is not particularly accurate or says as much or more about coaching than it does about talent.
I think CPJ and Leach are cut from the same cloth in a lot of ways. One of which is being rather brash when interacting with people. I have a feeling he’ll struggle to recruit very well there either. Which is not to say he still can’t have some success as he’s shown what he can do with minimal talent. Wish he had ended up in the SEC East instead as he’s sure to play spoiler to a couple teams every season.
Talent is based on 247 sports composite values. So really just based on what recruiting services think. You can interpret the better whichever way suits your story. Either they are better at finding unknown talent, better coaches, strategists, or developers. Too many variables for any one to be accurate. My pitch is that our talent doesn’t yet fit our long term system. I am excited to see the changes this year. The transfers and freshmen, I think will have a big impact.
Interesting. Here is some more data from 247 team rankings over the exact same time period:
2015 - GT Recruiting ranked 8/14 in ACC
2016 - GT Recruiting ranked 11/14 in ACC
2017 - GT Recruiting ranked 9/14 in ACC
2018 - GT Recruiting ranked 8/14 in ACC
2019 - GT Recruiting ranked 9/14 in ACC
Average 2015-2019 = 9th out of 14 in ACC
Not great, but seems better than bottom 15 in the country based on this data set.
I agree with your overall premise that GT lacked talent going into the transition, but I strongly disagree that Tech was bottom 15 in the country in talent. Even taking into account the system.
I totally agree that CGC is doing an amazing job raising the talent level (both through recruiting and transfers). I think there is an argument that this year we could have top half level ACC talent (if we can find a QB before game 5).
It is bottom 15 in power 5, not the whole country. And yes, it is believable. Looking at year by year rankings is not the same as looking at the 85 man rosters in total. Rankings can be skewed by having a larger or smaller class than usual any given year. The bottom line is we have been down there with Wake, Syracuse and BC. Also note no other coastal teams on this list, which made us the least talented in our division by the metrics used (which may not be perfect, but broadly illustrate a valid point).
That was the most surprising hire in the SEC, including Kiffin, who was known to be high hurdling back to the big time. Apparently he was not run off by Washington State, but maybe like Mack Brown at UNC, got tired of playing second fiddle to basketball, or in this case, U. of Washington. But if he is not a good recruiter anyway -- and I am suspicious of such lists because games are played on the field -- good luck to him getting players to Starkville, Miss.No surprises there.
I will be very interested to see how Leach recruits at MS State. He hasn't ever been somewhere that you can really recruit before and I always felt his scheme had less baggage than CPJ's, due to being pass heavy. If he can maintain top 25 classes there, they may do quite well.
Personally, I don't think these rankings are particularly accurate or meaningful (other than to say that we were certainly below average talent last year).
However, if you do value those rankings, I guess you must think we have some really terrible coaching. After all, of the 14 teams on the list that supposedly have worse talent than us, only Rutgers had a worse record, and only Kansas had the same record last year. Everyone else had a better record with worse talent.
On top of that, of the 14 teams on the list with allegedly worse talent than Georgia Tech, 8 of the 14 went to a bowl last year and 5 of the 14 had winning records.
That was the most surprising hire in the SEC, including Kiffin, who was known to be high hurdling back to the big time. Apparently he was not run off by Washington State, but maybe like Mack Brown at UNC, got tired of playing second fiddle to basketball, or in this case, U. of Washington. But if he is not a good recruiter anyway -- and I am suspicious of such lists because games are played on the field -- good luck to him getting players to Starkville, Miss.
I think the transition compounded the talent issue to make it look even worse than it was. And I'm not even gonna begin to look at the schedules of some of those teams compared to ours. But, we agree that the talent level is going up, that's what matters at this point.
One of my many unfulfilled desires was to see a Leach team play a Johnson team.I think his success will depend a lot on whether he can somehow finally field a defense.