Has Georgia Tech Football entered the Bill Lewis Era part II?

[jacket_fan]

Except if your house is a one floor 2 bed, 2 bath and you want it to be a three story home, is it easier to build floors on top of the existing foundation or demolish and rebuild? Full disclosure, I don't work in construction, but I'd imagine it's easier to just tear it down and start building your dream home immediately. Sure, you've got to live in the extended stay hotel down the road for a few months and be on some hard times in the short term, but the house will be built quicker and have a stronger foundation in the long run.

It's counterintuitive for some folks, but it's okay to have a throwaway "rebuilding" year. But it's only okay if you've got the team bought into the program as strongly as CGC has them. The players (former, current, and future) seem to all understand that this will take time and are confident that this approach is right. I usually defer to their judgement as they understand what makes a winning program more than I ever will.

If I understand your post correctly, I saw none of that in the preseason. I did not realize he told his players they were going to have a throwaway season. And had them buy in. That is impressive. Especially with the Juniors and Seniors.

I thought he was impressing on then an how he was going to get them in the NFL.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Even in CPJ’s worse season we were competitive. Many of those losses were by one score or less. Now games are over at the half.

 

[Jacket4Life9]

I’d have been an Honor Grad if I was able to take my tests twice. It’s customary these days to asterisk everything, but you own the record you make.

The point is to acknowledge the offensive improvement and at least semblance of an identity.

 

[g0lftime]

Both of those coaches have NEVER shown that they are great, or even good game coaches. The game was ugly in all aspects. Neirher coach played to win that game.

If uga gives us 4 turnovers and they dont score 21 pts in regulation, we will beat them.

One can never underestimate the importance of a great kicker. USC was lucky to get a second chance against a better team. We had a great one in Butker. Now we are lucky to get the ball to the 5 yard line on kickoffs.

 

[Scubapro]

Even in CPJ’s worse season we were competitive. Many of those losses were by one score or less. Now games are over at the half.

Careful...you will be accused of being negative.
Here, let me get you some Kool-Aid
Would you like grape or cherry flavor?

 

[HurricaneJacket]

1. Collins sold the fans and press on building a system around his players strengths, not forcing players into a system they don't fit. The first 4 games on offense seemed to disprove that line of reasoning, the last 2 seem to be heading back towards it. Results tbd. On defense I don't know enough to comment, but the last two games have been unimpressive for long stretches. This frustrates me the most about Collins because it reminds me of a salesman who can't deliver on their promises.

2. The team has not given up and still plays hard, so big point in Collins favor.

3. Consistency is lacking in everything but messaging. While I agree that messaging is important. Inconsistency on the field will bite us in the butt long term.

4. While its nice havimg a coach that genuinely seems to want to be here, it feels like the fallacy's of Dodd's/Tech men again.

5. We'll reevalute at the end of the year.

 

[jacket_fan]

Agree with number two above. Most impressive this season is the fight and heart shown by the players. Credit the players and coaching staff for keeping the team focused and playing hard despite adversity.

 

[LibertyTurns]

The point is to acknowledge the offensive improvement and at least semblance of an identity.

You can hereby consider it officially acknowledged!

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I don't understand why you keep saying this. It doesn't make any practical sense. This roster was assembled to run one offense: the flexbone option. That's your square hole. There's no other place the square peg will fit. Do you actually think that we should be running option with 3 passes/game in order to maximize our wins this year? If so, do you legitimately not see how this would be a detriment to recruiting and the development of our players for the future? It'd be asinine to run anything but Coach Pat's system from a development, production, and branding/recruiting standpoint. It's a tough pill to swallow, but the players we need to recruit for our new offensive system would rather see us go 2-10 this year with a 50/50 run/pass ratio than go 6-6 with the flexbone.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

Bill Lewis left GT with a better team than Paul Johnson did.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I think it's too early to compare Collins to BL, although I did vote "yes" in the poll, because the signs IMO are definitely there. I think a better comparison, however, would be to Bill Curry. Curry and Collins would both make great used car salesman, and I despised Curry from day one because of that, plus his "holier than thou" (not in a religious sense) attitude. Curry's first 4 seasons were 1-9-1, 1-10, 6-5, 3-8. Then John Dewberry miraculously appeared on the scene and not only saved Curry's job, but unbelievably got him an offer from Bama, which THANK GOD his inflated ego led him to accept. We survived Curry's incompetence, and we also survived the first two dismal Ross years trying to put together something from what Curry left. The rest there is, of course, history. But we survived those years, as well as, to be honest, the Carson, Fulcher, Rodgers years, because the world of college football was MUCH DIFFERENT then. Although it was never pleasant, and often frustrating as hell, the world of college football was such that any team anywhere could have a few really down years and recover. Just as we were able to recover from those earlier bad times, we were also able to recover from the BL disaster. But I hate to tell you guys, college football has changed since 2000, and it has passed Ga Tech by. That was not because of Johnson and his beautiful, but often maligned, offense. It was because Tech was unwilling to provide the resources required now to move forward. Bobby Dodd, John Heisman, hell Bear Bryant (definitely not my hero) would be struggling to put a good product on the field at Tech now, because of the tightwad nature of previous ADs AND FANS. (TStan APPEARS to be better; we shall see.) Because we have been passed by, I'm sorry, but we just don't have 2, 3, especially 7 years to cut our losses, if need be. We wait longer than 2 years, and we might as well cancel Tech football altogether; we will not survive. Although I didn't expect or predict a season of gloom this year, I also wasn't naive enough expect to win them all. What I DID expect us to do was to show signs of improvement from week to week. even putting us in a spot to win some games in which we were not favored, and if not win, at least keep them close. Although I saw some improvement on the Offense yesterday, mainly because we FINALLY HAVE ONE QB, the defense, totally let me down, and then the entire team and coaching staff seemed to disappear during the second quarter, after what was actually a very good first quarter. I keep reading posts saying "give him time; let him get his players in". Well, from what I have seen thus far, he and his staff (ESPECIALLY P'Nut) won't know what to do with them when they get them. I am personally willing to give him TWO years, no more, to show what he's capable of doing, and I frankly wouldn't be disappointed right now, if he was only given the rest of this year. In light of the world of college football today, WE SIMPLY CANNOT WAIT; WE DON'T HAVE TIME !!!

 

[684Bee]

I think it's too early to compare Collins to BL, although I did vote "yes" in the poll, because the signs IMO are definitely there. I think a better comparison, however, would be to Bill Curry. Curry and Collins would both make great used car salesman, and I despised Curry from day one because of that, plus his "holier than thou" (not in a religious sense) attitude. Curry's first 4 seasons were 1-9-1, 1-10, 6-5, 3-8. Then John Dewberry miraculously appeared on the scene and not only saved Curry's job, but unbelievably got him an offer from Bama, which THANK GOD his inflated ego led him to accept. We survived Curry's incompetence, and we also survived the first two dismal Ross years trying to put together something from what Curry left. The rest there is, of course, history. But we survived those years, as well as, to be honest, the Carson, Fulcher, Rodgers years, because the world of college football was MUCH DIFFERENT then. Although it was never pleasant, and often frustrating as hell, the world of college football was such that any team anywhere could have a few really down years and recover. Just as we were able to recover from those earlier bad times, we were also able to recover from the BL disaster. But I hate to tell you guys, college football has changed since 2000, and it has passed Ga Tech by. That was not because of Johnson and his beautiful, but often maligned, offense. It was because Tech was unwilling to provide the resources required now to move forward. Bobby Dodd, John Heisman, hell Bear Bryant (definitely not my hero) would be struggling to put a good product on the field at Tech now, because of the tightwad nature of previous ADs AND FANS. (TStan APPEARS to be better; we shall see.) Because we have been passed by, I'm sorry, but we just don't have 2, 3, especially 7 years to cut our losses, if need be. We wait longer than 2 years, and we might as well cancel Tech football altogether; we will not survive. Although I didn't expect or predict a season of gloom this year, I also wasn't naive enough expect to win them all. What I DID expect us to do was to show signs of improvement from week to week. even putting us in a spot to win some games in which we were not favored, and if not win, at least keep them close. Although I saw some improvement on the Offense yesterday, mainly because we FINALLY HAVE ONE QB, the defense, totally let me down, and then the entire team and coaching staff seemed to disappear during the second quarter, after what was actually a very good first quarter. I keep reading posts saying "give him time; let him get his players in". Well, from what I have seen thus far, he and his staff (ESPECIALLY P'Nut) won't know what to do with them when they get them. I am personally willing to give him TWO years, no more, to show what he's capable of doing, and I frankly wouldn't be disappointed right now, if he was only given the rest of this year. In light of the world of college football today, WE SIMPLY CANNOT WAIT; WE DON'T HAVE TIME !!!

Paragraphs are your friend.

 

[steebu]

While waiting on some paella to come out, I'll hit you with some bill lewis trivia.

Did you know he coached dbs at GT in the 70s?
Did you know he also coached at U[sic]GA after he got fired from Wyoming in 80?
And most interestingly, a coach from his tree is ... Mark Richt?

(All useless info, just bored and hungry)

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Paragraphs are your friend.

???

 

[smokey_wasp]

I think it's too early to compare Collins to BL, although I did vote "yes" in the poll, because the signs IMO are definitely there. I think a better comparison, however, would be to Bill Curry. Curry and Collins would both make great used car salesman, and I despised Curry from day one because of that, plus his "holier than thou" (not in a religious sense) attitude. Curry's first 4 seasons were 1-9-1, 1-10, 6-5, 3-8. Then John Dewberry miraculously appeared on the scene and not only saved Curry's job, but unbelievably got him an offer from Bama, which THANK GOD his inflated ego led him to accept. We survived Curry's incompetence, and we also survived the first two dismal Ross years trying to put together something from what Curry left. The rest there is, of course, history. But we survived those years, as well as, to be honest, the Carson, Fulcher, Rodgers years, because the world of college football was MUCH DIFFERENT then. Although it was never pleasant, and often frustrating as hell, the world of college football was such that any team anywhere could have a few really down years and recover. Just as we were able to recover from those earlier bad times, we were also able to recover from the BL disaster. But I hate to tell you guys, college football has changed since 2000, and it has passed Ga Tech by. That was not because of Johnson and his beautiful, but often maligned, offense. It was because Tech was unwilling to provide the resources required now to move forward. Bobby Dodd, John Heisman, hell Bear Bryant (definitely not my hero) would be struggling to put a good product on the field at Tech now, because of the tightwad nature of previous ADs AND FANS. (TStan APPEARS to be better; we shall see.) Because we have been passed by, I'm sorry, but we just don't have 2, 3, especially 7 years to cut our losses, if need be. We wait longer than 2 years, and we might as well cancel Tech football altogether; we will not survive. Although I didn't expect or predict a season of gloom this year, I also wasn't naive enough expect to win them all. What I DID expect us to do was to show signs of improvement from week to week. even putting us in a spot to win some games in which we were not favored, and if not win, at least keep them close. Although I saw some improvement on the Offense yesterday, mainly because we FINALLY HAVE ONE QB, the defense, totally let me down, and then the entire team and coaching staff seemed to disappear during the second quarter, after what was actually a very good first quarter. I keep reading posts saying "give him time; let him get his players in". Well, from what I have seen thus far, he and his staff (ESPECIALLY P'Nut) won't know what to do with them when they get them. I am personally willing to give him TWO years, no more, to show what he's capable of doing, and I frankly wouldn't be disappointed right now, if he was only given the rest of this year. In light of the world of college football today, WE SIMPLY CANNOT WAIT; WE DON'T HAVE TIME !!!

TStan has stated many times that he gave CGC a 7 year contract because he recognizes it will take time to transition. Wins wont even begin to be judged until year 3. CGC is here for 5, minimum.​

 

[GTL]

Some forget what happened when Bill took over. In his first season we 4-1 with 3 wins in a row coming up against #6 Florida State, showing improvement every game. Then FSU came to town. I"ll let 'Noles 24/7 tell the story:

No. 6 Florida State was trailing 21-7 with 14:27 remaining against No. 16 Georgia Tech. Ward stepped it up completing 14 of his 19 passes for 137 yards in the fourth quarter.

The tides changed when Bobby Bowden led the ‘Noles with the shotgun, no-huddle offense. They needed to save time and create a positive rhythm to score.

With just 5:20 left to play, the score was 24-14. The quarterback completed five passes for 55 yards and ran three times for 25 yards.

Then there was that perfectly executed onside kick when Corey Sawyer recovered the ball at the Georgia Tech 45. Ward took advantage of it to lead the ‘Noles to victory.

In a highly emotional locker room, Lewis lit into the players, blaming the loss on them. He lost the team that day, and only beat Duke the rest of the season. A savvy, empathetic coach still could have salvaged the team, but he chose instead to, intentionally or not, racially divide the team and the rest is history.

I just don't see Collins doing this, but I could be wrong. But there's little similarity to the two thus far.

 

[bobongo]

1. Collins sold the fans and press on building a system around his players strengths, not forcing players into a system they don't fit. The first 4 games on offense seemed to disprove that line of reasoning, the last 2 seem to be heading back towards it. Results tbd. On defense I don't know enough to comment, but the last two games have been unimpressive for long stretches. This frustrates me the most about Collins because it reminds me of a salesman who can't deliver on their promises.

2. The team has not given up and still plays hard, so big point in Collins favor.

3. Consistency is lacking in everything but messaging. While I agree that messaging is important. Inconsistency on the field will bite us in the butt long term.

4. While its nice havimg a coach that genuinely seems to want to be here, it feels like the fallacy's of Dodd's/Tech men again.

5. We'll reevalute at the end of the year.

Could you elaborate on the bolded part? I'm not arguing a point, but genuinely asking this. Outside of running an offense similar to the previous regime, what could we be doing to more maximize our players' strengths? What have we done better in the last two games in this regard?

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

TStan has stated many times that he gave CGC a 7 year contract because he recognizes it will take time to transition. Wins wont even begin to be judged until year 3. CGC is here for 5, minimum.​

I have two problems with the contract.
Year 5, we win the National Championship and we have to triple it.
Or,
Year 5, we’re still stuck in the ruts. And we never get out of this hole.

 

[Cam]

I expect better out of you, Super. Come on, man. I used to visit this board a lot for discussion, but it seems that this is all it has devolved to. Poop emojis.

Paul Johnson said before that he abandoned "modernizing" his offense because when he tried with Vad Lee we were running a half-assed passing attack and a half-assed option attack, resulting in a half-assed offense. He went back to sticking with what he knew because that's how he was going to get the best product. If Coach Pat is going to try calling his offense like Johnson, it's going to result in a similar or worse product (unless Pat can coach/call the option as well as Johnson), recruits will be deterred by our lack of passing (they've mentioned it's something they're watching for), and the current players will come out of it completely unprepared for next season's scheme. The smart move is to just let the guy run run what he knows and let the coaches mold the players into the round pegs we need. It'll hurt in the short term, but it's the only way to transition quickly and effectively. Unless you want to prolong the rough years, of course.

 

[Madison Grant]

I expect better out of you, Super. Come on, man. I used to visit this board a lot for discussion, but it seems that this is all it has devolved to. Poop emojis.

Paul Johnson said before that he abandoned "modernizing" his offense because when he tried with Vad Lee we were running a half-assed passing attack and a half-assed option attack, resulting in a half-assed offense. He went back to sticking with what he knew because that's how he was going to get the best product. If Coach Pat is going to try calling his offense like Johnson, it's going to result in a similar or worse product (unless Pat can coach/call the option as well as Johnson), recruits will be deterred by our lack of passing (they've mentioned it's something they're watching for), and the current players will come out of it completely unprepared for next season's scheme. The smart move is to just let the guy run run what he knows and let the coaches mold the players into the round pegs we need. It'll hurt in the short term, but it's the only way to transition quickly and effectively. Unless you want to prolong the rough years, of course.

^^^ Much wisdom ^^^