Has it come to this?

slugboy

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Considering how quickly Collins was hired, (and with the lack of interviewing other notable coaches) I think TStan knew exactly what his plan was.

I think TStan’s plan was Ken Whisenhunt—former player, NFL coach, “pro-style” offensive guru. It’s possible that Ken was an attractive choice for the boosters in the president’s box, but TStan seemed surprised by the broader fan backlash to Whiz.
Collins was a quick plan B. Satterfield was already in Louisville.


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Animal02

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I think TStan’s plan was Ken Whisenhunt—former player, NFL coach, “pro-style” offensive guru. It’s possible that Ken was an attractive choice for the boosters in the president’s box, but TStan seemed surprised by the broader fan backlash to Whiz.
Collins was a quick plan B. Satterfield was already in Louisville.


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I thought the process was very odd from the start.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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I think TStan’s plan was Ken Whisenhunt—former player, NFL coach, “pro-style” offensive guru. It’s possible that Ken was an attractive choice for the boosters in the president’s box, but TStan seemed surprised by the broader fan backlash to Whiz.
Collins was a quick plan B. Satterfield was already in Louisville.


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From what I was told, CPJ had TStan believing that 2019 would be CPJs last season. TStan was looking down the road and was caught in a lurch by CPJs sudden decision to retire. KW was definitely TStans preferred man, but he bowed to the fan base on that one. Satterfield was option 2, but UL snagged him first. CGC was next in line. The only other name on the table was Elliot at Clemson (my preferred choice of the coaches interviewed). Monken and Niumatalolo were never considered as TStan needed to move away from the option for purely financial reasons. (Big donors were pushing for "pro style") IMO, losing out on Satterfield is probably a blessing in disguise, as I feel CGC gives GT a better path forward.
 

Jmonty71

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From what I was told, CPJ had TStan believing that 2019 would be CPJs last season. TStan was looking down the road and was caught in a lurch by CPJs sudden decision to retire. KW was definitely TStans preferred man, but he bowed to the fan base on that one. Satterfield was option 2, but UL snagged him first. CGC was next in line. The only other name on the table was Elliot at Clemson (my preferred choice of the coaches interviewed). Monken and Niumatalolo were never considered as TStan needed to move away from the option for purely financial reasons. (Big donors were pushing for "pro style") IMO, losing out on Satterfield is probably a blessing in disguise, as I feel CGC gives GT a better path forward.
I have to really learn more about CGC. From what I've seen thus far, I'm not impressed. Temple wasn't exactly in the most demanding of conferences. They are better than us, purely on the fact, they can actually score TDs. But, I am a little concerned that CGC talks a great game, but has absolutely no way of backing that up. Just because someone can bull*hit good, doesn't qualify them as a head coach. I will need to see a lot more, before I can say yea or nay. If I recall, Bill Lewis was a great talker too.
 

Vespidae

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TStan was looking down the road and was caught in a lurch by CPJs sudden decision to retire.

And that, should never happen. At least in corporate, one usually has a slate of 9-10 candidates at all times for every major position. College football seems to operate more at the whim of the coach than the AD which I find unusual.

If I was the AD, I would probably be thinking … I have 15 years to have an impact. In the first five years, my goals are XX WPCT, YY APR, ZZ Revenue. My second five years, the goals are … (whatever percent improvement).

I was shocked to read that until 2 years ago, GTAA had never had a strategic plan. Is it any wonder we have lurched from one savior to the next?
 

iceeater1969

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Do they have to be paid positions? Hell, I’d do it for a dollar.
U r right about a set of alumni being able to help. I knew Andy and convinced him to come further towards pensacola on recruiting trips to niceville. He trusted me to NEVER SPEAK TO PLAYER OR PARENT.
It was working in penszcola but then coach resigned.

It would be a nightmare trying to keep all those "volunteers" in compliance with all the ridiculous recruiting rules
Dont worry the number volenteers starts w 1.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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And that, should never happen. At least in corporate, one usually has a slate of 9-10 candidates at all times for every major position. College football seems to operate more at the whim of the coach than the AD which I find unusual.

If I was the AD, I would probably be thinking … I have 15 years to have an impact. In the first five years, my goals are XX WPCT, YY APR, ZZ Revenue. My second five years, the goals are … (whatever percent improvement).

I was shocked to read that until 2 years ago, GTAA had never had a strategic plan. Is it any wonder we have lurched from one savior to the next?

It's hard to compare corporate America to NCAA Football. For one, the HC market is volatile by nature. If a HC in an upward mobile position is good, the demand is high. If a HC has a bad season, he becomes a risky hire. There are almost no guaranteed candidates as in normal business models, where consistency is valued. As an AD, the strategic plan should primarily be concerned with financing facility upgrades and funding staff for the teams. It's almost useless to have a long range succession plan unless you have a HCiW situation. The market is way too volatile for HCs to have one on speed dial just in case.
 

stech81

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I think TStan’s plan was Ken Whisenhunt—former player, NFL coach, “pro-style” offensive guru. It’s possible that Ken was an attractive choice for the boosters in the president’s box, but TStan seemed surprised by the broader fan backlash to Whiz.
Collins was a quick plan B. Satterfield was already in Louisville.


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I have to say I was one who didn't want Whisenhunt. An offensive guru does not mean you are a good head coach. Really didn't think about Collins and time will tell but he is willing to put in extra time and seems to work hard on recruiting.
 

Vespidae

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It's hard to compare corporate America to NCAA Football. For one, the HC market is volatile by nature. If a HC in an upward mobile position is good, the demand is high. If a HC has a bad season, he becomes a risky hire. There are almost no guaranteed candidates as in normal business models, where consistency is valued. As an AD, the strategic plan should primarily be concerned with financing facility upgrades and funding staff for the teams. It's almost useless to have a long range succession plan unless you have a HCiW situation. The market is way too volatile for HCs to have one on speed dial just in case.

Maybe. Homer Rice said he had 3-4 candidates always lined up. When Curry left, he immediately called Ross because he thought he would be a good fit at Tech.

I suppose what you don't want is the Donors calling the shots. Tennessee was a laughing stock because of the Haslams.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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Maybe. Homer Rice said he had 3-4 candidates always lined up. When Curry left, he immediately called Ross because he thought he would be a good fit at Tech.

I suppose what you don't want is the Donors calling the shots. Tennessee was a laughing stock because of the Haslams.

The landscape of college football, as well as the business model it has become, is vastly different in what is was in the early to mid '80's. The issue with TStan and CPJ retiring a bit earlier than planned wasn't in HC selection. It was that TStan had planned to be further along with the facilities to make GT a more attractive job before CPJ retired. During CPJs last year TStan was working hard to get the AI 2020 initiative up and running, planning scheduling deals with MBS, and generally getting as much money into the GTAA for long overdue facility upgrades. These items would have been a lot further along the path to completion and details would be in place to position GT as an institution that was investing in football, instead of the 13th of 14 lowest spender in the ACC and bottom 15 P5 spender. This impacts what coaches will seriously entertain an offer from us

You are correct to a point on letting donors run the show. The UT/Schiano debacle was a nightmare, but TStan did listen to the tea leaves on KW.
 

slugboy

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Maybe. Homer Rice said he had 3-4 candidates always lined up. When Curry left, he immediately called Ross because he thought he would be a good fit at Tech.

I suppose what you don't want is the Donors calling the shots. Tennessee was a laughing stock because of the Haslams.
I think TStan did have Whisenhunt lined up. He possibly had Satterfield tagged. Frost had left earlier for Nebraska (and he's the one I wanted). I don't think it was a lack of "planning", but it was a lack of vetting what would work well with the big donors and the "regular" fans.

Ross shows how much luck plays a part. If Curry had left a year earlier, Ross would still be at Maryland and would probably have said "no". A year later, and Ross would have been somewhere else. I was an upperclassman at the time, and I thought "how the h*** did we pull off getting him?". Then, he immediately went into two rough years of trying to build a team.

We did beat the Citadel and Indiana State his first year, but we lost to everyone else: .
upload_2019-9-19_14-42-59.png

(credit the table to Wikipedia and Wikipedia Foundation, from the article linked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Georgia_Tech_Yellow_Jackets_football_team , which I solidly recommend for a visit)

That 48-14 loss to Duke (Spurrier) was ugly. We lost to some good teams, and some bad teams. Ross wasn't a popular coach in 1987; he definitely had his doubters, and he had even more doubters in 1998. You could show your ID and walk in and get a good seat at the stadium that year and the next couple. At halftime, I don't think you necessarily needed your ID to get in (ok, hyperbole). You can see what attendance was like in the table above, and considering they were "tickets sold" attendance wasn't even that good.

We improved to win 3 games the next year--Chattanooga, VMI, and #8 South Carolina. In 1989, we won 7 (and didn't go bowling). Then, 1990 and the MNC.

I'm sure some of you are looking at this and thinking "Slugboy is saying we'll have a title contender in 3-4 years"; "he's fanboying for Collins". No, I'm not saying that. I am saying 2008 was weird--that's not what you usually get for a transition year.

We have problems to fix. I'm not giving a lead-pipe-cinch guarantee that Collins will fix them, or that he doesn't deserve some flak for last Saturday, but even a coach like Ross needed time to get the program going.
 

Animal02

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I think TStan did have Whisenhunt lined up. He possibly had Satterfield tagged. Frost had left earlier for Nebraska (and he's the one I wanted). I don't think it was a lack of "planning", but it was a lack of vetting what would work well with the big donors and the "regular" fans.

Ross shows how much luck plays a part. If Curry had left a year earlier, Ross would still be at Maryland and would probably have said "no". A year later, and Ross would have been somewhere else. I was an upperclassman at the time, and I thought "how the h*** did we pull off getting him?". Then, he immediately went into two rough years of trying to build a team.

We did beat the Citadel and Indiana State his first year, but we lost to everyone else: .
View attachment 6748
(credit the table to Wikipedia and Wikipedia Foundation, from the article linked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Georgia_Tech_Yellow_Jackets_football_team , which I solidly recommend for a visit)

That 48-14 loss to Duke (Spurrier) was ugly. We lost to some good teams, and some bad teams. Ross wasn't a popular coach in 1987; he definitely had his doubters, and he had even more doubters in 1998. You could show your ID and walk in and get a good seat at the stadium that year and the next couple. At halftime, I don't think you necessarily needed your ID to get in (ok, hyperbole). You can see what attendance was like in the table above, and considering they were "tickets sold" attendance wasn't even that good.

We improved to win 3 games the next year--Chattanooga, VMI, and #8 South Carolina. In 1989, we won 7 (and didn't go bowling). Then, 1990 and the MNC.

I'm sure some of you are looking at this and thinking "Slugboy is saying we'll have a title contender in 3-4 years"; "he's fanboying for Collins". No, I'm not saying that. I am saying 2008 was weird--that's not what you usually get for a transition year.

We have problems to fix. I'm not giving a lead-pipe-cinch guarantee that Collins will fix them, or that he doesn't deserve some flak for last Saturday, but even a coach like Ross needed time to get the program going.
The years before Ross came were fair to poor outside of one, 85.
 

Heisman's Ghost

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I have to really learn more about CGC. From what I've seen thus far, I'm not impressed. Temple wasn't exactly in the most demanding of conferences. They are better than us, purely on the fact, they can actually score TDs. But, I am a little concerned that CGC talks a great game, but has absolutely no way of backing that up. Just because someone can bull*hit good, doesn't qualify them as a head coach. I will need to see a lot more, before I can say yea or nay. If I recall, Bill Lewis was a great talker too.

"...Bill Lewis was a great talker too." I wasn't aware he could even do that. I don't care how poorly Coach Collins does at Tech he will never come close to that era. I actually believe Coach Collins to be entirely different from any coach we have ever had dating back to Bobby Dodd. Whether that will be a good thing or not is to be determined but he has his own style for sure. The announced emphasis on defense and special teams is reminisce of Chan but personality and style wise two more unlike individuals would be hard to find. He marches to the beat of a different drum.
 

forensicbuzz

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I think TStan did have Whisenhunt lined up. He possibly had Satterfield tagged. Frost had left earlier for Nebraska (and he's the one I wanted). I don't think it was a lack of "planning", but it was a lack of vetting what would work well with the big donors and the "regular" fans.

Ross shows how much luck plays a part. If Curry had left a year earlier, Ross would still be at Maryland and would probably have said "no". A year later, and Ross would have been somewhere else. I was an upperclassman at the time, and I thought "how the h*** did we pull off getting him?". Then, he immediately went into two rough years of trying to build a team.

We did beat the Citadel and Indiana State his first year, but we lost to everyone else: .
View attachment 6748
(credit the table to Wikipedia and Wikipedia Foundation, from the article linked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Georgia_Tech_Yellow_Jackets_football_team , which I solidly recommend for a visit)

That 48-14 loss to Duke (Spurrier) was ugly. We lost to some good teams, and some bad teams. Ross wasn't a popular coach in 1987; he definitely had his doubters, and he had even more doubters in 1998. You could show your ID and walk in and get a good seat at the stadium that year and the next couple. At halftime, I don't think you necessarily needed your ID to get in (ok, hyperbole). You can see what attendance was like in the table above, and considering they were "tickets sold" attendance wasn't even that good.

We improved to win 3 games the next year--Chattanooga, VMI, and #8 South Carolina. In 1989, we won 7 (and didn't go bowling). Then, 1990 and the MNC.

I'm sure some of you are looking at this and thinking "Slugboy is saying we'll have a title contender in 3-4 years"; "he's fanboying for Collins". No, I'm not saying that. I am saying 2008 was weird--that's not what you usually get for a transition year.

We have problems to fix. I'm not giving a lead-pipe-cinch guarantee that Collins will fix them, or that he doesn't deserve some flak for last Saturday, but even a coach like Ross needed time to get the program going.
I think that was the year that going into COFH we were both 6-5. The Peach Bowl invited them before the game and we went out and beat them. They went to the Peach Bowl over us with a 6-6 record and us just beating them. Too lazy to look it up to verify. Either that year or the next year Rodney Hampton got hurt early in the game and we shut them down. At least that's how I'm remembering it.
 

Heisman's Ghost

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I think TStan did have Whisenhunt lined up. He possibly had Satterfield tagged. Frost had left earlier for Nebraska (and he's the one I wanted). I don't think it was a lack of "planning", but it was a lack of vetting what would work well with the big donors and the "regular" fans.

Ross shows how much luck plays a part. If Curry had left a year earlier, Ross would still be at Maryland and would probably have said "no". A year later, and Ross would have been somewhere else. I was an upperclassman at the time, and I thought "how the h*** did we pull off getting him?". Then, he immediately went into two rough years of trying to build a team.

We did beat the Citadel and Indiana State his first year, but we lost to everyone else: .
View attachment 6748
(credit the table to Wikipedia and Wikipedia Foundation, from the article linked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Georgia_Tech_Yellow_Jackets_football_team , which I solidly recommend for a visit)

That 48-14 loss to Duke (Spurrier) was ugly. We lost to some good teams, and some bad teams. Ross wasn't a popular coach in 1987; he definitely had his doubters, and he had even more doubters in 1998. You could show your ID and walk in and get a good seat at the stadium that year and the next couple. At halftime, I don't think you necessarily needed your ID to get in (ok, hyperbole). You can see what attendance was like in the table above, and considering they were "tickets sold" attendance wasn't even that good.

We improved to win 3 games the next year--Chattanooga, VMI, and #8 South Carolina. In 1989, we won 7 (and didn't go bowling). Then, 1990 and the MNC.

I'm sure some of you are looking at this and thinking "Slugboy is saying we'll have a title contender in 3-4 years"; "he's fanboying for Collins". No, I'm not saying that. I am saying 2008 was weird--that's not what you usually get for a transition year.

We have problems to fix. I'm not giving a lead-pipe-cinch guarantee that Collins will fix them, or that he doesn't deserve some flak for last Saturday, but even a coach like Ross needed time to get the program going.

Personally, I never understood why he left Maryland. Conflict with administrators? Looming NCAA problems? A desire to seek new pastures? Tired of the cold? I am sure it wasn't a money thing per se. Bobby Ross was not running after a bigger paycheck but I have never heard him say why he left a reasonably successful program for one of the hardest jobs in college football.
 
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