HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

[Deleted member 6494]

O'Leary didn't win a game as interim

Have you watched Coastal play? They throw the ball a LOT, uses shotgun almost exclusively, rpo, and a ton of different formations, it does not rely on the PJ/Sewak option cut blocking scheme, and most of the option plays that I have seen are speed option to the corners, not triple-o. It’s a completely different deal than PJ’s spread. Reminds me a lot of Ralph Feiegen’s offense.

If he reminds you of Ralph Friedgen, then we need to hire him. I originally started posting on the Hive; I was thrown off the hive because of my ditty "He ain't my brother, he is just heavy". I made it clear with statistics that GOL was not the catalyst for Tech's winning ways, it was purely the addition of Ralph Friedgen as OC.

Ralph's OC record at Tech for his tenure was 34-14. Without those four years, O'Leary's record was 25-25. O'Leary claimed to be a defensive expert, but his record at Tech proved he was not a good coach watching his defense. Notice the defensive record for his tenure from 1997 to 2000, it was 1994 (33-88) (0-3 record), 1995 (233-243), 1996 (220-236), 1997 (314-296), 1998 (426-295), 1999 (461-361), 2000 (386-237).

The ditty was that O'Leary was not Friedgen's brother, he was just heavy to overcome the defense. Note the difference in the offensive yardage in years 1997-2000 during
friedgen years; the defensive yardage against Tech still remained high, but Friedgen's offense overcame it. It was also evident of Tech's record of wins and losses during the Friedgen years as opposed to his years without Friedgen.

The point here is don't scoff at a coach's ability to win with offense. Sure, a team needs good defense; defense wins games and always has, but today's teams must have a good passing game to go with the running game. My observation of Tech's defense is that it is too consumed with trying to dislodge the ball from the runner and very often lets the runner get away from then for long gains.

 

[MWBATL]

I watched the game against App St. To the handful of TO experts on this board, CC’s offense might be completely different than PJs offense but to everyone else (including the announcers of the game), >75% of Coastal Carolinas plays were triple option related. Tech didn’t spend $23m and four years transitioning away from a TO offense only to go back to some other form of TO offense. Chadwell is a good coach, but right or wrong, I just don’t see him as a realistic candidate.

While I felt it was time to move away from CPJ's 3O offense, I am continually amazed by the apparent hatred some folks have for it on this board. Especially since it led to 3 wins over the Dawgs.

Other than the complaint about it hindering recruiting, is there any other complaint against it? Or is is JUST about the recruiting thing? (Edit: NOT talking about CPJ's 3O, but any other option offense...)

 

[Deleted member 6494]

You could also consider he turned a program around and has had 4 (very) winning seasons. But, many head coaches make the jump up and dont find the same success like Tulane Wave and Louisville Cardinals.

Don't look now, but Tulane is 8-1 and looking impressive.

 

[Longestday]

Don't look now, but Tulane is 8-1 and looking impressive.

Ya, I just looked it up. I’m happy for him as he did seem like a good coach… and I think his offense is interesting.

 

[Techster]

Don't look now, but Tulane is 8-1 and looking impressive.

...a year after Chip Long leaves to come to GT.

 

[Longestday]

...a year after Chip Long leaves to come to GT.

I just looked up Chip Long’s career… interesting… I don’t trust whoever is making hiring decisions at GT… From Roof to Collins to Chip Long? Wow. It could be we have some rich donors who can make money but might not be thinking clearly on football hires. Sort of like hiring a CEO just because they were already a CEO.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

While I felt it was time to move away from CPJ's 3O offense, I am continually amazed by the apparent hatred some folks have for it on this board. Especially since it led to 3 wins over the Dawgs.

Other than the complaint about it hindering recruiting, is there any other complaint against it? Or is is JUST about the recruiting thing? (Edit: NOT talking about CPJ's 3O, but any other option offense...)

For the folks that complain about "option offense", I think they usually mean CPJ's flexbone. Generally speaking, they don't mean the blocking schemes or the offensive philosophy, they simply mean the optics of running in the flexbone.

 

[Techster]

For the folks that complain about "option offense", I think they usually mean CPJ's flexbone. Generally speaking, they don't mean the blocking schemes or the offensive philosophy, they simply mean the optics of running in the flexbone.

Most of the people complaining about "the option" couldn't tell you the difference between what CPJ does and what other "option" coaches do.

On the other side of it, people who complain about GT "doing what everyone else does" probably couldn't tell you the difference between what 'Bama does and what USC/TCU/Ole Miss is doing.

 

[Longestday]

@Techster Ill admit that I don’t follow most of the traditional offenses. It looks likes random pass play, run the full back play, and screen if blitzing.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

Most of the people complaining about "the option" couldn't tell you the difference between what CPJ does and what other "option" coaches do.

On the other side of it, people who complain about GT "doing what everyone else does" probably couldn't tell you the difference between what 'Bama does and what USC/TCU/Ole Miss is doing.

Agreed - but I'll also add that the negative recruiting against CPJ's system was effective and became a legitimate problem. I love CPJ's system, but I also see the limitations.

I don't think Chadwell would have the same problems simply because his system looks more modern.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

I'll also add that CPJ's system was one of the most nuanced offenses I've ever seen, and I'm not sure that we really saw it all. He is truly an offensive genius and too many tech fans don't see it.

 

[g0lftime]

if key fell into this same situation but at another bad ACC team like VT or UVA. 3 bad seasons and then took over as interim with pretty unconvincing wins over boston college, duke and pittsburgh would anyone in here be saying anything about key?

it is slightly different as key is proving he can win with the guys that will be here next year, but i’m not sure on paper that’s some spectacular accomplishment to beat those teams

i think the correct decision is to let someone else experiment with key and if it’s a success we bring him back and admit we made a mistake.

Big question is whether Sims will be here next year.

 

[ibeattetris]

Agreed - but I'll also add that the negative recruiting against CPJ's system was effective and became a legitimate problem. I love CPJ's system, but I also see the limitations.

Or, were we able to be successfully negatively recruited because our AD was withholding recruiting resources? There were so many factors at play: academics, offensive scheme, terrible AD, monetary arms race. Trying to claim that just our offense was causing recruiting issues seems to be a bit reductive. We got caught up in a storm and our AD “Sasquatch” was no where to be found. I truly think any coach would have struggled from 2015 onward at GT given the AD.

 

[Techster]

@Techster Ill admit that I don’t follow most of the traditional offenses. It looks likes random pass play, run the full back play, and screen if blitzing.

You're an X's and O's nerd, so you will love what schools like USC/TCU/Ole Miss are doing. When CPJ came in, the thing that intrigued me about his offense was that it married two seeming polar opposite offensive philosophies: the Run and Shoot and Veer/Wishbone. There were several posters on here generous enough to break down our passing offense, and I've been hooked on passing offenses since then. I played in the Wing-T in HS, so option offenses were familiar to me.

Anyhow, I've always said that if someone could marry CPJ's offense with the Air Raid, they would rule the football world. Coaches like the Riley brothers and Kiffin are beginning to scratch the surface of that. Watch out for Chip Kelly back at UCLA. He's returning to his mad scientist roots that made him popular at Oregon, but he's incorporating modern passing concepts. Offensively, those guys are at the top of the college world with their offenses.

I'm a Chadwell guy, and I LOVE what he's doing marrying his option game with modern passing concepts. I've often referred to him as the modern day Paul Johnson. I think GT needs to run some form of option to be successful. The option doesn't necessarily need to be the focal point for GT, but it does need to be part of our offense to some degree, along with Dual threat QBs. Similar to what Friedgen did during the Ross/O'Leary years. It just makes us so hard to defend and levels the playing field for us.

We'll see where Batt goes with our HFC hire, but hopefully the next coach brings a system that does utilize some form of option.

 

[Vespidae]

Has more to do with removing the incompetence of Collins from the equation, rather than Key doing something great.

Lopping off your C game instantly elevates the quality of your A and B game.

 

[Gt2019]

I’ll say this, this is not Brent Key’s offensive line. He did not want this group of guys on the line.

 

[Techster]

I'll also add that CPJ's system was one of the most nuanced offenses I've ever seen, and I'm not sure that we really saw it all. He is truly an offensive genius and too many tech fans don't see it.

I've always wished CPJ emphasized the Run and Shoot portion of his offense first, and ran his base flex option running plays to complement the passing. Similar to what he did at Hawaii. We got a glimpse of with Vad Lee against UGA in 2013:




Man, the interior of that OL was so good. That was the building block of our 2014 campaign.

 

[Deleted member 6494]

Tech has spent a lot of time and energy (and raising money) on the premise that GT can provide a pathway to the NFL for those SA's who want to pursue that and a degree for those who don't.

CPJ, and certainly Gus Malzahn, were highly criticized for their inability to provide an effective pathway, which in turn, affected recruiting and ... along with the lack of development, depleted the roster.

Tech is going to need someone, anyone, with NFL chops who can breathe life back into that vision. Do I think it's Bill O'Brien? He might make sense, but he's also being tossed around as a potential candidate at several other schools. If it's Auburn, we're talking about $6-8 million a year, so Tech would have to compete with that. I don't see it.

I've opined this before, but the after action review on Harsin was that while successful at his previous stint, he was completely out of his depth in the SEC. I think that lesson will influence the decision makers that ... we need someone with experience, not a hope.

Personally, I don't think Auburn will get O'Brien, I think they will get Hugh Freeze.

 

[ibeattetris]

I've always wished CPJ emphasized the Run and Shoot portion of his offense first, and ran his base flex option running plays to complement the passing. Similar to what he did at Hawaii. We got a glimpse of with Vad Lee against UGA in 2013:




Man, the interior of that OL was so good. That was the building block of our 2014 campaign.

It seemed like he adapted to the QB. We’ll never know what the O would look like if Jaylend Ratliffe didn’t have the ATV accident. We looked different under Nesbitt than we did with Tevin. We looked different with Vad than we did with JT. I think it’s fair to say we’d have looked different. With Ratliffe than with Marshall. Late years CPJ, the defenses begged us to beat them through the air and we didn’t have the qb to truly make that work.

 

[jgtengineer]

i think it would be a hard sell for a new AD to hire a guy that played a part in us getting to this situation

Not if he pulls an u thinkable upset of uga