It looks like we’ve left the conversation about potential HC candidates several pages back. Here are a few things we know and some things I suppose:
- Cabrera appointed an interim AD from his staff, Frank Neville, his chief of staff. From his bio, most people would say that Neville knows sports, was an athlete, and has been on the Board of Trustees, so he's aware of the state of the Athletic Association. I read this as Cabrera deciding that the AA is broken and appointing someone from outside the AA that he trusts and who knows sports and has a management background. https://ramblinwreck.com/georgia-tech-announces-leadership-changes-in-athletics/
- We are four games into the season. Cabrera and the board may have acted early so that there is time to start solving problems at the AA and still have time to hire a good new HC.
- GT hired a search firm that had success at Tennessee recently.
- There is buzz that GT was already looking at AD candidates before this weekend
We're only one day into the process. There's a possibility that we're really fixing things, and we're going to pursue a methodical process to find the right AD and then find the right HC. It'll take more than one day to tell.
Last year, Cabrera publicly wondered what the school could do to address the debt at the AA. He was also there in person, with donors, to see our last two games (definitely UGA). He has had half a year to watch the course of the AA and decide that things were not getting better.
Let's watch and see. The administration may focus first on finding the right long-term AD to get it on a sustainable path towards growth, where the administration doesn't get embarrassed at games. If that takes a long time, Neville and whatever HD search committee is put together might hire a head coach before an AD is hired, but I'm sure the plan is to get the
right AD in as quickly as possible.
Looking at what has gone wrong over the past 20 years, you need good fundraising at the AA, you need big donor expectations managed, you need to effectively evaluate and hire coaches and staff that fit your mission and direction (i.e. find the coach that meets the needs you've identified rather than who ex-coaches and boosters think is the hot pick), and you have to maintain flexibility since the college sports landscape is shifting rapidly. That's an organizational transformation, and you're looking for the AD to lead that transformation.
That's my long-winded way of saying I don't think we'll have a coaching selection next week.