HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

[UgaBlows]

I was just about to say the same thing. Key could be the next great coach, but chances are very low. Players like him? Sure, they like anyone with a heartbeat that isn't Geoff Collins.

Key just feels like a .500 level coach and I am wanting so much more than .500 records and possible bowl games against a team no one has heard of being played in Prudhoe Bay or Vladivostok (I kid on locations, but very close to it).

I think with a stud OC Key will have us in contention for the ACC and bowling every year Which will bring the fans back to Bobby Dodd. He knows what to do and how to act as a HC, he can recruit, he just has to get the right people and NIL/recruiting money to support him.

 

[stech81]

Well now I'm starting to drink again,
But Dear J Batts please pick someone fast or everyone on the swarm will be fighting each other. Just pick one or by tomorrow we will let Slugboy and Augusta_jacket
Name our new coach at noon tomorrow.

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[Techster]

True, hopefully adequate NIL funding has been secured without the OBC support. My impression is it hasn't. Of course, I might be associating with the OBC, but my clique refers to others as the OBC. There might be a couple of competing OBCs and they may all suck. J might need to do a team building retreat with a bunch of donors to bring everyone together.

My business and personal philosophy about bringing everyone together: Anything can be settled over a good meal and a strong drink.

Everyone already has a common interest, and that's their love for GT and wanting to see our programs succeed. J Batt and Cabrera also need to take a step back and try to have a meeting of the minds with some of the donors. Of course, you get a group of men who are used to getting their way (that's why they're ultra successful) and egos take control.

 

[Vespid]

IF he is successful. A five year record of 7-5 isn't going to move him up very much. Look at TFG. He will probably never coach again. Harsin won't. At least not anything decent.

CPJ was offered the job at Auburn and expressed interest in Tennessee. Both of those programs would have consumed him.

I think we think Tech is an attractive job. It isn't.

Yeah, there's 4 million annual salary jobs with a multi-million dollar windfall payout if you fail opportunities available everywhere, just hanging from trees. WTF are you talking about?

 

[Dustman]

Has Brad Stewart been interviewed yet? That should push this thread over the 1,000 page mark.

 

[Randy Carson]

Apparently, you are not questioning the seven. I'll take that.

 

[slugboy]

Yes, Western Carolina brings the average way down, because it is so low and it is one of four. Even with that game, the averages are pretty close. As a statistician, it is an outlier for all games and especially the first four. That is problem with just using averages.

View attachment 13649

1. I don't understand the Sagarin love in football here. Yes, 25 years ago, it was the best thing out there. Now, we have multiple better options. It's simple, though.
2. If you're into the stats, it looks like we got better when Key took over. We also look better on the eye test, even if you include games like Miami and UVA. Even if Key still loses to Clemson, Ole Miss, and UCF, it's a fair and reasonable argument that the games are a lot closer with him than with Collins.
3. We underperformed in our first four games--even Western Carolina. It's not just that we lost--we were a lot less competitive than we should have been. Also, WCU was a "get healthy" or "breather" game that should have left us in good shape to win against UCF.
4. FEI usually gives a game-by-game rating during the offseason. I think we'll see a bump after Key takes over when those stats are out.
5. There's still the question of whether Key would have done better than one of the other coaches we're looking at. There's a rally-around-the flag effect with an IHC, so he had that going for him. But he was short one position coach when he took over, and then a second when we cut loose our RB coach. Filling two positions mid-season is less than ideal. In several ways, he had more constraints than a normal head coach. I give him credit for a good job in season. Most interim coaches don't do as well as he did.
6. That doesn't excuse the UVA and Miami and FSU losses though. We looked bad in those games (at least on offense and our punting unit). UVA, we weren't ready. Both games were similar in that we counted on an injured starting QB that maybe shouldn't have started that game.

 

[LongforDodd]

And yet you want to hire Brent Key off a 4-4 record. Hmm....

Considering the turmoil that started pretty much 4 years ago and which culminated in September and the fact that we had to finish the year on a relatively positive note with our 3rd and 4th QB's, isn't that somewhat impressive for Key to have taken on the task of HC and get these results?

 

[Vespidae]

Yeah, there's 4 million annual salary jobs with a multi-million dollar windfall payout if you fail opportunities available everywhere, just hanging from trees. WTF are you talking about?

He has $3M a year now and a very easy life.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

What fonts think Key would have done with a full year or a healthy Sims/Pyron are not actual data points. We can only base it on what he has done. He beat two teams that he was not expected to beat (Pitt and UNC). He lost to two teams (UVA and Miami) he should have beat. He barely beat an average Duke team and a really bad VPISU team. I gave him a grade of C to C+ prior to the Ugag game and I will stick that.

I will support him unconditionally if he is our next coach. I will not stop supporting Tech or be ready to run ADJB out of town if he is hired unlike some of the children throwing fits.

Having said that, I firmly believe there are better head coaches available who would have less of a learning curve than Key and have experience rebuilding a program similar to what Key or whoever the next coach is will have to do. Just one idiot's opinion.

 

[g0lftime]

Considering the turmoil that started pretty much 4 years ago and which culminated in September and the fact that we had to finish the year on a relatively positive not with our 3rd and 4th QB's, isn't that somewhat impressive for Key to have taken on the task of HC and get these results?

It also tells me we have athletes that can compete in our conference. Maybe a notch below the SEC but competitive with competent coaching.

 

[kg01]

Has Brad Stewart been interviewed yet? That should push this thread over the 1,000 page mark.

Float Demetris Robinson as a staff hire and we might hit a billion pages.

 

[Techwood Relict]

What I find amazing is that after a national search using Parker Executive Search, we ended up with the same three candidates virtually this entire board identified back in September. That's NOT a good sign.

Or it could indicate the board members here have a good pulse on things.

 

[kg01]

What fonts think Key would have done with a full year or a healthy Sims/Pyron are not actual data points. We can only base it on what he has done. He beat two teams that he was not expected to beat (Pitt and UNC). He lost to two teams (UVA and Miami) he should have beat. He barely beat an average Duke team and a really bad VPISU team. I gave him a grade of C to C+ prior to the Ugag game and I will stick that.

I will support him unconditionally if he is our next coach. I will not stop supporting Tech or be ready to run ADJB out of town if he is hired unlike some of the children throwing fits.

Having said that, I firmly believe there are better head coaches available who would have less of a learning curve than Key and have experience rebuilding a program similar to what Key or whoever the next coach is will have to do. Just one idiot's opinion.

I concur with all of this. Strange. Are you me?

#kgBurnerAccountAlert

 

[BCJacket]

Ken Sugiura, unlike Quinlan and McKenzie, doesn't run rumors as news. He doesn't report something unless he believes his source is solid. He rarely gets 'the scoop' for that reason. But his writeups are often the best because people trust his integrity and he gets the interviews (like he did with CPJ).

Which leads me to believe that the Fritz news was leaked to him by someone close to Batt (or Batt himself). I believe Batt thought it was a done deal with Fritz and the necessary people (legal, financial, BoT) were told to start preparing - one of them leaked the news. Deal fell through for some reason.

Which, my understanding, a similar process unfolded with Chadwell. Batt does not want Key. Donors are up in arms. After two months of a search, it appears we're flailing.

I personally believe it was a mistake to hire someone who'd never been an AD, and never hired anyone, to step into our AD job. MBob and TStan had both been ADs at two other schools before coming here and still struggled. The GTAA is in worse shape than either of them inherited. Batt might be the right guy for what Cabrera wants the GTAA to be. But not for what it is today.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

This is a lot of speculation by a lot of folks that who have no idea where things stand or what is actually happening. At the end of the day that is what message boards do and I guess that is their primary function in life. GT hired Batt to lead the process and finalize the selection of a new head football coach, in addition to his other duties as our Athletic Director. I feel certain he is doing that in a manner he feels will lead to a good and hopefully great head football coach selection. It really does not matter what we think or how upset we will be if our man does not get the job. It is his job to make the pick and we will just have to live with it and hope he picks a man that can help restore our program to some semblance of respectability and success. So while it is entertaining to give your opinion, in the end, it really does not matter.

Go Jackets!

 

[leatherneckjacket]

1. I don't understand the Sagarin love in football here. Yes, 25 years ago, it was the best thing out there. Now, we have multiple better options. It's simple, though.
2. If you're into the stats, it looks like we got better when Key took over. We also look better on the eye test, even if you include games like Miami and UVA. Even if Key still loses to Clemson, Ole Miss, and UCF, it's a fair and reasonable argument that the games are a lot closer with him than with Collins.
3. We underperformed in our first four games--even Western Carolina. It's not just that we lost--we were a lot less competitive than we should have been. Also, WCU was a "get healthy" or "breather" game that should have left us in good shape to win against UCF.
4. FEI usually gives a game-by-game rating during the offseason. I think we'll see a bump after Key takes over when those stats are out.
5. There's still the question of whether Key would have done better than one of the other coaches we're looking at. There's a rally-around-the flag effect with an IHC, so he had that going for him. But he was short one position coach when he took over, and then a second when we cut loose our RB coach. Filling two positions mid-season is less than ideal. In several ways, he had more constraints than a normal head coach. I give him credit for a good job in season. Most interim coaches don't do as well as he did.
6. That doesn't excuse the UVA and Miami and FSU losses though. We looked bad in those games (at least on offense and our punting unit). UVA, we weren't ready. Both games were similar in that we counted on an injured starting QB that maybe shouldn't have started that game.

I completely agree with everything you said.

Sagarin is overrated.

Key is better than Collins.

We were hurt by injuries and coaches leaving.

It is unknown whether Key did better than one of the coaching candidates.

Go Jackets!

 

[FolkHall]

And yet you want to hire Brent Key off a 4-4 record. Hmm....

Key and Fritz aren't playing with the same deck of cards here....

 

[leatherneckjacket]

I concur with all of this. Strange. Are you me?

#kgBurnerAccountAlert

Not sure. I thought I was my own evil twin, but maybe....

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Or it could indicate the board members here have a good pulse on things.

Or that the media rumors are based on the wild speculation of the internet boards but may not have any relevancy to reality.