HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

[EE95_curse EMAG!]

I am not on the Coach Key bandwagon. Having any notion that he should be strongly considered after just two games, coming after a bad HC was canned, is just bad business. Right now, players and coaches got a temporary emotional boost, not by having Key as interim, but by having Collins off campus. Once the boost wears off, it could be regression to what we've seen the past few years. Consider Key, interview him, but give him NO preference over outside candidates. Get the best combination of X/O guy, leader that can hire solid OC/DC, recruiter, NIL navigator and maybe as important, wise user of the transfer portal. I seriously doubt Key would be in the top half of any final list after interviews and due diligence. If he gets the job, I'll hope he's not a knee-jerk disaster and turns out to be tough-nosed, no-nonsense head coach that can do some of the listed criteria to an above average level.

 

[kg01]

Quite possible, but it would be a shame if the new AD let that color his thinking. His job is to do what's best for Georgia Tech athletics.

Same goes for the consulting firm.

Fair. The new AD also can't be as emotional and 'in the moment' as we generally are as fans.

 

[EE95_curse EMAG!]

Having an AD that doesn't have the current mindset of the fan base will probably be a good thing.

Absolutely. An AD that thinks GT can be a top 20 recruiting program and a top 20 football team with the occasional playoff and national title contender. We have too many fans still harping about tough academics and other non-sense. We have some hurdles, like poor fan support (HS kids take notice of empty seats, who will see them become the star they dream of being?) We have lots of good things too, like GA HS football talent, big city population, NIL companies all around campus waiting to strike deals, quality degree (matters to a few kids deciding schools).

An AD that starts off stating limitations should immediately be fired (should not be hired of course, but GT leaders do dumb things). The sky is and should be the limit...not simply making a far-flung toilet bowl on blue turf. I found nothing more embarrassing than GT's streak of making bowls, considering 66% of them were jokes.

 

[CEB]

Fair. The new AD also can't be as emotional and 'in the moment' as we generally are as fans.

Am not! You’re emotional...

 

[lv20gt]

I think this is accurate, keeping key isn’t a black mark against new AD if Key fails.

Lets say we do enough to keep Key. Then he goes on to win 3 games a year like we have the past 3. The new AD absolutely would take heat for just hiring from within a staff that was that bad just to have the new hire continue to do that bad. It doesn't matter what fans think now.

 

[roadkill]

Geez, we'd be 8-4 and going to Charlotte if that happened. A bad UGA loss has been expected by the fan base since before the season even started.

Oops didn't mean for my attempt at humor (poking fun at fickle fans) to be taken seriously.

 

[yeti92]

I found nothing more embarrassing than GT's streak of making bowls, considering 66% of them were jokes.

Really? Not one thing you can think of that's been more embarassing than going to bowl games every year?

 

[JacketOff]

Lets say we do enough to keep Key. Then he goes on to win 3 games a year like we have the past 3. The new AD absolutely would take heat for just hiring from within a staff that was that bad just to have the new hire continue to do that bad. It doesn't matter what fans think now.

And if we hire somebody new who wins 3 games after Key just won 5 or 6 out of 8 games it’s going to be an even worse stain on the new AD.

 

[roadkill]

I'm sure, but all I'm saying is that he shouldn't write off a potential hire just because he's not precisely his guy.
And if we hire Key, what's the consulting firm for? That would be money down the toilet. It's money down the toilet, anyway.

At this point in time, we don't know if we are going to hire Key, but we do know that we need to hire an AD. That's what the Consulting firm is for.

 

[85Escape]

Really? Not one thing you can think of that's been more embarassing than going to bowl games every year?

Yeah, I'm with you. I guess that makes me a loser. I'd love to get back to going to dozens of bowl games in a row, even if 66% of them are the Twinkies bowl. The Players love it, Fans love to go and it sure beats years of wandering in the desert following a false prophet being told to be happy that we don't have to go to Memphis again this year. <shrug>

 

[GTLorenzo]

I would take that one step further. If we hire Key, what was even the point of firing TStan?

1. Made the worst coaching hire in GT football history and perhaps college football in the past 20-30 years (?) with no outside help
2. Gave worst hire in GT football history a 7 year contract
3. Gave worst hire in GT football history a one sided buyout. His side, not ours.
4. Set up buyout date that was more beneficial to the coach than it was to GT.
5. Stood by said coach after winning 9 games in three years.
6. All of this to a coach who had no demand for her services from other schools so he was basically bidding against himself.
7. Didn't pay buyout to OSU and had to get a loan from GT to pay it off after being paid a higher salary to pay for said buyout when hired.

Again, hate that he was fired. Wish that maybe he could have been transitioned to another position at GT. Had to be done.

 

[rfjeff9]

I am not on the Coach Key bandwagon. Having any notion that he should be strongly considered after just two games, coming after a bad HC was canned, is just bad business. Right now, players and coaches got a temporary emotional boost, not by having Key as interim, but by having Collins off campus. Once the boost wears off, it could be regression to what we've seen the past few years. Consider Key, interview him, but give him NO preference over outside candidates. Get the best combination of X/O guy, leader that can hire solid OC/DC, recruiter, NIL navigator and maybe as important, wise user of the transfer portal. I seriously doubt Key would be in the top half of any final list after interviews and due diligence. If he gets the job, I'll hope he's not a knee-jerk disaster and turns out to be tough-nosed, no-nonsense head coach that can do some of the listed criteria to an above average level.

I think considering Key and interviewing him is not necessarily exclusive to “strong consideration” IF he proceeds to win. I agree with what you are saying, and I do not think we should just hand him the keys (pun not intended) because he wins 3 more, because I really think there is a lot to do with Collins not being here as part of the success. But I also think considering our situation and the price it might be to bring in someone else that merely sees us as a stepping stone is reason enough to give Key at least a fair shake. I do not see it as “Key Bandwagon” rather than “Key positive”. Otherwise I agree. Best hire is what we re after, I am just not excluding Key out of hand merely because he isn’t Chadwell.

 

[rfjeff9]

Yeah, I'm with you. I guess that makes me a loser. I'd love to get back to going to dozens of bowl games in a row, even if 66% of them are the Twinkies bowl. The Players love it, Fans love to go and it sure beats years of wandering in the desert following a false prophet being told to be happy that we don't have to go to Memphis again this year. <shrug>

I’d be tickled pink to go to Memphis, Shreveport, or New Orleans every bowl game since they are all 2-3 hours drive from Jackson. Would purchase Tix!!!

And by New Orleans, I mean, of course, Sugar Bowl.

 

[kittysniper101]

1. Made the worst coaching hire in GT football history and perhaps college football in the past 20-30 years (?) with no outside help
2. Gave worst hire in GT football history a 7 year contract
3. Gave worst hire in GT football history a one sided buyout. His side, not ours.
4. Set up buyout date that was more beneficial to the coach than it was to GT.
5. Stood by said coach after winning 9 games in three years.
6. All of this to a coach who had no demand for her services from other schools so he was basically bidding against himself.
7. Didn't pay buyout to OSU and had to get a loan from GT to pay it off after being paid a higher salary to pay for said buyout when hired.

Again, hate that he was fired. Wish that maybe he could have been transitioned to another position at GT. Had to be done.

If Stansbury wasn't fired because we would still have Collins as our coach and the team wouldn't have improved enough to consider keeping any part of this staff intact. The very fact the president had to go above the AD's head to fire the coach meant the AD had to be removed too because he couldn't be trusted with the guidance of the football program.

 

[forensicbuzz]

You guys have legit points, but these would be quibbles if the change had not been made. Key has cleaned up a lot of stuff, but it's far from perfection at this point. I think the fanbase is willing to give Key some time.

I agree. There are tons of things to clean up. If at the end of the season we're seeing some of the same things that we're talking about needing to be cleaned up, that will inform my opinion about how effective CBK was. Right now, the Coastal is a little bit of a dumpster fire. If Duke falls flat, UVa and VT continue to suck, Miami falls apart, and UNC never starts to click on defense, I'm not sure what that says about us other than we were able to manage our way through a weak conference.

 

[GTLorenzo]

If Stansbury wasn't fired because we would still have Collins as our coach and the team wouldn't have improved enough to consider keeping any part of this staff intact. The very fact the president had to go above the AD's head to fire the coach meant the AD had to be removed too because he couldn't be trusted with the guidance of the football program.

Agreed. The "I've got my guy" statement killed his career.

 

[bobongo]

At this point in time, we don't know if we are going to hire Key, but we do know that we need to hire an AD. That's what the Consulting firm is for.

Oh. Well, that makes sense.

 

[bobongo]

Fair. The new AD also can't be as emotional and 'in the moment' as we generally are as fans.

For sure. And I'll support whomever he hires...until his first loss...

 

[bobongo]

I would take that one step further. If we hire Key, what was even the point of firing TStan?

Punishment!

I jest, but I guess really it was mostly the fear he'd hire another Geoff Collins.

 

[bobongo]

But the reason why it's actually not the most important thing is because, if you dont 'finish', those games end in more L's than W's.

It most certainly is the most important thing. Last time I checked, winning is the object of the game. You have to look at the coaching of these games in their totality instead of focusing on one facet. How did we get those big leads in the first place? I mean, if Geoff Collins' only fault was game management in the 4th quarter, he'd still be here today. Also, that's easily correctable for a new HC willing to learn. We'll see what happens going forward. There's a lot of football left. I hope we're still talking about Key's potential at the end of the season, because that would mean it will have been a good one.

Both wins were upsets. Fun fact: The win over Pitt represented Georgia Tech's biggest margin over the point spread in 40 years, according to one of the announcers on the TV broadcast.