HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

85Escape

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Agreed. Key or any name being mentioned are all question marks.
Based on what I've seen, almost everyone is a question mark when it comes to a college HC job. Even past success is not a predictor of future success, as the situation is different, the competition is different and the game is different. And now with NIL and the portal, it's even more different.

I think you get someone who fits where you want to take the program that checks all the boxes you can check (affordability, program fit, x&o, recruiting, development, leadership, etc...) Then you hope it was the right choice. Oh, and you don't tie your hands with a seven year contract and a huge buyout unless their bonafides are phenomenal...
 

leatherneckjacket

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I was in Todd's suite earlier this year. While Todd was playing it cool that day, it was clear that both he and his wife knew that his job was in jeopardy and tied directly to Collins' fate. It is shame as they are nice folks who genuinely care for Tech.

In my uneducated opinion, I think there were quite a few major boosters who wanted to fire Collins last year. I believe they may have even promised the money for the buyout. However, when Todd asked to give Collins one more year, they agreed but only if Collins made wholesale changes to the staff. When Thacker was kept on staff, I think they collectively lost their minds. When Todd did not force Collins to fire Thacker, the article in the AJC was the shot across the bow telling Todd his fate was now directly tied to Collins.

No proof of this. Just one idiot's opinion.
 

Yoda

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We are going to be rebuilding in the near future regardless of who we hire. Sims will be gone as well as our starting LB’s and starting RB’s. We have a chance to take a deep breath and make the right decision to unite the fanbase (if its still possible) and turn the GTAA into a properly working entity. If Key keeps showing he gets it and we let him walk and the next coach struggles we will be more of a dumpster fire than we have been as we turn on each other. I’m not sold on any names we’ve heard. I like Chadwell but I also know there are “Chadwells” very year - hot guys at lower levels. Plus, he’s ridden a special QB for 3 years. And Coastal can recruit anyone who made it thru kindergarten. GT won’t do that. I’ll be interested to see how Chadwell does without McCall wherever he ends up.
He's won everywhere he's coached.
 

GTLorenzo

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Thing is, he may have felt that if Collins tanked there'd be no way to save himself, so what the heck I may as well go full bore (pardon the pun :=).
And he may have been right. We'll never know.

If I were Stansbury, I would have torn up the memorandum of understanding for the contract after his introductory press conference. Then just pretended it all never happened and gone out and found a different coach. Just me, though……😐😏
 

billga99

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You're right - I thought that was worth a challenge. I wonder if there's a guy in the booth who makes these recommendations.
If not, there should be. I'm sure he could see it a lot better than the coach from the sideline.
The thing working against this is Duke had a running clock since they had no timeouts. Yes the clock stops on a first down to reset the chains but that only takes a few seconds. If you challenge, the clock stops and Duke would be prepared to snap the ball the instant it is placed down. Also gives them time to talk to their coaches while the challenge is reviewed. So a challenge in this instance almost becomes a pseudo timeout.
 

GTLorenzo

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I was in Todd's suite earlier this year. While Todd was playing it cool that day, it was clear that both he and his wife knew that his job was in jeopardy and tied directly to Collins' fate. It is shame as they are nice folks who genuinely care for Tech.

In my uneducated opinion, I think there were quite a few major boosters who wanted to fire Collins last year. I believe they may have even promised the money for the buyout. However, when Todd asked to give Collins one more year, they agreed but only if Collins made wholesale changes to the staff. When Thacker was kept on staff, I think they collectively lost their minds. When Todd did not force Collins to fire Thacker, the article in the AJC was the shot across the bow telling Todd his fate was now directly tied to Collins.

No proof of this. Just one idiot's opinion.

It sucks. Todd is a Tech guy and I’m sure he wanted to be here for the next 10 years. One bad high profile decision, hiring Collins and then backing him last year, led to his firing. Really unfortunate and I feel for him, but just bad decisions in the end. And as they say, money talks and…… 💩 🤷🏽‍♂️
 

billga99

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It sucks. Todd is a Tech guy and I’m sure he wanted to be here for the next 10 years. One bad high profile decision, hiring Collins and then backing him last year, led to his firing. Really unfortunate and I feel for him, but just bad decisions in the end. And as they say, money talks and…… 💩 🤷🏽‍♂️
Obviously the football coaching decision(s) has no defense. But Todd did a lot of other things right. The majority of our sports were performing well. He got over subscribed in his fund raising efforts including the Edge Center. But at the end, College Football reigns in the South and failure on that point is what did him in.
 

bobongo

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The thing working against this is Duke had a running clock since they had no timeouts. Yes the clock stops on a first down to reset the chains but that only takes a few seconds. If you challenge, the clock stops and Duke would be prepared to snap the ball the instant it is placed down. Also gives them time to talk to their coaches while the challenge is reviewed. So a challenge in this instance almost becomes a pseudo timeout.
I didn't think he got the first down, but thanks for pointing out the downside of throwing the challenge flag. Hadn't thought of that.
 

JacketFan137

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Agreed. Key or any name being mentioned are all question marks. Remember when Hugh Freeze was a big name a year ago for what he is doing at Liberty. I’m glad I am not making any of these decisions because the odds are it won’t end well. From the way Key has turned us into believers and the students love him so if he doesn’t get the job the next guy is already set up to fail in my opinion. We’ll see how it plays out but I’m not very optimistic based on the admins track record. I know Cabrera is saying things we all want to hear but he’ll have to prove to me that it’s more than lip service. We’ve all been burned time and time again by GT so I’m not buying any words. Let’s see action.
yeah hard not to root for key right now as he’s the one actually here doing stuff and ultimately his success now makes us the happiest in the long run. the harder key makes the decision the better all of us will be in.

i think chadwell and deion are likely better hires but key is making me wonder what he could do with a full offseason.

and i agree with actions being more important than words. the same guys who have proudly declared on here they sniffed out collins as a fraud from day 1 are now just buying more sales talk from cabrera and those guys. it’s very easy for them to act like things are gonna change and get better. when it’s time to cut the check and make decisions we will see how true those words are
 

BuzzStone

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You're right - I thought that was worth a challenge. I wonder if there's a guy in the booth who makes these recommendations.
If not, there should be. I'm sure he could see it a lot better than the coach from the sideline.
We will have a new guy upstairs now and maybe he will make these calls.
 

CEB

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Lots of back and forth about what we need to emphasize in our search for a coach and how Key (or any number of candidates) meet certain criteria.

In my mind, the staff collectively has four major areas of focus:
  1. Game Plan: some may downplay this or say it is part of 2 below, but since we only score points and get wins and losses on game day, I think this is a primary point of emphasis. How are we going to Maximize our guys and our strengths against theirs? Game management is a part .... How do we counter and adjust? This is all fundamental to competitive sports, and the culmination of everything else below...
  2. Preparation: how you go about your business, DAILY. This is intensity, focus, efficiency, pride in what you do, and attention to detail. The best game plan in the world is garbage without preparation. How you prepare is how you play, plain and simple.
  3. Development: this is always a focus. You always have to be improving. Fundamentals, agility, strength, stamina, knowledge and repetition. The better your development, the better your preparation and game planning becomes.
  4. Recruiting: their is little substitute for size, speed and ability. Aside from size, you can improve everything with your development program, but when you start with better recruits, you can develop them faster and to a higher ceiling.

Putting these in perspective in terms of a game, a season, multiple seasons, or in the context of building a perennially successful program:

Game week - importance is exactly the order listed above. The emphasis has to be on game plan. You are what you are at this point and now you have to deploy it. Game plan is 1A and how you prepare will largely determine if your plan is successful. Your development and recruiting are a distant memory at this point.

Season - in the context of a season, preparation is first and foremost. Development is next. Every bit of improvement opens up more possibility for your future game plan, but the game plan changes weekly. In the context of a season, your approach to preparation, followed by development / improvement will be the biggest factors in determining whether you are successful more often than not.

Multiple Seasons - I’m thinking this is the 3-5 year timeframe. To be successful at this point, the development aspect of your program is most important. The guys you have between years 3-5 ought to be better suited to what you want to accomplish than anyone else available. If you haven’t developed them, you’re living and dying by game plan / prep. This is the point where you will become a consistent winner or a flash in the pan. After development, preparation is next, with recruiting a close third. Game planning is fluid and becomes largely irrelevant to overall success in this timeframe.

Perennial Success - you’ve won, you’ve developed, you have a system. The biggest mover at this stage, (assuming you don’t forsake what got you here) is starting out with better recruits. This is where a lot of craziness ensues with fans because “better recruits” is all relative. Who are the best guys for what YOU do? Who are the best candidates to develop into what YOU need? Regardless of how you quantify it, better recruits make the biggest impact here. That’s followed by development and preparation... and I call preparation “2B” because I think the way you go about things on a daily basis is ALWAYS a top priority, and Game plan is a distant 4th.

our current staff is living on game plan and preparation right now. With a sample size of two, they look to be doing it pretty successfully. It’s too soon to know how this all translates to “development,” but since their is continuity in terms of personnel, it seems that development is trending well... and it likely was all along even though it didn’t translate to the field because of planning and preparation issues. All of this bodes well for Key and the current staff. We have to see if it continues this season (or beyond), but It’s indisputable that our game plan and preparation have vastly improved. If we relax, our preparation will suffer and we’ll see the results of that quickly, I suspect.

Looking at recent pervious staffs / coaches;
Collins- he failed somewhere between game day and preparation... maybe both. I think there are some signs that development was happening behind the scenes but the fruits of it never made it to game day. He had some recruiting successes, but game day and prep undermined that too.
Johnson - he probably checked three of the four boxes and did a nice job of developing players to his system (which is really all that matters), but he leaned so heavy on development, prep and game day that we left some success on the table due to recruiting.
Gailey- hard call here. I think he was good game day, average prep, avg development and good recruiting. His recruiting showed through better than Collins just because he was good on game day and didn’t shoot himself in the foot anywhere else. I’m not sure we prepped and developed as hard as we should in college (more NFL mentality / approach).

All of that said, I believe the head coach is able to influence game planning and preparation (especially preparation) far more than anyone else. I also believe those aspects are fundamental to successfully recruiting and developing players long term. I think the staff can be far more instrumental in affecting development and recruiting if the head coach is capable on game day and unwavering in preparation / approach. For those reasons, I’m looking for a head coach who has plenty of game day experience and a rigorous approach to preparation. I’m less interested with who he developed or who he recruited... his position coaches and coordinators were probably responsible for that anyway.

We have several pages throwing out names, and I’m not doing that. I don’t know who this guy is, but he’s the one I want.
 

g0lftime

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I have wondered how the game plan is determined and coordinated for the next game among the coaches. I would assume the HC has the basic strategy presented to him on Sunday or Monday for the following Saturday. Something sure changed when Key took over.
 

85Escape

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I have wondered how the game plan is determined and coordinated for the next game among the coaches. I would assume the HC has the basic strategy presented to him on Sunday or Monday for the following Saturday. Something sure changed when Key took over.
I've always imagined it was similar to the way the military does planning. This is pure speculation, but it's fun to think about how I'd do it....

There is a discussion about the overall strategy we should consider, generally developed two weeks in advance by the analysts. Then each Coordinator goes off with his AC's to pull together a plan for his part in the strategy (general themes like 'inside runs with short outside passes), always being open to present opportunities that don't fit the strategy but are interesting.

After they pull together a high-level plan for each phase of the game, they get together to review and tweak as a full team. Once that is agreed upon, the team's break up to create a detailed plan to accomplish (plays, matchups, etc.)

But that might not be it at all...so hopefully someone who has been there can correct me! :)
 

alagold

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Obviously the football coaching decision(s) has no defense. But Todd did a lot of other things right. The majority of our sports were performing well. He got over subscribed in his fund raising efforts including the Edge Center. But at the end, College Football reigns in the South and failure on that point is what did him in.
Its not just football but basketball is about to fumble through another season showing the ACC is beyond JP. His one ncaa apperance in 6 yrs is not success. So THE 2 major sports are "not right" bigtime.
 

Techwood Relict

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from an ESPN article about the Panthers, "Wilks didn't waste any time making changes to Rhule's practice routine, turning Wednesday into a padded workout instead of Thursday with the hope of creating tempo for a team that has started slowly in each game during a 1-4 start."

Walker (QB PJ) called the energy "elite.''

I just couldn't help it....:sick:
 
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