HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

[roadkill]

Punishment!

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

To expand on that, once you can no longer trust a senior leader's decision-making skills, you can't continue to allow him to make critical decisions.

 

[slugboy]

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

If he’d said “I’m not ready to fire him YET”, then it would have been time to fire him. He had to give some sort of verbal “vote of confidence”.

I guess ADs should have a book of “vote of confidence code phrases” ranging from “yeah, we really want to keep the coach” down to “I’ll fire him in two hours, but I need to tide the press over until then”.

 

[GTLorenzo]

If he’d said “I’m not ready to fire him YET”, then it would have been time to fire him. He had to give some sort of verbal “vote of confidence”.

I guess ADs should have a book of “vote of confidence code phrases” ranging from “yeah, we really want to keep the coach” down to “I’ll fire him in two hours, but I need to tide the press over until then”.

“We will continue to evaluate the football program. No one is happy with the results the past three seasons. Coach Collins and I will work toward finding areas where we can help improve the program going into the 2022 season.” - Reasonable

“I’ve got my guy (who wins three games a year and has made himself and the program a joke and the fan base wants him fired)” - I may have just ended my career.

If he wasn’t smart enough to handle that question, he shouldn’t have been our AD to begin with.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

“We will continue to evaluate the football program. No one is happy with the results the past three seasons. Coach Collins and I will work toward finding areas where we can help improve the program going into the 2022 season.” - Reasonable

“I’ve got my guy (who wins three games a year and has made himself and the program a joke and the fan base wants him fired)” - I may have just ended my career.

If he wasn’t smart enough to handle that question, he shouldn’t have been our AD to begin with.

Well played Sir, well played.

 

[Vespidae]

I guess ADs should have a book of “vote of confidence code phrases” ranging from “yeah, we really want to keep the coach” down to “I’ll fire him in two hours, but I need to tide the press over until then”.

This is one thing I learned once making it to senior management, that is ... have a set of go-to phrases to use under various scenarios. You not only sound more credible, it reduces a lot of stress having to fumble for words.

Still, the most important thing is not WHAT to say, but rather, what you are going to DO about it.

Nobody wants to hear "We will evaluate the program." You are expected to do that. I'd much rather hear, "Our results are below our expectations. To address that, we are hiring new, more experienced coaches, we are scaling back all branding and non-competitive activities, and we will hold an after action review with the entire coaching staff following every game. In addition, I have organized a council of former GT coaches, including coaches Curry, Ross, O'Leary and CPJ as senior contributors and will hold monthly discussion sessions with them for additional perspective."

That's a far sight better than "I've got my man!"

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

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.

 

[GTLorenzo]

This is one thing I learned once making it to senior management, that is ... have a set of go-to phrases to use under various scenarios. You not only sound more credible, it reduces a lot of stress having to fumble for words.

Still, the most important thing is not WHAT to say, but rather, what you are going to DO about it.

Nobody wants to hear "We will evaluate the program." You are expected to do that. I'd much rather hear, "Our results are below our expectations. To address that, we are hiring new, more experienced coaches, we are scaling back all branding and non-competitive activities, and we will hold an after action review with the entire coaching staff following every game. In addition, I have organized a council of former GT coaches, including coaches Curry, Ross, O'Leary and CPJ as senior contributors and will hold monthly discussion sessions with them for additional perspective."

That's a far sight better than "I've got my man!"

Generally agree with your statement, but O'Leary is part of how we got Collins. I just think tying himself to Collins after 100-0 and all of the clownish behavior was incredibly stupid. Anything, (evaluate the program, result below expectations, etc.) would've been better than that. And that is why he isn't AD any more.

 

[JacketFan137]

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.

at some point though we can’t allow perfect to be the enemy of good. every coach we are linked to and can realistically get has pretty equal levels of concern. chadwell has zero things holding back recruiting but he can’t recruit and only won with one guy at a lower level of football. deion can recruit off his name and staff has a lot of experience but it’s a lower level of football as well and his talent is way better than competition. some of the names were good at one point o’brien, mullen, but ended up absolutely awful at the end of their previous tenure. guys like monken and bohannon are under qualified as well but only get a pass by some people here because of the offense they currently run.

i’ll be ok with most of the names currently circulating outside of monken and bohannon, but the more important thing will probably be how we commit to the football program as a whole with support staff and recruiting budget.

it’s also never guaranteed any hire is good. scott frost was widely regarded as a homerun hire and it was arguably worse than collins hire. so we won’t even know until a year or two what kinda hire we made

 

[GTBandit22]

If he’d said “I’m not ready to fire him YET”, then it would have been time to fire him. He had to give some sort of verbal “vote of confidence”.

I guess ADs should have a book of “vote of confidence code phrases” ranging from “yeah, we really want to keep the coach” down to “I’ll fire him in two hours, but I need to tide the press over until then”.

The reason the “vote of confidence” is a death knell is that if the question is being asked, then it is already likely time for it to happen.

 

[jgtengineer]

The reason the “vote of confidence” is a death knell is that if the question is being asked, then it is already likely time for it to happen.

Basically all he should have said was "Like everything we will evaluate what changes need to be made after a disappointing season. Obviously there will be changes we just need to determine what those need to be." And been honest.

 

[bobongo]

“We will continue to evaluate the football program. No one is happy with the results the past three seasons. Coach Collins and I will work toward finding areas where we can help improve the program going into the 2022 season.” - Reasonable

“I’ve got my guy (who wins three games a year and has made himself and the program a joke and the fan base wants him fired)” - I may have just ended my career.

If he wasn’t smart enough to handle that question, he shouldn’t have been our AD to begin with.

I don't know if it made a difference what he said.
We'll never know, but I wonder if Stansbury would still be here today had he not stood by Collins so firmly and then taken the initiative to fire Collins himself after UCF.

 

[bobongo]

One other note about a Key decision that was not made in the game Saturday:

The Duke QB got spotted for a first down when his backside hit on the last drive, and he was about 12-18" short of the line to gain. This was a great opportunity to use the challenge for a review, but it was not done.

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.

 

[ChristoGT]

I'm sure it is referenced/posted on here somewhere - the often repeated "I've got my man" quote from Stansbury - but when did he say this? Was this when the TPO was initially hired or before this year's season? I haven't seen a written quote on it in quick perusals, so assuming during a press conference. Just wondering.

 

[GTLorenzo]

I don't know if it made a difference what he said.
We'll never know, but I wonder if Stansbury would still be here today had he not stood by Collins so firmly and then taken the initiative to fire Collins himself after UCF.

Stansbury is possibly still here if he didn’t tie himself so directly to Collins after last season. I basically heard that if things go south this season, Stansbury will go first and then Collins. I was hearing that nine months ago. It just so happens that it got so bad that they both went on the same day, at the same time. Why you would tie your career to Collins I will never figure out. Not sure if he thought he saw something in him that 99.99% of other people didn’t, but it was an unfortunate decision, and comment to make, as it ultimately led to his dismissal.

 

[LargeFO]

I'm sure it is referenced/posted on here somewhere - the often repeated "I've got my man" quote from Stansbury - but when did he say this? Was this when the TPO was initially hired or before this year's season? I haven't seen a written quote on it in quick perusals, so assuming during a press conference. Just wondering.

"But the results never showed on the field. Fatefully, he deemed Collins “my man” on Collins’ weekly radio show late in the 2021 season, days before Tech was throttled by eventual national champion Georgia before a sea of red-clad Bulldogs fans in Bobby Dodd Stadium." - AJC

 

[GTLorenzo]

I'm sure it is referenced/posted on here somewhere - the often repeated "I've got my man" quote from Stansbury - but when did he say this? Was this when the TPO was initially hired or before this year's season? I haven't seen a written quote on it in quick perusals, so assuming during a press conference. Just wondering.

I will have to look for it specifically, but it was quoted in the AJC in the article where the high dollar donors are quoted and I believe he actually said it on a radio show, either 680 the Fan or 92.9. The specific reference is from Ken’s article in the AJC.

 

[roadkill]

I don't know if it made a difference what he said.
We'll never know, but I wonder if Stansbury would still be here today had he not stood by Collins so firmly and then taken the initiative to fire Collins himself after UCF.

Agree we may never know exactly what transpired behind the scenes - but I can imagine a convo between Cabrera and Stansbury that went something like this after the UCF game:
Cabrera: This is unacceptable. What action are you going to take now?
Stansbury: He needs to go but we need to wait...my hands are tied by his contract.
Cabrera: I will do something about that.

 

[GTLorenzo]

Agree we may never know exactly what transpired behind the scenes - but I can imagine a convo between Cabrera and Stansbury that went something like this after the UCF game:
Cabrera: This is unacceptable. What action are you going to take now?
Stansbury: He needs to go but we need to wait...my hands are tied by his contract.
Cabrera: I will do something about that.

…..and leave your phone and keys to the office on my desk.

 

[bobongo]

Stansbury is possibly still here if he didn’t tie himself so directly to Collins after last season. I basically heard that if things go south this season, Stansbury will go first and then Collins. I was hearing that nine months ago. It just so happens that it got so bad that they both went on the same day, at the same time. Why you would tie your career to Collins I will never figure out. Not sure if he thought he saw something in him that 99.99% of other people didn’t, but it was an unfortunate decision, and comment to make, as it ultimately led to his dismissal.

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.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

at some point though we can’t allow perfect to be the enemy of good. every coach we are linked to and can realistically get has pretty equal levels of concern. chadwell has zero things holding back recruiting but he can’t recruit and only won with one guy at a lower level of football. deion can recruit off his name and staff has a lot of experience but it’s a lower level of football as well and his talent is way better than competition. some of the names were good at one point o’brien, mullen, but ended up absolutely awful at the end of their previous tenure. guys like monken and bohannon are under qualified as well but only get a pass by some people here because of the offense they currently run.

i’ll be ok with most of the names currently circulating outside of monken and bohannon, but the more important thing will probably be how we commit to the football program as a whole with support staff and recruiting budget.

it’s also never guaranteed any hire is good. scott frost was widely regarded as a homerun hire and it was arguably worse than collins hire. so we won’t even know until a year or two what kinda hire we made

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.