HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

[Vespidae]

Oh I have no issue with Deion being hired. But I don’t think he would be here longer than 2-3 years one way or the other.

There’s a greater likelihood that Bill Belichick will resign from the Patriots to coach Tech.

 

[slugboy]

If you are like me, you are sitting among a collection of old guys and people who got their tickets for one game, usually off other old guys. I think if we want a younger fan base - and we had better - we need an O with real sizzle. For Tech that has always meant deception and not much else. Further, as The Slug has mentioned, trying to run an O like Bama's is a fools mission: Tech will never get the players that needs. We can get good athletes to run innovative Os. And that, imho, is what we should aim at. But … let's win 6 or 7 first. Then we'll see about the rest.

Chadwell will deliver that and so will several of the other candidates.

Pitt does run an offense like everyone else's--but not as well Alabama, and with the occasional fullback. Cincinnati has an RPO-heavy spread. You can be really successful being just about like the other guys. I think they've both shown that you can put together a good to great team without an exotic offense or defense by being a coach focused on fundamentals. I think Key can do that. He might be really good. He might be a Fickell kind of coach

I'd rather watch a fun offense and a fun defense. I liked the flexbone because CPJ could make it work really well. I like what Coastal Carolina does because Chadwell and Korn make it run really well, not because of the route trees (but I'll check out how they run because they run really well). I like what Wake does because they make it run really well. Tennessee's offense actually looked boring to me, but I give them credit for running it really well, and I'd be happy with it as a fan if our OC was someone who loved it and made it run really well.

I know that Long is hampered by some things, like not having a young Tony Gonzalez or Pitts right now, and sub-par blocking, but I'm also not convinced he can make his offense run better than whoever is on the other sideline. Maybe he can, but I haven't seen it so far.

I'd be happy if Key found his Friedgen (and a good OL coach) and the defense improved from where they are this year. Like Techster said, I'd be happy if he got Korn from CC. Just get better every game and I'm pretty happy.

In offenses and defenses, there are guys who copy other guys, and there are guys who know how to be artists with what they do. Most of the coaches are copying someone else, but not as well. Gimme an OC and a DC that will make their system their own and bring their own style to it. CPJ did that, and Chadwell and Korn do that. Tenuta did that on defense. Leach does that. Kiffin does too. But, I think OCs and DC should be opinionated--that makes for fun football.

When an OC shows up and just will run whatever the HC says to run, that's where you get a mediocre offense. (The HC and the coordinators better be aligned on the way to run a team, though, or it just won't work)

But what I'm saying about "don't try to be Alabama-lite" is that we're not going to outspend FSU or Auburn or LSU. Even if Batt is a financial fundraising genius, they're decades ahead in building donorship. Trying to recruit more 5-star players than Bama and Florida and Clemson and Tennessee and a ton of the schools around us is folly. We can recruit really well, and in fact we can recruit great, but we're not going to out-talent Clemson and Georgia on a day to day basis.

But having the 5th most talent in the ACC ought to get you a bunch of wins and a d*mn good-looking team. We can do THAT. And we can have our own style and be unique. Cincinnati recruits "worse" than us but was in the playoffs in recent memory because they have a system and a process and good coaching and training.

 

[stinger 1957]

I'm an advocate for Key just because I can see more of what he is about than whoever else we might be considering. It's why I've not had a lot of opinions on who we hire. no way i can know. I've proved that to myself when we hired CGC, he was my number one choice of those names I was told we were considering.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

But having the 5th most talent in the ACC ought to get you a bunch of wins and a d*mn good-looking team.

Possibly. The problem with the talent composite is it doesn't account for WHERE the talent is on a team. For instance, according to 247, we have 19 (20 but they still include B Gowdy since he's still on our roster) 4* players on our team. Of those 19, 9 are DBs, 3 are QBs, 2 are WRs, 1 LB, 1 RB, 1 DL, and 2 OL who transferred in and haven't been impactful so far.

CGC was great at landing 4* DBs, but we need more talent spread across the rest of the team.

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[Techster]

Possibly. The problem with the talent composite is it doesn't account for WHERE the talent is on a team. For instance, according to 247, we have 19 (20 but they still include B Gowdy since he's still on our roster) 4* players on our team. Of those 19, 9 are DBs, 3 are QBs, 2 are WRs, 1 LB, 1 RB, 1 DL, and 2 OL who transferred in and haven't been impactful so far.

CGC was great at landing 4* DBs, but we need more talent spread across the rest of the team.

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Two of our most talented and most promising players were among the lowest rated players in their respective recruiting class - Clayton Powell Lee and Kenan Johnson.

Sometimes coaches have to trust their eyes and instincts based on years of evaluations.

 

[Randy Carson]

Possibly. The problem with the talent composite is it doesn't account for WHERE the talent is on a team. For instance, according to 247, we have 19 (20 but they still include B Gowdy since he's still on our roster) 4* players on our team. Of those 19, 9 are DBs, 3 are QBs, 2 are WRs, 1 LB, 1 RB, 1 DL, and 2 OL who transferred in and haven't been impactful so far.

CGC was great at landing 4* DBs, but we need more talent spread across the rest of the team.

2024 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Roster

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If we had such great success recruiting 4* DB's, could someone explain last year's game against Pittsburgh? We got lit up.

It's been YEARS since I thought, "We're up six with under two minutes to play, and they have the ball first and 10 on their own 25. We got this."

Not even a little.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Two of our most talented and most promising players were among the lowest rated players in their respective recruiting class - Clayton Powell Lee and Kenan Johnson.

Sometimes coaches have to trust their eyes and instincts based on years of evaluations.

Both of those players were DBs. CGC was known as a DB guru. I am not surprised he identified them and recruited them to GT, but...

If we had such great success recruiting 4* DB's, could someone explain last year's game against Pittsburgh? We got lit up.

It's been YEARS since I thought, "We're up six with under two minutes to play, and they have the ball first and 10 on their own 25. We got this."

Not even a little.

While CGC was great at identifying DB talent, and also great at coaching DBs, he probably hindered DCAT by not letting go of the reins and interfering too much. We're now seeing what DCAT can do with said DBs.

 

[slugboy]

Possibly. The problem with the talent composite is it doesn't account for WHERE the talent is on a team. For instance, according to 247, we have 19 (20 but they still include B Gowdy since he's still on our roster) 4* players on our team. Of those 19, 9 are DBs, 3 are QBs, 2 are WRs, 1 LB, 1 RB, 1 DL, and 2 OL who transferred in and haven't been impactful so far.

CGC was great at landing 4* DBs, but we need more talent spread across the rest of the team.

2024 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Roster

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I agree. My point was that we could recruit well enough to be a great team if we’re balanced and smart.

 

[JacketFan137]

If you are like me, you are sitting among a collection of old guys and people who got their tickets for one game, usually off other old guys. I think if we want a younger fan base - and we had better - we need an O with real sizzle. For Tech that has always meant deception and not much else. Further, as The Slug has mentioned, trying to run an O like Bama's is a fools mission: Tech will never get the players that needs. We can get good athletes to run innovative Os. And that, imho, is what we should aim at. But … let's win 6 or 7 first. Then we'll see about the rest.

Chadwell will deliver that and so will several of the other candidates.

in another thread we basically established every team runs option plays so we shouldn’t be scared of chadwell and now we are back to the “we can’t recruit to run the offense that bama runs”.

i actually think now that is not as true. in 2008-2014 when bama was just lining up with 5 5* offensive lineman and pounding the rock with a trent richardson/mark ingram/derrick henry/other monster RB i agree.

i don’t think a lot of what bama is currently running should be looked at as some impossible offense to run. syracuse is having success running what is now modern spread concepts, duke is 6 wins and counting, and a crazy one is tcu is looking like a playoff team recruiting classes in the 20s-40s range (very realistic goal for georgia tech) and running “what everyone else does”.

the whole concept is smelling more and more like confirmation bias and defeatist attitudes the more you look around college football. i think if we just focus on having a good offensive mind, recruiting the best talent we can and developing them over their 3/4 years at tech it really doesn’t matter what system we run.

if chadwell is the best coach we can gain mutual interest from then that’s cool and i’m all for it i just don’t think we have to have some scheme/gimmick/whatever you choose to call it just cause we couldn’t possibly run any other offense. that’s just flat out not true

 

[lv20gt]

While CGC was great at identifying DB talent, and also great at coaching DBs, he probably hindered DCAT by not letting go of the reins and interfering too much. We're now seeing what DCAT can do with said DBs.

Do you realize this is the exact opposite thing that was said last offseason, that he needed to have more of a direct influence on the defense and that he should even take over the DC duties directly?

 

[JacketFan137]

Do you realize this is the exact opposite thing that was said last offseason, that he needed to have more of a direct influence on the defense and that he should even take over the DC duties directly?

i think that was the narrative presented but now it seems like reality is thacker has found something as a solo act.

to what extent i think it is fair to question cause we haven’t beat a good team or a team with more talent than us tbh, but last year we were letting literally anyone with a pulse throw for 400 yards against us so i do think it is fair to say progress came from something. for now the best info we have is practices are different and key is giving thacker the keys to the defense

 

[jacketup]

Billy Napier was hired at UF last year at $7.1 million. He has a guaranteed budget for staff of $6.35 million that can go to $7.5 million. $13.45 million minimum-- Without advisor or other staff salaries. The budgets at Georgie and Bama are higher.

How do we spend $9 million for the Collins buyout plus $1.5 million for assistants buyouts, then come up with another $10-13 million (each year) to compete? Then there is NIL money. Dream all you want, but we just don't have the money to play in this high stakes game. We have to catch lightning in a bottle, and the odds are low, and the cost high.

Criticize Lewis all you want, but he was Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year before we hired him. Criticize Collins all you want, but he had taken a team to a bowl game in his prior 2 years as HC, and before that as an assistant at UF and MSU was nominated for the Broyles award as top assistant.

So throw out all the names you want, but the odds of success playing a schedule that is in the top 25 in difficulty as we have the last 4 years are low. Maybe fans are right and I am wrong---a .500 FBS coach like Johnson is as good as we can expect. The alternative is to position ourselves with a schedule like Wake Forest has, which means no Georgia and no Clemson every year--but then we don't sell tickets.

We are between a rock and a hard place. A new coach is very unlikely to solve the problem. I'd spend the money on NIL, but as someone else said, we always seem to be behind the 8 ball.

 

[jacketup]

i think that was the narrative presented but now it seems like reality is thacker has found something as a solo act.

to what extent i think it is fair to question cause we haven’t beat a good team or a team with more talent than us tbh, but last year we were letting literally anyone with a pulse throw for 400 yards against us so i do think it is fair to say progress came from something. for now the best info we have is practices are different and key is giving thacker the keys to the defense

3 of the defensive coaches are new. You can't say that the improvement is because of Thacker.

 

[Longestday]

Clearly, I cannot choose the coach in front of you. And clearly I cannot choose the coach in front of me. I’m just getting started.

Movie quote, those who know it will find it applicable.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

I agree. My point was that we could recruit well enough to be a great team if we’re balanced and smart.

I concur with that. My main point was that even though we are the 5th most talented roster in the ACC right now, we're probably closer to 9th in what we are putting on the field. I think the new HC will need a couple of years to achieve roster balance, which was apparently one of CGCs multiple failings.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Do you realize this is the exact opposite thing that was said last offseason, that he needed to have more of a direct influence on the defense and that he should even take over the DC duties directly?

I do realize that. I was guilty of saying that. After his departure, and hearing from guys inside the program, I am now convinced otherwise.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Clearly, I cannot choose the coach in front of you. And clearly I cannot choose the coach in front of me. I’m just getting started.

Movie quote, those who know it will find it applicable.

 

[VRTechFan]

Sure, he knows how to win and kept GOL afloat at Tech, but he was fired for not adhering to some of their standards. Does this have anything to do with our present situation; I just replied to another poster who said Chadwell reminded him of Ralph Friedgen. I was just praising Friedgen and would like it if Chadwell was like Friedgen; personally, I think Chadwell is an innovator.

Just imagine Pyron in Chadwell's offense. I think he would thrive.

 

[cpf2001]

I don't know about recruiting potential, but here are the recruiting rankings for the last 22 years, sorted by average recruiting rank, from https://collegefootballdata.com/exporter/recruiting/teams.

If we're sitting on untapped recruiting potential, there's very little sign of us ever accidentally tapping it. Yes, we've had good years, but almost everyone has had good years.

I have serious issues with the scores they put together--it's akin to astrology or phrenology. It's pseudoscience. But here's their pseudoscience in a nice table for ya.

School	Avg Rank	Avg Rank 2013-2022	Max Rank	Min Rank
Auburn	13.565217​	12.3​	30​	5​
Nebraska	25.956522​	25.8​	41​	8​
Arizona State	34.652174​	37.6​	103​	17​
Wisconsin	37.217391​	34.5​	65​	15​
Colorado	44.869565​	56​	74​	13​
Georgia Tech	47.173913​	49.8​	70​	15​

To me, it looks like having a multi-year plan and getting the key players you need on in "skill" positions and on the line is the way to go. Find a LB that you can grow into an all-ACC LB. Set up strength and conditioning to get them strong and agile but keep them from getting injured (Stanford was really good about that for a while).

TL;DR: have a good plan and execute on it. Get to know great players and try to get them to come to your school, but have a great team in a great environment and your odds of having great players goes up.

If you look at "potential" in terms of the recent peaks - "you just need to figure out how to repeat it" - there's definitely two or three tiers. Auburn top 5, Nebraska top 10, the rest around 15. I'd say the Auburn/Nebraska group is definitely ahead of the others in demonstrated potential, even if you don't draw much separation between the two (could Auburn be top-5 every year? seems hard right now).

Auburn/Nebraska had better lows, too.

So I think it's a hard case to argue that GT has as good recruiting potential as the top 2, since it hasn't happened for a long, long, time, and there are some disadvantages that people closer to the program know better than the national media who might not think more than "oh, right in Atlanta, they should crush it." But at the same time, I don't see anything to make me think GT's recruiting potential is worse than any of those other 3.

 

[WreckinGT]

i think that was the narrative presented but now it seems like reality is thacker has found something as a solo act.

to what extent i think it is fair to question cause we haven’t beat a good team or a team with more talent than us tbh, but last year we were letting literally anyone with a pulse throw for 400 yards against us so i do think it is fair to say progress came from something. for now the best info we have is practices are different and key is giving thacker the keys to the defense

We played a gauntlet of good QBs last year. The guys we are playing this year either weren't very good to begin with or are shells of what they used to be for some reason. Aside from Jordan Travis of course who has improved significantly. Our defense has two tough games after they get an easy game against Miami. How they finish out against UNC and UGA will tell alot.