HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

[slugboy]

Good post. A few thoughts.

The perennial decision at Tech is ... a) We are unable to compete with the factories and therefore, must hire for scheme; or b) we can compete with a Tech version of NFL-lite and if that's the case, we have to not only hire for that, but also recruit for that and schedule for that.

We can't really opine on ANY potential head coach until we know the answer to that question. Option B will require a ton of money and since Batt's background is fundraising, I think he will lean this way. So we can probably rule out Chadwell and anyone with a specialized approach to the game. I think it is more likely we get someone who can at least spell NFL and has some street credibility.

We aren't getting Deion. Just give it up. Auburn is not pursuing Auburn either (to my knowledge). Apparently, FSU did vet Deion for that opening but determined that he is unqualified for a P5 job. I see Deion as a Hail Mary hire and I doubt very much Batt is going to make this the hill he dies on. No, this will be a very thoughtful, very professional search and hire.

If Kiffin takes the Auburn job, it opens a whole slew of moves in the SEC. And also closes the door to Alabama for Kiffin. And that will create a new series of moves there. I'm sure Batt knows that.

This has been the most interesting search at GT since Curry was hired. I hope we will see white smoke soon.

I used Deion for illustration; I think the more reasonable idea is an SEC coordinator with a huge SEC staff if we go option B. For one thing, I don't think O'Brien has a slew of SEC assistants to bring along with him. For the second thing, I don't know who would fund option B, and option B needs millions for staffing and millions of outside NIL money. "Build it and they will come" results in a lot more empty retail malls than happy Field of Dreams endings.

I think Option C of "do what Cincinnati did and coach good football in the middle of these giants" also works, but Cincinnati is the exception to the rule--most urban schools can't pull it off (and Cincinnati is less urban than we are).

 

[LawTalkin Jacket]

Everyone one loves Duke's coach and obviously Cutcliff was very good there. So, why then must Tech hire a "scheme guy" to run air raid, triple O, or some other form of option or high school offense? Dook is not sending 5 stars to the league on the regular and hasn't run any gimmicky office (I know they run some qb read options, but so does Bama and Clemson), so it would seem that we can hire any type of scheme coach. So long as the coach is a good one, he can run whatever offense he wants including pro-style, bama style, RPOs, whatever.

 

[JacketOff]

We tried that. Tech is tied for the nation's second-longest active bowl streak, at 18 consecutive seasons. Did it translate into long-term success? No. Beating Lower Slobodia and going to the Preparation H Hemmorhoid Relief Bowl doesn't move the needle either.

This is a huge oxymoron

At one point we had one of the longest active bowl streaks in the country, and that’s not long term success? Among them were 2 Orange Bowls and 2 Peach Bowls. If that’s not long-term success, wtf is?

 

[Gt2019]

I’m very curious about who Key could hire as assistants if he was to become to HC. He has TONS of connections and is well liked around the CFB industry. Jeremy Pruitt as DC would be a great hire and makes some sense for Pruitt

 

[orientalnc]

I don't disagree but rather than open against Alcorn State, open against Vandy. Sprinkle in an Ole Miss, a Kentucky (or better yet, Auburn) and recruit where you are seen. Recruits from Georgia don't care if we play Boston College.

It's anecdotal but, I was not an Auburn fan when I arrived here. I'm a lifelong Alabama fan as are most of my family. But living here, teaching here, interacting with players, fans and alumni, I have become a fan. Awareness leads to familiarity leads to consideration, leads to conversion. Basic marketing theory.

I love this post, but it misses the flip side. Alcorn State will come to Atlanta because we will pay them to come. What is the upside for Auburn? They already recruit the hell out of Georgia, so they do not need the exposure. What can happen is that kids start seeing GT as a better alternative to Auburn than is currently the case. I doubt Auburn wants that.

You are spot on regarding BC. You could also throw Cuse and Pitt into that bucket along with Duke and Wake. I wonder how many high school kids remember the last time Miami was relevant in football? Since they joined the ACC Miami has won 10 games in a season one time. Clemson is the only relevant ACC team. But Auburn is an SEC school!!! Woot!

 

[Vespidae]

This is a huge oxymoron

At one point we had one of the longest active bowl streaks in the country, and that’s not long term success? Among them were 2 Orange Bowls and 2 Peach Bowls. If that’s not long-term success, wtf is?

No one was happy with averaging 7-5 every year.

 

[slugboy]

I see the reasoning here, but I hope you are wrong. If Batt is looking over his shoulder, he will make as conservative and defensible a choice as he can to stop his seat from heating up. And that, imho, will lead inevitably to his seat heating up. What I'm hoping is that he will realize that he isn't in Kansas anymore and act accordingly after doing his research on what wins at Tech and who can best deliver on that. This decision will require some hard thinking and consultation to bring off successfully. And I'm also hoping that Cabrera realizes that all upper level hires are a crap shoot and won't fire Batt if his best decision turns out not to work. But, of course, that isn't likely to happen.

A conservative and defensible hire that leads to a mediocre or worse team leaves you fired or trapped in a dead end. Batt needs to make a GOOD hire, and if he's lucky a GREAT hire.

The president put his stamp on this. He doesn't want a nothingburger. He wants a bold but successful plan. He wants a path out of stadiums empty, except when they're filled with opposing fans.

A GOOD hire is what keeps your seat from heating up. He's got to make the best bet possible. There's going to be risk.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

You cite one year? Doesn't exactly meet the statistical definition of a proven trend.

There's an analytical technique that if you can't prove something, you can establish it by proving the converse doesn't work. I just did.

That's ok. Keep doing what we are doing. Playing average teams that aren't relevant to our recruiting base and let's hope things change. I guess 18 years of experience doing this isn't enough.

I’m not disagreeing with you, just want to understand clearly what you are saying.

Alabama was famous for years for having powder puff schedules. Was that a trend in the past that paid off in the present or is that too much of an apples and oranges argument given that Alabama is Alabama?

More recently Georgia has had weak scheduling. To be fair, the stronger your program becomes the weaker your schedule will look. But, Kent State? Seriously?

But I certainly agree that adding back some of our old traditional rivals would be positive.

 

[roadkill]

You cite one year? Doesn't exactly meet the statistical definition of a proven trend.

There's an analytical technique that if you can't prove something, you can establish it by proving the converse doesn't work. I just did.

That's ok. Keep doing what we are doing. Playing average teams that aren't relevant to our recruiting base and let's hope things change. I guess 18 years of experience doing this isn't enough.

I’m not saying your proposal is completely invalid. It’s the same way Bowden built up FSU when they were independent. But we’re not independent. As long as we are in the ACC we play an 8-game ACC schedule. And there’s talk of the ACC and SEC going to a 9-game conference scheduling model. Some of the ACC teams we play aren’t relevant to our recruiting base, but we don’t have a say in that. At least we play Clemson every year. Currently, we’ve got 4 OOC games to work with. One is already UGA so that leaves 3. Many years, including this one and next, we play another SEC team. That leaves 2 to work with. We have also been scheduling a ranked P5 and a tune-up FCS. If you are saying drop the FCS and schedule Auburn, I’d love to see it, but P5 schedules are arranged up to 10 years in advance so you can’t just wave a wand and get them on the schedule next year. And I seriously doubt that one additional SEC game on the schedule will move the needle, but that’s just my opinion since I only have isolated evidence (2016-17) to back it up.

 

[JacketFan137]

Everyone one loves Duke's coach and obviously Cutcliff was very good there. So, why then must Tech hire a "scheme guy" to run air raid, triple O, or some other form of option or high school offense? Dook is not sending 5 stars to the league on the regular and hasn't run any gimmicky office (I know they run some qb read options, but so does Bama and Clemson), so it would seem that we can hire any type of scheme coach. So long as the coach is a good one, he can run whatever offense he wants including pro-style, bama style, RPOs, whatever.

honestly a lot of people tell on themselves and reveal their motives in comments. in some option discussion threads the message is that everyone is running option plays so we shouldn’t be afraid of it and we even see it all over the nfl, yet some other threads will have people saying that we can’t run what everyone else does and tech will never be able to pull off nfl-lite. so based on who you ask you will probably get different answers as to what we actually need.

frankly it’s a round about way for people who wanted paul johnson to stay forever to express their disdain for other offenses and approach every hire with the defeatist attitude that we can only be successful with the option. even though there are plenty of examples of schools seeing success well above their weight class without a “scheme” offense

bottom line we need a good coach who can recruit, manage the game well and develop our players. those things apply whether you are running paul johnson’s offense, mike leachs or single wing.

 

[Techster]

One HFC opening down. This guy actually has a great story...google it if you have the time (and interest).

 

[JacketOff]

No one was happy with averaging 7-5 every year.

Much happier than averaging 3-9 every year. Tech has averaged 7 wins for 5 decades. We’re in the high 50s of revenue produced. Winning 7 games a year is an overachievement for where we should be. Going to 18 straight bowl games is an overachievement. Winning a Power 5 conference is an overachievement.

If it’s true that nobody is happy averaging 7-5 every year, it damn sure hasn’t moved the needle enough to produce the funds necessary to get beyond that threshold.

You love Auburn. You saw how they supported their team and former player turned interim HC last Saturday. They were playing another bad team and they sold the whole stadium out. GT on the other hand, barely sold 50% of our tickets. You always talk about the big bad SEC and how much different it is, and how players don’t want to play in the little ole ACC and for poor old Tech. But somehow you expect us to become nationally relevant on a consistent basis? A lot of times I don’t even understand what you are looking for, expecting, or hoping for when it comes to Tech football. You’re all over the place.

If a senior’s career at GT looked something like: 7-5, 8-4, 9-3, 6-6, that would be above our historical averages. I think that is well within reach, and what we should strive for. 10+ win seasons are rare at Tech. Very rare. 1 for every 5 seasons would be an astronomical pace.

 

[Vespidae]

A conservative and defensible hire that leads to a mediocre or worse team leaves you fired or trapped in a dead end. Batt needs to make a GOOD hire, and if he's lucky a GREAT hire.

The president put his stamp on this. He doesn't want a nothingburger. He wants a bold but successful plan. He wants a path out of stadiums empty, except when they're filled with opposing fans.

A GOOD hire is what keeps your seat from heating up. He's got to make the best bet possible. There's going to be risk.

This is Auburn's path. They recognized they were nickel and dime-ing the program and just said, F it. We are passing the hat and paying the best coach we can get who will take the job.

 

[ibeattetris]

Everyone one loves Duke's coach and obviously Cutcliff was very good there. So, why then must Tech hire a "scheme guy" to run air raid, triple O, or some other form of option or high school offense? Dook is not sending 5 stars to the league on the regular and hasn't run any gimmicky office (I know they run some qb read options, but so does Bama and Clemson), so it would seem that we can hire any type of scheme coach. So long as the coach is a good one, he can run whatever offense he wants including pro-style, bama style, RPOs, whatever.

I am pretty sure Cutcliffe was considered one of the great offensive minds in CFB and had huge sway with getting QB recruits having had coached the Manning brothers. We will see how well Duke trends without Cutcliffe. He was their best coach since Spurrier and had the most wins of any coach there since the 60’s.

A lot of people used to say “why can’t we be like Stanford” and look how well they’ve been doing recently. A lot of things come and go, and what’s for certain is no one can be 100% sure what will be a guaranteed success at GT.

 

[slugboy]

Everyone one loves Duke's coach and obviously Cutcliff was very good there. So, why then must Tech hire a "scheme guy" to run air raid, triple O, or some other form of option or high school offense? Dook is not sending 5 stars to the league on the regular and hasn't run any gimmicky office (I know they run some qb read options, but so does Bama and Clemson), so it would seem that we can hire any type of scheme coach. So long as the coach is a good one, he can run whatever offense he wants including pro-style, bama style, RPOs, whatever.

On the other hand, if a coach is a great coach AND they have an unusual scheme on offense or defense, why not take them?

There are mediocre coaches out there--we're just talking about good coaches.

 

[g0lftime]

I’m not disagreeing with you, just want to understand clearly what you are saying.

Alabama was famous for years for having powder puff schedules. Was that a trend in the past that paid off in the present or is that too much of an apples and oranges argument given that Alabama is Alabama?

More recently Georgia has had weak scheduling. To be fair, the stronger your program becomes the weaker your schedule will look. But, Kent State? Seriously?

But I certainly agree that adding back some of our old traditional rivals would be positive.

We have become one of their cupcakes. Not their fault.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

One HFC opening down. This guy actually has a great story...google it if you have the time (and interest).

It's probably just me but he has quite a resemblance to Bo Shembelcher from back in the day. When he and Woody Hayes would lock horns it was something else.

 

[takethepoints]

I’m not disagreeing with you, just want to understand clearly what you are saying.

Alabama was famous for years for having powder puff schedules. Was that a trend in the past that paid off in the present or is that too much of an apples and oranges argument given that Alabama is Alabama?

More recently Georgia has had weak scheduling. To be fair, the stronger your program becomes the weaker your schedule will look. But, Kent State? Seriously?

But I certainly agree that adding back some of our old traditional rivals would be positive.

One addition = the reason places like Ugag can schedule more patsies is that the payoff for playing them is so large. They are essentially buying wins.

Personally, I look forward to the day when Tech can start doing that again.

 

[takethepoints]

Much happier than averaging 3-9 every year. Tech has averaged 7 wins for 5 decades. We’re in the high 50s of revenue produced. Winning 7 games a year is an overachievement for where we should be. Going to 18 straight bowl games is an overachievement. Winning a Power 5 conference is an overachievement.

Yes and yes again. Most of the schools in college football would kill to have a program as successful as Tech's has been over the years. That's why the gloom and doom doesn't effect me; Tech averages seasons that other schools can only dream of, especially schools with limited curricula and/or high admission standards. There's no reason to expect that such a long running trend has been completely dislocated. Let's get back to it!

 

[takethepoints]

A conservative and defensible hire that leads to a mediocre or worse team leaves you fired or trapped in a dead end. Batt needs to make a GOOD hire, and if he's lucky a GREAT hire.

The president put his stamp on this. He doesn't want a nothingburger. He wants a bold but successful plan. He wants a path out of stadiums empty, except when they're filled with opposing fans.

A GOOD hire is what keeps your seat from heating up. He's got to make the best bet possible. There's going to be risk.

As long as Cabera keeps his back I think Batt could make that great decision. It's easier to take risks when you have support higher up. We'll see soon enough.