HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,911
Location
Oriental, NC
Key stands at 3-3 but somehow, I don't expect it.
This is my feeling as well. As much as I could get behind Key if he is the guy, I really think we need to shake things up and give our players and fans reason to believe the GTAA and the admin are really invested in the football program. We need someone who has actually been successful as a head coach and can show we have a genuine future worth investing our money and our emotional attachment to GT.
 

stech81

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,901
Location
Woodstock Georgia
This is my feeling as well. As much as I could get behind Key if he is the guy, I really think we need to shake things up and give our players and fans reason to believe the GTAA and the admin are really invested in the football program. We need someone who has actually been successful as a head coach and can show we have a genuine future worth investing our money and our emotional attachment to GT.
But is not what they did when they hired CGC ? All I want to know who each Head Coach would hire as their OC and DC. I'm just not crazy about the OC and DC from Coastal Carolina, The OC they have would stay to take the Head Coach's job and the DC I would not want. Would love to know Key's thoughts on an OC and DC.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,911
Location
Oriental, NC
But is not what they did when they hired CGC ?
I do not think Collins' record at Temple was indicative of success. Rhule won 10 games each of the seasons before Collins took over at Temple and Collins won 7 games the next year. That is not the kind of success I would like for us to see in the guy we hire.

Also, I think Stansbury bought the "great recruiter" line completely and that seemed to satisfy the biggest complaint aimed at Johnson. I hope Batt is looking more deeply into the candidates he is considering to understand why they had success. Or, in Key's case, did not.
 

stech81

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,901
Location
Woodstock Georgia
I do not think Collins' record at Temple was indicative of success. Rhule won 10 games each of the seasons before Collins took over at Temple and Collins won 7 games the next year. That is not the kind of success I would like for us to see in the guy we hire.

Also, I think Stansbury bought the "great recruiter" line completely and that seemed to satisfy the biggest complaint aimed at Johnson. I hope Batt is looking more deeply into the candidates he is considering to understand why they had success. Or, in Key's case, did not.
At this point we have to hope.
 

GoJacketsInRaleigh

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
999
Mike Houston is a damn good coach. Has won everywhere he’s been and improved every place he’s been. His teams are tough no nonsense too. I’m good with chadwell but would be excited about mike Houston too
 

GoJacketsInRaleigh

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
999
If Key is the HC selection then he would have been given the benefit of the doubt since he had to take over a team mid season with a staff he didn't really select. Additionally he had to replace his RB coach suddenly. We really don't know what he can do with his own guys.
I was pulling for him until the UVA game. Now not as enthusiastic as I could have been but I can see why he might be retained.
It wasn’t keys fault that Pyron wasn’t ready for uva. That sounds like it was Collins forcing him onto scout team only. Key corrected that mistake immediately.
 

billga99

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
821
I do not think Collins' record at Temple was indicative of success. Rhule won 10 games each of the seasons before Collins took over at Temple and Collins won 7 games the next year. That is not the kind of success I would like for us to see in the guy we hire.

Also, I think Stansbury bought the "great recruiter" line completely and that seemed to satisfy the biggest complaint aimed at Johnson. I hope Batt is looking more deeply into the candidates he is considering to understand why they had success. Or, in Key's case, did not.
No matter which coach we hire, expectations will be high to get to a bowl at a minimum (6 wins or higher). Here is my take on the 2023 schedule. Out of conference Ole Miss and UGA are very highly likely loss. Bowling Green and whomever we pick up as maybe FCS opponent are wins. But the ACC schedule is where it gets interesting. We are no longer in the Coastal but ACC as a whole and our 3 permanent opponents are now from the stronger Atlantic. ACC Schedule

Clemson (9-1) crossover
Wake Forest (6-4) crossover
Louisville (6-4) crossover
North Carolina (9-1)
Syracuse (6-4)
Miami (5-5)
Boston College (3-7)
Virginia (3-7)

So we have to go 4-4 in ACC to get to a bowl if we beat Bowling Green and team to be named.. Would definitely be big underdogs to Clemson and North Carolina which means we need to go 4-2 versus the rest with 3 of the 6 having 6-4 records. Clearly possible but it is interesting that we have 5 of our 8 games against Atlantic division opponents.
 

Augusta_Jacket

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
8,099
Location
Augusta, Georgia
Key stands at 3-3 but somehow, I don't expect it.

This is my feeling as well. As much as I could get behind Key if he is the guy, I really think we need to shake things up and give our players and fans reason to believe the GTAA and the admin are really invested in the football program. We need someone who has actually been successful as a head coach and can show we have a genuine future worth investing our money and our emotional attachment to GT.

Agreed. Fair or not, JBatt is going to have most of his future reputation as an AD likely decided by this hire. For that reason, I just don't see Brent Key getting the job unless Chadwell, Houston, and BoB turn us down or go elsewhere.

I've said before, and I'll stand by it, my dream scenario is for Key to head to another school as an AHC/HC and get some seasoning for that day in the future when we need him to come home to run our program.
 

link3945

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
101
No matter which coach we hire, expectations will be high to get to a bowl at a minimum (6 wins or higher). Here is my take on the 2023 schedule. Out of conference Ole Miss and UGA are very highly likely loss. Bowling Green and whomever we pick up as maybe FCS opponent are wins. But the ACC schedule is where it gets interesting. We are no longer in the Coastal but ACC as a whole and our 3 permanent opponents are now from the stronger Atlantic. ACC Schedule

Clemson (9-1) crossover
Wake Forest (6-4) crossover
Louisville (6-4) crossover
North Carolina (9-1)
Syracuse (6-4)
Miami (5-5)
Boston College (3-7)
Virginia (3-7)

So we have to go 4-4 in ACC to get to a bowl if we beat Bowling Green and team to be named.. Would definitely be big underdogs to Clemson and North Carolina which means we need to go 4-2 versus the rest with 3 of the 6 having 6-4 records. Clearly possible but it is interesting that we have 5 of our 8 games against Atlantic division opponents.
Might be best to ignore the win total next year. Just look for competence and improvement.
 

Deleted member 6494

Guest
Mike Houston is a damn good coach. Has won everywhere he’s been and improved every place he’s been. His teams are tough no nonsense too. I’m good with chadwell but would be excited about mike Houston too
An obvious goal is to bring fans into the stadium; the absolute correct answer is to win big time. While Tech was winning big time with Dodd, he stated that ticket requests each Saturday was 25,000 more than the stadium could seat.

The first game of the year with each candidate may look something like the following for fans.

Brent Key: he has won 3-5 as interim, he has never been a head coach, always been an OL coach and the offensive line has not performed above average in his four years here. The fan's reaction to buying season tickets or individual tickets for next season is ho-hum, I think I will wait and see how things progress before I order tickets; nothing here really excites me.

Bill O'Brien: I believe someone has posted that he has a total record of 50-48 with excuses. The fan's reaction to buying tickets is still ho-hum, I will wait until I see how his coaching progresses until I put money into more tickets; moreover, I don't want my heart to be stomped on again.

Jamey Chadwell: gee, I really like his winning ways and the scheme he uses is wide open. His offense is obviously exciting and effective. I am enthused with his record and an exciting offense; I am going to buy tickets and check all of this out. The lady is not only sexy looking, but she has solid upbringing.

Mike Houston: yes, he might be able to eventually build the program back up; I like sexy ladies, but his presentation of winning hasn't excited me as much as Chadwell's. I would probably watch his progress for a short while before putting any money into it.

Deon Sanders: the sexiness is definitely there, and he might fill the stadium to begin with, but the risk of success at Tech for Deon is too iffy at this time. The risk of being back on a winning downturn is very possible. I would rate his conference and team as comparable to the top 6A or 7A winning teams in Georgia High School football at present.
 

forensicbuzz

21st Century Throwback Dad
Messages
8,851
Location
North Shore, Chicago
What's odd is that until 2018, Collins was never connected to that class, but it was credited to Giff Smith. Those are facts as well.
That's not true. When Collins left to go to Alabama, Smith gave him credit for doing a lot of the leg work getting that class together. It was absolutely a team effort to land that class, and a lot of that class was them recruiting each other, but to say Collins was never credited with the 2007 class just isn't true. I remember when Collins left and was surprised by the comments about his involvement with that class.
 
Last edited:

Augusta_Jacket

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
8,099
Location
Augusta, Georgia
That's not true. When Collins left to go to Alabama, Smith gave him credit for doing a lot of the leg work getting that class together. It was absolutely a team effort to land that class, and a lot of that class was them recruiting each other, but to say Collins was never credited with the 2006 class just isn't true. I remember when Collins left and was surprised by the comments about his involvement with that class.

I've been on GT boards for a long time. The FIRST time i heard this class being credited to anyone other than Giff Smith was in 2018. @slugboy even posted an article where the players drafted were crediting Smith. I'm not saying Collins wasn't involved, or even extremely important, but the credit went to Smith prior to 2018.
 

forensicbuzz

21st Century Throwback Dad
Messages
8,851
Location
North Shore, Chicago
I've been on GT boards for a long time. The FIRST time i heard this class being credited to anyone other than Giff Smith was in 2018. @slugboy even posted an article where the players drafted were crediting Smith. I'm not saying Collins wasn't involved, or even extremely important, but the credit went to Smith prior to 2018.
This Board was all about recruiting back then. When Collins went to Alabama there was discussion about his involvement with the class and that a lot of that credit went to him. He was never mentioned until he left for Alabama. I remember it because I was like "uh-oh, did we just lose the whole reason for that class?" Then Gailey was fired and we went in a totally different direction with recruiting and the rest is history. Collins was associated with that class, even back then.
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,494
This Board was all about recruiting back then. When Collins went to Alabama there was discussion about his involvement with the class and that a lot of that credit went to him. He was never mentioned until he left for Alabama. I remember it because I was like "uh-oh, did we just lose the whole reason for that class?" Then Gailey was fired and we went in a totally different direction with recruiting and the rest is history. Collins was associated with that class, even back then.
You might mean one of the other boards. Here’s the first post on this board from 2013:
Thread 'Your first subject'
https://gtswarm.com/threads/your-first-subject.1/

We were definitely all about recruiting in 2013, because that was Eric’s passion. But the board was started well after Collins went to Alabama.

Giff Smith stayed here until 2010, when he went to the Buffalo Bills, and still had a reputation as a recruiting ace. Glenn Spencer is up at Wake as their LB coach, and he also had a sterling reputation as a recruiter.

This is just my personal opinion from ages back, but I think that Gailey hadn’t figured out how to run a program and run recruiting until the last half of his tenure, and by then he was trying to overcome “Flunkgate”. I also feel like he didn’t set his goals high enough until it was too late. However, by the end he’d put together a great recruiting staff.

Collins was a piece of that staff. One of the posters said that Collins was good with social media in 2006-7. Twitter had just been launched and Facebook just added photos. Instagram didn’t exist until 2010. The hot phones of 2006 were the Blackberry and the Motorola Razr. Sidekick phones were still really popular. The iPhone launched June of 2007, after the signing day. Data plans were really expensive. I think we were probably seeing more text messaging than anything. Unless one of the players wants to talk about how some social media played a part, I’m gonna doubt that theory.

We’d also had three years of people seeing Calvin Johnson on the flats, and that probably helped make us cool to high school players.

Back to the class. My best guess is that it was both a team effort and lightning in a bottle. A couple of the players decided that they’d come to Tech together and pulled in more players they new. Collins helped. We had good relationships with the high schools by then. I’m trying to remember all Gailey’s coaches, but he had a LB coach that was great. I think Collins was an ingredient in the successful recipe, but he wasn’t the only one, and we kept recruiting well after he left.

What percentage impact do you tie to Collins in 2006-7? Was he 5% responsible for the class? 10%? 30%?
(I don’t think he was 30% of what pulled players to Tech—that seems too high to me).
 

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,576
Collins helped.
FWIW:


From the article:
Older Georgia Tech fans might recognize Geoff Collins as he was the recruiting coordinator at Georgia Tech in 2006. That 2007 class that he helped recruit remains Georgia Tech’s best of all-time as Collins gained 6 4 star commitments, 3 top 100 prospects, and eventually 2 draft picks. 2 of the commits from that year, Roddy Jones and Derrick Morgan, both spoke to Ken Sugiura...

“He did a good job facilitating the chemistry amongst the recruiting class, that was one of the main reasons I went to Tech, the great relationships with the guys in my class.” — Derrick Morgan to Ken Sugiura
 

forensicbuzz

21st Century Throwback Dad
Messages
8,851
Location
North Shore, Chicago
You might mean one of the other boards. Here’s the first post on this board from 2013:
Thread 'Your first subject'
https://gtswarm.com/threads/your-first-subject.1/

We were definitely all about recruiting in 2013, because that was Eric’s passion. But the board was started well after Collins went to Alabama.

Giff Smith stayed here until 2010, when he went to the Buffalo Bills, and still had a reputation as a recruiting ace. Glenn Spencer is up at Wake as their LB coach, and he also had a sterling reputation as a recruiter.

This is just my personal opinion from ages back, but I think that Gailey hadn’t figured out how to run a program and run recruiting until the last half of his tenure, and by then he was trying to overcome “Flunkgate”. I also feel like he didn’t set his goals high enough until it was too late. However, by the end he’d put together a great recruiting staff.

Collins was a piece of that staff. One of the posters said that Collins was good with social media in 2006-7. Twitter had just been launched and Facebook just added photos. Instagram didn’t exist until 2010. The hot phones of 2006 were the Blackberry and the Motorola Razr. Sidekick phones were still really popular. The iPhone launched June of 2007, after the signing day. Data plans were really expensive. I think we were probably seeing more text messaging than anything. Unless one of the players wants to talk about how some social media played a part, I’m gonna doubt that theory.

We’d also had three years of people seeing Calvin Johnson on the flats, and that probably helped make us cool to high school players.

Back to the class. My best guess is that it was both a team effort and lightning in a bottle. A couple of the players decided that they’d come to Tech together and pulled in more players they new. Collins helped. We had good relationships with the high schools by then. I’m trying to remember all Gailey’s coaches, but he had a LB coach that was great. I think Collins was an ingredient in the successful recipe, but he wasn’t the only one, and we kept recruiting well after he left.

What percentage impact do you tie to Collins in 2006-7? Was he 5% responsible for the class? 10%? 30%?
(I don’t think he was 30% of what pulled players to Tech—that seems too high to me).
Right. This wasn't around yet. You and I aren't disagreeing. Look at my original post. I essentially said the same thing. However, when Collins left for Alabama, there was talk about his involvement in that class and Giff Smith, as the Recruiting Coordinator, gave his a lot of credit for keeping that group together. Kyle Jackson was called the "Ambassador" because he was a popular guy and after committing he went hard at other recruits to get them to join the team. Lots of people were associated with the success of that class. My only point was Collins did get credit, even back then.
 

reckrider

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
375
Location
Suwanee Georgia
FWIW:


From the article:
Older Georgia Tech fans might recognize Geoff Collins as he was the recruiting coordinator at Georgia Tech in 2006. That 2007 class that he helped recruit remains Georgia Tech’s best of all-time as Collins gained 6 4 star commitments, 3 top 100 prospects, and eventually 2 draft picks. 2 of the commits from that year, Roddy Jones and Derrick Morgan, both spoke to Ken Sugiura...

“He did a good job facilitating the chemistry amongst the recruiting class, that was one of the main reasons I went to Tech, the great relationships with the guys in my class.” — Derrick Morgan to Ken Sugiura

It seems like Roddy isn’t much of a CGC fan now. It would be interesting to get his opinion of Collins’ recruiting prowess today.
 
Top