HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

[Techster]

Here's my thoughts on the situation:

If GT can not secure a commitment from a high level coach soon, then let's give the coach we already have a lot of resources to succeed here. I'm pretty certain any acting HC GT is going after has a buyout. Other schools would be dumb if there was not a buyout for a guy like Fritz or Chadwell. Instead of paying $5-8 million towards a buyout, take that money and put it into the NIL and assistant coaches salary pot.

Give Key a GT friendly contract ($3 mill/year for 5 years) with a small buyout ($1 million per year remaining if fired). Give him $1.5-$2 million for an OC, while giving Thacker a raise. Let's go "all in" on an OC the caliber of Garrett Riley/Kenny Dillingham (now HC of ASU). Let's hit that transfer portal HARD for OLs and DLs and certain key players. If Key kills it the first or second year, Batt can always reward Key with a better contract.

I think Key can be a really good coach, but I think his success will be determined by his OC...much like O'Leary. It will also appease donors who have been pushing for him, and Batt/Cabrera can leverage that into a bigger $$$ commitment from them.

 

[Randy Carson]

Here's my thoughts on the situation:

If GT can not secure a commitment from a high level coach soon, then let's give the coach we already have a lot of resources to succeed here. I'm pretty certain any acting HC GT is going after has a buyout. Other schools would be dumb if there was not a buyout for a guy like Fritz or Chadwell. Instead of paying $5-8 million towards a buyout, take that money and put it into the NIL and assistant coaches salary pot.

Give Key a GT friendly contract ($3 mill/year for 5 years) with a small buyout ($1 million per year remaining if fired). Give him $1.5-$2 million for an OC, while giving Thacker a raise. Let's go "all in" on an OC the caliber of Garrett Riley/Kenny Dillingham (now HC of ASU). Let's hit that transfer portal HARD for OLs and DLs and certain key players. If Key kills it the first or second year, Batt can always reward Key with a better contract.

I think Key can be a really good coach, but I think his success will be determined by his OC...much like O'Leary. It will also appease donors who have been pushing for him, and Batt/Cabrera can leverage that into a bigger $$$ commitment from them.

I'm okay with this.

Who do you think is the best OC that our (limited) money can buy?

 

[g0lftime]

Tim

Ken Sugiura, unlike Quinlan and McKenzie, doesn't run rumors as news. He doesn't report something unless he believes his source is solid. He rarely gets 'the scoop' for that reason. But his writeups are often the best because people trust his integrity and he gets the interviews (like he did with CPJ).

Which leads me to believe that the Fritz news was leaked to him by someone close to Batt (or Batt himself). I believe Batt thought it was a done deal with Fritz and the necessary people (legal, financial, BoT) were told to start preparing - one of them leaked the news. Deal fell through for some reason.

Which, my understanding, a similar process unfolded with Chadwell. Batt does not want Key. Donors are up in arms. After two months of a search, it appears we're flailing.

I personally believe it was a mistake to hire someone who'd never been an AD, and never hired anyone, to step into our AD job. MBob and TStan had both been ADs at two other schools before coming here and still struggled. The GTAA is in worse shape than either of them inherited. Batt might be the right guy for what Cabrera wants the GTAA to be. But not for what it is today.

Time for Cabrera to step in. Get the adults in the room.

 

[RonJohn]

Yeah, there's 4 million annual salary jobs with a multi-million dollar windfall payout if you fail opportunities available everywhere, just hanging from trees. WTF are you talking about?

Sure, for a person with a $40k annual salary a multi-million dollar annual salary will trump most other considerations. When you only include people who are qualified(at least on paper) for such a position, it isn't as cut and dry. With respect to a P5 HC, such people already have comfortable salaries. Such people are alpha personalities. Such people are concerned about such things as putting their impression on things and developing a legacy. If an athletic program can't provide the resources that such a coach wants, or wants to dictate staff and/or methods, then such a person is likely to pass for another opportunity.

It is kind of like telling an F1 driver that your Hellcat is the most powerful car ever developed. To people who drive Honda Civics, sure they will believe you. An F1 driver?

 

[Techster]

Time for Cabrera to step in. Get the adults in the room.

Cabrera is fully behind Batt in this process.

 

[leatherneckjacket]

Here's my thoughts on the situation:

If GT can not secure a commitment from a high level coach soon, then let's give the coach we already have a lot of resources to succeed here. I'm pretty certain any acting HC GT is going after has a buyout. Other schools would be dumb if there was not a buyout for a guy like Fritz or Chadwell. Instead of paying $5-8 million towards a buyout, take that money and put it into the NIL and assistant coaches salary pot.

Give Key a GT friendly contract ($3 mill/year for 5 years) with a small buyout ($1 million per year remaining if fired). Give him $1.5-$2 million for an OC, while giving Thacker a raise. Let's go "all in" on an OC the caliber of Garrett Riley/Kenny Dillingham (now HC of ASU). Let's hit that transfer portal HARD for OLs and DLs and certain key players. If Key kills it the first or second year, Batt can always reward Key with a better contract.

I think Key can be a really good coach, but I think his success will be determined by his OC...much like O'Leary. It will also appease donors who have been pushing for him, and Batt/Cabrera can leverage that into a bigger $$$ commitment from them.

I do not have a problem with that. The issue is that too many of us either do not know or cannot agree what is a high level coach.

 

[UgaBlows]

I'm okay with this.

Who do you think is the best OC that our (limited) money can buy?

I would be interested in Coastal’s and Tulane’s OC’s fwiw, I just don’t see us poaching a hotshot OC from any P5 schools.

 

[Techster]

I'm okay with this.

Who do you think is the best OC that our (limited) money can buy?

LOL...If I knew that I'd start my own Parker Executive Search firm. In all seriousness, Key probably already knows the OC he would hire.

 

[UgaBlows]

Tim
Time for Cabrera to step in. Get the adults in the room.

I think it’s likely that the adults (Cabrera and Batt) ARE in the room calmly doing their jobs, all this misinformation, noise and confusion is coming from elsewhere.

 

[Randy Carson]

I would be interested in Coastal’s and Tulane’s OC’s fwiw, I just don’t see us poaching a hotshot OC from any P5 schools.

Or that guy from Alabama...I hear he may be available soon.

 

[85Escape]

Here's my thoughts on the situation:

If GT can not secure a commitment from a high level coach soon, then let's give the coach we already have a lot of resources to succeed here. I'm pretty certain any acting HC GT is going after has a buyout. Other schools would be dumb if there was not a buyout for a guy like Fritz or Chadwell. Instead of paying $5-8 million towards a buyout, take that money and put it into the NIL and assistant coaches salary pot.

The buy-out point is a really good one. Only Key and BOB would come without an additional overhead. I read rumors that Key already has NIL money lined up that is seven figures (from Tex.) Add some of the buy-out money saved to that NIL Pool, and we are starting to be competitive. BOB wouldn't have the Tex NIL kicker, but would save us a ton of buy-out that we could apply to better uses than paying another school for their current coach.

 

[Ramble1885]

https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/makeKeyHC?src=hashtag_click

 

[UgaBlows]

Which leads me to believe that the Fritz news was leaked to him by someone close to Batt (or Batt himself). I believe Batt thought it was a done deal with Fritz and the necessary people (legal, financial, BoT) were told to start preparing - one of them leaked the news. Deal fell through for some reason.

I don’t believe this at all, the never even left New Orleans and the “story“ fell apart too completely and too fast for there to have ever been a deal. I don’t think Fritz would do anything before his team’s championship game either, thats a Petrino-esque move.

 

[Lotta Booze]

I think Key can be a really good coach, but I think his success will be determined by his OC...much like O'Leary. It will also appease donors who have been pushing for him, and Batt/Cabrera can leverage that into a bigger $$$ commitment from them.

I agree with a lot of this post and it makes me even more curious how Key laid out his plan in his interview. Who did he pitch as his OC? I think there is zero chance Batt is going to hire Key as HC and then try to micromanage a selection of an OC for him as well so he'd be looking for Key to pick his guy. I can picture a hypothetical worst-case scenario for Key where he pitches the team that he has in continuing on and building the team next year along with OC Long. Or even worse citing his own experience as OC at UCF and saying he'll call the plays. That wouldn't be a very appealing plan for the future to me and I'd imagine it wouldn't instill much confidence in JBatt/Cabrera/whoever else is involved in the decision.

Now on the other hand what if you had Fritz in the interview saying he's spoken with Dell McGee who he worked with at Southern and he has interest to come on as OC/AHC? If things go well he can take over when Fritz retires. That'd be much more appealing to me but obviously this is wild *** speculating on my part.

For those who are down on the Fritz hire how would that change your judgement on the hire if (huge if) that were the case?

I think what's lost in judging the coaching hire simply on the name is that none of us know what the plan and vision is for the whole staff would be and how achievable it is.

 

[g0lftime]

This is a big hire for a neophyte AD and first experience doing it. Cabrera should be mentoring him on avoiding the minefields and how to deal with the culture of GT alums.

 

[Mattmc10]

Retention of what? We NEED a dozen plus players to go for the portal. We have a bad roster. If any of the players are reading this comment, I hope they understand I mean no ill will, but we have a roster full of 3 star and lower players and many of those on the bottom end of the 3 star pile (massive pile).

We need room for as many HS recruits we can legally add over next two or three seasons AND we need to be picking the portal for immediate upgrades in size/strength. I realize we are way down in the portal pecking order, but I think we'd improve the roster at a few positions, even if its just depth improvement.

We have an incredibly young team. I don't think another roster turnover will be helpful. I think a big reason we got better as the season wore on is that we got more experience. In the trenches we have one guy who leaves, White.

The most significant losses in my mind are with the LBs, those guys played very well for us.

This team has enough talent to make ACC noise next year. I do not think this is a rebuild.

 

[Sean311]

https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/makeKeyHC?src=hashtag_click

See this is why Key should get the job. Almost ALL of the players are campaigning for Key to be the HC. That should say something about him.

 

[Ramble1885]

See this is why Key should get the job. Almost ALL of the players are campaigning for Key to be the HC. That should say something about him.

Yeah, Fritz wouldn’t be a bad hire but I think the best decision right now is keeping key. It would help us a LOT with preventing players from transferring out.

 

[Techster]

This is a big hire for a neophyte AD and first experience doing it. Cabrera should be mentoring him on avoiding the minefields and how to deal with the culture of GT alums.

There is a deep seeded culture issue inside the GTAA. Batt and Cabrera are trying to change it. Not everyone likes change and they're wielding the biggest bat they have to keep the status quo...$$$$

 

[UgaBlows]

The buy-out point is a really good one. Only Key and BOB would come without an additional overhead. I read rumors that Key already has NIL money lined up that is seven figures (from Tex.) Add some of the buy-out money saved to that NIL Pool, and we are starting to be competitive. BOB wouldn't have the Tex NIL kicker, but would save us a ton of buy-out that we could apply to better uses than paying another school for their current coach.

Interesting, I wonder if O’brien would consider being OC here under Key? He’s def a goner at Bama and his NFL job prospects would probably be a position coach at best or an analyst. O’brien learned under Fridge and averaged 31 points per game the year after Fridge left. Hopefully Key would ask him to get that Fridge playbook back out.