HC Candidate/Rumors/Info Thread

bobongo

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slugboy said:
We're making a lot of guesses as to Batt's motivations and his internal thinking processes and his constraints.

I've seen managers that want to hire "their people". You can spot that really quickly, because they immediately hire their people. There's almost no interview process.

Hiring Chadwell or Willie Fritz or Riley or somebody that Batt doesn't have a tight personal relationship is not hiring "his guy". It's hiring an outsider. It's an unknown quantity for Batt. You do that for a few reasons--that person has a great reputation, you need skills that you don't have in your organization, or you've been directed to hire from outside, or you believe that the internal people are just not as good as people who work elsewhere.

If I were in Batt's shoes, my main talent is on the money side of the business, and I want to get back to that ASAP. What I would want in a Head Coach is (1) somebody I can sell to donors and fans and (2) someone who gets the job done, solves problems and doesn't create problems. That's it.
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What I meant by "his guy" would be anyone who wasn't already in place when Batt got here - anyone but Brent. But of course, none of us know what he's thinking. I think Brent fills the bill on both being able to sell to donors & fans and getting the job done, but what do I know?
 
forensicbuzz

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GTrob21 said:

Have you seen this? I know that the Tech people will cry about how the rankings are biased, but there is a little school that is ranked 49th and our Institute is ranked 44. I wonder how they do so well.

Also, there are better football schools ranked higher than us. The elitism that Tech people have are the reason why we aren't very good. Its also the reason why we don't have side-walk fans.
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Well, have you ever evaluated how USN&WR actually ranks schools? I never though rankings could be worse than CFB, but...and it ain't even close. The analysis is based on a bunch of randomly identified statistics the original authors thought would be a good way to evaluate schools of higher learning. There's nothing scientific or evaluative about those rankings. (I know, we like them because they show us being near the top. Doesn't make them not trash)
 
Randy Carson

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techfan#14 said:
So you believe the team does not know who the new coach is? If that is the case then I would assume Key is in the running still. What then prompted McCollum to throw his name in the portal.
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Non sequitur.

BKey may not be in the running and the team (possibly including BKey) doesn't know. If BKey DOES know, he's quietly putting out feelers and taking phone calls.
 
tomknight

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seems that, if all the drama that is alleged is actually occurring, the next coach is in a very difficult spot, regardless of who they are.

I am not sure that I am totally comfortable with the president being the only one who decides everything. if what @Techster is saying is the case, then the president has set himself up as the final and only voice that matters. I am not sure that is a great plan.

we'll see.

regardless of well-run it is behind the scenes, the fact is that lack of information lets everyone's minds wander - us, players, other coaches, media. lack of anything does not seem like the way to handle it. they have to name names or anything, but they could say something like we're still talking to some folks, and expect to have something more definitive by the weekend, next week, in march, or whatever it is.

I sometimes used to tell parents, when I coached travel softball, that just because they didn't know what was happening inside the fence didn't mean that the players and coaches didn't know. we had a reason for everything we did, if they understood it or not. but, at least I told them that much.
 

whitegoldsphinx

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Key does come with a higher risk than other candidates. One could argue that any coach with a brain cell would have immediately put attention on correcting the punt team and practice protocol. And compared to the bizarre press conferences of his predecessor, he acts and sounds like a real head coach. He did not play favorites, if you performed, you got to keep playing. And there were clearly adjustments made that helped our chances to win games.

The risk is that we only know what he did as an interim. We don't know anything about what he can do to improve the program between December and the opening kickoff next year. Experienced coaches have proven that they are good coaches year round. Not saying Key would not be good at this, but it is completely unknown. It is often why when interims are hired, many of them struggle to maintain what they accomplished early on.
 
Randy Carson

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tomknight said:
seems that, if all the drama that is alleged is actually occurring, the next coach is in a very difficult spot, regardless of who they are.

I am not sure that I am totally comfortable with the president being the only one who decides everything. if what @Techster is saying is the case, then the president has set himself up as the final and only voice that matters. I am not sure that is a great plan.

we'll see.

regardless of well-run it is behind the scenes, the fact is that lack of information lets everyone's minds wander - us, players, other coaches, media. lack of anything does not seem like the way to handle it. they have to name names or anything, but they could say something like we're still talking to some folks, and expect to have something more definitive by the weekend, next week, in march, or whatever it is.

I sometimes used to tell parents, when I coached travel softball, that just because they didn't know what was happening inside the fence didn't mean that the players and coaches didn't know. we had a reason for everything we did, if they understood it or not. but, at least I told them that much.
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If I were JBatt, I would do this:

JB: A, I've narrowed this down to Coach A or Coach B. Here are the their respective pros and cons.... All things considered, I'm leaning toward A. What do you think?
AC: Nice presentation, J. You've done your homework. I like B, but I could live with A. It's your call. What do you want to do?
JB: If you're okay with it, I want to go with A.
AC: Fine. Make the call. I'll set up the presser. Good work, J.
JB: Thanks, A. I appreciate your support. We have some battles ahead of us with the $$ boys, so let's stick together.
AC: Count on it!
 
Randy Carson

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lv20gt said:
Spot on paraphrase. My actual response was



But I guess anyone not willing to just handwave away his poor performances as someone else's mistakes is just hating on Key.

It's not hate to point out he has no HC experience prior to this year that he has only one year of OC experience that was horrible or that his resume in general is not one of somebody that would get even a first look if there wasn't a personal connection.

It's not hate to not put little value into amorphous concepts like players loving him, playing hard for him, raising the energy etc etc.

Maybe it's not those that are against Key that have the irrational emotional response. Maybe it is those pushing hard for him on the grounds of him being a tech guy and loving the school.
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My apologies, but we're almost to page 300, and I'm a little bleary and weary at this point. Who's your horse? How do you rank 'em?

FWIW, I'm Chadwell first, Key a close second and the field a distant third.
 
Augusta_Jacket

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Randy Carson said:
My apologies, but we're almost to page 300,
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Yes we are....

@stech81 we are well past 290. Pay up

Rocco.gif
 
LargeFO

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Randy Carson said:
My apologies, but we're almost to page 300, and I'm a little bleary and weary at this point. Who's your horse? How do you rank 'em?

FWIW, I'm Chadwell first, Key a close second and the field a distant third.
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Chadwell is/was my #1, but I wasn't too impressed with bringing his entire D staff. I think Thacker has a good young nucleus to build on and would rather keep him. None of this probably matters anyway.
 
slugboy

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Randy Carson said:
If I were JBatt, I would do this:

JB: A, I've narrowed this down to Coach A or Coach B. Here are the their respective pros and cons.... All things considered, I'm leaning toward A. What do you think?
AC: Nice presentation, J. You've done your homework. I like B, but I could live with A. It's your call. What do you want to do?
JB: If you're okay with it, I want to go with A.
AC: Fine. Make the call. I'll set up the presser. Good work, J.
JB: Thanks, A. I appreciate your support. We have some battles ahead of us with the $$ boys, so let's stick together.
AC: Count on it!
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If it were that easy, it would already be done
 

lv20gt

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Randy Carson said:
My apologies, but we're almost to page 300, and I'm a little bleary and weary at this point. Who's your horse? How do you rank 'em?

FWIW, I'm Chadwell first, Key a close second and the field a distant third.
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My original preference, of anyone seriously mentioned, was O'Brien. P5 experience with connections, successful head coaching experience, a good offensive mind that isn't married to any particular system and would, hopefully, be able to help the OC without being as heavily involved as Johnson was calling the plays allowing for a more general program focus.

Otherwise, pretty much any of the others mentioned, Chadwell, Fritz, Clark, etc would be fine to me. I'd prefer Chadwell or Clark to Fritz but it's not a huge deal to me. I was always cold on Sanders because of his overall relative lack of experience but at the very least it'd be a spectacle and there is a dynamic with him that is just incomparable to others which I at least see the argument for.

Key is basically at the bottom of the list. No HC experience. Minimal OC experience. The biggest feather in his cap coaching wise is the 8 games as IHC where half of them, UVA, VT, Miami, and FSU, were bad performances to me. In the remaining games the calling card for our improved play this year was very heavily on the defense which not only isn't his area of experience but also likely heavily influenced by other new coaches to that said of the ball, along with a publicly documented change in dynamic that predated Key taking over. Basically with the others you can answer the question of "what have you accomplished" and point to successful stints at prior places either taking programs to higher levels (Chadwell, Fritz, Sanders) or just an amazing rebound (Clark). With Key you're pointing to individual games and then things like players loving him and being a GT guy.

What Key should do is go be the head coach of UAB or some smaller school. If he's what people think he is, he'll quickly prove himself and if we're making a change in a couple of years then he is a much better candidate at that time. If he doesn't work out then we avoid a big bullet in promoting from within a staff that pretty much completely failed. Ironically, I think Key is actually hurt by the donors leaking stuff trying to play king maker for him because while he's waiting to see if he'll get the job here, other places where he might get picked up are likely moving on.
 
Techster

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tomknight said:
seems that, if all the drama that is alleged is actually occurring, the next coach is in a very difficult spot, regardless of who they are.

I am not sure that I am totally comfortable with the president being the only one who decides everything. if what @Techster is saying is the case, then the president has set himself up as the final and only voice that matters. I am not sure that is a great plan.

we'll see.

regardless of well-run it is behind the scenes, the fact is that lack of information lets everyone's minds wander - us, players, other coaches, media. lack of anything does not seem like the way to handle it. they have to name names or anything, but they could say something like we're still talking to some folks, and expect to have something more definitive by the weekend, next week, in march, or whatever it is.

I sometimes used to tell parents, when I coached travel softball, that just because they didn't know what was happening inside the fence didn't mean that the players and coaches didn't know. we had a reason for everything we did, if they understood it or not. but, at least I told them that much.
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That's not what I said at all. The HFC decision will 100% be Batt's...but there is still a process to get any coach employed at GT.

The only thing Cabrera is doing is empowering Batt to do what he feels is best for GTAA, and sending a message that Batt has his support. Batt is 100% in charge of what goes on at GTAA. Cabrera just wants there to be a system of checks and balances, and oversight. Something severely lacking in the past. For instance, supposedly Geoff Collins did not have any offset language in his contract. That is standard language in all coaching contracts now...and probably would have saved GT $500K-1 million/year since Collins is rumored to be going to Nebraska to coach with Rhule. Who at GTAA was reviewing the contract and who rubberstamped its approval? There was no system of oversight for that under Stansbury apparently. That would not have passed under Cabrera/Batt.

Cabrera has a bigger responsibility than GTAA. He's President of the entire GT organization. GTAA is a very small part of what he does. You think he wants to be involved in the day to day business of GTAA when GT the university is dealing with billions in academic and business matters? The reason he's even in our purview at the moment is because he's trying to help clean up the mess left by Stansbury and some donors.
 

bigrabbit

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forensicbuzz said:
Well, have you ever evaluated how USN&WR actually ranks schools? I never though rankings could be worse than CFB, but...and it ain't even close. The analysis is based on a bunch of randomly identified statistics the original authors thought would be a good way to evaluate schools of higher learning. There's nothing scientific or evaluative about those rankings. (I know, we like them because they show us being near the top. Doesn't make them not trash)
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We’ll like this one better, 9 vs 53:)
I’ve wondered if some of our sidewalk fan issue comes from inaccessibility, folks having trouble imagining themselves or their kids ever going to GT. My kid went to a very competitive n. Atlanta h.s. and the counselors basically told top students “very, very few get in GT, plan other safety schools.” The relatively narrow curriculum is also part of it.

Anyway, back to football.
 
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