Highly Unlikely - but what if CPJ hired an OC?

eetech

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Techster said:
Now, if you we bring in another OC, I'd venture to guess it's because he's bring in something different from the spread option.
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You bring in someone to help run day to day practices so CPJ is able to focus more on other aspects of the team, including defense, and special teams. He’s still running his system, and calling the plays, but he doesn’t need to be as intimately involved during the offense’s practice sessions. And the OC would ideally be a young guy short on experience who wants to learn, but is also able to contribute fresh ideas.

It allows CPJ to give more personal attention to players and coaches.

I think it’s an idea that cannot hurt. I don’t know if CPJ has ever had someone like that in his system before, and if not, whether he’d be able to make the adjustment quickly enough.
 
awbuzz

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InsideLB said:
I don't think CPJ would EVER give up playcalling, period. And that's not the point of this thread. The point of the thread is to have fun exploring "what if he did give up playcalling".

Here is an argument for "it might actually work in that alternative reality where he would would do it":

Generally Johnson's tenure has been marked by a good to great offense in most years (with a few seasons as notable exceptions), and terrible special teams with mediocre to below average defenses. Due to this, at times he has had to become involved with defense and special teams. Generally when that's happened there was some improvement on those units. QB play this year has also seemed to improve when he stepped in and was more active coaching QBs. A case can be made that when he gets involved with stuff other than offense or otherwise functions as a consultant to tweak things then they get better.

So what if he (and again won't happen in reality) hired up an OC and freed himself up to have more time to coach special teams and consult on both sides of the ball (like most head coaches do)? A P5 HC has a lot of duties in addition to coaching already (admin, public speaking, etc.) so we've seen over the years it's hard to also be a coordinator as well as a HC.

I just thought it was an interesting question to ponder because he runs a clean program and graduates players. Perhaps the offense would remain just as potent but the other aspects of the program would improve and GT could finally see what this offense paired with better ST's and defense could do. What say you?
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Highly likely that there will be Peace in the Middle East before this happens. ;)
 
boger2337

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I think the better question would be why hasn't GT hired a true Head Coach, one who can manage a program and be a sales person. Then let CPJ be the OC. I would of been fine with that. Maybe bring in talent and see what he can do. But he has too much on his plate teaching the offense let alone put the whole team together
 

eetech

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boger2337 said:
I think the better question would be why hasn't GT hired a true Head Coach, one who can manage a program and be a sales person. Then let CPJ be the OC. I would of been fine with that. Maybe bring in talent and see what he can do. But he has too much on his plate teaching the offense let alone put the whole team together
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It worked pretty well for us for the first 6 years of his career. CPJ managed offense on a more hands on basis, and had a defensive coach for hands on management of the defense. A couple of years we were also very good on ST (I personally believe ST quality is a matter of depth and personnel more than coaching, although I have to admit that some stuff, like encouraging our returners to fair catch instead of running out of the end zone and then taking a knee at the 1 yard line is on coaching).

It’s hard to tell what’s lacking in our team the past few years. It doesn’t appear CPJ has much clue either. Which is why having an OC to handle day to day duties for him may be a good idea. Not so he can take over coaching ST or anything, but so he is able to look at the entire team more holistically and identify what can be improved.

That’s not an indictment on how he has managed things so far. It worked well for us. However, things are not working as well, so with the changing circumstances, CPJ needs to look at changing his reponse to the new circumstances.

One thing you can see in technology today (which is the industry I, and many GT folks, work in) is that the pace of change is unlike anything we have seen before. The reality is that technology driven change is something that no longer is limited to the tech industry, but has started affecting every industry. Including sports. This is something that has only really happened in the last 5 years or so. And it’s possible that CPJ and team haven’t adjusted to that, and if so, it may help for him to reduce day to day duties, and spend more time on the bigger picture.
 
boger2337

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eetech said:
It worked pretty well for us for the first 6 years of his career. CPJ managed offense on a more hands on basis, and had a defensive coach for hands on management of the defense. A couple of years we were also very good on ST (I personally believe ST quality is a matter of depth and personnel more than coaching, although I have to admit that some stuff, like encouraging our returners to fair catch instead of running out of the end zone and then taking a knee at the 1 yard line is on coaching).

It’s hard to tell what’s lacking in our team the past few years. It doesn’t appear CPJ has much clue either. Which is why having an OC to handle day to day duties for him may be a good idea. Not so he can take over coaching ST or anything, but so he is able to look at the entire team more holistically and identify what can be improved.

That’s not an indictment on how he has managed things so far. It worked well for us. However, things are not working as well, so with the changing circumstances, CPJ needs to look at changing his reponse to the new circumstances.

One thing you can see in technology today (which is the industry I, and many GT folks, work in) is that the pace of change is unlike anything we have seen before. The reality is that technology driven change is something that no longer is limited to the tech industry, but has started affecting every industry. Including sports. This is something that has only really happened in the last 5 years or so. And it’s possible that CPJ and team haven’t adjusted to that, and if so, it may help for him to reduce day to day duties, and spend more time on the bigger picture.
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I don't think CPJ is willing to give up duties of the offense. I think he's better suited focusing solely on the offense and we have a "game manager" or a team manager
 

eetech

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boger2337 said:
I don't think CPJ is willing to give up duties of the offense. I think he's better suited focusing solely on the offense and we have a "game manager" or a team manager
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I agree. But in the spirit of this thread I wanted to explore the hypothetical scenario where he would.

I obviously cannot be certain, not being privy to how the coaching staff works right now, but I do think there could be some value in CPJ having more time to focus on big picture stuff rather than the day to day activities.

I’m a little biased because I recently was unable to type for over a week due to an injury, and I noticed that was one of my most productive weeks. As a team lead, having time to completely focus on big picture stuff has already led to a ton of improvements for our team which is already paying dividends and will certainly help us drastically going forward.

Now I don’t believe not having any day to day activities is ideal either, but the experience was enough to convince me to set aside some time a week only for big picture thinking away from the daily grind.
 
Vespidae

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eetech said:
... but I do think there could be some value in CPJ having more time to focus on big picture stuff rather than the day to day activities.
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I had many, many executives work for me who did not know how to run a meeting, organize work, or simply administer the functions of the department. CPJ strikes me as wanting to do the OC role because he enjoys it and ... he simply may not be good at all the other stuff ... and avoids it.

Does CPJ know how to coach a football game? Yes. Does he know how to turnaround and sustain a winning program? I'm not so sure.
 
MikeJackets1967

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Vespidae said:
I had many, many executives work for me who did not know how to run a meeting, organize work, or simply administer the functions of the department. CPJ strikes me as wanting to do the OC role because he enjoys it and ... he simply may not be good at all the other stuff ... and avoids it.

Does CPJ know how to coach a football game? Yes. Does he know how to turnaround and sustain a winning program? I'm not so sure.
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CPJ is like Steve Spurrier was at Duke,Florida and South Carolina in that he wants to call all the offensive plays and the OC probably just gives suggestions:cigar:
 
Vespidae

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MikeJackets1967 said:
CPJ is like Steve Spurrier was at Duke,Florida and South Carolina in that he wants to call all the offensive plays and the OC probably just gives suggestions:cigar:
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You may be right. But ... one thing I realized is that when I ran a business, I couldn't do it all. Even the areas that I excelled at ... I ultimately chose to delegate those tasks so that I could focus on issues 2-4 years out, develop the management team, and manage relations with corporate. As long as CPJ is the OC ... he will be relegated to working on short-term issues (preparing for this week's game), not developing the coaching staff, or managing relations with the Hill.

Just my opinion.
 
BCJacket

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boger2337 said:
I think the better question would be why hasn't GT hired a true Head Coach, one who can manage a program and be a sales person. Then let CPJ be the OC. I would of been fine with that. Maybe bring in talent and see what he can do. But he has too much on his plate teaching the offense let alone put the whole team together
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When Roof came back, I hoped he would work out well enough to get promoted to something like Associate Head Coach. Take on some of the media and recruiting duties. He's much more personable than CPJ and a Tech guy. But... leaky Roof.
 

Lavoisier

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Roof is actually a good warning sign of what might come if we go that way for a new head coach. Good recruiter, personable, boosters like him, but he can't coach worth a damn.
 
jacketup

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eetech said:
It worked pretty well for us for the first 6 years of his career.
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Revisionist history. Years 3-6 Johnson had an aggregate losing record vs. FBS opponents. I don't believe he would have returned in 2014 if we had the money for the buyout at the time.

Then 2014 happened, the poor leadership at the AA overreacted, and hit the reset button. So here we are, so that he is 8 games under .500 vs FBS from 2015 to present.
 
tech_wreck47

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jacketup said:
Revisionist history. Years 3-6 Johnson had an aggregate losing record vs. FBS opponents. I don't believe he would have returned in 2014 if we had the money for the buyout at the time.

Then 2014 happened, the poor leadership at the AA overreacted, and hit the reset button. So here we are, so that he is 8 games under .500 vs FBS from 2015 to present.
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I get what you are saying but don’t you think using 2015 as a starting year for your comment is a little bit of cherry picking?
 
ibeattetris

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MikeJackets1967 said:
The way things are going GT could be on it's way to be another Vanderbilt anyway if GT stays with an option head coach in the future head coaching hire:cigar:
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We've been ranked in the top 25 of the AP poll 9 times since 1990 with 3 of them being since 2008 (and if we go back to 1980 it's only 10 appearances in the top 25 final poll).

That doesn't mean I think CPJ should stay or go. But we were not lighting up the field before CPJ, and we have not been lighting up the field recently either. We can claim that CPJ has not advanced the program enough to justify retaining him, but from my perspective he has not made the program worse either. It's going to come down to money and whether or not our AD believes CPJ will be more successful with more resources or if another coach could utilize those resources better. Hopefully our AD has the vision to make the correct decision.
 
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