Hire Fast, Fire Slow?

[iceeater1969]

I have stated this before in other discussions. The difference in conference revenue is close to $20 million. That means that even ignoring the ACC vs SEC argument, they pull in more than $50 million more than us in tickets/merchandise/donations/etc. Our entire budget is only a little bit higher than the difference that they bring in from those items. GT fans need to stop worrying about what the school does with money and what the big donors do with their money. GT fans need to start supporting GT athletics.

Need an All hands on deck "Victory Fund campaign".
Students raise X, then profs raise 2X, research raises 4X, young alun 10x, mid40x, old non Heisman types raise 80x, Heisman types 160x = Total.
The bigs match the total at a multiple of 10.

Just doing the same yearly begging is stupid .

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Money is clearly an issue. There’s no way around that. However, that’s not an excuse to win 9 games in 3 years. Our program should still be going to bowls, even if we’re going 6-6.

 

[4shotB]

Money is clearly an issue. There’s no way around that. However, that’s not an excuse to win 9 games in 3 years. Our program should still be going to bowls, even if we’re going 6-6.

Your point is valid but the bigger issue remains. Our first year or two of Weedeater Bowls or Quick Lane Bowls will be a welcome change over the last several years but not if we are getting waxed by the Uga's and Clemson's of the worlds along the way. Closing the gap a bit is not going to move the needle all that much (imo).

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Need an All hands on deck "Victory Fund campaign".
Students raise X, then profs raise 2X, research raises 4X, young alun 10x, mid40x, old non Heisman types raise 80x, Heisman types 160x = Total.
The bigs match the total at a multiple of 10.

Just doing the same yearly begging is stupid .

Agree that a well conceived victory fund / challenge pledge might be in order.

Here’s the hard part. This only works if you can credibly promise to donors that, somehow, this time, things will be different. The plan has to specifically lay out what the money is for and how this is expected to produce positive on field results. This even has to discuss hiring top notch staff in my opinion. Just appealing to the loyalty of jaded Tech fans won’t do it. I suspect the average donor sees no difference in results whether they $1000 or give nothing.

 

[RonJohn]

Agree that a well conceived victory fund / challenge pledge might be in order.

Here’s the hard part. This only works if you can credibly promise to donors that, somehow, this time, things will be different. The plan has to specifically lay out what the money is for and how this is expected to produce positive on field results. This even has to discuss hiring top notch staff in my opinion. Just appealing to the loyalty of jaded Tech fans won’t do it. I suspect the average donor sees no difference in results whether they $1000 or give nothing.

They did a good job of explaining what the money would be used for with AI2020. It also did a good job of raising funds.

I think that raising money specifically for football would be a fool's errand at this point. It appears that they are going to have enough trouble simply selling tickets. I am a season ticket holder and a low level donor. I have decided to ignore GT football until September. (that might change, but it hasn't yet) I have ignored press conferences, media engagements, reports about recruiting, reports about Spring practice, etc. I have ignored tweets from KQ. If they were to have a football specific fundraising campaign, I would probably see a thread on here about it, so I would probably know that they are doing it. However, I would not dig into details. I would not listen to the requests for support. Even if I did listen, there is absolutely nothing that could be said that would convince me to donate to football at the moment. If the team on the field looks respectable in September, I might would listen at that point. If the season at least shows signs of progress, I might would listen. If a coaching change is made at the end of the year, the AD and/or the GTAA would need to make appeals that stress what they are going to do differently this time with respect to a search, assistant coaches, general culture, etc to entice donations.

 

[Vespidae]

Money is clearly an issue. There’s no way around that. However, that’s not an excuse to win 9 games in 3 years. Our program should still be going to bowls, even if we’re going 6-6.

I just don’t see a scenario that breaks Tech football out of anything other than perennial 7-5 results and is the main reason justifying some advantage in scheme.

With the lack of real fundraising, resources, degrees and other constraints present today, we’d be better off to do the best we can, within reason, and pump money into the other sports ... especially golf, baseball and basketball. They consume far fewer resources and are a better fit for what we CAN do ... To win championships. Which per TStan, is the goal.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Your point is valid but the bigger issue remains. Our first year or two of Weedeater Bowls or Quick Lane Bowls will be a welcome change over the last several years but not if we are getting waxed by the Uga's and Clemson's of the worlds along the way. Closing the gap a bit is not going to move the needle all that much (imo).

I don’t disagree, but it feels like some people are using the ever changing landscape of college football in regards to money as an excuse for how bad we’ve been, which I don’t really buy. I buy that as to why we’ve gotten creamed by UGA, Clemson and ND. I don’t buy that for losing to a bunch of 6-7 win ACC teams. Every year the money issue becomes a bigger issue as the gap between the haves and the have nots gets bigger in College Football, I agree. However, I don’t think the landscape has changed significantly enough to the point where we should be as awful as we’ve been. We were competitive in quite a few games with fellow have nots and lost a lot of close games last year. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect to win some of those.

 

[grandpa jacket]

Doeren at NCSU was head coach at NIU for several years. Yep same school that beat us last year opening game. He had several years with good records before state hired him. He just got a big contract extension. He doesn't appear to be going anywhere soon. I would take him in a heartbeat at GT.

Me too, i am tired of the same old excuses. Our athletic dept is a failure end of story

 

[grandpa jacket]

Your point is valid but the bigger issue remains. Our first year or two of Weedeater Bowls or Quick Lane Bowls will be a welcome change over the last several years but not if we are getting waxed by the Uga's and Clemson's of the worlds along the way. Closing the gap a bit is not going to move the needle all that much (imo).

Lets start by closing the gap between, VT, MIA , DUKE AND UNC

 

[bobongo]

Lets start by closing the gap between, VT, MIA , DUKE AND UNC

"The longest journey begins with one step"
-old Chinese proverb

 

[4shotB]

Lets start by closing the gap between, VT, MIA , DUKE AND UNC

I don't think anyone would disagree with you. I certainly wasn't. That has to be the initial step for sure. But if it is the final step we are in the vast unrecognizable quagmire of all the other teams that go the these types of bowls annually. (again, those ARE better teams/programs than what we have been in the last 4-6 years and I am not arguing otherwise.)

I think the disconnect is that some seem to think we can go above that in spite of the general disinterest in athletics as demonstrated by school leadership over the last 5-6 decades. I think it is telling that our last 2 AD's prior to Todd left voluntarily. I am convinced that we are what we are and what our mean record has been for the last quarter century. I would love to be wrong but the data is hard to ignore.

 

[Techwood Relict]

Lets start by closing the gap between, VT, MIA , DUKE AND UNC

"The longest journey begins with one step"
-old Chinese proverb

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time. Steven Wright

I'd like to be better than all those teams. One foot in front of the other......