How good are we?

[first&ten]

"We are a really good team except for special teams"
That statement contradicts itself.

"We are a really good team except for turnovers and inability to close out games"
That statement contradicts itself.

Look, I am a glass half full guy. But we are a good team, not great. We played like a 5-4 team yesterday. You can't drop snaps like Harvin did (he has been great, otherwise). You can't throw INT's like Marshall did. You can't have piss poor kickoff coverage like we've had all year. You can't have a kicker with range to maybe 40 yards and expect to win a bunch of games, when our offense still operates in fits and starts. And then try to call ourselves a really good team.

TN is a BAD team. A really good team doesn't allow the game to be close. UVA is an ok team... we did not play like a top 25 team for the duration of the game, let alone single momentum-swinging plays.

Syracuse can point to "what if" one play had broken their way against FSU, Miami, MTSU, etc. At the end of the day, they didn't get it done, just like VT is saying to themselves after yesterday's game. We are 5-4, a couple breaks from a better record for sure, but we are playing about that well on the whole, maybe deserving of 6-3 imo if I concede some element of luck.

Pretty well on target.

 

[first&ten]

We can beat anyone and lose to anyone. We're middle of the road.

In the middle of the road conference.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

In the middle of the road conference.

There’s no elite conference this year. They’re all middle of the road. What do you want?

 

[Sideways]

CPJ is not better than Bobby Ross

Give Bobby Ross a good quarterback, a good all around running back, a pair of go get it receivers and a multi dimensional tight end and a sound offensive line and he was the best. Kicking and special teams were very good and the defense was outstanding. Of course, with Swilling and "Big Play" Willie Clay, the original "Battleship" Kevin Battle, Marco Coleman, Calvin Tiggle, and Coleman Rudolph well PJ never had that kind of talent at his disposal but Ross was very good no doubt about it.

 

[Sideways]

But Ross would not pick us over the NFL any day. I appreciate CPJs loyalty to our program, and he is one of the best coaches in college football. And he wins with the burdens of GT hanging around like an albatros.

One thing to consider: the ACC as a whole is far better now than when O'Leary and Ross were plying their trade on the Flats. Back then, you could pretty much count on Wake Forest and Duke being out and out cupcakes (after Spurrier left Duke anyway) Now there are really no easy outs even
Syracuse and BC have gotten better. The only teams I can think of that may have been better then than they are now (relatively speaking of course) are UNC and Virginia. Not sure about NC State. Keep in mind also that Miami and FSU were not in the ACC when Ross coached. Maryland was and occasionally had good teams.

 

[Jacketman1]

But Ross would not pick us over the NFL any day. I appreciate CPJs loyalty to our program, and he is one of the best coaches in college football. And he wins with the burdens of GT hanging around like an albatros.

True, but the NFL is not calling for CPJ.

 

[alagold]

We have too many obvious weaknesses ( not counting WET fields) to be a VERY good team plus we (like others) don't play well AWAY.Should be 6-3 anyway but are not.

 

[slugboy]

I was here when Ross coached. He was a great coach for us. I'd say he was a little better than CPJ, but

1. It was a lot easier for us to compete then than now. The money advantage the top 10-15 programs have now is amazing. I'd have to go back to the 1960's/1970's when Alabama had unlimited football scholarships (or in the 1970's was "limited" to 105 scholarships, see https://www.sapling.com/8144923/history-sports-scholarships) to see it as being this uneven a playing field. Some of this is our own fault in how we managed the program under Braine, Radakovich, and Bobinski, but some of it is environmental. We've beaten this horse to death, but I'll throw it out here again.
2. The year after the national championship, we were bowling in a low-tier bowl in Hawaii. The wheels were popping off the wagon. Some of the kids were stealing and selling books.
3. Ross left right after that. The cupboard wasn't bare, but if he stayed he'd have needed to turn things around.
4. When he got hired, the buzz was that we'd upgraded our coach from Curry. Then, we spent the next couple of years thinking he just didn't have it as a coach. Then, for the last half of the national championship season, he was the greatest coach on earth. For the first half of the national championship season, you could walk into the stadium halfway through the first quarter with your student ID and still get into the game. Then, the next season, people thought he'd lost control of the team. It was after O'Leary came back that people remember him as the best coach ever. (I've heard people say "no, I knew he was a great coach then", but I didn't hear many people say that at the time aside from the 1990 season)
5. He went 31-26-1 at GT, for a 53% winning percentage. Bill Curry had gone 5-5-1 and 9-2-1 the year before Ross was hired, and it took Ross three years to have a winning record. Ross was here for 5 seasons, and went 2-9, 3-8, 7-4, 11-0-1 (with a tremendous group of players), and 8-5.

CPJ is up among the better coaches we've had. He can do better, and I think he's had the opportunity to do much better than he has. But things are nowhere near as clear cut as some of you are saying.

(And for those of you saying "Chan Gailey", he had Calvin Johnson for three years because he grew up watching a Ralph Friedgen offense with Little Joe, and proceeded to go 7-5, 7-5, and 9-5 with one of the greatest players we ever had. I'm not saying Calvin would come here today with CPJ, but if he did, we'd be tearing up the ACC right now).

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Give Bobby Ross a good quarterback, a good all around running back, a pair of go get it receivers and a multi dimensional tight end and a sound offensive line and he was the best.

Give the same thing to CPJ, sans the TE, and I think we win 11 games a year. Sound OL has been the issue.

BTW, I am as big a Bobby Ross fan as there is. I think he was a bit better than CPJ, but not much better.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

For some reason GTSWARM is like a PJ fan club. Say anything against the guy, look out they’re coming for ya. lol.
I also believe him to be a GOOD coach. Not Great.
A Great coach would not lose games that PJ has.

Just a reminder, in case you have forgotten, Ross's 1990 team had to struggle just to tie a BAD UNC team and could have easily lost to VT. He also lost to Furman in one of his early years, and Furman was much worse than MTSU or Kansas, teams that have beat CPJ's Tech teams.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

This comment lacks so much credibility it's not worth addressing. ....

Sir, you cut me to the quick. (Not really but it sounds good.)

Again, here are the stats. https://gtswarm.com/threads/113-years-of-gt-football-–-2015-9-losses-to-2016-9-wins-to-2017.12624/

Now some people like avocados, some like PBR and some like fajitas. But from a performance against peers point of view, CPJ and Ross and O'Leary all have about the same average performance.

I think if O'Leary had stayed he would have been the best.

Oh yeah, the best GT coaches without "credible" question were Dodd, Heisman, and Alexander. Then the cohort of Ross, O'Leary and CPJ.

Hopefully, Roof is our next head coach. His D is outplaying CPJ's O this year. {:just trolling}

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Just a reminder, in case you have forgotten, Ross's 1990 team had to struggle just to tie a BAD UNC team and could have easily lost to VT. He also lost to Furman in one of his early years, and Furman was much worse than MTSU or Kansas, teams that have beat CPJ's Tech teams.

Ross didn't lose to Furman. We tied Furman in 86 and lost to them in 83. Ross came to GT in 87.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Ross didn't lose to Furman. We tied Furman in 86 and lost to them in 83. Ross came to GT in 87.

You are right; my bad. But he did lose 3 in a row to Duke, and he had a 2-9 and 3-8 season all before he got things going in the right direction.

 

[g0lftime]

We are better than our record. Just a couple of bad bounces on tipped passes or a kicker with confidence and our record is more like 7-2. Better ST play and that would make a difference. A kicker that can put it deep or out of the end zone would cure a lot of ills on ST.

 

[Heisman1215]

You are right; my bad. But he did lose 3 in a row to Duke, and he had a 2-9 and 3-8 season all before he got things going in the right direction.

Well the first 2 years he no players. He didn’t get Shawn Jones until his 2 class. The first class he got his O-line. Mike Mooney? Etc.

 

[JanKemp]

CPJ stuck around.

PJ never had a season like Ross , I know the winning % might favor PJ but I'd take Ross all day

 

[JanKemp]

Give Bobby Ross a good quarterback, a good all around running back, a pair of go get it receivers and a multi dimensional tight end and a sound offensive line and he was the best. Kicking and special teams were very good and the defense was outstanding. Of course, with Swilling and "Big Play" Willie Clay, the original "Battleship" Kevin Battle, Marco Coleman, Calvin Tiggle, and Coleman Rudolph well PJ never had that kind of talent at his disposal but Ross was very good no doubt about it.

Ross got big Olinemen , which is where winning starts

 

[bke1984]

We have he worst special teams we’ve ever had...and I honestly don’t think that is an understatement. It could easily be the one thing that is keeping us from a 7-2 or 8-1 record.

The defense is pretty damn good and the offense is good enough with explosive play capability.

The special teams are enough to say we are average, unfortunately.

 

[4shotB]

Though Tech loses 7 starters (mainly in the secondary) on D the players behind them are getting experience and have more size and speed so I don't think the drop off will be huge.

I ever so respectfully disagree, I have seen enough turnover in personnel to never assume that the "dropoff" will be negligible. So many of us thought that we could easily replace guys like Laskey and Days, and we found out that we were wrong. The first stringers are starting because of a reason and experience means so much in this game. Look at BJS vs. BM. BJS has got everything you want in a player...except experience. Notice how much of a difference BM makes when he plays?

The TL;DR version - never be quick to discount playing experience. It takes time for all but the very elite (CJ for instance) to come in and be an instant upgrade from his predecessor. You may get it at RB and WR but at very few other positions.

 

[Eli]

Ross and O’Leary took over the program from dumpster fire level and turned them into top tier programs. Johnson took over a program that was consistently 7-5 and has had some good seasons, some crappy ones, and some great ones.

Ross and O’Leary might have won a national title with the 2009 team.

There’s a reason Bobby Ross was hired into the NFL and O’Leary was hired by Notre Dame (ever so briefly). They were elite coaches.

Notre Dame hired Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham. Just because a big time program hires you doesn't make you an elite coach. I'd love to see what Paul could do with the same restrictions and a very weak acc