Introduce yourself

[Essobee]

The reason Ross almost threw in the towel is well known. Coaching and recruiting at Tech is tough and he got tired of the constant static and background noise from disgruntled fans who could not see that the program was improving even though the record did not show it. I do not defend CPJ at all costs but I am far more patient with him than some realizing that Tech has some very real systemic barriers as an institution that make progress toward a winning program slow.

Amen, brother. Here we are 3 and 0, but to hear some fans you would think we were 0 and 3.

Perhaps one reason that Tech fans are so demanding is that much was demanded of them while at Tech. Of course, that is good in the long run and is a primary reason why Tech people and the Tech institution have excelled and continue to do so. The fact that we continue to hang in there through thick and thin speaks for itself. I've always said that you can't build character without adversity.

 

[Mack]

Well said. My dad used to tell me that Dodd saw the handwriting on the wall and knew he was going to leave a program with a bare cupboard going forward. I did not believe him at the time but with hindsight he was right on the money. Tech fans are notoriously fickle. We ran off Bud Carson who is considered by many to be one of the five greatest coaching minds in history and who built what is considered the greatest defense in NFL history at Pittsburgh. The reason Ross almost threw in the towel is well known. Coaching and recruiting at Tech is tough and he got tired of the constant static and background noise from disgruntled fans who could not see that the program was improving even though the record did not show it. I do not defend CPJ at all costs but I am far more patient with him than some realizing that Tech has some very real systemic barriers as an institution that make progress toward a winning program slow.

Well the cupboard still had some good players left on the squad.Kim King and Lenny Snow were back but again both got hurt and this killed us.Tech fans are fickle and from what folks have said Dodd didnt want Carson to be the HC since he had picked a guy out himself but was overruled by the powers to be.Carson did whale of job with the defense but the guys that I talked to who played with him didnt like him at all.No question Tech laid down vs Ole Miss in Peach Bowl to get him fired and it worked.Ross was the guys who had a bare cupboard no doubt but he was a established coach at several schools such as MD where he was successful.I am not waging a anti Bud war but to me this was the first time in years (22) that we hired a guy with no experience as a HC.I have the feeling that after six years of seven and five it is time to change the horses.Now who we would get would be anybody's guess but hope its one who can get excitement back on the flats.Tech fans no doubt are fickle but we have been fairly patient with this program. Sure hope the lofty predictions of David Blaine do not come true.

 

[Mack]

Amen, brother. Here we are 3 and 0, but to hear some fans you would think we were 0 and 3.

Perhaps one reason that Tech fans are so demanding is that much was demanded of them while at Tech. Of course, that is good in the long run and is a primary reason why Tech people and the Tech institution have excelled and continue to do so. The fact that we continue to hang in there through thick and thin speaks for itself. I've always said that you can't build character without adversity.

Well my friend the level of characer should be high since we have had a ton of adversity in past 13 or so years.Maybe this year we change.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Well the cupboard still had some good players left on the squad.Kim King and Lenny Snow were back but again both got hurt and this killed us.Tech fans are fickle and from what folks have said Dodd didnt want Carson to be the HC since he had picked a guy out himself but was overruled by the powers to be.Carson did whale of job with the defense but the guys that I talked to who played with him didnt like him at all.No question Tech laid down vs Ole Miss in Peach Bowl to get him fired and it worked.Ross was the guys who had a bare cupboard no doubt but he was a established coach at several schools such as MD where he was successful.I am not waging a anti Bud war but to me this was the first time in years (22) that we hired a guy with no experience as a HC.I have the feeling that after six years of seven and five it is time to change the horses.Now who we would get would be anybody's guess but hope its one who can get excitement back on the flats.Tech fans no doubt are fickle but we have been fairly patient with this program. Sure hope the lofty predictions of David Blaine do not come true.

Yes, we had King and Snow but the underclassmen behind them and the rest of the positions on offense and defense represented huge drop offs. I guess, however, that I am ignorant about how Carson was chosen. I assumed he was Dodd's pick because nobody else seemed to want him. I remembered great howling and gnashing of teeth by all the Tech people who said he was not a Tech man and he was a yankee to boot. People lined up against him right away in my opinion. I was at the Peach Bowl game by the way. There was a whole section of Georgia fans sitting around me who kept yelling, "Bye, bye coach, every time Ole Miss scored."

 

[Essobee]

Well my friend the level of characer should be high since we have had a ton of adversity in past 13 or so years.Maybe this year we change.

Well Mack, perhaps my old age is to blame for what appears to be complacency. I have given the matter much thought over the years, especially because I selected GA Tech in 1955 based on (1) the great football team and (2) the kind of work (tinkering with electronics) that I enjoyed doing at the time. I also seriously considered Auburn (great football team) and Clemson (poor football team but, like Auburn, a technical school away from the big city...Atlanta was nearing 1 million population).

A lot has changed since then and my thoughts today are "What if Tech had stayed in the SEC and gone the way of Auburn and Clemson?" I'm the kind of person that values excellence and am satisfied that I would be saying to myself, "With all those great players we are getting, why don't we win our conference every year and the national championship at least every ten years? And Tech hasn't beaten anyone by triple digits since Heisman. Must be the coach once again. Fire the bastard, dig up Dodd, and move GA Tech to Alabama or South Carolina!"

So things wouldn't be all that different than today except we wouldn't have our scholastic pride on which to fall back. And we do have four national championships to go along with our academic excellence plus a recent ACC championship. And we haven't had a losing season for a long while. Throw in our other sports, which were dismal (except basketball) when I was a student, and things ain't so bad these days. Could be better, could be worse, but not bad at all IMHO.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda beaten UGA the last time we played them, btw.

 

[Mack]

Yes, we had King and Snow but the underclassmen behind them and the rest of the positions on offense and defense represented huge drop offs. I guess, however, that I am ignorant about how Carson was chosen. I assumed he was Dodd's pick because nobody else seemed to want him. I remembered great howling and gnashing of teeth by all the Tech people who said he was not a Tech man and he was a yankee to boot. People lined up against him right away in my opinion. I was at the Peach Bowl game by the way. There was a whole section of Georgia fans sitting around me who kept yelling, "Bye, bye coach, every time Ole Miss scored."

I just looked up the 67 team and we had more folks than some say we did.We know according to many that Dodd was blind sided by Carsons hiring....not sure how Dodd took this internally. But he was a Carson man in public.......no doubt tech laid down to get him fired.....bad thing was the Hill made the players take the. Id to Peach.He may have survived if we had stayed home.

 

[Mack]

Well Mack, perhaps my old age is to blame for what appears to be complacency. I have given the matter much thought over the years, especially because I selected GA Tech in 1955 based on (1) the great football team and (2) the kind of work (tinkering with electronics) that I enjoyed doing at the time. I also seriously considered Auburn (great football team) and Clemson (poor football team but, like Auburn, a technical school away from the big city...Atlanta was nearing 1 million population).

A lot has changed since then and my thoughts today are "What if Tech had stayed in the SEC and gone the way of Auburn and Clemson?" I'm the kind of person that values excellence and am satisfied that I would be saying to myself, "With all those great players we are getting, why don't we win our conference every year and the national championship at least every ten years? And Tech hasn't beaten anyone by triple digits since Heisman. Must be the coach once again. Fire the bastard, dig up Dodd, and move GA Tech to Alabama or South Carolina!"

So things wouldn't be all that different than today except we wouldn't have our scholastic pride on which to fall back. And we do have four national championships to go along with our academic excellence plus a recent ACC championship. And we haven't had a losing season for a long while. Throw in our other sports, which were dismal (except basketball) when I was a student, and things ain't so bad these days. Could be better, could be worse, but not bad at all IMHO.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda beaten UGA the last time we played them, btw.

See your points but being younger (66)I am out of patience with seven and five etc..WE are not all Bsd or good but time to break out of the Blaine model.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I just looked up the 67 team and we had more folks than some say we did.We know according to many that Dodd was blind sided by Carsons hiring....not sure how Dodd took this internally. But he was a Carson man in public.......no doubt tech laid down to get him fired.....bad thing was the Hill made the players take the. Id to Peach.He may have survived if we had stayed home.

This is interesting to me that Dodd was overruled since there remained so many on the Athletic Board who absolutely wanted a Tech man to be the next coach. I also remember the players being forced to accept the Peach Bowl. I was not in favor of it when I found out they were overruled and almost could have predicted the results. That was all such a sorry mess and was the end of my innocence about Tech. Up till then I thought it was a kind of Camelot of high class and ethics.

 

[Mack]

This is interesting to me that Dodd was overruled since there remained so many on the Athletic Board who absolutely wanted a Tech man to be the next coach. I also remember the players being forced to accept the Peach Bowl. I was not in favor of it when I found out they were overruled and almost could have predicted the results. That was all such a sorry mess and was the end of my innocence about Tech. Up till then I thought it was a kind of Camelot of high class and ethics.

Well remember back then Peach Bowl I think wanted somebody else and got a scent that the Hill would take tech....Now have talked to two folks who played on that team and the vote was held twice...one thing for sure as one said to Foggy"we played first half to get rid of Bud and last half for tech"Now again this is scuttlebutt but I seem to remember Dodd wanted Bill Battle from Tenn to follow him..........not sure of this but I am sure he didnt get his pick.Guess he could have got a alum like maybe Pepper but didnt do it.Remember that this same crowd that wanted to deflate football in middle fifties.Not sure who made the call but yeah he was actually first yankee i think who was coaching a ACC or SEC school and years ago that meant something to some.Interesting facts wonder what did take place behind the doors prior to picking Bud.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Well remember back then Peach Bowl I think wanted somebody else and got a scent that the Hill would take tech....Now have talked to two folks who played on that team and the vote was held twice...one thing for sure as one said to Foggy"we played first half to get rid of Bud and last half for tech"Now again this is scuttlebutt but I seem to remember Dodd wanted Bill Battle from Tenn to follow him..........not sure of this but I am sure he didnt get his pick.Guess he could have got a alum like maybe Pepper but didnt do it.Remember that this same crowd that wanted to deflate football in middle fifties.Not sure who made the call but yeah he was actually first yankee i think who was coaching a ACC or SEC school and years ago that meant something to some.Interesting facts wonder what did take place behind the doors prior to picking Bud.

I can't let this go because it is so intriguing to me. The person who played on the team that you quoted certainly describes what it looked like. I remember one pass into the end zone in which a Tech defender had the ball in his hands and practically handed it to the Ole Miss receiver for a touchdown. Tech looked horrible in the first half and then looked unbeatable in the second half but by then they were too far behind to catch up.

As for coaches, Heisman, who is considered Tech's first real football coach, was a yankee through and through and no one seemed to care. The later demand by Tech insiders that all coaches be "Tech men" was revisionist thinking that I could never understand. As for Pepper Rodgers, the rap was that Dodd did not like him. Which kind of makes sense since they were definitely cut from different cloth. Pepper was flamboyant and crazy compared to Dodd's more buttoned down approach. Fulcher perhaps was too young at the time but would have been a good coach were it not for his wife who utterly destroyed his career.

As for the players not liking Carson I have wondered if it was the curse of following Dodd. Dodd did things that would never been done today in college sports in terms of making practice fun and giving players a fair amount of freedom. Carson was more like coaches are today. He probably seemed like a dictator compared to the easy going Dodd. But the hardest part of all was that Dodd was such an appealing, likeable person that made anyone feel good. Carson would have seemed like a cold, introverted fish by comparison. Anyone following Dodd might have had this problem.

 

[Mack]

I can't let this go because it is so intriguing to me. The person who played on the team that you quoted certainly describes what it looked like. I remember one pass into the end zone in which a Tech defender had the ball in his hands and practically handed it to the Ole Miss receiver for a touchdown. Tech looked horrible in the first half and then looked unbeatable in the second half but by then they were too far behind to catch up.

As for coaches, Heisman, who is considered Tech's first real football coach, was a yankee through and through and no one seemed to care. The later demand by Tech insiders that all coaches be "Tech men" was revisionist thinking that I could never understand. As for Pepper Rodgers, the rap was that Dodd did not like him. Which kind of makes sense since they were definitely cut from different cloth. Pepper was flamboyant and crazy compared to Dodd's more buttoned down approach. Fulcher perhaps was too young at the time but would have been a good coach were it not for his wife who utterly destroyed his career.

As for the players not liking Carson I have wondered if it was the curse of following Dodd. Dodd did things that would never been done today in college sports in terms of making practice fun and giving players a fair amount of freedom. Carson was more like coaches are today. He probably seemed like a dictator compared to the easy going Dodd. But the hardest part of all was that Dodd was such an appealing, likeable person that made anyone feel good. Carson would have seemed like a cold, introverted fish by comparison. Anyone following Dodd might have had this problem.

Agree with you on Carson after Dodd but not so sure from 48-66 that there was many if any coaches from the North coaching the southern teams.Now as far as teh bowl that comes pretty stright from a guy who was there.I do remember Tech took two votes and the first vote was to go home rather than paly Ole Miss.Now Pepper was a hot dog no doubt and during the early sixties he was doing well at two big schools so yeah,doubt Dodd wanted him to take over at Tech.Dodd was diffferent no doubt and was a more finesse type team than one Bud wanted and this could have had something to do with the dislike many had for his methods.I watched them several times and it was clear under Bud the jackets would really hit you and had some good athlertes.still though not playing Brent Cunningham much as a senior sort of upset me since Brent could do it all.I am sorry but I read somewhere Dodd had almost offered the job to Battle at Tenn but I may be wrong but its clear the Hill didnt go for his choice.I agree though this idea of a Tech man is good if .......he can coach but folks forget that in 79 Curry had ........Steve Spurrier as his qb coach and they didnt keep him......now that makes you wonder what could have been.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Agree with you on Carson after Dodd but not so sure from 48-66 that there was many if any coaches from the North coaching the southern teams.Now as far as teh bowl that comes pretty stright from a guy who was there.I do remember Tech took two votes and the first vote was to go home rather than paly Ole Miss.Now Pepper was a hot dog no doubt and during the early sixties he was doing well at two big schools so yeah,doubt Dodd wanted him to take over at Tech.Dodd was diffferent no doubt and was a more finesse type team than one Bud wanted and this could have had something to do with the dislike many had for his methods.I watched them several times and it was clear under Bud the jackets would really hit you and had some good athlertes.still though not playing Brent Cunningham much as a senior sort of upset me since Brent could do it all.I am sorry but I read somewhere Dodd had almost offered the job to Battle at Tenn but I may be wrong but its clear the Hill didnt go for his choice.I agree though this idea of a Tech man is good if .......he can coach but folks forget that in 79 Curry had ........Steve Spurrier as his qb coach and they didnt keep him......now that makes you wonder what could have been.

yeah, and Jerry Glanville as his DC.

 

[DirtyDingusMagee]

Hi everyone. My name is Paul. I'm in my mid thirties, from FL and have been a Tech fan my entire life...started going to Tech football games before I could walk or talk.

I didn't go to Tech, but I'm a die-hard fan. I got my Bachelor's and Master's degrees from UF, and my law degree from FSU. Only reason I didn't go to Tech is because you can't argue with in-state tuition...speaking of which, I just moved to ATL so I'll be at all the football games and a bunch of BB games (started with Miami last week). My dad went to Tech and I was my dad's son before I was a Gator, so that should tell you where my loyalty lies. Before I moved up here, I'd make the drive up for as many home games per year as I could, usually with my father riding shotgun.

I must admit I am a huge CPJ fan going back to the time I witnessed him call plays for a Navy offense that gave that '96 GT defense fits.

Best game I ever went to is a tie between '99 UGA (it was a fumble), '08 FSU and '89 Maryland (the one that turned the corner for the Ross regime).

Hope to meet you all at a tailgate...let me know if you accept stragglers and I'll bring the beer.

P.S. You'll be pleased to know I converted my wife from a Miami fan into a Tech fan.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Greetings! We have quite an exquisite society here with all that is unique about being a Tech fan.

 

[GTfansincebirth]

Hey Yall! My name is Brian Johnson. Go follow me @briantrimble3 Yall know me. hahahaha. I am the famous " You heard it here first guy" I have been here before! Something happened to my account so i made this one! Have not been on in weeks! The season is going great!I am a season ticket holder and I am super pumped about the game saturday! Go Jackets #BeatDuke

 

[John]

Something happened to my account so i made this one!

PM me if you want to go back to your original account.

 

[james hammond]

My name is Jim Hammond. BS Biol 72GT and DVM UGA 78 Big tech fan Hate Uga



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[Essobee]

My name is Jim Hammond. BS Biol 72GT and DVM UGA 78 Big tech fan Hate Uga



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Welcome, James. Always great to have another old guy on board.

 

[SavannahBee]

Hello to all. My name is Jeff. Bachelor of Civil Engineering (94). Practicing my trade in Savannah since 1995. Used to manage Pero's Pizza on North Avenue (from 1985-1994). We were the closest place to buy a draft to Grant Field until the restaurant closed along with Grumpy's and Pippin's in 1994. The strip was razed and they put up a Holiday Inn Express. Loved working those home games!

 

[Prosushi]

Hey everyone, been lurking for a few months here, but finally decided to post. My name is Ian. I am a helluva non-engineer, STaC '06. I am from and currently live in Tennessee. Grew up loving Tennessee football, so my hatred for uga was only increased by my attending Tech.