Is this our best coaching staff of all time?

[AlabamaBuzz]

Honestly, when I saw the title of the thread, l LOL'ed.

Optimists are looking for anything to be excited and enthused about. I understand their needs, but as a pessimist (that is their term - my term is realist), I don't usually participate either.

 

[iceeater1969]

Haven't seen a full season so far.

But its the biggest and best organized by far.
I assume AD is improving support areas like tutoring, mentoring, medical, student life.

With that we can have a great staff thats not tied to personality.

To be the greatest, we need some genius coaching.

 

[00Burdell]

this is something I found so it's not my words. Funny thing the first 2 are something we did in High School football and that was years ago. ( I have no idea if this is what we will do.

When you watch a football game, you will notice that players use first-step quickness and reaction on every play. This begs the question: Can first-step quickness and reaction be trained? I am a firm believer that reaction is a skill, and a skill must be practiced repeatedly with proper fundamentals in order to be improved.

The first phase of a reaction-training program comes after an athlete demonstrates the proper ability to decelerate under control. Once this ability has been demonstrated, you can begin to train "pre-programmed" cone drills. The game of football is a game of direction change (angles and short bursts). Some of the movements that are used on the football field are sprinting, shuffling and backpedaling. To mimic these movements and these angles, you can use cone drills.
Cones drills are often times set up in the form of a shape or a letter. For example, the square drill and the L drill are two of the more common cone drills. You can vary the cone distance and the movements that are used when performing these exercises. Cone drills are an example of a "pre-programmed" reaction drill where athletes know exactly what is expected before they run the drill. This drill is great for athletes of all levels when proper coaching is involved. Key coaching points in these drills are: not to round the cones; stick your outside foot in the ground; and maintain proper athletic posture with your butt down, chest up and shoulders back.

The second phase of reaction training is having a coach give a verbal command. As athletes master the cone drills, the next progression is to train reaction to the sound of a coach's voice. Often times, this is referred to as a wave drill in football, wherein a coach instructs the athlete to sprint, backpedal, shuffle, jump or roll. This type of drill forces the athlete to listen for a command and react to it as quickly as possible.
Wave drills are great because they require no equipment. Furthermore, these drills also allow coaches to see how quickly an athlete can process information while moving from one command to the next. Reacting to the voice, along with other reaction drills, should mimic the game of football in terms of work-to-rest ratio, so we utilize about seven seconds of work with 35 seconds of recovery. Key coaching points to consider during these drills are to avoid anticipating the coach's commands.

The third and final phase is reacting to a colored light or colored cone. This reaction is more demanding on the athlete's response time, and therefore we place it at the end of our training progressions. Using equipment such as the fitLight Trainer will allow athletes to be challenged while having fun in a competitive atmosphere. This is a system comprised of eight lights that are controlled by a tablet. As the colored light is triggered, the athlete must react as quickly as possible.
Since most people do not have access to such a system, you can use colored cones instead. Simply set up mulitple cones, each with a different color. As the coach shouts the color, the athlete reacts to that color.

Most of quickness is mental. There is obviously the regimen of focusing training to develop and strengthen fast-twitch fibers but most football quickness is a function of how long it takes the defender to figure out where the football is going (whether pass or run). You can see this during a game by going super slo-mo and watching when players "make the break" for the ball. Charlie Thomas broke very soon after the snap whereas players who may be as quick as Thomas broke later - took them longer to process the dynamics and plot a course.

Watch how a hawk catches a mouse in an open field when the mouse is darting left and right. That is more about recognition and anticipation than physical quickness (although the absense of physical quickness makes the recognition a moot point).

And getting back to OP, its a bit early to wonder how good this staff is. Honestly, you can have the best individual coaches ever but its also about how well they work together. Faulker and Weinke are, I would suggest, excellent coaches. But if they are on completely different pages when it comes to which play to call on third-and-six from our own 11 yard line, all that talent is down the drain.

 

[57jacket]

Georgia Tech coach Brent Key stayed well within his budget in making the first two hires to his coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and offensive-line coach Geep Wade were given two-year deals worth $750,000 and $350,000, respectively. The contract information was obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open-records request.

 

[00Burdell]

Georgia Tech coach Brent Key stayed well within his budget in making the first two hires to his coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and offensive-line coach Geep Wade were given two-year deals worth $750,000 and $350,000, respectively. The contract information was obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open-records request.

I'm assuming there are some meaningful incentive clauses in there to reward the staff for meeting various milestone accomplishments.

 

[Buzzbomb]

Not updated on rw.com as of January 11, 2023. Not guaranteed for total accuracy.

Georgia Tech Coaching Staff​

• Head coach- Brent Key
• Quarterbacks coach/co-offensive coordinator- Chris Weinke
• Offensive coordinator/tight ends coach- Buster Faulkner
• Running backs coach, Running game coordinator- Norval McKenzie
• Wide receivers coach- Josh Crawford
• Offensive line coach-Geep Wade
• Defensive coordinator- Andrew Thacker
• Defensive line coach- Marco Coleman
• Special Teams, Safeties coach- Jason Semore
• Linebackers coach- Kevin Sherrer
• Defensive backs coach- Travares Tillman

Bill Stewart, Analyst
Tim McFarlin, Director of HS Relations
Brian Baker, Defensive Analyst
Beau Davidson, Director of Player Personnel
Errin Joe, GM
Josh Thompson, Director of Football Ops.
AJ Artis, Head of Strength & Conditioning/Coordinator
Anthony Parker, Director of Player Development(was this position merged, DPP?)
Jim Chaney, Special Assistant to Head Coach
Jon Blake, Asst. Dir. of Football Operations
Pat Boyle, Football Research & Analytics Coordinator
Kenyatta Watson, Director of Scouting & Pro Liason
Tyler Almond, Quality Control Specialist, Defense
Will Glover, QCS, Offense
Kyle Glover, Director of On-Campus Recruiting
Graduate Asst. Coaches: Nathan Brock, Alec Brown, Kenny Lucky, Tom Gerhard

Not sure why a Moderator moved this to “is this the best staff of all time?” That’s to be determined saying the least.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Optimists are looking for anything to be excited and enthused about. I understand their needs, but as a pessimist (that is their term - my term is realist), I don't usually participate either.

My wife is a pessimist. I tend toward optimism.

My favorite joke about this.

What is the difference between an optimist and pessimist?

An optimist believes this is the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist fears this is so.

 

[Southern psu fan]

Okay...it's early. Too early.

But I'm curious...we know that there will be a lot of experienced coaches, analysts, and consultants, etc. on the Tech sidelines this coming fall.

And yeah, Heisman, Dodd, yada, yada, yada. Luminaries, I know.

But in terms of cumulative resume strength, how does the currently assembled coaching staff compare to past years?

Bobby Ross, Ralph Freidgen and George O’Leary might be the best coaching staff I’ve ever seen in college football. What GT accomplished under these 3 dudes was amazing and the wins and championships don’t lie. Doesn’t get any better it can only get as good.

 

[EE95_curse EMAG!]

Huh? Who on our staff has a great resume? I think we hope they will be great, but pretty much everyone on staff has something to prove because this job is a step above anything theyve ever done before.

Recency bias at work. We were so awful football-wise, so quickly, that any staff that appears to be a improvement is now the GOAT staff. LOL. Sad that we fell that far, glad that we're up off the bottom.

 

[Southern psu fan]

Recency bias at work. We were so awful football-wise, so quickly, that any staff that appears to be an improvement is now the GOAT staff. LOL. Sad that we fell that far, glad that we're up off the bottom.

I believe Brent Key will get it done. He’s been around some of the best football coaches of all time and just to have seen how much better GT got after he took over makes me feel very optimistic because he took over a train wreck.

 

[dirty foot]

Remember winning ain't free send a check even if it's only $100.00
Buy season tickets and if you can't make the game give them to your local high school and help build the fan base
Go Jackets
THWg
Beat Louisville

 

[Randy Carson]

Are you sure that wasn't George O'Leary instead of Chan Gailey?

You're correct. My bad. I meant GOL. (I knew there was a G in there somewhere.)

 

[yeti92]

Not sure why a Moderator moved this to “is this the best staff of all time?” That’s to be determined saying the least.

Didn't you post that in the recruiting forum? It probably makes more sense in this thread or the Key's Staff thread than there.

 

[CuseJacket]

Not sure why a Moderator moved this to “is this the best staff of all time?” That’s to be determined saying the least.

You accidentally posted it in the recruiting forum, and I thought we could place it here rather than a new thread in the main forum that would overlap with this discussion. I agree, your post doesn’t state a position but clarifies who the staff is that folks are talking about.

 

[Randy Carson]

dude, try thinking before you post

Honestly, when I saw the title of the thread, l LOL'ed.

Optimists are looking for anything to be excited and enthused about. I understand their needs, but as a pessimist (that is their term - my term is realist), I don't usually participate either.

Okay, having felt the sting of criticism of the premise of my thread, I've decided not to take it lying down. So, let's review, shall we?

One coaching posse proposed as superior to our current staff includes: Pepper Rodgers, Steve Spurrier and Jerry Glanville. Pretty impressive, eh?

BUT NOT AT THE TIME THEY WERE ASSEMBLED.

PEPPER RODGERS
Pepper Rodgers played QB and K at Georgia Tech from 1951-1953. Under HC Bobby Dodd (cue angelic host), Rodgers led the team to a perfect 12-0 season and a national championship in 1952. Drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the 12th round, Rodgers chose instead to remain at Georgia Tech to finish his <ahem> Industrial Management degree before joining the Air Force for five years. During that period, Rodgers worked as an assistant coach for the Air Force football team. He then moved on to a series of stops at Florida, UCLA (assistant), Kansas and UCLA (HC) before arriving back at Georgia Tech in 1974 where he compiled a record of 34-31-2 over six seasons. Rodgers was fired after the 4-6-1 1979 campaign. His lifetime record of 73-65-3 as a HC indicates that Rodgers was not an exceptional coach on the Flats.

JERRY GLANVILLE
Glanville played his college ball at powerhouse Northern Michigan University. He began his college coaching career at Western Kentucky where he was DC for one season (1967). In 1968, he was hired by Georgia Tech, and he coached the DE/OLB group from 1968-1973 . So, Glanville had a whopping one year of coaching experience before coming to the Flats.

STEVE SPURRIER
Spurrier played QB in high school and was recruited heavily by Florida; he was attracted by the warm sunny weather and the head coach's promise that the offense was going to be opened up to a more "pro-style" system. After sharing QB responsibility in his sophomore year, Spurrier went on to win the starting job and to set all kinds of passing records. After graduation, he bummed around Gainesville for a year finally landing a spot on the FL coaching staff in 1978 where he coached the QB room for ONE YEAR. In 1979, Spurrier was hired by Georgia Tech. IOW, Spurrier had a grand total of one year of coaching experience before coming to Georgia Tech.

SUMMARY (TL;DR)
I think it is obvious that this particular group of coaches was not an impressive assemblage at the time they came together at Georgia Tech. While Glanville and Spurrier achieved considerable success later in their careers, at the time they were hired, they had less to show for themselves than our current staff assembled by HCBK.

 

[iceeater1969]

Remember winning ain't free send a check even if it's only $100.00
Buy season tickets and if you can't make the game give them to your local high school and help build the fan base
Go Jackets
THWg
Beat Louisville

Welcome aboard, Dirty.
U give me hope that gtaa will come up w a way to tap into fan enthusiasm like yours.
Marketing does not equal the old gt grads and the gtaa

 

[EE95_curse EMAG!]

I believe Brent Key will get it done. He’s been around some of the best football coaches of all time and just to have seen how much better GT got after he took over makes me feel very optimistic because he took over a train wreck.

I wasn't taking a shot at Key at all, in case that was gleaned from my post. I am pleasantly surprised with coaching hires and intangible staff hires. I am surprised GT is spending enough money, given all the AA red ink, to field these extra high school coordinators/liaisons. In the end, the proof is on the field and we didn't exactly hire sure-fire stud coaches. I don't see any retreads either and Key did let Long go, which was priority 1 for me.

I am (mildly) excited for GT football, first time since early year 1 during CGC era, when I got deflated real fast.

This is a solid staff, but those asking if best GT staff ever...that was a laughable concept given we have a first time HC with no real history of coaching success.

 

[7979]

Yes, Steve was QB coach in1979.

Yup, and Glanville was never DC at Tech.....Pepper's first staff in '74 had several interesting guys at different points along their FB coaching development line. Glanville was coaching LBs, **** Bestwick (becomes UVA HC in '76) had Gs and Cs...Steve Ortmeyer (Raiders GM in 90s) Ts and TEs....Floyd Reese (Oilers Titans GM in 2000s) was strength and conditioning, Dave Braine was working w DBs......
Didn't help much as we only won 6...although in Athens in mud was one of them....

 

[GTL]

I recall during the giddy first few games under Lewis, newspaper articles and sports talk shows were calling Lewis‘ staff the best in America, but I can’t recall who was on it nor can I find it online.

Of course, that didn’t work out well.

 

[slugboy]

I recall during the giddy first few games under Lewis, newspaper articles and sports talk shows were calling Lewis‘ staff the best in America, but I can’t recall who was on it nor can I find it online.

Of course, that didn’t work out well.

I was in grad school when he was hired. I don’t remember any accolades like that.
Even though he won coach of the year, everyone I saw was confused as to why he was hired.