Jamey Chadwell's success at Liberty

TooTall

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These are fun questions. And not because I’m unhappy with Key.

The Tech psyche is forever addicted to the ongoing question of what is the secret sauce that can win at an academically challenging school with a limited curriculum in an age of semi-pro ball.
Well our team will be 6-5 early Sunday morning and thats all that maters right now.
 

Ash

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Now that I think about it a bit more, I think the offense is doing just as well as I would have expected under Chadwell. The question is would he have been able to get more out of the Defensive side of the ball than what we have seen so far?
 

stinger78

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I like Chadwell. IMO he is an up and coming coach that will be hired away from Liberty in a couple of years if he keeps it up. I would have been fine with him being hired here. That being said, while Liberty is 10-0 right now, they have one of the most favorable schedules in the nation this year. Their SoS ranking is anywhere from 110-133 depending on the rating system.




Let Liberty play our schedule and see. I think one or two of Louisville, Ole Miss, UNC, and Clem might have beaten him.
 

Jerry the Jacket

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Georgia Tech does not have the talent to succeed much more than where they are currently at, regardless of who is at the helm. It is going to take several years of recruiting and good transfer luck to get Tech to a level of 80% or so success. We are unique from programs like Liberty, James Madison and Tulane. I am sure they all have their own challenges. All 3 of those programs benefit from recent success that the current coaches have been able to maintain, to their credit. Key did not inherit that sort of situation. He has a much more difficult mission to accomplish. As far Chadwell, he will more than likely accept a better offer this off season. Fritz is 63 years old, and Cignetti is earning his Bonafide's and will move on at the first opportunity.

Key is showing some traction on making progress and has clearly demonstrated he is committed to Georgia Tech for the long run. I think, over time, we will be happy with the selection our AD made. All the rest is speculation which is what message boards are all about.

Go Jackets!
 

slugboy

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Liberty is weird. Hugh Freeze had them at about an 8 win floor. Freeze has six wins at Auburn, with three in conference, at a school with great recruiting. It looks like it’s easier to win at Liberty than here—maybe a lot easier.

I’m comfortable saying Chadwell is a better coach than Freeze, and Kiffin is a better coach than Freeze. That doesn’t mean that Chadwell would have a much better record HERE. It also doesn’t mean he’s a better coach than Key. Our offense is pretty good, and our defense is not, which is pretty similar to what we might get with Chadwell.

I was rooting for getting Chadwell here. We did get a pretty decent offense here, and it can get more interesting. What we need is more depth and better defense. I’m not sure Chadwell solves those problems.

Thought experiment: we hire Chadwell, and he’s better than Key. With him, let’s say we beat BG and BC but lose to Miami, so we’re one game better at this part of the season. Let’s say we score another touchdown against Clemson and Ole Miss, so we still lose big. What’s the vibe of the fan base then?
My bet is that half the board here would be saying he’s overrated.
If you swapped our schedule with Liberty’s, we’re probably 8-2 or 9-1, with at least one inexplicable loss.
On the other hand, If Chadwell coached our team, is he the kind of coach that removes the inexplicable loss from our record? Johnson had them against Middle Tennessee and Kansas. It seems like it’s a thing we do most years.
 

Oldgoldandwhite

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I was not saying I was unhappy with Key, because the rest would use us for a stepping stone. Even Curry did, which surprised me at the time. I think Key is here for the long haul.
But at sometime in their career, about any school could have had:
Bowden, Spurrier, Saban, Dabo, or even Kirby. Many schools with more money than us are saying “oh, what could have been”.
 

DvilleJacket

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Liberty is weird. Hugh Freeze had them at about an 8 win floor. Freeze has six wins at Auburn, with three in conference, at a school with great recruiting. It looks like it’s easier to win at Liberty than here—maybe a lot easier.

I’m comfortable saying Chadwell is a better coach than Freeze, and Kiffin is a better coach than Freeze. That doesn’t mean that Chadwell would have a much better record HERE. It also doesn’t mean he’s a better coach than Key. Our offense is pretty good, and our defense is not, which is pretty similar to what we might get with Chadwell.

I was rooting for getting Chadwell here. We did get a pretty decent offense here, and it can get more interesting. What we need is more depth and better defense. I’m not sure Chadwell solves those problems.

Thought experiment: we hire Chadwell, and he’s better than Key. With him, let’s say we beat BG and BC but lose to Miami, so we’re one game better at this part of the season. Let’s say we score another touchdown against Clemson and Ole Miss, so we still lose big. What’s the vibe of the fan base then?
My bet is that half the board here would be saying he’s overrated.
If you swapped our schedule with Liberty’s, we’re probably 8-2 or 9-1, with at least one inexplicable loss.
On the other hand, If Chadwell coached our team, is he the kind of coach that removes the inexplicable loss from our record? Johnson had them against Middle Tennessee and Kansas. It seems like it’s a thing we do most years.
Freeze was given a dumpster fire while Chadwell was given a stocked shelf in a weaker conference!
 

Techster

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Liberty is weird. Hugh Freeze had them at about an 8 win floor. Freeze has six wins at Auburn, with three in conference, at a school with great recruiting. It looks like it’s easier to win at Liberty than here—maybe a lot easier.

I would actually say it's easier to win at GT than at Auburn.
 

CEB

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Liberty is weird. Hugh Freeze had them at about an 8 win floor. Freeze has six wins at Auburn, with three in conference, at a school with great recruiting. It looks like it’s easier to win at Liberty than here—maybe a lot easier.

I’m comfortable saying Chadwell is a better coach than Freeze, and Kiffin is a better coach than Freeze. That doesn’t mean that Chadwell would have a much better record HERE. It also doesn’t mean he’s a better coach than Key. Our offense is pretty good, and our defense is not, which is pretty similar to what we might get with Chadwell.

I was rooting for getting Chadwell here. We did get a pretty decent offense here, and it can get more interesting. What we need is more depth and better defense. I’m not sure Chadwell solves those problems.

Thought experiment: we hire Chadwell, and he’s better than Key. With him, let’s say we beat BG and BC but lose to Miami, so we’re one game better at this part of the season. Let’s say we score another touchdown against Clemson and Ole Miss, so we still lose big. What’s the vibe of the fan base then?
My bet is that half the board here would be saying he’s overrated.
If you swapped our schedule with Liberty’s, we’re probably 8-2 or 9-1, with at least one inexplicable loss.
On the other hand, If Chadwell coached our team, is he the kind of coach that removes the inexplicable loss from our record? Johnson had them against Middle Tennessee and Kansas. It seems like it’s a thing we do most years.
I think it’s a fallacy perpetuated by many sports fans and even some coaches that you can be your “best” week in and week out. You can’t. That’s the goal, but it’s extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible.
You can put in the effort and the prep and still have mental lapses and ups and downs. Really good teams don’t “avoid” these let downs, but they more often survive them. They are talented enough to overcome or stay close, and experienced enough to focus when the opportunity presents.
We’re rebuilding. We aren’t talented enough to overcome lapses against decent football teams. We’re not experienced enough to regroup / refocus on the fly. Granted, we seem to be the most “Jekyll & Hyde” team in CFB this year because our highs are pretty darned high, but I like the highs… it shows the level at which we are capable of competing. Problem is, when we’re off, we’re susceptible to loss to just about anyone too. Its magnified for us right now, but we’ve always been a team that relies heavily on execution more so than raw talent / physical traits so we see bigger swings when execution is not there.
 

iceeater1969

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These are fun questions. And not because I’m unhappy with Key.

The Tech psyche is forever addicted to the ongoing question of what is the secret sauce that can win at an academically challenging school with a limited curriculum in an age of semi-pro ball.

Need to get smarter at
- lb s that can't read football keys.
- dbs that constantly arm tackle.
- wr that don't make route adjustments to get open.
 

slugboy

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Freeze was given a dumpster fire while Chadwell was given a stocked shelf in a weaker conference!
I would actually say it's easier to win at GT than at Auburn.
UCF is happy with one of Auburn’s recent discards.
Auburn doesn’t know what a dumpster fire is. We do. Their version of a dumpster fire is what we toast s’mores on.
Even with Malzahn “not being able to recruit” Auburn was getting classes that we would go nuts for. They put players into the league, too. They are going to out-recruit a lot of their SEC West neighbors, and they’re very friendly to athletics.


I’d understand a Mississippi State comparison, though
I think it’s a fallacy perpetuated by many sports fans and even some coaches that you can be your “best” week in and week out. You can’t. That’s the goal, but it’s extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible.
You can put in the effort and the prep and still have mental lapses and ups and downs. Really good teams don’t “avoid” these let downs, but they more often survive them. They are talented enough to overcome or stay close, and experienced enough to focus when the opportunity presents.
We’re rebuilding. We aren’t talented enough to overcome lapses against decent football teams. We’re not experienced enough to regroup / refocus on the fly. Granted, we seem to be the most “Jekyll & Hyde” team in CFB this year because our highs are pretty darned high, but I like the highs… it shows the level at which we are capable of competing. Problem is, when we’re off, we’re susceptible to loss to just about anyone too. Its magnified for us right now, but we’ve always been a team that relies heavily on execution more so than raw talent / physical traits so we see bigger swings when execution is not there.
True. Other teams lose to weaker teams too.

We’re in a weird spot. We have a big history. We have a small stadium. We’re a tough school. We expect our team to be on the same footing as FSU, but we don’t fund like FSU. So, we’re a chaos agent, knocking off the big guys, then shooting ourselves in the foot.

A team won’t play its best every week, but FSU isn’t losing to FIU—at least it’s rare.
 

jojatk

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Liberty is 10-0 right now. TEN wins. ZERO losses ... (including a win over Bowling Green last week) ... all of which goes right along with past success.
I like Key. I'm pulling hard for him. I see reasons for optimism. Yet, I also regret not hiring Chadwell. Is it possible to have both of those feelings ... apparently so.
I can completely understand where you’re coming from. The only thing I didn’t like about Chadwell was that he wanted to bring a staff that had very little P5 experience on it and that felt way too much like our previous head coach. Back when we hired Key’s predecessor my main concern was that our OC had zero P5 experience. Our DC didn’t, either, but my brain (which was totally wrong) said that since our HC had plenty of P5 DC experience himself he could help guide Thack past that deficiency. So when I looked at Chadwell I really loved what we had done so far in his career and was not a bit concerned about his offense. But on defense that lack of P5 experience just made me cringe. Right or wrong that’s what gave me pause about him.
 

billga99

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I kinda touched on this in another thread.

Chadwell was my #1 choice, so no surprise that I keep tabs on Liberty. What hurts about Chadwell for me is we were thisclose to hiring him, but financial commitments got pulled from GTAA if Batt was going in that direction. The whole "if he keeps his defensive staff it's a no go" was just smoke to cover for some people wanting their guy. People were also worried Chadwell was riding the back of his QB at Coastal...but look what he's doing with another QB. The man can coach football.

James Madison's Cignetti was on my list as well. JMU is also undefeated.

Willie Fritz has Tulane 10-1, and that one loss is to a team we got smoked by. We all know what happened with Fritz.

That said, I was also rooting for Key (under certain circumstances). I really like what he's building here. People need to understand that progress is rarely a straight line going up. Our offense is trending to be one of the better offenses in the country, and we have the most important building block any offense can have: a very good QB. Our defense needs a LOT of work, and Key will need to address that this offseason. The promising thing is Key did not wait to make a change, and he's shown he's willing to make hard decisions for the betterment of the program. I LOVE Chadwell's offense, and I think it would have given us that schematic advantage CPJ and Friedgen gave GT...however, I've always said there's more than one way outside of the option to give GT a schematic advantage. I like what Faulkner is doing, and I think this offense is only going to get better. We have some really exciting pieces, and we have some good pieces coming in this recruiting cycle. I was skeptical of the Faulkner hire, but I've been pleased with what I've seen.

GT is one win away from bowl eligibility, and we were close to having an 7+ win season. We don't know what Key's ceiling is yet. I think he can easily win us 8+ games a year. I doubt he misses many bowl games in the future. Is his upside as high as some others that GT was looking at? We'll see.
SOS makes a big difference in ability to get wins:
Powerrankingsguru : GT 44, Liberty 131 (out of 133), James Madision 111, Tulane 108
TeamRankings: GT 44, Liberty 110, Tulane 79, James Madison 77
Fairly different results in the two rankings but certainly playing at a much different level. I am not sure you can look at relative records of teams when there is a substantial different of SOS. One last thing is Key will stick this out if things get better. I am not sure if you can make the same case with other coaches.
 

sgreer

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Liberty would attract better players if they were in the ACC so it’s hard to play the what ifs when it comes to schedules. That is what irritates me when GT loses to a Bowling Green- ACC should always be greater than MAC, Conference USA, Sunbelt team etc.
 
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