Let's keep some perspective here on our NEW HC

[GTJeff1975]

Lets see how the team responds Saturday. Not expecting a win but hope they are competitive. This is still year one I don’t care if he was here in some other capacity with the previous regime.

 

[stinger 1957]

Ok. How would you compare him to others in their ( almost ) first year? CBK had some pretty good experience with some VERY good coaches.
Looking forward to your reply......seriously.
Also, it would seem we are better off than VT and UVA who hired co-ordinators.

It's a crapshoot with any that have never been a HC, and even a successful HC does not always work out the way you envisioned, ala Jimbo Fisher TX A&M. At this point I am all in on CBK and believe he is going to work out in the long run. You don't turn this around overnight and frankly I sort of like the way this is playing out. What do I mean? If Sherrer can show some progress in how we play on defense and potential recruits and potential portal game changers on the defensive side of the ball see they can come in and make a difference coupled with a good offense already in place with a year under it's belt, that could mean we get personnel we need to have a good defense to go with the offense and potential championship caliber football team for those here and those wanting to come in. The question then becomes what if Sherrer does not show promise with our defense. CBK then makes a change and gets some one that he likes for the DC job. CBK shows he will not stand still and will do what is necessary just as he has done this week within the structure he had to work with this week. The man is being a good leader and manager IMO. I believe he is the type of person that will make the tough calls and puts the team, fans, and school ahead of himself, at least I presently feel that way about him. We may look back and realize that the BG loss was a blessing in disguise. The last thing I want to see us do is make another HC change and I wish people would back off and come to realize we're climbing out of a hole with no money. I think we're doing the right things with where we are.

 

[InsideLB]

Just my opinion, BGSU was the first game with Key as head coach that has caused me to worry about the future.

Defense still sucks. Offense is much better but clearly is a work in progress. STs overall are improved compared to last year but still have a ways to go.

Except last week kids have been prepared and have played hard. I have little confidence in our halftime adjustments though.

Recruiting and transfer portal have gone well so far. Nobody thought we'd be any good this year and they're probably going to end up being right. But we can show improvement, be disciplined, play hard etc. With Ross the record took awhile to improve but he had a way on hanging around in games and giving us a chance to win. You could see success coming though not natty level success.

Hoping this last game will prove to be an anomally.

 

[jojatk]

I don’t know what I think about Brent at this moment. I am extremely disappointed in the level of effort our players put out there on Saturday. That’s not about talent. And I had high hopes that while we might have games where we didn’t win because the other team just outplayed us I didn’t think we’d see any where our guys just didn’t show up. I still have hopes that Brent is the guy and I will support him until it is clear he isn’t, which I hope is never.

However, I am old enough to remember Bobby Ross’s first two years and the first three games of his third year. He didn’t forget how to coach and suddenly remember in his third year after starting 0-3. He and his staff decided they’d seen enough of the players who had been in the program for a while and started giving more responsibility and playing time to the guys they had recruited and it paid off. There were issues with players not being as talented but also not being bought in and just riding it out. I’m not comparing Brent Key to Bobby Ross in terms of their relative levels of experience and accomplishments nor are the staffs they had anywhere near comparable. But the situation is not that different (I profusely apologize to Coach Curry for in any way insinuating unintentionally any negative similarity between him and TFG). Brent replaces a guy that was not known for imposing any discipline. Bobby replaced a guy who was not known for imposing discipline. Frequently in those circumstances there are many who do not want or cannot adjust to discipline so I suspect there’s some of that going on.

I genuinely hope Brent figures it out. Nothing would make me happier than to have the right guy already leading our football program.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Look I know our fans are sick of losing and the last coach didn't help. But you have to giving a coach time to get his players in the system. And of course we have a few on here who wanted another coach and ain't going to be happy without the one they wanted. And we have a few who want to fire a coach after 1 year, At one time college coaches would tell you it takes 4 years to get all the players into their system. Now you have the Transfer portal that comes into play. So, I guess you could say it may not take 4 years maybe 3, but here at Tech you have to look at the ones we will lose. no one wants to lose but if you replace a coach every year or two things will never get better here. Not many want to come to a place like Tech and we really don't pay that great to great a great big-name coach.

Yeah, I think the desire to have a coach turn a program around in one year is an understandable human yearning but to expect that in the real world is to set a program up for endless cycles of failure.

 

[Techster]

Bottom line is there's 7 games left. GT may, MAY, be favored against 2 of them (UVA and BC). In order to make a bowl game, GT will need to upset 2 teams and take care of business against UVA and BC. Steep hill to climb as it stands right now.

Luckily, we've seen Key pull off two upsets last year against UNC and Pitt. We have the firepower on offense to do it, but the defense needs to do their part.

The season is far from over, but our margin of error has pretty much evaporated. Miami will probably the most important game in Key's early tenure...how the team responds to Key will tell us a lot about Key and this team.

 

[Techwood Relict]

Also, George O’Leary 6-8 through his first 1 1/2 years after taking over for the other TFG.

Wouldn't that be OG TFG?

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Let’s revisit this in year 4.

 

[LargeFO]

Seems like I heard Key himself say it has been GOL. Think he recently said it at a GT presser that GOL was attending, although the camera did not show GOL himself but there were press there when he said it. I'm guessing GOL likes doing this in his retirement. Does he now live at Oconee, at least part of the year?

He does. My dad said he came to the event they had near Madison a few months ago.

 

[Ramble1885]

okay someone with Twitter please go calm this man down. He's threatening to sell his GT-uga tickets to mutts.

https://twitter.com/GTAAisTRASH

 

[57jacket]

Excellent post.

 

[seanfloyd18]

okay someone with Twitter please go calm this man down. He's threatening to sell his GT-uga tickets to mutts.

https://twitter.com/GTAAisTRASH

Why calm him down? This is an attitude the new Athletic Director wants to erase from our fanbase. I’d rather have season ticket holders threatening it to keep some energy underneath the hill. This should be a motivator for anyone success-driven. If threatening this causes our program to crumble, it deserves to crumble.

 

[takethepoints]

NIL HAS killed that approach for talented players

True, but Wake doesn't depend so much on "talented" players. Here's their 247 composite rating (including transfers) for the last 5 years: 67, 79, 68, 53, 59. They've been averaging about 4 transfers a year. In short, they live within their means, develop the players, and put junior/senior dominated teams on the field (or at least try to). The players stick because they know they can have a chance if they work hard.

This is not a plea for running down our recruiting rankings, but a recognition that the right scheduling, player development, and the right choices on O and D systems can lead to wins. What I'd like to hear from Key is what he actually has in mind long term about that. If he is actually channeling George, then that would be excellent news. I'd like to see Tech look like UCF during his early to mid tenure.

 

[MACHETE]

I just did some quick research on a few coaches who now seem awesome:
Norvell at FSU- first year 5-7
Cristobal at UM - first year 5-7
Smart at UGA- first year 8-5
Sarkisian at UT - first year 5-7
Kiffin at Ole Miss- first year 5-5
Heupel at UTn- first year 7-6
Kelly at UCLA - first year 3-9
second year 4-8
third year 8-4
fourth year 9-4
Venables at Ok first year 6-7

And then there are:
Elliott at UVA - first year 3-7
second year 0-5
Pry at VT - first year 3-8
second year 2-3

Understand this. However, to give up 38 and lose to BG is just a huge step backwards and a gut punch.

 

[MACHETE]

Key hired mostly journeyman or young coaches.

Often, when someone is sitting in the big chair for the first time, they have one advisor who has been there and done that for a while. I’m not sure who Key’s mentor/consigliere is

He talks to GOL weekly...

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Well GOL’s defenses mostly sucked ***, too, so this makes sense lol

 

[Sheboygan]

Understand this. However, to give up 38 and lose to BG is just a huge step backwards and a gut punch.

No doubt about that. The last time I felt that bad was after we lost to NIU to start the season.

 

[Techastrophe]

If I felt that there was a plan in place that would lead to better results in the future or if Key had a rep for resurrecting programs by such a plan, I would feel a lot better. I keep harping on Clawson and Wake for a reason: they had a plan based on player development and a sound offensive system for getting Wake back into the conversation and they executed it successfully. They produced teams that consistently were based on red-shirt juniors and seniors with a few additions. The recent results on the field justified the pain of the early years; Clawson's first two teams went 3 - 7. Wake still has losing seasons, but they are more and more rare.

If I had an idea of what the staff actually wanted to do and how they wanted to do it, I would feel a lot better about Tech's future course. And here I don't mean coach speak; I mean an actual description of where Tech is planning to go and how the coaches plan to get there. At present what I see is a team that is trying to do things it hasn't the talent to do at a school that is unlikely to attract that talent in future, This worries me no end.

Agree. Even though CBK was on staff before, it's still very early in him being the The Head Coach so Process is a better indicator than Outcomes. There have been some signs of better process and some signs of broken process. It would help to have more transparency of process in order to evaluate it.

 

[swampsting]

Bottom line is there's 7 games left. GT may, MAY, be favored against 2 of them (UVA and BC). In order to make a bowl game, GT will need to upset 2 teams and take care of business against UVA and BC. Steep hill to climb as it stands right now.

Luckily, we've seen Key pull off two upsets last year against UNC and Pitt. We have the firepower on offense to do it, but the defense needs to do their part.

The season is far from over, but our margin of error has pretty much evaporated. Miami will probably the most important game in Key's early tenure...how the team responds to Key will tell us a lot about Key and this team.

Yeah, but we also stubbed our toe against a really bad UVa team and got boat raced by FSU last year.
We really didn't have a lot of margin for error to start with but with a defense that can't get off the field and an offense that can't stay on it (if it repeats from last week) there is none at all.
I'd rather see how we do against Syracuse. Miami could just stomp a mudhole in us and walk it dry if they wanted to. They have the nation's best run defense (and we're having trouble running the ball consistently) and they have rejuvenated their passing attack (no need to rehash our defensive liabilities).
The Cuse is off to a good start but they are flawed too. Let's see what we do with something closer to our level of a program right now.

 

[sgreer]

If GT wins 5 or less games this year I consider it a step backwards. The most concerning thing I see is lack of adjustments or any coaching advantage. There is still time but I don’t believe there will be 6 wins and a bowl. I hope I am wrong.