McCollum

[Augusta_Jacket]

Have not seen many special talents (HS ball 4*+) in a few years now - any position group.

You should look at the roster. In the last two years BJS, Jaylon King and James Graham spring to mind.

 

[CrackerJacket]

Well, it's all on CGC, so he has the right to bring in the staff he wants. Look at the bright side - we'll have a whole new batch of assistant coaches to overanalyze and complain about.

 

[DCSS]

I always liked Coach Andy McCollum. He was approachable and easy to talk with. He was one of the more animated coaches on the sideline. I’ll miss seeing him wear the one shirt on the sidelines that was the correct shade of gold.

Best of luck Coach McCollum. You will be missed.

 

[gtstinger776]

I'm not surprised at all, I'm glad that Coach G has come in showing some guts

Watching GT on film the last 5-6 yrs, even in 2014, did you ever feel that any of our positions were "well coached" ?

Even when we'd win, I just never got the feeling that our team played smart or the players were well coached

Seemed like we won when the other team did something wrong or made unforced errors

I couldn’t agree more with this response. Well said. Our player development has been porous. The offensive game planning / strategy has been pretty solid. But we’ve appeared quite unprepared on an individual position group basis.

 

[TechnicalPossum]

This is a mistake to cut them all loose year one. I'd have at least kept McCollum, Wood, and maybe West (shift him back to special teams) for some continuity during the transition. I get wanting to clean house on the offensive side of the ball if we are going away from the option and needing a new D coordinator and CB coach.

We are also going to find out real quick how many of the commits/players were there because of a particular coach. Hell, maybe the goal is to by fire the entire staff to get some of the players and recruits to leave so he can recruit how he sees fit.

 

[TooTall]

Hang on for a sec, for a number of years people on here complained about our recruiting. Then we hire a coach who was responsible for our best recruiting class in a long while and then we ***** and moan when he cleans house. What am I missing? THIS is why GT can’t have nice things. The target keeps moving. Are we really going to miss all the “almost tackles” from the linebacker corps?

 

[TechCubed]

I don't following recruiting close enough to know which coach is responsible for which signee. Who are some of the guys that McCollum reeled in?

 

[cuttysark]

IIRC, CPJ retained only Charles Jeep Kelly as a holdover coach. That's probably 1 more than any new coach keeps.

I look at the hiring of a new coach this way: When you buy new tires do you keep the old stems? Of course not! So why bag on a new coach who wants to build the program with the staff he thinks will accomplish the goal of winning championships?

You don't hire a new coach and tell him he has to keep the prior staff. No more than a President of the USA has to retain Cabinet Secretaries. CGC can bring in anybody he wants who will get the job done. At the end of the day everyone in this profession knows it's a business and as CPJ used to say: "It is what it is."

 

[DCSS]

Even though I’ll miss Coach Andy McCollum, I think we need to support our new HC and give him the benefit of the doubt about his staff.

 

[ibeattetris]

I don't following recruiting close enough to know which coach is responsible for which signee. Who are some of the guys that McCollum reeled in?

https://247sports.com/Coach/Andy-McCollum-196/AllTimeRecruits/

 

[NtTomNtPhilGCollins]

Agree here and would add that if I'm dissatisfied with recruiting - and I am - then let's not keep a guy who's specialty was recruiting. Have not seen many special talents (HS ball 4*+) in a few years now - any position group.

Personally, I almost always felt like our guys (and our coaches) played the game/clock extremely well - and knew how their position fit into that. We didn't always have best talent or got out-systemed - but we ARE a 'smart' team.

Really?

Our LBs and DBs constantly took bad angles on ballcarriers in the open field, either that or they just didn't have the speed to keep up

Lotta bad technique from WRs on dropped passes, and a lotta bad technique from our OLine, RBs not securing the ball properly with a high & tight grip on the ball secured against your body rather than swinging free

Lots of other folks have mentioned that if our players were on path to graduating from GT why so many mental errors

 

[85Escape]

I'll give him the benefit of my doubting that clean-slating was a smart move. I wonder if there's a bit of ego at play here? "Thumbprinting" is what we call it. You see it all the time in the corporate world, new guy or gal comes in and changes everything...even the stuff that is working...just to create a scenario that they can claim any success as all theirs. Shoot, I get the temptation and have had to fight it in myself more than once when I took over new organizations. It's easy to justify it to yourself as 'culture change' and 'fresh thinking', but it's really just being too lazy to separate the baby from the bath water in order to retain talent and valuable experience. I really hope that such is not the case here, or it will be a looooong seven years.

 

[OldJacketFan]

Really?

Our LBs and DBs constantly took bad angles on ballcarriers in the open field, either that or they just didn't have the speed to keep up

Lotta bad technique from WRs on dropped passes, and a lotta bad technique from our OLine, RBs not securing the ball properly with a high & tight grip on the ball secured against your body rather than swinging free

Lots of other folks have mentioned that if our players were on path to graduating from GT why so many mental errors

Is there anyone else you want or need to take a dump on today?????

 

[gtg936g]

CGC was going to clean house. He has little time to build the momentum he needs to succeed. He is going to do that by bringing in the coaching team he built at Temple. CPJ did much of the same, except Coach Ken stayed at Navy.

 

[stech81]

I'll give him the benefit of my doubting that clean-slating was a smart move. I wonder if there's a bit of ego at play here? "Thumbprinting" is what we call it. You see it all the time in the corporate world, new guy or gal comes in and changes everything...even the stuff that is working...just to create a scenario that they can claim any success as all theirs. Shoot, I get the temptation and have had to fight it in myself more than once when I took over new organizations. It's easy to justify it to yourself as 'culture change' and 'fresh thinking', but it's really just being too lazy to separate the baby from the bath water in order to retain talent and valuable experience. I really hope that such is not the case here, or it will be a looooong seven years.

Lets hope CGC is as good as he seems to think

 

[WreckinGT]

No problem with a new coach bringing in a staff that he is comfortable with. Andy is a good coach and a good recruiter. He will find a spot somewhere else.

 

[gtstinger776]

Bad angles and horrible situational awareness. We’re playing georgie , and it’s 3rd & 2, they have 3 TEs on the field, and our LBs are standing 4-5 yards behind the LOS acting like they need to diagnose the situation rather than anticipating the play. This is low hanging fruit stuff that I’m tired of watching. We just looked unprepared in so many games - as if never bothered to watch film and diagnose tendencies. Hopefully this was noted by CGC, and a conscious reason for clearing house.

 

[CuseJacket]

I don’t know that it’s a mistake or not re: AMac. I think that’s TBD. I understand the thought process that consistency is helpful while at the same time supporting wholesale change with a new coach.

A question comes to mind: Can you be a believer in both of the following?

1) We should expect GT recruiting to stay the same without transformative change to funding, academics, BOR, etc.

2) Andy McCollum is a loss because he was by far our best recruiter.

Said another way, is it possible CGC could hire a team of recruiters as good as McCollum? If so, you’d think we will achieve better recruiting results without transformative change.

TBD.

 

[orientalnc]

Watching GT on film the last 5-6 yrs, even in 2014, did you ever feel that any of our positions were "well coached" ?

Absolutely. I think our WRs and ABs and BBs were as good as anyone could be at those positions.

BTW, the ? goes inside the " at the end of a sentence. It doesn't seem intuitive, but that is the rule.

 

[tmhunter52]

If you are not retaining your best recruiter, you must have lots of confidence in his replacement, whomever that may be...