Mostly “Fire Geoff Collins”, some reminiscing, maybe bourbon or other distractions

[Vespidae]

It's not a point of pride. It indicates we are somewhat better than past years. No losing 45-0 at home to VT. No blowouts against the likes of Syracuse. I think we are not well coached and need a new DC. But I think we are closer to a Bowl game than what many on this thread think.

In the hands of an experienced coach, I think we would have won 7 this year. So, yes ... I agree with you.

 

[RonJohn]

It's not a point of pride. It indicates we are somewhat better than past years. No losing 45-0 at home to VT. No blowouts against the likes of Syracuse. I think we are not well coached and need a new DC. But I think we are closer to a Bowl game than what many on this thread think.

I see a lot more coaching issues than simply replacing the DC would fix.

On defense, the secondary isn't being taught a plan for coverage, doesn't understand the plan for coverage, or just doesn't follow what they are being taught. The coaches should teach, simplify, or sit players to fix whichever the issue is. That could be placed on the DC.

Time management is awful. That is not on the DC.

The offense looks better this year. However, on the first drive in the third quarter there was an issue with making substitutions and getting the play call in on time. An offensive timeout on the first drive of a half is not the fault of the DC. I wouldn't expect a major college team to have so many issues with substitutions and play calling. In fact, I don't remember seeing a high school team with as big of issues of substituting players and getting a play call in. This was the 10th game in the third year of the coaches. I am not one of the FIRE THE COACHES RIGHT NOW people, but such mistakes with things that are automatic on most football teams (including down to high school) is not acceptable from a coaching staff.

Overall, GT looks a lot more like a team of pick up players who have never played together than a well coached team. If it were only the DC, it would be much easier to fix. If the only change is to replace the DC, then it will only be kicking the can further down the road.

 

[g0lftime]

Well we can't change the HC now. So what is underperforming the most--- it's the defense and has been for 3 years. Start with the DC and probably the secondary coach or if he is a good recruiter then reassign him. Gotta do something to give the players , ticket buyers and donors some hope. We don't have a lot of it now. I hope the players haven't given up.

 

[first&ten]

The only football coach to ever get ND placed on probation for recruiting violations. No thanks!

 

[gt02]

Well we can't change the HC now. So what is underperforming the most--- it's the defense and has been for 3 years. Start with the DC and probably the secondary coach or if he is a good recruiter then reassign him. Gotta do something to give the players , ticket buyers and donors some hope. We don't have a lot of it now. I hope the players haven't given up.

It's a good question. the problem is that as I think about it, I don't think that the core issues can be fixed in that way. Below are the three top areas that I believe gets us into trouble every weekend. I believe that at least the top two areas are on CGC.

1. Culture vs. accountability: I'm all for having more energy in the program. Not a fan of the juice crew personally, but I applaud CGC's efforts to rebrand and appeal to more recruits, more ATL base, etc. The #1 problem with this team IMO though, is that you can still do all of the things you need to do to make this a fun place to be but still hold players accountable. I don't see the accountability. I see players making undisciplined plays, and yet, those same players keep trotting out. It may be that we are that thin across the board. But I doubt it. Stop telling the players you love them after we lose and start holding them accountable.
2. Game day coaching: We make way too many mistakes, from play calling (such as the playcalling when we knew we were going for it on 4th and long), clock management (no more details needed), failure to adjust when the other team adjusts, etc.
3. Defensive communications: No clue what is going on here. Perhaps this is on Thacker. Perhaps not. Or perhaps this goes back to #1. But the number of times someone is running wide open downfield is unbelievable.

 

[bke1984]

To be fair, we're not getting blown off the field like we did his first 2 years as often. This year it has only been the Pitt game, although the next 2 games have "ugly" potential. I'm hoping that the team is close enough that a coordinator change can help the defence enough give the team confidence to learn how to win next year. Yes, in spite of some of the odd coaching decisions.

The Virginia game was pretty bad. Not exactly blown off the field, but the score doesn’t represent how they handled us. We were down 21 with less than four minutes to play and needed the onside to cut it to one score - then another onside to really have a chance at winning the game. 9 times out of 10 that game ends in a two score loss, so I don’t want to hang my hat on that one as us playing a one score game.

 

[first&ten]

I see a lot more coaching issues than simply replacing the DC would fix.

On defense, the secondary isn't being taught a plan for coverage, doesn't understand the plan for coverage, or just doesn't follow what they are being taught. The coaches should teach, simplify, or sit players to fix whichever the issue is. That could be placed on the DC.

Time management is awful. That is not on the DC.

The offense looks better this year. However, on the first drive in the third quarter there was an issue with making substitutions and getting the play call in on time. An offensive timeout on the first drive of a half is not the fault of the DC. I wouldn't expect a major college team to have so many issues with substitutions and play calling. In fact, I don't remember seeing a high school team with as big of issues of substituting players and getting a play call in. This was the 10th game in the third year of the coaches. I am not one of the FIRE THE COACHES RIGHT NOW people, but such mistakes with things that are automatic on most football teams (including down to high school) is not acceptable from a coaching staff.

Overall, GT looks a lot more like a team of pick up players who have never played together than a well coached team. If it were only the DC, it would be much easier to fix. If the only change is to replace the DC, then it will only be kicking the can further down the road.

Well said RonJohn. This Tech team is in shambles and nothing is going to change in the next 2 games. ND will be a double digit loss and ugag will shut Tech out. In fact they might have less than 6 first downs. Ugag will play Tech with bad intentions!

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Where does GT stand today? That’s the million-dollar question. Undoubtedly, the easy answer is 3-7, soon to be 3-9. It’s easy to completely dismiss all progress in the effort to tar and feather the coaching staff. If, however, you’re willing to put down your pitchforks for a minute, I think we might be closer to turning the corner than we think.

When CPJ retired, my immediate reaction was that we needed to hire Monken or Coach N to come in and run the option. To me, the option had become part of Techs identity. People who followed football knew Tech was always a dangerous game BECAUSE of the option. It seemed like the safest route would be to simply pick a CPJ disciple and turn over the keys. Plug and Chug. 6–7-win seasons with a chance for a 9–10-win season every few years. That didn’t happen, and the more I thought about it, the better I felt about it.

Monken and Coach N are great coaches, but they are not CPJ. Hiring either one of them would have been a big step down from CPJ. Johnson was the true master of his offense. Monken and Coach N are good, but not that good. There’s also the fact that the pool of coaches in that offense is small. Finding replacements if the initial hire didn’t pan out wouldn’t be easy. The right answer is that we needed to rip the band-aid off and change the offense.

Now that GT had determined to change offenses, it was up to TStan to find a replacement. At the time, there weren’t many big names looking for a job, and to be frank, we probably couldn’t have afforded a big name anyways. It took TStan raiding the rainy-day fund to pay for the current coaching staff. There is also the very real fact that few coaches out there wanted anything to do with this rebuild. They knew it would be hard and coaches understand how fickle even a faithful fan base can be. TStan needed someone who was not only willing to come to GT but was willing to risk their future by taking on a massive rebuild. I was honestly surprised that Collins agreed. He was, at the time, among the hottest of the young new coaches being mentioned for any number of openings. Yet to GT he came, and for many, he was a breath of fresh air.

Here is where I confess, I was not a fan of Geoff Collins being hired at GT. I wanted Tony Elliott, but he elected to stay at Clemson. After the first few months, I was not a Collins fan. I found his underhand remarks about the old offense to be tiresome and borderline offensive, and I found, (and still find), his overuse of “elite” and “effort” to cheapen the meaning of the words. I cautioned then that his used car salesman persona would come back to bite him if he didn’t produce wins early. That has proven to be true. His “money down” and “juice crew” do not resonate with me. As I am in my mid 40’s, I just brushed this off as me getting older and not being in tune with the new cultural zeitgeist. I am aware, however, that I do not have to be a fan of the coach as a person. Barring moral failure issues, a coach’s personality does not have to align with mine for me to support him.

Collins has shown himself to be an excellent recruiter, and our talent level is increasing dramatically. I still have questions as to how far top 25 recruiting will take us when we play 4-6 teams every year who recruit in the top 15 on average, but there is no doubt we are recruiting at a level previously unseen on the flats. Given a couple more recruiting classes to build proper depth and class separation, I think he will have the level of talent necessary to make a run in the Coastal.

The real question is can he and his staff coach them into a winning team? For many of you, the answer is already a hard no, and I understand that. Given the record over the last three years, it’s easy to understand why a frustrated fanbase is ready to run the coaching staff out of town. I am not so sure we can accurately and fairly answer that question in the negative yet. Our offense, which was the hardest part to change, is showing signs of real improvement from 2019. We have good QB play from Sims, though he is still young and prone to mistakes. We have good to great WR play, and the best all around RB in the nation. Our OL, which was the biggest hurdle in the change, is still a work in progress, and is still the millstone around our neck. In my opinion, we are 1-2 years away from having the OL be the asset we need them to be. We should see major improvement next year, and by 2023 it should be forming into a well-oiled unit.

Special teams have seen massive improvement. We no longer fear field goals, we are putting kickoffs into the end zone, and our new punter is impressive for a freshman. There’s work to be done on the punt coverage and return units, but overall, we are vastly improved there.

The biggest failures for this staff have been in the following three areas: defense, penalties, and game/clock management.

Penalties are a killer, and in 2019 and 2020 could somewhat be excused due to a young team learning a completely new offense as well as a defense that is weary from being on the field all the time making mistakes. In 2021, we were promised that this was an area of focus, and initially, we saw progress. The last few games have seen a regression to stupid penalties again. While an occasional false start is understandable for an OL in training, the defensive penalties are simply inexcusable. While the coach cannot control how a defender acts on the field, this is an area that needs to be cleaned up immediately.

Game and clock management has likewise been atrocious. Having to burn timeouts because of confusion between the sideline and the QB has cost us. Not burning timeouts when we need to is another head scratcher. Questionable calls late in games are understandable for a new coach, and let’s all remember, Collins is only in year 5 as a HC. He is still learning. While it’s disconcerting to watch it happen to us, I remember when Dabo was a new HC he was often lambasted for poor game and clock management. This is another area that can be overcome.

Finally, we come to the defense, which I believe is the biggest issue we have as a team. I cannot in any way understand how Collins, who was a three-time Broyles award nominee as a defensive assistant coach, could allow our defense to get this bad. We are regressing as a defense, and that’s concerning. While I rarely if ever call for a coach to be fired, I see no scenario where Thacker comes back next season. If he does, I see a short future for CGC at GT.

So, to summarize, Georgia Tech football is approaching the crossroads. Collins needs to successfully navigate the next year and a half or else we will have a new coach and will likely set back the rebuilding process by at least another year or two. Can he get us there? I think he can. It will take wholesale changes to the defense, but that’s probably the easiest of the units to fix. Will he? That’s the question I can’t answer. The one thing I am sure of is we will all get to see him try in 2022. Let’s hope for the best.

 

[billga99]

Where does GT stand today? That’s the million-dollar question. Undoubtedly, the easy answer is 3-7, soon to be 3-9. It’s easy to completely dismiss all progress in the effort to tar and feather the coaching staff. If, however, you’re willing to put down your pitchforks for a minute, I think we might be closer to turning the corner than we think.

When CPJ retired, my immediate reaction was that we needed to hire Monken or Coach N to come in and run the option. To me, the option had become part of Techs identity. People who followed football knew Tech was always a dangerous game BECAUSE of the option. It seemed like the safest route would be to simply pick a CPJ disciple and turn over the keys. Plug and Chug. 6–7-win seasons with a chance for a 9–10-win season every few years. That didn’t happen, and the more I thought about it, the better I felt about it.

Monken and Coach N are great coaches, but they are not CPJ. Hiring either one of them would have been a big step down from CPJ. Johnson was the true master of his offense. Monken and Coach N are good, but not that good. There’s also the fact that the pool of coaches in that offense is small. Finding replacements if the initial hire didn’t pan out wouldn’t be easy. The right answer is that we needed to rip the band-aid off and change the offense.

Now that GT had determined to change offenses, it was up to TStan to find a replacement. At the time, there weren’t many big names looking for a job, and to be frank, we probably couldn’t have afforded a big name anyways. It took TStan raiding the rainy-day fund to pay for the current coaching staff. There is also the very real fact that few coaches out there wanted anything to do with this rebuild. They knew it would be hard and coaches understand how fickle even a faithful fan base can be. TStan needed someone who was not only willing to come to GT but was willing to risk their future by taking on a massive rebuild. I was honestly surprised that Collins agreed. He was, at the time, among the hottest of the young new coaches being mentioned for any number of openings. Yet to GT he came, and for many, he was a breath of fresh air.

Here is where I confess, I was not a fan of Geoff Collins being hired at GT. I wanted Tony Elliott, but he elected to stay at Clemson. After the first few months, I was not a Collins fan. I found his underhand remarks about the old offense to be tiresome and borderline offensive, and I found, (and still find), his overuse of “elite” and “effort” to cheapen the meaning of the words. I cautioned then that his used car salesman persona would come back to bite him if he didn’t produce wins early. That has proven to be true. His “money down” and “juice crew” do not resonate with me. As I am in my mid 40’s, I just brushed this off as me getting older and not being in tune with the new cultural zeitgeist. I am aware, however, that I do not have to be a fan of the coach as a person. Barring moral failure issues, a coach’s personality does not have to align with mine for me to support him.

Collins has shown himself to be an excellent recruiter, and our talent level is increasing dramatically. I still have questions as to how far top 25 recruiting will take us when we play 4-6 teams every year who recruit in the top 15 on average, but there is no doubt we are recruiting at a level previously unseen on the flats. Given a couple more recruiting classes to build proper depth and class separation, I think he will have the level of talent necessary to make a run in the Coastal.

The real question is can he and his staff coach them into a winning team? For many of you, the answer is already a hard no, and I understand that. Given the record over the last three years, it’s easy to understand why a frustrated fanbase is ready to run the coaching staff out of town. I am not so sure we can accurately and fairly answer that question in the negative yet. Our offense, which was the hardest part to change, is showing signs of real improvement from 2019. We have good QB play from Sims, though he is still young and prone to mistakes. We have good to great WR play, and the best all around RB in the nation. Our OL, which was the biggest hurdle in the change, is still a work in progress, and is still the millstone around our neck. In my opinion, we are 1-2 years away from having the OL be the asset we need them to be. We should see major improvement next year, and by 2023 it should be forming into a well-oiled unit.

Special teams have seen massive improvement. We no longer fear field goals, we are putting kickoffs into the end zone, and our new punter is impressive for a freshman. There’s work to be done on the punt coverage and return units, but overall, we are vastly improved there.

The biggest failures for this staff have been in the following three areas: defense, penalties, and game/clock management.

Penalties are a killer, and in 2019 and 2020 could somewhat be excused due to a young team learning a completely new offense as well as a defense that is weary from being on the field all the time making mistakes. In 2021, we were promised that this was an area of focus, and initially, we saw progress. The last few games have seen a regression to stupid penalties again. While an occasional false start is understandable for an OL in training, the defensive penalties are simply inexcusable. While the coach cannot control how a defender acts on the field, this is an area that needs to be cleaned up immediately.

Game and clock management has likewise been atrocious. Having to burn timeouts because of confusion between the sideline and the QB has cost us. Not burning timeouts when we need to is another head scratcher. Questionable calls late in games are understandable for a new coach, and let’s all remember, Collins is only in year 5 as a HC. He is still learning. While it’s disconcerting to watch it happen to us, I remember when Dabo was a new HC he was often lambasted for poor game and clock management. This is another area that can be overcome.

Finally, we come to the defense, which I believe is the biggest issue we have as a team. I cannot in any way understand how Collins, who was a three-time Broyles award nominee as a defensive assistant coach, could allow our defense to get this bad. We are regressing as a defense, and that’s concerning. While I rarely if ever call for a coach to be fired, I see no scenario where Thacker comes back next season. If he does, I see a short future for CGC at GT.

So, to summarize, Georgia Tech football is approaching the crossroads. Collins needs to successfully navigate the next year and a half or else we will have a new coach and will likely set back the rebuilding process by at least another year or two. Can he get us there? I think he can. It will take wholesale changes to the defense, but that’s probably the easiest of the units to fix. Will he? That’s the question I can’t answer. The one thing I am sure of is we will all get to see him try in 2022. Let’s hope for the best.

I think this is well thought and a good definition of where we are today. As you stated, Defense is our biggest issue. We have gotten burned deep a lot of times this year. A lot of this is scheme. Collins likes to put Corners on receivers close to the line of scrimmage. He certainly did that at Florida. The issues I see are lack of a pass rush puts them on an island for an extended period of time, they don't have the speed or instincts to not get beat deep and they do appear confused on the back end of the defense on a consistent basis.

If we hire another DC, we have got to scheme to put more pressure on the QB on a consistent basis, potentially back off the pressure coverage (yes I realize that leads to maddening short down and outs being not contested), or play more effective Zone. In my opinion, it comes down to Pass Rush as much or more than coverage. There are almost no DBs who can cover for 6 or 7 seconds. I think lack of a pass rush has been the core problem of our defense for at least the last 10 years and is what separates the top teams from GT and most other schools. If you blitz to create more pressure (and a lot of times this year we blitzed and still got limited or no pressure), you must figure out how to set up the rest of your defense to not get burned deep.

 

[UgaBlows]

Every year, there are 2 or 3 games where the opponent makes enough mistakes for you to win. We weren't good enough to take advantage against Miami, we were against UNC. Rehashing who we should have beat at this point is irrelevant. As frustrating as it is to watch, I feel like we're a decent defense away from being a bowl team next year. Even with bizarre coaching decisions. We'll see.

With decent defense we could very well have won all of our games except Pitt this season (and who knows about that one?), that is incredibly frusterating to think what a wasted opportunity this season has been

 

[stech81]

Where does GT stand today? That’s the million-dollar question. Undoubtedly, the easy answer is 3-7, soon to be 3-9. It’s easy to completely dismiss all progress in the effort to tar and feather the coaching staff. If, however, you’re willing to put down your pitchforks for a minute, I think we might be closer to turning the corner than we think.

When CPJ retired, my immediate reaction was that we needed to hire Monken or Coach N to come in and run the option. To me, the option had become part of Techs identity. People who followed football knew Tech was always a dangerous game BECAUSE of the option. It seemed like the safest route would be to simply pick a CPJ disciple and turn over the keys. Plug and Chug. 6–7-win seasons with a chance for a 9–10-win season every few years. That didn’t happen, and the more I thought about it, the better I felt about it.

Monken and Coach N are great coaches, but they are not CPJ. Hiring either one of them would have been a big step down from CPJ. Johnson was the true master of his offense. Monken and Coach N are good, but not that good. There’s also the fact that the pool of coaches in that offense is small. Finding replacements if the initial hire didn’t pan out wouldn’t be easy. The right answer is that we needed to rip the band-aid off and change the offense.

Now that GT had determined to change offenses, it was up to TStan to find a replacement. At the time, there weren’t many big names looking for a job, and to be frank, we probably couldn’t have afforded a big name anyways. It took TStan raiding the rainy-day fund to pay for the current coaching staff. There is also the very real fact that few coaches out there wanted anything to do with this rebuild. They knew it would be hard and coaches understand how fickle even a faithful fan base can be. TStan needed someone who was not only willing to come to GT but was willing to risk their future by taking on a massive rebuild. I was honestly surprised that Collins agreed. He was, at the time, among the hottest of the young new coaches being mentioned for any number of openings. Yet to GT he came, and for many, he was a breath of fresh air.

Here is where I confess, I was not a fan of Geoff Collins being hired at GT. I wanted Tony Elliott, but he elected to stay at Clemson. After the first few months, I was not a Collins fan. I found his underhand remarks about the old offense to be tiresome and borderline offensive, and I found, (and still find), his overuse of “elite” and “effort” to cheapen the meaning of the words. I cautioned then that his used car salesman persona would come back to bite him if he didn’t produce wins early. That has proven to be true. His “money down” and “juice crew” do not resonate with me. As I am in my mid 40’s, I just brushed this off as me getting older and not being in tune with the new cultural zeitgeist. I am aware, however, that I do not have to be a fan of the coach as a person. Barring moral failure issues, a coach’s personality does not have to align with mine for me to support him.

Collins has shown himself to be an excellent recruiter, and our talent level is increasing dramatically. I still have questions as to how far top 25 recruiting will take us when we play 4-6 teams every year who recruit in the top 15 on average, but there is no doubt we are recruiting at a level previously unseen on the flats. Given a couple more recruiting classes to build proper depth and class separation, I think he will have the level of talent necessary to make a run in the Coastal.

The real question is can he and his staff coach them into a winning team? For many of you, the answer is already a hard no, and I understand that. Given the record over the last three years, it’s easy to understand why a frustrated fanbase is ready to run the coaching staff out of town. I am not so sure we can accurately and fairly answer that question in the negative yet. Our offense, which was the hardest part to change, is showing signs of real improvement from 2019. We have good QB play from Sims, though he is still young and prone to mistakes. We have good to great WR play, and the best all around RB in the nation. Our OL, which was the biggest hurdle in the change, is still a work in progress, and is still the millstone around our neck. In my opinion, we are 1-2 years away from having the OL be the asset we need them to be. We should see major improvement next year, and by 2023 it should be forming into a well-oiled unit.

Special teams have seen massive improvement. We no longer fear field goals, we are putting kickoffs into the end zone, and our new punter is impressive for a freshman. There’s work to be done on the punt coverage and return units, but overall, we are vastly improved there.

The biggest failures for this staff have been in the following three areas: defense, penalties, and game/clock management.

Penalties are a killer, and in 2019 and 2020 could somewhat be excused due to a young team learning a completely new offense as well as a defense that is weary from being on the field all the time making mistakes. In 2021, we were promised that this was an area of focus, and initially, we saw progress. The last few games have seen a regression to stupid penalties again. While an occasional false start is understandable for an OL in training, the defensive penalties are simply inexcusable. While the coach cannot control how a defender acts on the field, this is an area that needs to be cleaned up immediately.

Game and clock management has likewise been atrocious. Having to burn timeouts because of confusion between the sideline and the QB has cost us. Not burning timeouts when we need to is another head scratcher. Questionable calls late in games are understandable for a new coach, and let’s all remember, Collins is only in year 5 as a HC. He is still learning. While it’s disconcerting to watch it happen to us, I remember when Dabo was a new HC he was often lambasted for poor game and clock management. This is another area that can be overcome.

Finally, we come to the defense, which I believe is the biggest issue we have as a team. I cannot in any way understand how Collins, who was a three-time Broyles award nominee as a defensive assistant coach, could allow our defense to get this bad. We are regressing as a defense, and that’s concerning. While I rarely if ever call for a coach to be fired, I see no scenario where Thacker comes back next season. If he does, I see a short future for CGC at GT.

So, to summarize, Georgia Tech football is approaching the crossroads. Collins needs to successfully navigate the next year and a half or else we will have a new coach and will likely set back the rebuilding process by at least another year or two. Can he get us there? I think he can. It will take wholesale changes to the defense, but that’s probably the easiest of the units to fix. Will he? That’s the question I can’t answer. The one thing I am sure of is we will all get to see him try in 2022. Let’s hope for the best.

I respect your opinion and you think about what you say . I'm still one who doesn't think CGC is the answer , yes he can recruit ( but we will see if he can after losing each year ) . There has been a ( little improvement ) but that is more the players not the coaches and the ACC being down this year . I'm sorry I just ain't seeing any improvement in this coaching staff. The real question I guess will be answered after this year on how many players stay.

 

[Techster]

Other than your dislike for Collins and lack of interest in any sport where women compete, what has TStan done that was wrong?

LOL...you must either be willfully ignorant of things I post, or you're making empty straw statements to entertain yourself.

I've been one of CGC's biggest defenders on this board, but that doesn't make me blind to what I'm seeing on the field. Ultimately, my allegiance is to my alma mater, not a coach or AD. Those guys come and go.

As for "lack of interest in any sport where women compete" statement, you literally ignored everything I said about Fortner and what a great hire TStan made for women's basketball.

If there's a women's program as consistently dominant as our Golf and baseball team, please enlighten all of us. I admit I don't follow many GT sports programs (as I said in the OP) outside of the major sports, so if you can add anything outside of trying to be snarky I'm all ears.

 

[cthenrys]

I think this is well thought and a good definition of where we are today. As you stated, Defense is our biggest issue. We have gotten burned deep a lot of times this year. A lot of this is scheme. Collins likes to put Corners on receivers close to the line of scrimmage. He certainly did that at Florida. The issues I see are lack of a pass rush puts them on an island for an extended period of time, they don't have the speed or instincts to not get beat deep and they do appear confused on the back end of the defense on a consistent basis.

I would agree with this in principle, but in the BC game the coverage was busted early. In most cases the ball was thrown early and the WR was already 10-15 yds clear. I think as iBeeballin has said, we may just have a severe personnel issue in the secondary because I don't ever recall seeing WR's that open this frequently. But it's on the coaching staff to work with what they have - from the beginning they have not shown any ability to do this, imo

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

It's not a point of pride. It indicates we are somewhat better than past years. No losing 45-0 at home to VT. No blowouts against the likes of Syracuse. I think we are not well coached and need a new DC. But I think we are closer to a Bowl game than what many on this thread think.

We agree to disagree and leave it at that but I will say that 9 wins in 3 seasons is a sure fire road to being on the infamous "Coaches Hot Seat" which is where Geoff finds himself right now at #7 sharing the coveted top ten with coaching luminaries such as Scott Frost at Nebraska, Steve Addaizio at Colorado State, Fuentes, Mullen, and a whole host of over paid and under performing head coaches.

 

[DuluthJacket83]

It's a good question. the problem is that as I think about it, I don't think that the core issues can be fixed in that way. Below are the three top areas that I believe gets us into trouble every weekend. I believe that at least the top two areas are on CGC.

1. Culture vs. accountability: I'm all for having more energy in the program. Not a fan of the juice crew personally, but I applaud CGC's efforts to rebrand and appeal to more recruits, more ATL base, etc. The #1 problem with this team IMO though, is that you can still do all of the things you need to do to make this a fun place to be but still hold players accountable. I don't see the accountability. I see players making undisciplined plays, and yet, those same players keep trotting out. It may be that we are that thin across the board. But I doubt it. Stop telling the players you love them after we lose and start holding them accountable.
2. Game day coaching: We make way too many mistakes, from play calling (such as the playcalling when we knew we were going for it on 4th and long), clock management (no more details needed), failure to adjust when the other team adjusts, etc.
3. Defensive communications: No clue what is going on here. Perhaps this is on Thacker. Perhaps not. Or perhaps this goes back to #1. But the number of times someone is running wide open downfield is unbelievable.

Bingo on these. Scores indicate we are being whipped regarding adjustments. We get decent leads and seemingly fail to react to adjustments with our own changes. The secondary is just the worst I have seen in at least 40 years. We never watch the qb or the ball. And our tackling techniques are terrible, likely because we are busy grabbing at the ball rather than grabbing legs. Who else to blame there but the DC. Someone is responsible.

And you can dance on the sidelines when you win, not after the other team scores.

 

[orientalnc]

LOL...you must either be willfully ignorant of things I post, or you're making empty straw statements to entertain yourself.

I've been one of CGC's biggest defenders on this board, but that doesn't make me blind to what I'm seeing on the field. Ultimately, my allegiance is to my alma mater, not a coach or AD. Those guys come and go.

As for "lack of interest in any sport where women compete" statement, you literally ignored everything I said about Fortner and what a great hire TStan made for women's basketball.

If there's a women's program as consistently dominant as our Golf and baseball team, please enlighten all of us. I admit I don't follow many GT sports programs (as I said in the OP) outside of the major sports, so if you can add anything outside of trying to be snarky I'm all ears.

This may come as a surprise but I agree that golf and baseball have been our most successful programs for a long time. I follow our baseball program as much as a ten hour drive will allow. The women's programs needed to catch up and TStan did that by hiring new coaches who have taken them to the next level. Volleyball and basketball are currently ranked in the top 25. If you want to ignore that fact, I can say nothing to change your mind. When Pastner's future looked dim, TStan stood by him when lots of people thought GT should let him go, with cause.

I am not happy with the losses the football team is piling up and I agree that Collins has been a disappointment thus far. Maybe TStan will have to make a tough financial decision about Collins' future very soon. But, the success or failure of the football team is not the only thing the AD is responsible for. If you look across the board there is a well functioning and successful athletic association. Remaining angry at our AD for making the decision to hire Collins when we do not know the circumstances is pointless anger.

 

[DavidStandingBear]

I’m not IBeeBallin. I think you’re only going to get a solid answer on whether it’s Thacker’s defense or Collins’ by being one of the people at practice and on the sidelines.

Collins ran a 4-3 at Miss State back in 2014. A lot of teams have dropped that in favor of a 4-2-5 with all the spread/“RPO” offenses.
Thacker had one season as DC at Temple. Taver Johnson was the DC the year before (he’s coaching for the Las Vegas Raiders now, but with Gruden fired, who knows what happens next).

I see some coaches that are 3-4 coaches, and that formation is their philosophy. Same with 4-3 or 4-2-5 ,etc. There are some “positionless” coaches out there, like Jay Bateman at UNC. UNC has two Defensive Coordinators, and they took Bateman from Army after they had a fantastic defense—top 25, I think—and he was replaced with Nate Woody.

With Thacker, I’m not sure what’s going on, but even though he can go deep talking about defense, so far he’s not a Dean Pees or Monte Kiffin level mad scientist on defense.

I’m more of a “your formation isn’t your defense, it’s a tactic you run to counter an offense” kind of person, but I grew up when you’d swap from a 52 to a 4-3 to a nickel to a dime based on the offense, and high-speed offenses don’t let you do that. Thacker talks like a 4-2-5 or a 3-3-5 is your defense, but he doesn’t sound like a true believer in a particular defensive scheme.

There are other things more important than your alignment—mainly knowing and executing on your assignments.

Failed tackles led to 10-12-15 yard plays. 52 vs 4-3 vs 3-4 vs whatever doesn’t matter if you’re going to do that. We had tackles for loss that went for first downs. That’s not even an “assignment” thing. You can’t have that as a problem to solve more than halfway through the season. For me, that’s the biggest issue we have on defense, and nothing else is close.

On top of that, we have bad mistakes going on in the back end. Against UVA, we had a ton of lost 1:1 battles, but yesterday we had players getting behind a corner and running free, repeatedly. That’s happened a lot this year. I see receivers open in a second or two after the snap.

On one hand, I can look at players like Biggers and see the argument that we’re getting close. On the other hand, the lack of fundamentals in things like tackling and the wrong kind of chaos on defense has us going in the wrong direction. I do feel like other coaches could come in here and take the players we have and make them into a top 50 defense—and that’s not even asking much.

Who exactly is Rev IbeeBallin?

 

[stech81]

Who exactly is Rev IbeeBallin?

Played LB for Tech from 2006 - 2009 very good player

 

[DavidStandingBear]

Played LB for Tech from 2006 - 2009 very good player

ok

 

[ilovetheoption]

View attachment 11586

Lmfao. That first book was the very first football book I ever bought! I still have my well-thumbed version in my football section of my book shelf