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

[gtg936g]

I used my prior analysis of the impact of the decline from Chan Gailey attendance levels for games without large, local opponent fan bases like BC @ Grant Field with 51,112 in 2007 to 2021 BC with 31,511.

Here is a larger set of Chan Gailey era details (when GT did not have an option offense, had sound defense, was competitive, went bowling yearly, had star players, and ranked off and on yearly) attendance numbers. As our option days are behind us now - for better or for worse, I do not want a debate of the offense.

Excluding his 1st season when BDS had not yet been expanded to 55K seats, Chan Gailey had 4 of 5 seasons with GT FB home attendance over 50K. In fact, 3 or 5 were over 51K.

Paul Johnson only had 2 of his 11 seasons (2009 & 2015) with over a 50K attendance average. To be fair to Paul, only 2 of his 11 seasons (2012 & 2018) were lower attended on average than Collins’ 1st season.
It must be stated that the QUALITY of both GT’s Opponents scheduled as well as GT’s Competitiveness appear to directly drive the attendance at our games. Also, “Marquee” early games (especially wins or close losses) pay massive dividends to GT attendance - See opening wins of 2003 & 2005 over Auburn win, 2005 over Clemson, 2006 narrow loss to Notre Dame, & 2007 blowout of Notre Dame.

This is also true for Paul Johnson with his amazing 2008 debut season beating Clemson, FSU, Miami, and UGA. The following season, GT FB averaged 51.5K attendance. As our schedule has moved away from playing “traditional power teams early” to scheduling cupcakes, I believe it has definitely hurt attendance.

While I have purchased every year since I moved back to ATL in 1991, it appears that some GT fan have fallen into the habit of only buying season tickets on the years that UGA plays us at Grant Field. This is sad as they are NOT buying basketball season tickets instead.

Even more foreboding, averaging under 35K this season and not having the UGA game to boost sales, 2022 looks to be the lowest attended season in 20+ years - unless we start winning again.

2002 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Bill O’Brien
DC John Tenuta
Chan Gailey - 1st Season
*Bobby Dodd Stadium Capacity = 43,719
Marquee Early Wins: Beat Vandy 45-3 & BYU 28-19 to open 2002 with 2 home wins at sold-out BDS after narrow 19-24 loss to Clemson on road.
43,719* – 2002 – Vanderbilt
43,719* – 2002 – BYU
43,719* – 2002 – Wake Forest
42,727* – 2002 – UVA
42,719* – 2002 – Florida State
41,335* – 2002 – Duke
——————————————
43,156* – 2002 – AVG. (98.7%)
*2002 Bobby Dodd Capacity = 43,719

2003 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix/Geis
DC Tenuta
** 2003+ Bobby Dodd Capacity = 55K
Marquee Early Win: Beat #17 Auburn 14-7 in opener of enlarged 55K-seat Bobby Dodd.
55,000 – 2003 – Auburn
53,189 – 2003 – Clemson
50,113 – 2003 – NC State
51,524 – 2003 – Maryland
52,346 – 2003 – UNC
55,000 – 2003 – UGA
——————————————
55,862** – 2003 – AVG. (96.1%)
** 2003+ Bobby Dodd Capacity = 55K

2004 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix
DC Tenuta
Calvin Johnson - Freshman Season
Marquee Early Win: Beat #18 Clemson 14-7 in Game 2 in front of 82K at Death Valley.
43,100 – 2004 – Samford
55,000 – 2004 – Miami
46,856 – 2004 – Duke
48,398 – 2004 – Va. Tech (Thursday)
43,577 – 2004 – UConn
43,971 – 2004 – UVA
——————————————
46,817 – 2004 – AVG. (85.1%)

2005 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix
DC Tenuta
Calvin Johnson - Sophomore Season
Marquee Win: Beat Auburn 23-14 in opener in front of 87,451 at Jordan-Hare.
46,459 – 2005 – UNC
48,770 – 2005 – UConn
51,432 – 2005 – NC State
55,000 – 2005 – Clemson
51,571 – 2005 - Wake Forest
56,412 – 2005 – UGA
——————————————
51,607 – 2005 – AVG. (93.8%)

2006 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dan Radakovich
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix
DC Tenuta
Calvin Johnson - Junior Season (final)
Marquee Early Game: Narrow 10-14 loss to #2 Notre Dame in opener in front of sold-out Bobby Dodd.
56,680 – 2006 – Notre Dame
47,149 – 2006 – Samford
45,637 – 2006 – Troy
51,081 – 2006 – Virginia (Thursday)
51,686 – 2006 – Maryland
55,320 – 2006 – Miami
46,768 – 2006 – Duke
——————————————
50,617 – 2006 – AVG. (92.0%)

2007 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dan Radokovich
HC Chan Gailey
OC John Bond
DC Tenuta
Marquee Early Win: Beat Notre Dame 33-3 in opener in front of 87,451 at South Bend.
43,288 – 2007 – Samford
51,112 – 2007 – Boston College
54,635 – 2007 – Clemson
50,242 – 2007 – Army
52,202 – 2007 – Va Tech
54,990 – 2007 – UGA
——————————————
51,078 – 2007 – AVG. (92.9%)

2008-2012 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dan Radokovich
HC Paul Johnson
47,489 – 2008 – AVG. (86.3%)
51,584 – 2009 – AVG. (93.8%)
46,449 – 2010 – AVG. (84.5%)
48,232 – 2011 – AVG. (87.7%)
43,955 – 2012 – AVG. (79.9%)

2013-2018 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Todd Stansbury
HC Paul Johnson
49,077 – 2013 – AVG. (89.2%)
48,519 – 2014 – AVG. (88.2%)
50,707 – 2015 – AVG. (92.2%)
47,503 – 2016 – AVG. (86.4%)
46,885 – 2017 – AVG. (85.2%)
43,087 – 2018 – AVG. (78.3%)

2013-2018 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Todd Stansbury
HC Geoff Collins
44,599 – 2019 – AVG. (81.1%)
N/A - 2020 COVID-19 IMPACTED
34,956*** – 2021 – AVG. (63.6%) ***w/o UGA

2013-2016 was the Bobinski era…. The person I hold responsible for a lot of our issues.

 

[GTpdm]

Hell, if they played like they did against the Irish, Kirby could put start the third and fourth stringers in with no problem.

FTFY

 

[GTcanWINagain]

2013-2016 was the Bobinski era…. The person I hold responsible for a lot of our issues.

Alas - I forgot his reign between DRad and TStan!

 

[RamblinRed]

Keep in mind the attendance in FBS has been declining for 7 straight years before the pandemic hit, it is not just a GT issue. Clearly though, having poor teams are going to adversely impact your attendance.

And with ever increasing TV contracts, the importance of home attendance is a slowly decreasing (though still important) part of the athletic budget.

 

[RabidJacket]

If CPJ is so great, how come no other P5 teams are hiring him? Certainly everyone would want him, right?

He has RE-TIRED damnit! He got TIRED of all the admin. BS and "fans" like you who apparently can't or won't give him the respect he earned. Give it a rest. It will be a looong time (unfortunately) before we reach several of the heights PJ did! Been a fan for over 70 years and reading some of this anti PJ bs (for no discernable reason ) that has absolutely nothing to the clusterf####k we are now in just astounds me. Tstan is to blame for all this mess. He hired this clown. A mind-blowing contract. --and there is no "easy" solution to this debacle. PJ retired and deserves to RIP. Quit beating a dead horse. The coaching problem now (to any sane person) is NOT his fault -seeech!

 

[GTpdm]

Been a fan for over 70 years…

You, sir, get a “like” just for this fact!

 

[RabidJacket]

If CPJ is so great, how come no other P5 teams are hiring him? Certainly everyone would want him, right?

He has RE-TIRED damnit! He got TIRED of all the admin. BS and "fans" like you who apparently can't or won't give him the respect he earned. Give it a rest. It will be a looong time (unfortunately) before we reach several of the heights PJ did! Been a fan for over 70 years and reading some of this anti PJ bs (for no discernable reason ) that has absolutely nothing to the clusterf####k we are now in just astounds me. Tstan is to blame for all this mess. He hired this clown. A mind-blowing contract. --and there is no "easy" solution to this debacle. PJ retired and deserves to RIP. Quit beating a dead horse. The coaching problem now (to any sane person) is NOT his fault -seeech!

The best offense is a GREAT defense.

 

[stech81]

Been sitting here in my chair drinking beer and farting and thinking about replacing CGC and know it won't happen cause the school and Hill don't care about football.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Been sitting here in my chair drinking beer and farting and thinking about replacing CGC and know it won't happen cause the school and Hill don't care about football.

The Hill doesn’t like athletics upsetting their day. I think that graphic NBC had coupled with the rout & impending rout will get them off their butts.

 

[burdell151]

Nope, we need an AD that spends money (invests) wisely. How about in your profession?

It’s same in every profession. Fact of the matter is this as it pertains to this thread: when you don’t have an attractive job, you can only hire folks who want the job that are qualified enough within your budget. This is what we got.

Our AD has done well with spending across the board since he got here. Pandemic notwithstanding. Most of the bad spending was done before Todd came on board. Not saying the guy is perfect, but he’s done a pretty good job making chicken salad out of chicken well…you know. It’s looks like a bad hire now. Even Rice made a bad hire. But I think the results across the rest of GT Athletics show a helluva lot of improvement.

Until you can come up with the line items AND dollar amounts outside of a football coach that show how this AD is making poor investments, go away with your shortsighted line of thinking. I threw the AT Fund $250 and will file the paperwork so my company will match it. If you can’t be part of the solution, don’t whine about the problem not being solved. GT Athletics needs us to support them so they can make sure we can afford the people to improve football. Put up or shut up.

 

[majorQ9]

I was there. So were maybe 50 Yellow Jackets…

I used my prior analysis of the impact of the decline from Chan Gailey attendance levels for games without large, local opponent fan bases like BC @ Grant Field with 51,112 in 2007 to 2021 BC with 31,511.

Here is a larger set of Chan Gailey era details (when GT did not have an option offense, had sound defense, was competitive, went bowling yearly, had star players, and ranked off and on yearly) attendance numbers. As our option days are behind us now - for better or for worse, I do not want a debate of the offense.

Excluding his 1st season when BDS had not yet been expanded to 55K seats, Chan Gailey had 4 of 5 seasons with GT FB home attendance over 50K. In fact, 3 or 5 were over 51K.

Paul Johnson only had 2 of his 11 seasons (2009 & 2015) with over a 50K attendance average. To be fair to Paul, only 2 of his 11 seasons (2012 & 2018) were lower attended on average than Collins’ 1st season.
It must be stated that the QUALITY of both GT’s Opponents scheduled as well as GT’s Competitiveness appear to directly drive the attendance at our games. Also, “Marquee” early games (especially wins or close losses) pay massive dividends to GT attendance - See opening wins of 2003 & 2005 over Auburn win, 2005 over Clemson, 2006 narrow loss to Notre Dame, & 2007 blowout of Notre Dame.

This is also true for Paul Johnson with his amazing 2008 debut season beating Clemson, FSU, Miami, and UGA. The following season, GT FB averaged 51.5K attendance. As our schedule has moved away from playing “traditional power teams early” to scheduling cupcakes, I believe it has definitely hurt attendance.

While I have purchased every year since I moved back to ATL in 1991, it appears that some GT fan have fallen into the habit of only buying season tickets on the years that UGA plays us at Grant Field. This is sad as they are NOT buying basketball season tickets instead.

Even more foreboding, averaging under 35K this season and not having the UGA game to boost sales, 2022 looks to be the lowest attended season in 20+ years - unless we start winning again.

2002 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Bill O’Brien
DC John Tenuta
Chan Gailey - 1st Season
*Bobby Dodd Stadium Capacity = 43,719
Marquee Early Wins: Beat Vandy 45-3 & BYU 28-19 to open 2002 with 2 home wins at sold-out BDS after narrow 19-24 loss to Clemson on road.
43,719* – 2002 – Vanderbilt
43,719* – 2002 – BYU
43,719* – 2002 – Wake Forest
42,727* – 2002 – UVA
42,719* – 2002 – Florida State
41,335* – 2002 – Duke
——————————————
43,156* – 2002 – AVG. (98.7%)
*2002 Bobby Dodd Capacity = 43,719

2003 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix/Geis
DC Tenuta
** 2003+ Bobby Dodd Capacity = 55K
Marquee Early Win: Beat #17 Auburn 14-7 in opener of enlarged 55K-seat Bobby Dodd.
55,000 – 2003 – Auburn
53,189 – 2003 – Clemson
50,113 – 2003 – NC State
51,524 – 2003 – Maryland
52,346 – 2003 – UNC
55,000 – 2003 – UGA
——————————————
55,862** – 2003 – AVG. (96.1%)
** 2003+ Bobby Dodd Capacity = 55K

2004 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix
DC Tenuta
Calvin Johnson - Freshman Season
Marquee Early Win: Beat #18 Clemson 14-7 in Game 2 in front of 82K at Death Valley.
43,100 – 2004 – Samford
55,000 – 2004 – Miami
46,856 – 2004 – Duke
48,398 – 2004 – Va. Tech (Thursday)
43,577 – 2004 – UConn
43,971 – 2004 – UVA
——————————————
46,817 – 2004 – AVG. (85.1%)

2005 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dave Braine
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix
DC Tenuta
Calvin Johnson - Sophomore Season
Marquee Win: Beat Auburn 23-14 in opener in front of 87,451 at Jordan-Hare.
46,459 – 2005 – UNC
48,770 – 2005 – UConn
51,432 – 2005 – NC State
55,000 – 2005 – Clemson
51,571 – 2005 - Wake Forest
56,412 – 2005 – UGA
——————————————
51,607 – 2005 – AVG. (93.8%)

2006 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dan Radakovich
HC Chan Gailey
OC Nix
DC Tenuta
Calvin Johnson - Junior Season (final)
Marquee Early Game: Narrow 10-14 loss to #2 Notre Dame in opener in front of sold-out Bobby Dodd.
56,680 – 2006 – Notre Dame
47,149 – 2006 – Samford
45,637 – 2006 – Troy
51,081 – 2006 – Virginia (Thursday)
51,686 – 2006 – Maryland
55,320 – 2006 – Miami
46,768 – 2006 – Duke
——————————————
50,617 – 2006 – AVG. (92.0%)

2007 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dan Radokovich
HC Chan Gailey
OC John Bond
DC Tenuta
Marquee Early Win: Beat Notre Dame 33-3 in opener in front of 87,451 at South Bend.
43,288 – 2007 – Samford
51,112 – 2007 – Boston College
54,635 – 2007 – Clemson
50,242 – 2007 – Army
52,202 – 2007 – Va Tech
54,990 – 2007 – UGA
——————————————
51,078 – 2007 – AVG. (92.9%)

2008-2012 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Dan Radokovich
HC Paul Johnson
47,489 – 2008 – AVG. (86.3%)
51,584 – 2009 – AVG. (93.8%)
46,449 – 2010 – AVG. (84.5%)
48,232 – 2011 – AVG. (87.7%)
43,955 – 2012 – AVG. (79.9%)

2013-2018 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Todd Stansbury
HC Paul Johnson
49,077 – 2013 – AVG. (89.2%)
48,519 – 2014 – AVG. (88.2%)
50,707 – 2015 – AVG. (92.2%)
47,503 – 2016 – AVG. (86.4%)
46,885 – 2017 – AVG. (85.2%)
43,087 – 2018 – AVG. (78.3%)

2013-2018 GT FB Home Attendance:
AD Todd Stansbury
HC Geoff Collins
44,599 – 2019 – AVG. (81.1%)
N/A - 2020 COVID-19 IMPACTED
34,956*** – 2021 – AVG. (63.6%) ***w/o UGA

A drawback of the Benz games is you lose the marquee games that drew attendance at Bobby Dodd.

 

[GTRambler]

 

[Spalding Jacket]

 

[GTcanWINagain]

 

[tmhunter52]

View attachment 11655

To be fair, he HAS created more chaos, an “elite” level of chaos, in the Tech football program than probably anyone in history. His chaos has been so monumental, it may resurrect the Boo Birds before long…

 

[LibertyTurns]

Next year’s the 90th anniversary of the last time GT had 4 losing seasons in a row. Are we going to repeat history?

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

Next year’s the 90th anniversary of the last time GT had 4 losing seasons in a row. Are we going to repeat history?

Likely, yes.

 

[awbuzz]

To be fair, he HAS created more chaos, an “elite” level of chaos, in the Tech football program than probably anyone in history. His chaos has been so monumental, it may resurrect the Boo Birds before long…

They came out big during the BC game.

 

[gt02]

There are a fair number of people on this board that said the ND game was a turning point. Why is that? What did you see during the ND game that caused you to change your mind? Because to me, the fact that we piss away games against teams like BC is worse than the fact that we lost to ND. But the reason I lost faith in CGC is not either of those but the fact that our players play an undisciplined style of play that consistently gets exposed. Or the fact that our game day coaching is what it is. I just don’t understand all of the fans who point to ND as some huge inflection point.

 

[GTLorenzo]

There are a fair number of people on this board that said the ND game was a turning point. Why is that? What did you see during the ND game that caused you to change your mind? Because to me, the fact that we piss away games against teams like BC is worse than the fact that we lost to ND. But the reason I lost faith in CGC is not either of those but the fact that our players play an undisciplined style of play that consistently gets exposed. Or the fact that our game day coaching is what it is. I just don’t understand all of the fans who point to ND as some huge inflection point.