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

[g0lftime]

Recruiting at a service academy is extremely difficult. Not only do the candidates have to be able to keep up academically with a full cadet AND athletics workload, they have to be able to secure an appointment from their congressman/senator to even be considered. It's a very difficult process and it takes identifying and helping along early the exact right candidates in order to get them on board. Often, a recruit is placed in the NAPS/USMAPS/USAFAPS system for a year to get their academics in line. This means they have a year where they are "redshirted" but not practicing with the team. IIRC, they have "JV" teams there for the purpose of the Academy football team pipeline.

All this to say, for the last couple of years Navy has generally struggled in two related areas: QB and OL. For the 3O, QB is even more critical than in a normal offense, and Navy's QB has not been enough of a threat to keep defenses honest. OL is where academies struggle the most, as an OL body at any normal school would disqualify most cadets from military service. It's a major reason why the 3O is the offense of choice at academies. The Navy OL has struggled, and the results are there to see.

Can Coach N fix this? Sure, but at an academy, it's rarely a quick fix. They can't process out SAs as easily as other schools, and are generally stuck with their recruits for the duration.

Just my perspective as a former Academy Cadet.

My best friend from HS went to and played at west point. He had offers from Tennessee and GT among others. I was trying for the Air Force academy at the same time. We both went to our interviews with a selection panel on the same day. Difference was he knew he would get the appointment if he wanted it. I was first alternate. The appointment process is different for good athletes.

 

[ilovetheoption]

My best friend from HS went to and played at west point. He had offers from Tennessee and GT among others. I was trying for the Air Force academy at the same time. We both went to our interviews with a selection panel on the same day. Difference was he knew he would get the appointment if he wanted it. I was first alternate. The appointment process is different for good athletes.

That's super interesting. My best friend went to West Point, and recall him sweating it.

 

[DavidStandingBear]

Hi

I've made plenty of mistakes in my life, haven't you?

Look at the bigger picture regarding TStan. He's done allot of good as well. Undone plenty of crap MBob did as well.

Have you fixed your mistakes or just let them get worse?

 

[Pointer]

What O'Leary love fest?

HE brought him up. Not me.

You folks don't really follow a thread at all, do you?

....
After all, George O'Leary was a more winning coach than Johnson was with a .612 winning record and you don't even put him in the conversation.

I mean you brought him up directly. He's also been brought up allot before.

He was a great coach a Tech for sure.

 

[g0lftime]

That's super interesting. My best friend went to West Point, and recall him sweating it.

It was in the mid 60's. He played same era when Coach K was there for basketball but said he never met him while there. He was good enough to play in the old East-West Shrine game. Was not career army. Is now a semi retired dentist.

 

[takethepoints]

I'm not pro- or anti-option. But I may as well ask those who are biased that direction for one reason or another. Remember 5+ years ago when Ken Niamatalolo was the chosen one? What happened (obviously he had losing records the last 3 of 4 yrs, but why)? I have some loose ideas, but I haven't followed it closely to feel confident and I'm curious if anyone has followed his situation well enough to expound. Mainly trying to figure out the relevance to the current-day Monken-to-GT suggestions.

Well, since you asked …

I really like option football, so I watch the academies as often as I can. Navy's problem is pretty obvious: they don't have a QB who can run the spread option effectively and both Army and Air Force do. Why is another story. It used to be that the Navy prep school provided QBs in abundance who could run the O effectively; shoot, Kaipo had run it all through high school, then a year in prep before he even got to Annapolis. It could be a matter of stronger scheduling too; The AAC has several good teams this year and one really good one (Cinncy) while both Army and Air Force have weaker schedules. Still, most of Navy's loses have been pretty close; Cinncy beat them by 7 for instance. But … it really comes down to not having a QB. I watched Air Force and Nevada this past weekend and reveled in an almost 11 minute classic death march and Daniels, their QB, can throw as well. He was lights out in the game, both running and throwing.

 

[Sheboygan]

Perhaps CGC's statement about the biggest transformation ever was more a reflection on the self learning he needed to do, and less about shifting from 3O to the elitest NFL offense of the elites (which, in fairness it probably is when practicing against our defense)?

I actually wouldn't mind him explaining that in his press conferences. I could be (more) patient if the guy seemed to be working toward a goal, starting with his own improvement. He seriously needs to STOP using any term like elite, high level, etc. He needs to start using words like unacceptable, we have a ways to go, work in progress, etc........of course this is only my 2 cents !

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

My best friend from HS went to and played at west point. He had offers from Tennessee and GT among others. I was trying for the Air Force academy at the same time. We both went to our interviews with a selection panel on the same day. Difference was he knew he would get the appointment if he wanted it. I was first alternate. The appointment process is different for good athletes.

It used to be that way. It's very different now for a lot of reasons. A recruited athlete has a better than average chance of securing a nomination, but still has to undergo the selection and appointment process just like everyone else. If they are selected, they still have to endure SWAB Summer, or whatever the inferior academies like USNA, USMA, MMA, and USAFA call their orientation summers. Only after completing that can they join practices with the team, so they miss a good portion of the summer sessions.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

Good catch.

Yea I started ignoring him as well when I saw that. (Mentally not the ignore button). He is either a UGA fan or shill from the current clown regime.

 

[Sheboygan]

Hi

Have you fixed your mistakes or just let them get worse?

It's a work in progress depending on who you ask................Mrs. Sheboygan may have different answer than me

 

[Billygoat91]

I have the most half-baked answer to the woes of Tech football that will probably make everyone on this board angry, but hear me out.

1. Fire Pnode. While I think he is the least of our concerns in some areas, the offense is unoriginal and will not make up for our defensive woes
2. Fire Key. Our O-line doesn't really play anyways so why coach them? Maybe we rehire Sewak or just get the biggest dudes at the student center, chain them together, and put cinderblocks around their ankles to create a barrier on pass plays.
3. Hire Irvin Jasper from Navy to run the O and coach qbs. He can be retained if we decide to revert to 3-O with Monken after Collins' 4th year. We get a bonus year of coaching TO if that is the route we take, easing the transition. Jasper is looking for a way to get out of Annapolis so we can get him for cheap.
4. Put Gibbs at QB and run a Perry/Taquon Marshal-esque triple option with no passing at all. Gibbs wins the Heisman while we probably go 6-6. Use Heisman to boost recruiting.
5. Keep Collins at least one more year for branding, recruiting. Make him a CEO style head coach in that sense. If things work, we don't have to pay the buyout. If they don't, then who cares, fire him.
6. Fire either Thacker or Burton as we don't need two co-efensive coordinators, Collins has more input on defense. Tech defense has not been good for over a decade and defense seems to be going the way of the dinosaur in general, so we just go all in on offense.
7. Whoever get's fired out of Burton or Thacker will get replaced with a "clock management coach" that is basically the gameday coach so we don't have to see Collins flailing around out there.
8. Use Collins' extremely repetetive press conferences and predilection for talking points to try to change the public's opinion of TO football. Call our new path forward the "greatest metamorphosis in college football history". Market T-shirts with Collins' face photoshopped over a monarch butterfly. New slogan for 2022 is "Caterpillar 22 Butterfly - No option but our option"
9. If a player is penalized, they don't get tutors for their classes/homework that week. If the defense gets a 3 and out, everyone on campus, including non-student athletes, get a .001% curve on their hell-week final.
10. Add a clause that coaches salaries drop 8% for each loss to a team we are favored against.
11. ??????? profit?

 

[Sheboygan]

I have the most half-baked answer to the woes of Tech football that will probably make everyone on this board angry, but hear me out.

1. Fire Pnode. While I think he is the least of our concerns in some areas, the offense is unoriginal and will not make up for our defensive woes
2. Fire Key. Our O-line doesn't really play anyways so why coach them? Maybe we rehire Sewak or just get the biggest dudes at the student center, chain them together, and put cinderblocks around their ankles to create a barrier on pass plays.
3. Hire Irvin Jasper from Navy to run the O and coach qbs. He can be retained if we decide to revert to 3-O with Monken after Collins' 4th year. We get a bonus year of coaching TO if that is the route we take, easing the transition. Jasper is looking for a way to get out of Annapolis so we can get him for cheap.
4. Put Gibbs at QB and run a Perry/Taquon Marshal-esque triple option with no passing at all. Gibbs wins the Heisman while we probably go 6-6. Use Heisman to boost recruiting.
5. Keep Collins at least one more year for branding, recruiting. Make him a CEO style head coach in that sense. If things work, we don't have to pay the buyout. If they don't, then who cares, fire him.
6. Fire either Thacker or Burton as we don't need two co-efensive coordinators, Collins has more input on defense. Tech defense has not been good for over a decade and defense seems to be going the way of the dinosaur in general, so we just go all in on offense.
7. Whoever get's fired out of Burton or Thacker will get replaced with a "clock management coach" that is basically the gameday coach so we don't have to see Collins flailing around out there.
8. Use Collins' extremely repetetive press conferences and predilection for talking points to try to change the public's opinion of TO football. Call our new path forward the "greatest metamorphosis in college football history". Market T-shirts with Collins' face photoshopped over a monarch butterfly. New slogan for 2022 is "Caterpillar 22 Butterfly - No option but our option"
9. If a player is penalized, they don't get tutors for their classes/homework that week. If the defense gets a 3 and out, everyone on campus, including non-student athletes, get a .001% curve on their hell-week final.
10. Add a clause that coaches salaries drop 8% for each loss to a team we are favored against.
11. ??????? profit?

Not completely thought out , IMO......but I like !!

 

[Billygoat91]

Not completely thought out , IMO......but I like !!

It was mostly meant as a light-hearted joke.... 9 wins in three years has made this board a little too somber

 

[Richard7125]

It might be more expensive to keep him that fire him.

Good sound bite, but not accurate.

 

[Gomez Adams]

I mean you brought him up directly. He's also been brought up allot before.

Nice selective posting by you yet again.

Once again, the PJ worshippers started it all. When I pointed this out, they lost their minds:

A one off fluke. Fact is, he started out 9-4, then 11-3, then it was mediocrity or losing every year after that with the exception of 2014. Let's review:

2010: 6-7
2012: 7-7
2013: 7-6
2015: 3-9
2017: 5-6
2018: 7-6

You can't maintain any sort of winning success with an offense most high schools don't even run anymore.

You've all been picking apart my posts taking them completely out of context ever since. The instance you quoted about my mentioning O'Leary had more to it:

Incorrect.

You guys look at three good seasons Johnson had out of 11 years and somehow come to the conclusion that Paul Johnson was the second coming of Bear Bryant.

I point out 6 underperforming to mediocre seasons to counter that argument and you lose your collective minds and say I'm manipulating things.

Paul Johnson was a .580 coach at GT. He wasn't nearly the legend you folks make him out to be. He was, at best, a decent coach. Nothing more.

After all, George O'Leary was a more winning coach than Johnson was with a .612 winning record and you don't even put him in the conversation

And that post was in response to this post:

If you have to exclude multiple good seasons to make your point, your point is wrong.

Because he, like you, took only PART of my post above where I make mention of all three winning seasons that he conveniently omitted mentioning to make out that I was somehow fudging numbers.

You're both trolling for an argument by intentionally misquoting, using half-quotes, and warping everything out of context to suit your own end and start a fight.

You are now on ignore. Life is too short to deal with trolls.

 

[takethepoints]

Good sound bite, but not accurate.

All we need is something close to a break even point. That, imho, is swiftly approaching.

 

[bobongo]

Good sound bite, but not accurate.

It's not a sound bite, because I'm just suggesting it might be more expensive to keep him than fire him, all things considered. I don't know that for sure. I don't think anyone else does, either. You have to factor in the deterioration of ticket sales, the fan base, etc, etc.

 

[Richard7125]

All we need is something close to a break even point. That, imho, is swiftly approaching.

I agree if you are talking about after next year.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Is there a troll in this thread? This is UGA hate week and the initials are GA? Hmmm?

Good catch!

 

[RamblinRed]

FWIW, this is a good article on the supply and demand of college coaches.

The Monday After: College football coaching carousel inflation sets up for disappointment

So many openings, so few candidates capable of filling them

www.cbssports.com