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

[WreckinGT]

I’ve heard from multiple people that CPJ was forced out.

I have no insider information but it doesn't seem like CPJ's personality to just take being forced out and accept less money than he is entitled to on top of that. In 2014 he was reportedly telling GT to buy him out of his contract. I think he just got sick of this ****.

 

[Pointer]

Don't disagree, but there's probably 50 posts in this thread about Collins not screaming at players or refs, or criticizing players in post game interviews. There is also another 50 posts about how Bohannon is the savior of Tech football. Some wanted him here last Monday.

Some still want him here

 

[augustabuzz]

Congrats, man…you’ve been on this planet A LOT longer than I have. CLEARLY, my fandom doesn’t compare to your’s because of that.

I’ve given my life to Tech, so you can GTFO with all that noise.

You kids behave! Don't make me come back there!

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I remember when if you called for CPJ to be fired, you got banned. Now it's OK to do so for 68 pages because Collins isn't running the Saintly Triple Option? What a load of hypocritical nonsense.

Could you give me the exact number of people who have actually called for CGC to get fired? I haven’t counted so I don’t know but I just don’t recall many people doing that. I think the title of this thread attracted a lot of people like you which made the thread 68 pages long but it definitely wasn’t 68 pages of people calling for firing. I know I wasn’t.

 

[yeti92]

I have no doubt that is what your friend told you. I’m telling you what the coaching staff said. I suppose there could be a universe where the messages that the AD was giving CPJ was perceived as critical but was not intended to be (in which case we are both right). But I am skeptical of that.

Didn't Stansbury basically tell Paul he wouldn't get the resources the next coach would? IMO whether he was forced out or left on his own is just who's view your are taking. If your employer does everything to tie your hands and make your job uneccessarily difficult, and you decide to leave, were you forced out or did you leave on your own?

 

[Towaliga]

I remember when if you called for CPJ to be fired, you got banned. Now it's OK to do so for 68 pages because Collins isn't running the Saintly Triple Option? What a load of hypocritical nonsense.

There were plenty of people calling for CPG to be fired that didn’t get banned. The ones that were banned seemed to be the ones that were being total a**es about him and to anyone else that defended him.

 

[slugboy]

Didn't Stansbury basically tell Paul he wouldn't get the resources the next coach would? IMO whether he was forced out or left on his own is just who's view your are taking. If your employer does everything to tie your hands and make your job uneccessarily difficult, and you decide to leave, were you forced out or did you leave on your own?

Stansbury ramped up the resources for Johnson, and got him recruiting assistance he’d been asking for for years. By Johnson’s public accounts, he had a very good relationship with Stansbury.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Stansbury ramped up the resources for Johnson, and got him recruiting assistance he’d been asking for for years. By Johnson’s public accounts, he had a very good relationship with Stansbury.

Man, you’d think we could just leave the Johnson era behind. The man was probably worn out, like we get at the end of our careers. We have a lot of knowledge, we’ve accomplished a lot, but that desire to work 16 hr days is gone & we’ve missed the kids growing up. Now we just want to see the grandkids.

GT is a tough place to coach, always has in my 5 decades on the Flats. No matter what anyone says we’re never going to have the resources of the Top 25 or so schools. It’s hard to make our academics attractive. We’re in a city.

We need to measure CGC on what he’s doing, not his dress code or his weird mannerisms. I know they become a lightning rod when we lose to Citadel and directional U, but the man will either build a program, go sideways or drag us down. Frankly it’s hard to tell which way we’re going, but it appears it’s not up. How much longer does he have to show progress? Well if you have $10-20M to donate, I guess you know the answer. Right now the answer is probably not very long, 3 months or 15 months or 27 months are the likely answers.

If we win half our games the rest of the season, he’ll be 10 games under .500. That’s 3 straight 8-5 to get him to almost .500. There will be a lot of pressure to win big next year and if not then even more the year after. The entire roster will be his and with the transfer portal, no lack of access to talent.

 

[CPJacket]

Never seemed like a valid argument to me. He had coached that defense for the whole year and then they fall apart the first time he’s not on the sideline with them for a bowl game? I’ve never sensed that he was that important of a presence on the sideline during games.

It's a VERY solid argument. Have we forgotten that for 11+ seasons of "triple option" football DC's had to change up what they regularly did to find a scheme to defend us. Never did they just line up and play us like they ordinarily did. That was supposed to be the advantage that we had. So to now say that Collins was responsible for the way they schemed to play us, when he wasn't even there is asinine. I am just as disappointed in our start as the rest of you but let's bring valid arguments to the table, not just try to win a duel.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Please, oh please someone do this. It will be max ludicris mode, maybe set the link to drop people into StinGTalk

In my humble opinion, the wardrobe discussion just underscores the frustration that many feel that Collins is more style than substance. 99% of the fan base wouldn’t care about his clownish clothes and ways if he won a few ball games. To be embarrassed on the field is one thing, but to be embarrassed off it, as well, is salt in the wound.

But as they say, if the shoe fits, wear it. And the shoe definitely fits the wearer.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Didn't Stansbury basically tell Paul he wouldn't get the resources the next coach would? IMO whether he was forced out or left on his own is just who's view your are taking. If your employer does everything to tie your hands and make your job uneccessarily difficult, and you decide to leave, were you forced out or did you leave on your own?

No. TStan was actively working on future resources. AI 2020 was planned and began while CPJ was still here. The initial fundraising started in January 2018 before CPJ started his final year. Lot's of noise here but not much of it's true at all. CPJ was not forced out.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

It's a VERY solid argument. Have we forgotten that for 11+ seasons of "triple option" football DC's had to change up what they regularly did to find a scheme to defend us. Never did they just line up and play us like they ordinarily did. That was supposed to be the advantage that we had. So to now say that Collins was responsible for the way they schemed to play us, when he wasn't even there is asinine. I am just as disappointed in our start as the rest of you but let's bring valid arguments to the table, not just try to win a duel.

Sorry. I’ll say it again. The narrative about the DC not being there and that being the reason Miss State lost started before the final horn on that game. I did not even know who Collins was at that time but called b.s. on it at the time. I understand people wanting to defend Collins but this is a stupid hill to die on.

I bet there is a way to do an internet search and see how many teams had a significant drop off in performance when they lost the DC they had practiced with all year a few days before a big game.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

No. TStan was actively working on future resources. AI 2020 was planned and began while CPJ was still here. The initial fundraising started in January 2018 before CPJ started his final year. Lot's of noise here but not much of it's true at all. CPJ was not forced out.

I think lack of resources was a source of frustration for CPJ his entire time at Tech. Didn’t he want to hire Ellis Johnson for DC but wasn’t given the funds so he ended up hiring Al Groh on the cheap?

 

[BCJacket]

I can say this much. His decision to retire surprised TStan.

TStan was getting some pressure from a few of the bigger donors, but not enough to move on from CPJ just yet.

Insofar as it matters, this is in line with my understanding. I've heard some of both 'sides' from people that were 'in the know'. Like so many things, the truth is in the middle and point of view matters a lot. When TStan came in CPJ had an engaged boss again for the first time in years. Under Sasquatch, CPJ got to do everything exactly how he wanted - for better or worse. TStan wanted to try to give CPJ the resources he said he needed to win bigger. But he was also asking CPJ to do things he hadn't wanted to do: play the recruiting game, butt-kiss the media, 'branding', make staff changes, maybe even 'modernize' the offense. CPJ thought a lot of that off-field 'Dabo' stuff was pretty silly. TStan didn't like the 3O being our perceived identity. He wanted the program to be bigger than our offensive scheme.

CPJ could have stayed effectively as long as he wanted. (Unless he started losing really badly.) But he'd have needed to do things he didn't want to do. 2014 proved to him that he could win 'his way'. But from the outside perspective, CFB was moving on and changing. By the end, he wasn't having fun anymore and didn't want to put in the effort to retool the program the way TStan wanted. He was an old dog who didn't want to have to learn new tricks. He'd won a lot his way, he decided he'd rather go play golf.

Leaving when he did was his choice. To some degree, he made that choice because of 'pressure'. But the pressure wasn't for him to leave, the pressure was to make the changes his boss thought needed to be made to win. And, most importantly, to win.

Honestly, IMHO, if we had half of CGC's hype, branding, and recruiting and half of CPJ's coaching acumen; we'd be winning like 08-09 right now.

 

[slugboy]

I think lack of resources was a source of frustration for CPJ his entire time at Tech. Didn’t he want to hire Ellis Johnson for DC but wasn’t given the funds so he ended up hiring Al Groh on the cheap?

1. He wanted Ellis Johnson when he started. South Carolina paid him essentially head coach money to be DC and AHC. The GTAA gave Paul Johnson budget for more than market rate for a quality DC, but not head coach scale money
2. He hired Dave Wommack, who had a good track record before and after Georgia tech
3. Several years later, he hired Groh, who had been a super bowl winning DC

 

[4shotB]

CPJ could have stayed effectively as long as he wanted. By the end, he wasn't having fun anymore and didn't want to put in the effort to retool the program the way TStan wanted. He was an old dog who didn't want to have to learn new tricks. He'd won a lot his way, he decided he'd rather go play golf.

Leaving when he did was his choice. To some degree, he made that choice because of 'pressure'. But the pressure wasn't for him to leave, the pressure was to make the changes his boss thought needed to be made to win. And, most importantly, to win.

Regarding paragraph 1. Kudos to CPJ and I can relate to that story. The beautiful thing about being on the back end of your career rather than the front end is you get control. You can step off the bus when the outside forces become more than you want. Younger people don't have the luxury of ignoring their bosses.

regarding paragraph 2. Assuming it is true (and I have no doubt that it isn't), it should give some of our posters some minor relief from their angst. If TStan was taking a hands on approach with a legendary coach like CPJ, we should assume that CGC will be subject to the same. So things will either get fixed or someone else will be given the opportunity.

 

[4shotB]

1. He wanted Ellis Johnson when he started. South Carolina paid him essentially head coach money to be DC and AHC. The GTAA gave Paul Johnson budget for more than market rate for a quality DC, but not head coach scale money
2. He hired Dave Wommack, who had a good track record before and after Georgia tech
3. Several years later, he hired Groh, who had been a super bowl winning DC

So do these guys forget how to coach when on North Avenue. Or are there perhaps underlying systemic issues?

 

[slugboy]

So do these guys forget how to coach when on North Avenue. Or are there perhaps underlying systemic issues?

Maybe Tenuta took all the tackling dummies on the way out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[orientalnc]

Didn't Stansbury basically tell Paul he wouldn't get the resources the next coach would? IMO whether he was forced out or left on his own is just who's view your are taking. If your employer does everything to tie your hands and make your job uneccessarily difficult, and you decide to leave, were you forced out or did you leave on your own?

This post accuses Stansbury of undermining his football coach to avoid firing him. I would like to see the basis for this accusation. Or a retraction.

 

[BCJacket]

This post accuses Stansbury of undermining his football coach to avoid firing him. I would like to see the basis for this accusation. Or a retraction.

I think the original post mischaracterizes the context. It wasn't that TStan said "I'm not going to give you the same resources as the next coach I hire." He wanted to give CPJ everything he could. But the AD can only provide the money the department raises. The coach has to kiss some butts and sell the program. (Or win so big it doesn't matter.) That wasn't CPJ's strength. It was more: "Here's how I believe we raise more money for the program. [Unstated: I'll be looking for these strengths in your successor because that's what I believe works.]"

We got a new coach that said all the 'right things', did the media circus, played the game and lo and behold AI 2020 exceeded expectations. But if we don't win, that enthusiasm will not continue.