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

Heisman's Ghost

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,863
Location
Albany Georgia
I just hope Duke doesn't put up "Welcome to the cellar" on the scoreboard after the game is over. I was at that game. That really got under Ross' skin.
You forgot the most annoying part of that jab..."Welcome to the cellar, Techies (or maybe Teckies) same difference. Coach Ross was humiliated, angry, and tearfully apologized to Tech fans after the game. He came very close to walking away but an assistant or maybe it was the AD talked him out of it.
 

GTLorenzo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,553
Minor nitpicking, but a. they didn’t like having a coach who wasn’t from the Bear’s coaching tree (the Tech part was bad too, but mainly he “wasn’t a Bear coach”), b. his record was good except for against Auburn, which wasn’t tolerable to them, and c. the worst part was that he left for Kentucky before getting fired, which made him a hated man in Tuscaloosa. Alabama didn’t get a chance to run Curry out; Curry left “the best coaching job in America” willingly and ticked off a bunch of Bama fans in the process.

You can’t quit and go to another school; you have to stay there and let Alabama fire and embarrass you.

====
OrientalNC has been a fan long enough to remember Curry; I think he’s not seeing the point of comparing Curry and Collins.

I think Curry and Collins have some inexplicable losses in common, but Collins is much farther along than Curry was. Collins is also in a harsher overall coaching environment that Curry. Admittedly, the program was in sad shape when Curry took over, but the differences between the haves and the have-nots is much greater now than it was then, the need for money is much larger, and the latitude to get things squared away is much less.
=====
I think it was Andy Demetra I heard talking to Collins before kickoff (or at least a recording). The interview previewing the Pitt game was interesting to me. In most of the pressers, we don’t hear Collins breaking down the details of the game, but he did in the pregame. His overview of what we needed to do on defense was really good, and what you’d expect out of a former linebacker and defensive coordinator. His description of offense was a lot looser, and I could just hear a lot more comfort and depth in talking about defense.
I’ve heard a lot of people call him just a recruiter, or a “CEO head coach”, but he sounded like a coach who knows defense. The Pitt game wasn’t good defense, unfortunately. I think we need to get the offensive issues squared away so he can focus on the defense and get it into the range we want it to be.

Agree that he wasn't literally run out of Tuscaloosa, but as I recall they were not going to extend him and they certainly didn't like him and someone did throw a brick through his office window, so Curry got out before he WAS forced out. He certainly was not going to last much longer in Tuscaloosa. He was hired because he was straight laced and was going to do things the right way, which we all know, is not how they do things in Alabama.
 

Vespidae

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,326
Location
Auburn, AL
Agree that he wasn't literally run out of Tuscaloosa, but as I recall they were not going to extend him and they certainly didn't like him and someone did throw a brick through his office window, so Curry got out before he WAS forced out. He certainly was not going to last much longer in Tuscaloosa. He was hired because he was straight laced and was going to do things the right way, which we all know, is not how they do things in Alabama.
A lot of that problem was Joab Thomas, president of Alabama. He tried to change the culture of the school AWAY from football. He didn’t last.
 

orientalnc

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
9,900
Location
Oriental, NC
OrientalNC has been a fan long enough to remember Curry; I think he’s not seeing the point of comparing Curry and Collins.
Yes, I remember the Curry years. He was the last of the post-Dodd Tech coaches who either played or were assistants under Bobby Dodd. He had never been a head coach and his first two seasons were awful. That said, the season opener in 1981 was a 24-21 defeat of Alabama at Legion Field and my last bus trip to a road game.
 

GTLorenzo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,553
Yes, I remember the Curry years. He was the last of the post-Dodd Tech coaches who either played or were assistants under Bobby Dodd. He had never been a head coach and his first two seasons were awful. That said, the season opener in 1981 was a 24-21 defeat of Alabama at Legion Field and my last bus trip to a road game.

I was there. Unbelievable victory and thought it was going to lead to a great season. Not so much with 10 straight losses. 😐

I was at the 3-3 win over Notre Dame in 1980 as well. One amazing game!

Having said that, I was not a big Curry fan. Similar thoughts on Collins unfortunately.
 

cthenrys

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
942
Location
Highland Village, TX
I had dinner with a Duke alum tonight. Her comment about the game this weekend was, "I thought they didn't start playing games until November."
My daughter is a Sr there. She’s a huge sports fan but rarely goes. I’ll be sitting with her there Saturday but that student body could not care less which is sad because it’s a great stadium for a noon game.
 

g0lftime

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,916
I am as unhappy as anyone else on the forum about NIU and Pitt losses. I have my own opinion about this staff but I am going to hold judgment until the season is over and team ratings have been completed. It's unfair IMO to judge improvement on one or two games even though it is showing tendencies. if ratings are well below 50 then it tells me we are underachieving. Continuing without some changes will lose me until this regime is long gone. We have games to prove otherwise. Some of these coaches need to feel a warm seat. They will have had time by the end of the season.
 

tmhunter52

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,449
At some point, someone is going to talk to Stansbury as well. A 7 year contract is unconscionable.

I realize that this was the greatest transition in the history of the world and that we are so unbelievably elite at everything we do and that we love each other, but you should know by year 3 or 4 at the latest if this is working or not. We likely can’t fire him until the end of Year 5. We may not have 15,000 people at the games in Year 5 if this continues.

Stansbury may have killed the football program for the next 5 or 10 years with this hire and if we keep losing, the next coach won’t have the benefit of Collins’ elite recruiting.

I hope he figures it out and we win out, but today was so disappointing after last week. The UNC game was probably the best time I’ve had at a Tech game since 2017 or 2018. Just sad state of where we are right now.
Watching Tech football now is like watching your son getting b**ch-slapped by the school nerd’s girlfriend
 

billga99

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
821
As weird as it sounds, the Duke game really is crucial for this year. A win puts us at 3-3 and provides some momentum before a bye week. If we win that game, I still think we have a shot at wins. Conversely if we lose that game, it really could be another 3 win season. If that happens, I really think our recruiting could take a major hit. It is still hard for me to believe how poor our run game is with our group of running backs. They have basically no openings. The scheme to get Gibbs and others on the age with swing passes and other areas away from tackle to tackle have to be the approach right now. Maybe if we hit enough of those type of plays, the middle might be more open. On defense, our inability to get a pass rush (other than the UNC game) and our struggles with covering receivers make us incredibly vulnerable to any normal passing team. We will see.
 
Top