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

[jgtengineer]

We went through this with GOL. Great DC, then lousy D's when he became the HC for the most part. It baffled us then as it does now.

I mean it isn't even unique to college. Dan Quinn comes to mind. Great DC, but once he was a head coach... defense constantly declined.

 

[slugboy]

I mean it isn't even unique to college. Dan Quinn comes to mind. Great DC, but once he was a head coach... defense constantly declined.

I think the Falcons were already at the bottom of the league defensively with Mike Smith—they just stayed there. They’re still there

 

[Animal02]

What sets me off is our own fanbase negative recruiting us. I’ve seen plenty of people on social media—and here on GTSwarm—repeating the same tired tropes as our detractors, playing sock-puppet to the likes of Cutcliffe.

Happened a bunch under PJ’s tenure, and undoubtedly made a tough recruiting hill even steeper. At the end of it all, sure—high school students were saying they didn’t want to play for PJ’s system…because some people spent a decade planting that seed in their mind. And by “some people” I mean our own fans.

I didn’t like seeing that then, and I don’t like seeing it now. There are too many fonts on this board who—despite having what may be decent concerns (that I tend to agree with) about Collins—are grousing in a way that tears down our program by feeding the negative recruiting paradigm.

Stop it, all of you! GTpdm has spoken.

It is not just the negative recruits.....how about Tevon being booed from the stands because he was starting ahead of Vlad. Or posters here actively advocating "processing" players when CG was hired.

 

[jgtengineer]

I think the Falcons were already at the bottom of the league defensively with Mike Smith—they just stayed there. They’re still there

Nah they had a decent year when quinn got there and smith is another example actually.

 

[DavidStandingBear]

No it's not. That is just on its face stupid. If many head coach contracts are for 5 years are they getting extensions after 2 years just for recruiting? No

We get it. You wanted Monken and you're upset you didn't get your way.

That’s a straw man argument.

 

[Lotta Booze]

That’s a straw man argument.

hahaha...no it's not

 

[bobongo]

We went through this with GOL. Great DC, then lousy D's when he became the HC for the most part. It baffled us then as it does now.

Of course there will be head scratching examples of it not working, but those are probably the exceptions. I'm wondering what the reason would be that it shouldn't work.

It just makes good sense for Collins to take over the defense. He has a good track record as DC.

 

[DavidStandingBear]

hahaha...no it's not

Please explain. I never even thought about monken. Just don’t know why we had to burn everything down, divide the fan base with insults, and give an minimally qualified coach a 7 year contract, achieve far less than the last 3 regimes, that insults the intelligence of the fans?

 

[Yoda]

If Collins really was a great DC at Ms. State and Fla., I don't get why he doesn't takeover the Defensive Coordinator role like PJ did the Offensive Coordinator role. Getting more out of the defense makes more wins much more realistic. At the end, GT can't afford to spend big $ on coordinators and coaches. If you eliminate the need to replace the Defensive Coordinator, it would give you more money to address other potential coaching changes.

Hate to admit it but Kirby looks heavily involved on the defensive side of things over there.

 

[Bonaire41]

TStan has done a decent job on the fundraising front. He could survive the firing of CGC.

I think there will be defensive staff changes to buy Collins another year. You've seen this move before and it seldom ends well.

Played 18 today. Had the $9 special at White Diamond Grill. Braves win World Series. God is good.

White Diamond Grill in Bonaire?

 

[4shotB]

Please explain. I never even thought about monken. Just don’t know why we had to burn everything down, divide the fan base with insults, and give an minimally qualified coach a 7 year contract, achieve far less than the last 3 regimes, that insults the intelligence of the fans?

Mr. Bear, it appears that you are relatively new to this site. First of all, welcome. Secondly, the divided fan base is not a new phenomenon. If you had been around then you would know it dates all the way back to the Coach Gailey years. We are torn equally between our hatred of our coaches and our fellow Tech fans.

 

[4shotB]

White Diamond Grill in Bonaire?

Of course. There is no other. The finest culinary experience in the entire state. Is that the same Bonaire from which you take your posting name?

 

[Lotta Booze]

Please explain. I never even thought about monken. Just don’t know why we had to burn everything down, divide the fan base with insults, and give an minimally qualified coach a 7 year contract, achieve far less than the last 3 regimes, that insults the intelligence of the fans?

My original post was in regards to a specific falsehood about contract renewal timelines.

As to the Monken comment, well that was in response to some of the "why did we burn everything down" comments. The only thing we "burned down" was getting away from the triple option. PJ retired, he wasn't fired, so the program had to replace him and they were forced to choose between continuing down the path of triple option or....going more mainstream. One issue with sticking with the triple/spread option is the limited coaching pool as well so you really just have Monken, Bohannon, and maybe Ken N at Navy if you can pull him. So you practically have Monken or the field as to hiring the next coach and I don't blame them for going with the field. I don't really call that "burning everything down".

2019 was primed to be a rough season before PJ ever mentioned retiring. Some say "we were a 7 win team", yeah in 2018. But 2019 was a different roster. We were one of the teams returning the least amount of production in the country. And while I hoped Woody could work some wonders on D we had a D ranked 102nd in the country per DFEI and in 2019 we lost the entire D line. Hard to believe we'd see much gained on that side of the ball.

And even while a 7-win season sounds great now, the beginning of 2018 was far from peaches and rainbows. We were 3-4 with some ugly looking losses to USF and Pitt before PJ managed a 4 game win streak to allow us to go to a bowl game and get worked by Minnesota. Early part of that season had plenty of people in the fan base "being divided" and insulting each other. I don't think that's new. Losing exacerbates it.

 

[lv20gt]

If Collins really was a great DC at Ms. State and Fla., I don't get why he doesn't takeover the Defensive Coordinator role like PJ did the Offensive Coordinator role. Getting more out of the defense makes more wins much more realistic. At the end, GT can't afford to spend big $ on coordinators and coaches. If you eliminate the need to replace the Defensive Coordinator, it would give you more money to address other potential coaching changes.

I'd say there are a couple reasons. The first is I'm not unsure that Johnson's role of being his own OC wasn't at least part of the cause for some of the issues that plagued the team while he was here. It's by no means a certainty but it is asking one person to do two people's jobs.

The second is that IMO defense is likely more taxing in terms of preparation because while on offense you know what you want to do and only really have to deal with how the defense my react to what you are doing. Defensively you need to prepare for everything the opposing offense will have to do. There is also the factor that offenses probably vary far more than defenses so the week to week carryover in terms of preparation likely isn't as high for defense as offense. That is probably even more true while running a niche offense like Johnson did because there wasn't as much film on how teams would try to defend it so there was less time needed to go over that.

I know other coaches have been their own playcallers but I think many still have an OC that helps with the preparation. I don't know how many headcoaches just lack an offensive coordinator all together and I'm not sure I've ever heard of a team not having a DC, although I'm not really looking for it actively so it's possible. I think it's very likely that for Collins to be an effective DC he would have to dedicate his time and efforts to just that and that split between DC and HC duties wouldn't be enough. I actually think Johnson had this issue himself as if he was just an OC and not also a HC I think he would have continued to be more innovative than what he became, but that's a different topic all together.

 

[Bonaire41]

Of course. There is no other. The finest culinary experience in the entire state. Is that the same Bonaire from which you take your posting name?

I live about a mile and half from the White Diamond Grill

 

[jgtengineer]

Since often CPJ is brought up in this thread I want to add a little snippet. Johnson was offered the chance to head coach Georgia Southern (who just hired Clay Helton) he chose to remain retired. I think that should put to rest any weird speculation he didn't retire on his own.

 

[Tech93]

If we had all the money back from coaches’ contract payoffs we could hire a top 10.

 

[Animal02]

Since often CPJ is brought up in this thread I want to add a little snippet. Johnson was offered the chance to head coach Georgia Southern (who just hired Clay Helton) he chose to remain retired. I think that should put to rest any weird speculation he didn't retire on his own.

While I do think He made the decision.........there is no correlation to the two events.......he could easily have been forced out, and in the last three years decided he doesn't need the hassle

 

[bobongo]

While I do think He made the decision.........there is no correlation to the two events.......he could easily have been forced out, and in the last three years decided he doesn't need the hassle

I was about to say...

 

[bke1984]

Thanks great read guess I missed it the 1st time. Makes me wonder if these money guys are thinking now kind of think they thought this would be the year to win 6 games. Guess we will see if things don't change soon how much more they will put up with it.

Yep. I’ve thought about this article quite a bit the last few weeks.

Now to be fair, the season isn’t over. They still could feasibly get to five (six with a miracle in South Bend), but it ain’t looking good.