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

[CuseJacket]

Luckily Kansas went with Lance Leipold and Illinois went with Bret Bielema. Jeff Monken finishing second for both jobs. This is a gift for Georgia Tech should they want to go back in that direction. Monken lost on the road at Wisconsin (a top 20 team) by 6, and put up 600 yards of offense on a really good Wake Forest team. Scoring 56. He isn't getting beat 55-0 by anyone. He just keeps succeeding at what is arguably the most difficult job in D1 football.

On top of all that, Georgia Tech needs to change its strategy. I've been saying it for years. The recipe for winning isn't that hard.

Step 1: Hire Jeff Monken
Step 2: Monken brings his staff with him
Step 3: Install Option Offense
Step 4: Change scheduling habits
Step 5: Execute

Season 1 Sample Schedule
Game 1: Georgia State (win 50-10, try to put up 500 rushing yards)
Game 2: Bowling Green (win 60-3, try to put up 500 rushing yards)
Game 3: Southern Miss (win 50-10, try to put up 400 rushing yards)
Game 4: Louisiana Tech (win 45-17, try to put up 400 rushing yards)
Week 5: Bye Week
Week 6: North Carolina
Week 7: Duke
Week 8: Miami
Week 9: Pitt
Week 10: Clemson
Week 11: Virginia Tech
Week 12: Virginia
Week 13: NC State


Non-Conference Objectives
Get Georgia Tech into the top 25 heading into conference
Play reasonable non-conference opponents from C-USA, Sun Belt, American, MAC, etc
Get the rotation down... break in new players... get timing just right... improve every week
Put up the best possible numbers to highlight the effectiveness of the option offense (Air Force and Army have put up these kinds of numbers this year, and in recent seasons as well. It's more than possible)
Start the season 4-0
Tell Georgia to screw off most years, and just play them every now and then

Conference Objectives
Win a minimum of 4 games in the league, getting to 8 wins total for the season
Any additional wins improve status, ranking, bowl game, etc
The floor for the team should be 7 win seasons
Try to catch lightning in a bottle like 2014, but be a consistent program

Mindset
Nobody should be pissed with 8-4 on a consistent basis
People should be very happy with 9-3
People should be ecstatic with 10-2
People should be "ok" with 7-5

Can you clarify if I'm missing something? This isn't the first time you've come here with this post.

We can choose to deploy your proposed scheduling strategy with any coach, and we should expect to go 4-0 against that nonconference slate. That is Georgia Tech's history pre-current regime. Therefore, 4-0 has nothing to do with Monken.

Then you want to go .500 in the ACC. That is Georgia Tech's history pre-current regime. Therefore, 8-4 on a consistent basis has nothing to do with Monken.

So why does it have to be Monken in order for Georgia Tech to achieve those results?

 

[jgtengineer]

Why back to the option again? Take a look at my attendance post on Gailey vs. Johnson filling up our stadium…

Again different eras as well on that.

 

[g0lftime]

I am surprised how bad our drive blocking has been most of the time. We have struggled to get a couple of yards on third and short. I don't have a problem with shotgun formation but even the pros often go under center at times. Lot easier to get the ball to a downhill runner that is almost to the LOS at handoff. Our OC is very predictable and has no imagination. Are we introducing new plays each week. If we are it isn't obvious. Misdirection? Traps? Quick slants? The playbook seems very repetitious.
Maybe practice with 6 or 7 on 5 blockers for screens and and quick dump passes.
My HS basketball team played 6 against 5 half court. Realize it was HS but somehow need to do better against blitzes.

 

[CuseJacket]

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.

 

[JacketOff]

The buyout is $475,000 in 2026. 5 year ? Only in name. January 1 , 2026 after his 4th season he can be gone at a bargain price.

Yeah, at a place that’s literally the worst job in the FBS. That’s not even comparable to the GT job

 

[Gomez Adams]

Realize it was HS but somehow need to do better against blitzes.

This is part of what I talked about before: it's not just the coordinators and head coach. It's the entire staff. The linesman coaches obviously aren't teaching the lineman how to identify what's being done to them. They can't see a blitz coming and even if they do they're clueless on how to react to it. You see it nearly every play.

If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the line coach just said "Block whoever is in front of you" and left it at that. On both sides of the ball, no less.

 

[tomknight]

They Have been coached to be soft and with no repercussions. If that same sequence happeNed at Bama, UGA, Ohio State, or just about anywhere else, those players would have hades to pay. With us they get hugs. And then it happens again and again.

You have no basis, whatsoever, for these statements. None.

 

[jgtengineer]

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.

What happened is Monken got to army and they had recruiting competition. Before they basically had their pick of candidantes, don't want to do surfcace warfare and want to do infantry come be a marine etc. Now monken is targeting those people and he's a better recruiter.

 

[tomknight]

This is part of what I talked about before: it's not just the coordinators and head coach. It's the entire staff. The linesman coaches obviously aren't teaching the lineman how to identify what's being done to them. They can't see a blitz coming and even if they do they're clueless on how to react to it. You see it nearly every play.

If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the line coach just said "Block whoever is in front of you" and left it at that. On both sides of the ball, no less.

we get killed on very simple DL stunts. it is mind boggling to watch how many times our guy doubles someone else, leaves a huge hole, and in comes the stunter right thru the opening to kill our qb.

just one issue. there's that times 100 on defense. I don't have much faith in either coordinator at the moment, though I could likely live with the O guy more than the D guy.

 

[CuseJacket]

What happened is Monken got to army and they had recruiting competition. Before they basically had their pick of candidantes, don't want to do surfcace warfare and want to do infantry come be a marine etc. Now monken is targeting those people and he's a better recruiter.

I remember that as well. It was one of Monken's conditions of accepting the offer that Army change some of their prior framework to enable better recruiting. It is part of the reason that it is interesting to think about his fit at GT (either of them, for that matter).

So as a follow-up, is it an either/or situation at Army and Navy with respect to success? It's not like they play each other 12 games a year. Why has Navy not produced better results the last 4 years? I truly don't know nor have an opinion on this.

 

[buzzed]

QB's vs Tech this year (P5 + Notre Dame Only, averaged over a 12 game season)

Yards/Att: 9.98!!!

Haven’t seen a YPA like that since CPJ’s offense.

 

[southernhive]

This year's defense is destined to be the worse at GT this Century and the 3 defenses under Collins so far will be three of the four worst defenses of this Century. That is completely inescusable for when you hire a 'defensive' HC.

This

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

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.

The "relevance" what little there happens to be, is this...if we had Monken, we would not be in the fix that we are currently in. Not to say, he might have us in a different kind of fix but he would have his team ready to play and there would not be the spectacle of a once proud program like Georgia Tech being trolled as it were by NBC with their photoshopped WRECKED.

 

[bobongo]

How many fans truly believe we can get a 'big name' HC. That seems completely unrealistic. I think most GT fans have a very irrational take on how good a job the GT HC job actually is.
You have a smaller than average P5 fanbase, a smaller than average P5 budget, and a more restrictive entrance and degree situation than most P5 schools. That's not exactly a great combination. Arguably the only big positive is the recruiting territory but the entrance/degree limitations counteract that some as does the fact that GT has only the 8th largest alumni base in its own city.

Realistically no one that has a better P5 choice is going to take this job. IMO the only candiates GT will have with the next hire are P5 assistants and G5 HC's. You are unlikely to get a current or former P5 HC to come to GT.

This year's defense is destined to be the worse at GT this Century and the 3 defenses under Collins so far will be three of the four worst defenses of this Century. That is completely inescusable for when you hire a 'defensive' HC.

I don't want a big name, I want a coach. There have to be good, hungry, up-and-coming coaches in the lower ranks who have yet to make their mark in the big leagues. Stansbury needs to earn his salary and find us one, just one. Why would anyone imagine that the only coaches who could win here are Big Names? Just about ALL of the "big name" coaches started out with little names. Just about all of them came from the lower ranks. We probably can't afford a Big Name, anyway.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

The buyout is $475,000 in 2026. 5 year ? Only in name. January 1 , 2026 after his 4th season he can be gone at a bargain price.

It's a 5 year contract, not just "in name only."

Also, he is not retooling an offense from the ground up. Also, non-P5 contracts don't generally often big buyouts anyways.

 

[jgtengineer]

I remember that as well. It was one of Monken's conditions of accepting the offer that Army change some of their prior framework to enable better recruiting. It is part of the reason that it is interesting to think about his fit at GT (either of them, for that matter).

So as a follow-up, is it an either/or situation at Army and Navy with respect to success? It's not like they play each other 12 games a year. Why has Navy not produced better results the last 4 years? I truly don't know nor have an opinion on this.

It comes down to a couple things. Both Monken and Jasper experiment alot with the offense. As a matter of fact when Peery was the QB at navy they were in gun maybe 80 percent of the time. The issue is navy hasn't had a legit pass threat for a little while and joined an actual conference which means their scheduling changed. Instead of playing say ND every year and then Army, Airforce, and a pick of lower end G5 teams as well as an FCS team. Navy now has to play an American conference schedule. And the American has been up with teams like houstin cincy and the like being decent. Army is still full independent so monken does get the benefit from a bit softer schedule, though he plays plenty of good teams too and does very well against them. Monken is probably the closest to Johnson in his grasp of the offense, he still calls the plays from the field for example whereas ken never has he's always relayed jasper. Ken is more of a CEO coach than Jeff.

I also am a Georgia Southern fan so I watched Monken right that ship after Van Gorder and Hatcher sunk it and Monken was always more creative than paul with sets and formations, southern with Shaw was in the gun a lot. But the thing Monken shared was he never changed anything up if it was working. Jerick Mckinnon once won a game with 305 yards rushing and 4 tds, from teh QB position and all we did was run zone option left and zone option right for instance.

 

[bobongo]

Too many to mention. He has done good things. But I think he made a mistake in his biggest hire. I'm not suggesting TStan resign or anything like that.
But if a slick salesman convinces you to buy a shoddy product, whose fault is that ?

He may have made only one mistake, but boy, was it a doozy.

 

[buzzed]

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.

I wonder if rule changes about cut blocks in the open field have been a factor. I believe Monken’s offense is more of a departure from CPJ’s, so maybe he’s had more success adjusting to the changes.

 

[jgtengineer]

I wonder if rule changes about cut blocks in the open field have been a factor. I believe Monken’s offense is more of a departure from CPJ’s, so maybe he’s had more success adjusting to the changes.

It was a factor but not the factor. Jeff also runs a lot more straight wishbone concepts now and even uses the wing T. Army also uses bigger A backs as blocking H backs so they don't have to cut when they arc at times.

 

[GTcanWINagain]

Again different eras as well on that.

Same 55,000 seat stadium. That is where our team plays its home games and sells season tickets. It happened for Gailey, then Johnson, & now Collins. Also, it did not move anywhere. All 3 “eras” have the same base of tickets to sell.

If anything, Collins > Johnson > Gailey in terms of the GT fan base given the Institute’s growing enrollment level.