Paul Johnson's job

[AE 87]

@33jacket, you're starting to post like me. Do you really want to do that?

 

[JStewart2227]

"...get back to competing with the top teams..." ?????????????????????????????????????????????????

Yea everyone., I asked a simple question and people keep actin like we're competing with the top teams. When I say competing I don't mean lost by a few points or a couple touchdowns I mean beating some if not all of the top teams on our schedule. By competing I don't mean beating Florida state on a final play that was an awesome play. I don't mean having a great season and then losing to all of the top teams on our schedule. And no I'm not sayin I'm expecting us to be with Alabama or Ohio state or one of those teams right now. I mean gettin out there with the top teams in our conference and beating them or if we lose it's not by much and we played our *** off. I'm a loyal tech fan and by being truly a fan I'm tired of us losing to the top teams in our conference. And tired of us not being a top 25 team. It's time to be a team that starts the year in the top 25 and finishes the year in the top 25. It's time we get national respect.

 

[AE 87]

Yea everyone., I asked a simple question and people keep actin like we're competing with the top teams. When I say competing I don't mean lost by a few points or a couple touchdowns I mean beating some if not all of the top teams on our schedule. By competing I don't mean beating Florida state on a final play that was an awesome play. I don't mean having a great season and then losing to all of the top teams on our schedule. And no I'm not sayin I'm expecting us to be with Alabama or Ohio state or one of those teams right now. I mean gettin out there with the top teams in our conference and beating them or if we lose it's not by much and we played our *** off. I'm a loyal tech fan and by being truly a fan I'm tired of us losing to the top teams in our conference. And tired of us not being a top 25 team. It's time to be a team that starts the year in the top 25 and finishes the year in the top 25. It's time we get national respect.

Bless your heart.

 

[JStewart2227]

Bless your heart.

Bless my heart for what. For being a tech fan but also being realistic

 

[JStewart2227]

Several people have said CPJ recruits were better than Gaileys. Remember several of Gaileys recruits became NFL players. Starting NFL players and some that don't start still get a good amount of playing time. But it was Gaileys time to go and now it's CPJ's

 

[JacketFromUGA]

So you don't mean competing. You mean dominating.

 

[JStewart2227]

Let's take UGA Miami VT and Clemson yea I think if we can't win all 4 let's win 3 and if we only win 2 of em the 2 loses should be very hard fought Close games. In the years when we play Florida state let's beat them or walk off the field knowing we left it all on the field. I know we beat em last year it was a great game great last play. We have 2 guaranteed games a year so only winning 3 or 4 total games is terrible. We should beat duke we should be Pitt ever year. We should be a 8-9 win team every year. We should be right there every year either makin the acc title game or barely Missing it.

 

[tech_wreck47]

Several people have said CPJ recruits were better than Gaileys. Remember several of Gaileys recruits became NFL players. Starting NFL players and some that don't start still get a good amount of playing time. But it was Gaileys time to go and now it's CPJ's

What makes you think we can get better than CPJ? He historically has been one of the best here at GT. Maybe it's not the coach but the school instead?

 

[JStewart2227]

What makes you think we can get better than CPJ? He historically has been one of the best here at GT. Maybe it's not the coach but the school instead?

I've posted other messages saying I don't believe it all falls on CPJ's shoulders. I think it has to do with Roof, the school and other factors. I just believe for Johnson and Roof they have ran their course and it won't get any better than it is under them. Could we have another 9-11 win season under CPJ yea we could and probably will depending on how much longer we have him. But he won't consistently give us anymore 8-9 win seasons. I think it's time to move on from him and Roof. New AD and I think he should start over fresh. We could get worse we could get better. I think we should go spend some money and find the best we can get. I like CPJ I just think it's time to move on. Could we get worse yes but why keep on with these bad seasons 500 at best seasons when we could get a new coach soon and hope to be a consistent 8 plus wins a season. Instead of puttin it off and havin these bad season and then get a new coach later on. I just believe a lot of our problems is becuse Paul isn't a great recruiter and a lot of these players don't want to come to tech becuse you can't truly show your skills in our offense. If we're gone keep Johnson around we. We need a new D.C. And we need to bring a great recruiter in. We need to spend some money. A lot of my messages got started but just simply askin that if we do get rid of CPJ and Roof in other people's opinion to throw some names around as to who we may bring in to fill their spots

 

[tech_wreck47]

I've posted other messages saying I don't believe it all falls on CPJ's shoulders. I think it has to do with Roof, the school and other factors. I just believe for Johnson and Roof they have ran their course and it won't get any better than it is under them. Could we have another 9-11 win season under CPJ yea we could and probably will depending on how much longer we have him. But he won't consistently give us anymore 8-9 win seasons. I think it's time to move on from him and Roof. New AD and I think he should start over fresh. We could get worse we could get better. I think we should go spend some money and find the best we can get. I like CPJ I just think it's time to move on. Could we get worse yes but why keep on with these bad seasons 500 at best seasons when we could get a new coach soon and hope to be a consistent 8 plus wins a season. Instead of puttin it off and havin these bad season and then get a new coach later on. I just believe a lot of our problems is becuse Paul isn't a great recruiter and a lot of these players don't want to come to tech becuse you can't truly show your skills in our offense. If we're gone keep Johnson around we. We need a new D.C. And we need to bring a great recruiter in. We need to spend some money. A lot of my messages got started but just simply askin that if we do get rid of CPJ and Roof in other people's opinion to throw some names around as to who we may bring in to fill their spots

I get what you are saying but I just don't see us being a consistent team unless the school will change some things. Personally I believe if cpj had more support he could have that consistent team, the only Issue I have is having roof as the D coordinator but I do like him as a recruiter. I would like to see us get a LB or DB coach from a team that has been successful and is aggressive with being known as a great recruiter of course. I don't think we could get a guy that's already a big time D coordinator to come to GT.

 

[JStewart2227]

And I could be wrong. Don't get me wrong I would love to be proved wrong and them make changes in other areas and CPJ have solid 8 plus win seasons every year. Maybe even keep Roof and put him somewhere else and bring in someone else to be our D.C. But also bring someone else in to be a big time recruiter. I just don't know if Johnson is gone be able too do it and be that coach that is consistent. I do know it's hard to recruit at tech becuse of academics and also becuse of our offense big name recruits just don't wanna be apart of our offense can't show off all of their true abilities. But yes I do believe if we're gone stick with Johnson the school is going to have to do some changes to help him. Maybe the new ad will do that

 

[tech_wreck47]

And I could be wrong. Don't get me wrong I would love to be proved wrong and them make changes in other areas and CPJ have solid 8 plus win seasons every year. Maybe even keep Roof and put him somewhere else and bring in someone else to be our D.C. But also bring someone else in to be a big time recruiter. I just don't know if Johnson is gone be able too do it and be that coach that is consistent. I do know it's hard to recruit at tech becuse of academics and also becuse of our offense big name recruits just don't wanna be apart of our offense can't show off all of their true abilities. But yes I do believe if we're gone stick with Johnson the school is going to have to do some changes to help him. Maybe the new ad will do that

I don't see the offense(even with not getting the big time recruits) being our problem, if we had a better D most years we would average 8 plus wins. Our offense plays well enough in almost every game to win. Take the Pitt game for instance and even the Miami, the offense stepped it up but the the D gave up a 4 play TD. We could just as easily be 5-1 as we are 3-3 imo.

 

[COJacket]

Fwiw, that both schools have to follow the USOG minimum requirements does not mean that GT doesn't have additional requirements. I'm not sure of the situation today, but I'm pretty sure that there were requirements/expectations of number of, and grades in, math and science classes in H.S. at Tech that were not present at u[sic]ga. For example, I think you have to come ready for a calculus equivalent math class (I know this used to be the case). I doubt that's true at u[sic]ga.

That being the case, your post and the article miss the real nature of Tech's academic hurdle: keeping them eligible through 3 to 5 years. I was probably pretty close to not making APR to graduate in 4 years after my first year. In fact, the number of traditional students who take 5 years to graduate speaks to challenge. I wish we had a measure of the average SAT scores of our upperclassmen. I suspect that there might be a higher correlation between early departures and academic preparation before Tech than is typically discussed.

Totally agree with this. And maybe even a bigger issue is how many WANT to go to a tough school vs an easy one (can u say UGA or NC ?). Getting in for the athlete w lower scores just means your going to work that much harder trying to keep up w the smartest class (2016 class) in the history of GT

 

[4shotB]

What makes you think we can get better than CPJ? He historically has been one of the best here at GT. Maybe it's not the coach but the school instead?

I have seen us go through Fulcher,Rogers,Curry,Ross,Lewis, O'leary, Gailey and Johnson. I am tired of the carousel and lost any type of faith in the "fire the coach and roll the dice" approach. I don't want to see CPJ fired to appease the vocal minority. I want the new AD to identify and remove obstacles that have hampered our head coaches. And I want him to communicate these things to the GT community.(Yes, Ross delivered a NC in spite of them but that was the FB equivalent of winning the powerball imo. But I also believe Ross felt that way as well and left because of these systemic issues). I have not lost faith in our coach. I have lost faith that GT is really committed to its athletic programs.

 

[Vespidae]

I have seen us go through Fulcher,Rogers,Curry,Ross,Lewis, O'leary, Gailey and Johnson. I am tired of the carousel and lost any type of faith in the "fire the coach and roll the dice" approach.

I think it is less the school and more of GTAA. We have 15,000 undergrads at Tech, of which less than 500 are student-athletes. I would think Bud Peterson spends about a nanosecond of time on athletics. I heard that when MBob resigned, he kicked the decision to a small team and said basically, "hire who you want".

It is the GTAA's responsibility to run the athletic program. Can the Hill help? Yes. They can ... a) raise student athletic activity fees from $127 a semester to $254 and we get another $2MM to spend on coaches and recruiting. They can also help with branding (they manage it), and opening up the Roll Call donor lists to the the GTAA.

But the primary responsibility remains GTAA. The biggest gaps to major programs (Top 25) remains the lack of fundraising and booster clubs. If you take the other ACC schools, FSU for example, and strip out the impact of the booster organizations and sustained donations to their AA, FSU is comparable to Tech. Now remember ... their student population is bigger, so per student fees create more leverage there ... but it is the Seminole Clubs that really drive donations to the AA fund. Same for Bama (Red Elephant Club), same for others.

GTAA historically has stunk at this sort of thing. The facilities were so bad in the 1980's that Tech was considering leaving Division I sports. Bobby Dodd literally begged Homer Rice to come to Tech and he not only saved the program, we had a golden age of donations followed by an NC, basketball success, baseball success, etc.

I remain generally stunned to read that after about 100 years of football, GTAA only now has a structure from which to plan it's future. They winged it year to year and I think that is what frustrates a lot of those involved in the program. We wake up one day and everyone has passed us by.

We could hire Les Miles and find the same challenges ... not enough money, not enough focus, not enough recruiting, etc. The simple answer is that we need a GTAA that can raise, year after year, $100MM in annual revenue for annual operations ... ticket sales, student fees, licensing, tv, boosters.

I continue to believe that if Tech chose to compete and be a Top 25 program, we could do it. It's takes a plan, a process, and dedicated people to make that happen. So far, we've never had the people in place with the passion to do that. I'm betting on Todd.

 

[g0lftime]

Let's face facts. Money talks, so the best way to get a change on the hill is to have donors tie donations for the academic side to the performance of the athletic teams. GT is great at begging for donations. I get lots and lots of requests for donations to my alumni class pledge, the GT Foundation, and personal visits from the alunmi association asking me to set up an endowment. If the money suddenly starts to decrease based on FB and BB performance, then that will get some attention. Obviously poor athletic performance hits the athletic side in a drop of ticket sales, but it does not seem to affect donations to academics.

 

[Vespidae]

GT is great at begging for donations. I get lots and lots of requests for donations to my alumni class pledge, the GT Foundation, and personal visits from the alunmi association asking me to set up an endowment.

GTAA revenue is up $9MM since 2013, so from the Hill's point of view, everything is great!

The problem is, to compete ... you need about $100MM and GTAA generates around $65MM according to the 2015 financial statements.

One big problem is that the Hill will not let the alumni rolls be used by GTAA to solicit donations. That's why we need a really strong booster organization to side steps that challenge.

 

[Techster]

GTAA revenue is up $9MM since 2013, so from the Hill's point of view, everything is great!

The problem is, to compete ... you need about $100MM and GTAA generates around $65MM according to the 2015 financial statements.

One big problem is that the Hill will not let the alumni rolls be used by GTAA to solicit donations. That's why we need a really strong booster organization to side steps that challenge.

They can get a jump start with the GT Booster club this weekend by asking Calvin Johnson to be part of it when they induct him into the GT HOF.

 

[4shotB]

I would think Bud Peterson spends about a nanosecond of time on athletics. I heard that when MBob resigned, he kicked the decision to a small team and said basically, "hire who you want".

while I agree with the main points of your post, doesn't the quote above reflect an indifference at the very top? I think we have all hired people before. I don't care who my direct reports hire and fire to achieve their goals (within reasonable parameters of course) but I would never completely delegate the hiring of what I believed to be a critical team member without some personal involvement in the process. Perhaps that's just me but I feel that the hiring/firing/personnel decisions are at the very top of critical decisions that a leader must make.

 

[Vespidae]

I don't think Bud Peterson would regard the GTAA as a critical hire. It's something to be tolerated. Just my opinion.