Poll - What is a reasonable amount of time for Collins to be given?

[JacketOff]

I need to see at least some improvement in play next season. If the offense or defense shows no improvement, I don't think that another year would be earned. 4 or 5 wins next year, or we find a new head coach.

Needs to win 3-4 next year, and at least 5 in 2021. By 2022 they need to be competing in all 10 non Clemp or UGAg games. Hopefully by 2023 they’ll be able to compete with those 2 as well. If they aren’t competing with the other 10 in 2023 it would be time to look at a change mid-season.

 

[Vespidae]

Needs to win 3-4 next year, and at least 5 in 2021. By 2022 they need to be competing in all 10 non Clemp or UGAg games. Hopefully by 2023 they’ll be able to compete with those 2 as well. If they aren’t competing with the other 10 in 2023 it would be time to look at a change mid-season.

I think 8-4 is a worthy goal for Tech. Anything else is a pipe dream. We are break even on a dollar basis. We have a limit d curriculum and an urban location.

Is that terrible? It’s better than the last 25 years.

 

[Boaty1]

I think 8-4 is a worthy goal for Tech. Anything else is a pipe dream. We are break even on a dollar basis. We have a limit d curriculum and an urban location.

Is that terrible? It’s better than the last 25 years.

I agree with this. Get their consistently and you have a top 25 program. That should be the goal. And that’s a solid and competitive program.

 

[JacketOff]

I think 8-4 is a worthy goal for Tech. Anything else is a pipe dream. We are break even on a dollar basis. We have a limit d curriculum and an urban location.

Is that terrible? It’s better than the last 25 years.

I agree. Unless something crazy happens like post-Jimbo FSU at Georgia or Clemson, you can pretty much chalk up at least one loss every year for the foreseeable future. Just about every team plays one really bad game per year (ex: UGAg vs. USCjr and Clemp vs. UNCheat this year) that will result in a loss. Then probably a Coastal crapshoot of a game every year where neither team really wants to win, but Tech just wants to win a little less that week. There’s your 3-4 losses every year, and I really believe 8-4 is achievable at Tech as consistently as 7-5 has been over the years. 6-10 wins per year should be the threshold over a 4 year period. When the team is upperclassmen heavy, the 10 win plateau should be much more achievable, and when they’re young, or injury plagued, 6 should still be the floor in the current Coastal. Basically what’s happened at Tech for the past 50 years or so.

 

[jacket_fan]

Players or coaches...

This forum cracks me up.

I don't think anyone's mind has been changed with the last few pages.

But to get to a top 25 program I agree it will take players, coaches and school support to get there.

From what I have heard about the new president, he is more athletics oriented than Bud. At least from comments in the Presidents Box this season (not me, an acquaintance). Which I hope is true. I assume there will be a follow on donation initiative to support Tech athletics. TStan seems to be working to increase funding and now is fully invested in the current coaching staff and needs to make them successful.

CGC is dedicated to recruiting. Assume Tech will get some quality players. (A 5* place kicker for Christmas would be nice)

Which leads to coaching. This is not an experienced staff. They need to work hard to improve. As disappointing as I am with the performance this season, I will support the program. Not give the coaches a pass, but support. Lots of room for improvement. There is not one phase of the game that does not need serious off season work.

 

[Vespidae]

Players or coaches...

But to get to a top 25 program I agree it will take players, coaches and school support to get there.

From what I have heard about the new president, he is more athletics oriented than Bud.

CGC is dedicated to recruiting. Assume Tech will get some quality players. (A 5* place kicker for Christmas would be nice)

Tech has 1,000s of donors and supporters. Like any good Pareto, the more successful ones are highly concentrated. 25 or so can drive a lot of dollars.

I wonder how often Cabrera has meet with big donors? Or tasked a donor group to engage a fund raising drive? I was part of one 20 years ago and it was done very quietly, but all these guys know each other, are in the same business clubs, social clubs ... all he has to do is ask, “Guys, can you help us get out of $200MM in debt?”

If he hasn’t met or got them involved, he’s not engaged. Peterson tasked all the schools to raise money ... but not the AA. I honestly don’t believe he spent two minutes on athletics.

I look at Clemson, Auburn, Tennessee and see all these kids starting with engineering majors. I wish Tech would survey all these kids and ask why they didn’t consider Tech ... I would do the survey for free.

A top 25 program is possible. 8-4 every year. We need an offense that either scares the hell out of people or a defense that does. I have no problem winning games 7-6 but it’s too early to tell what we’re doing.

Does anyone know Collins reputation at MS State or Florida as DC?

 

[InsideLB]

Yes, he put together fearsome defenses at both Miss. St and Fla.

 

[g0lftime]

Peterson couldn't even manage his own internal academic budgets. There was all sorts of mismanagement going on under his watch. He was more interested in academic national rankings which was not necessarily a bad thing either. The President of GT needs to realize that the sports programs get a lot more public exposure than academic achievement. It even helps with increasing qualified applicants. Kids now look at attending schools like Bama and Clemson that would have never considered them in the past.

 

[Animal02]

Peterson couldn't even manage his own internal academic budgets. There was all sorts of mismanagement going on under his watch. He was more interested in academic national rankings which was not necessarily a bad thing either. The President of GT needs to realize that the sports programs get a lot more public exposure than academic achievement. It even helps with increasing qualified applicants. Kids now look at attending schools like Bama and Clemson that would have never considered them in the past.

Tech is hardly lacking in quality applicants......the ones higher won't likely have much concern about the sports programs either. As for more exposure.....it depends on the bubble you live in. Academics live in one far from the sports bubble, everything from the journals to the job market are different and they move in different circles. Sports in their eye, at a school like Tech, is not going to move the needle.

 

[InsideLB]

For me it isn't so much how many years or how many wins as it is "is the process working?".

Do we continue to get better? Are we hard-nosed and disciplined? Are we developing guys to build depth? Are impact players emerging? Are we recruiting the guys we need?

Do all that and the wins will eventually come. In the Ross/Friedgen years we started 2-9, then 3-8. Then 7-4, then 12-0-1.

I think going bowling in year 3 is a reasonable attainment, but what if: the foosball gods frown on us and we have a big rash of key injuries, crappy luck, but otherwise show signs of development, play competitively vs a tough schedule, and end up 5-7? If everything else looks good, then I am fine with another year. Eventually if you recruit well/develop guys you can still do pretty well in big injury years.

Just my .02.

 

[InsideLB]

Conversely, many more games like the VT game and suddenly my patience wanes.

 

[GTrob21]

I think we should all ask ourselves how long does it take to create "Juice"??? Whatever that answer is, that is how long we need to give Coach.

 

[Jim Prather]

I don't know about Juice, but you can create moonshine in a couple of weeks

 

[Skeptic]

I don't have any idea what the tether for Collins should be, except that seven years is way excessive. More importantly, though, is that in my career I have on occasion had to fire somebody. That is never pretty and I never trusted nor liked anybody who enjoyed that. You are dealing with a life and a family. What I came to realize, finally, was that while the employee -- for the sake of argument in this case the coach -- was a failure and it could not continue, then it was also my failure. And in this case, the AD's failure. It is a hard thin to come to because nobody wants to admit someone else's fail is a direct result of your fail. I don't think one can ever be a successful leader who does not embrace that reality. If Collins fails, then so does Stansbury. In equal measure. So let's just all hope that starting Saturday it works out.

 

[Animal02]

I don't have any idea what the tether for Collins should be, except that seven years is way excessive. More importantly, though, is that in my career I have on occasion had to fire somebody. That is never pretty and I never trusted nor liked anybody who enjoyed that. You are dealing with a life and a family. What I came to realize, finally, was that while the employee -- for the sake of argument in this case the coach -- was a failure and it could not continue, then it was also my failure. And in this case, the AD's failure. It is a hard thin to come to because nobody wants to admit someone else's fail is a direct result of your fail. I don't think one can ever be a successful leader who does not embrace that reality. If Collins fails, then so does Stansbury. In equal measure. So let's just all hope that starting THURSDAY it works out.

FTFY

 

[GT Nuke]

Whether he is better at operations overall is yet to be seen. Better at hyping no doubt......but operations also means getting recruits that can A) get admitted, B stay eligible academically, C. APR, D stay out of other trouble., etc, etc. Not enough data to make a judgement on all that yet.

Can we not look to Temple for data? Two years of classes to draw from. My cursory review shows no glaring behavior problems in the 2017 and 2018 classes, but I just did an internet search on a few key names from their roster.

Go JACKETS! THWG!

 

[Jmonty71]

I'll say this. I think recruiting a GT is a little harder than Temple. CGC will find that out. 1) GT requires their student athletes to actually be students and attend class. 2) Not an average person has the the grades to make it into GT (given, they probably are more slack on talented athletes) 3) We are surrounded by the mighty SEC and their schools 4) GT's record isn't going to exactly attract someone that wants to be a "winner". So, his plan of trying to act like a pro team isn't going to lift off as quick as he may want. The question is, how patient does the fan base really want to be? Wait 4 years for his recruits to be seniors??

 

[Animal02]

Can we not look to Temple for data? Two years of classes to draw from. My cursory review shows no glaring behavior problems in the 2017 and 2018 classes, but I just did an internet search on a few key names from their roster.

Go JACKETS! THWG!

Are you seriously saying we should compare Tech's academics to Temple's?

 

[LargeFO]

Anyone willing to admit they voted to can him after one year?

 

[Southpawmac]

I'll say this. I think recruiting a GT is a little harder than Temple. CGC will find that out. 1) GT requires their student athletes to actually be students and attend class. 2) Not an average person has the the grades to make it into GT (given, they probably are more slack on talented athletes) 3) We are surrounded by the mighty SEC and their schools 4) GT's record isn't going to exactly attract someone that wants to be a "winner". So, his plan of trying to act like a pro team isn't going to lift off as quick as he may want. The question is, how patient does the fan base really want to be? Wait 4 years for his recruits to be seniors??

We out recruited Temple every year but 2016(59 them/60 us), and that was while we were running the option. We currently have the #25 ranked class for 2020 and I wouldn't expect that to go any further down than #30. It might be easier to out recruit your competition at Temple compared to GT, but it's definitely easier for the same coach to recruit better athletes at GT compared to Temple.