Potential DC for Next Year

Jacket05

Jacket05

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599
Tundeballer said:
Only hesitancy is why isn’t he the DC at A&M right now with Mike Elko if he’s a great coach? Key hit a home run with Buster last year, if he can hit a double with this hire, we’re going to be really good.
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Key seems to have a good grasp on doing his homework on his hires, which is why it takes him time to hire everyone so I am cautiously optimistic about him. However this is the main reason I am hesitant about the hire too. He seems like he was Elko's right hand man much of his career so why would Elko not bring him along? How much of Duke's defensive success was from him vs Elko?

To answer my own questions, I could see Texas A&M telling Elko that he needs to bring in bigger names for DC and OC so that may be part of it. Also even if Elko was the main reason for Duke's defensive success, Santucci had to have learned a lot sitting under him for so long that he can implement here.
 
BCJacket

BCJacket

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Jacket05 said:
Key seems to have a good grasp on doing his homework on his hires, which is why it takes him time to hire everyone so I am cautiously optimistic about him. However this is the main reason I am hesitant about the hire too. He seems like he was Elko's right hand man much of his career so why would Elko not bring him along? How much of Duke's defensive success was from him vs Elko?

To answer my own questions, I could see Texas A&M telling Elko that he needs to bring in bigger names for DC and OC so that may be part of it. Also even if Elko was the main reason for Duke's defensive success, Santucci had to have learned a lot sitting under him for so long that he can implement here.
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Elko hired Jay Bateman as DC at A&M. They evidently go back like 20 years. And Bateman has years of DC and some HC experience. My guess is that A&M had the resources to bring him in (maybe Duke didn't). Which meant to follow Elko to A&M, Santucci would've had to take a position coach job. He wanted to stay as a DC and explored his options.

Speculation on my part. But I don't think him not following Elko means anything negative.
 

Eli

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1,507
BCJacket said:
Elko hired Jay Bateman as DC at A&M. They evidently go back like 20 years. And Bateman has years of DC and some HC experience. My guess is that A&M had the resources to bring him in (maybe Duke didn't). Which meant to follow Elko to A&M, Santucci would've had to take a position coach job. He wanted to stay as a DC and explored his options.

Speculation on my part. But I don't think him not following Elko means anything negative.
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Or Santucci knows just what Buster Faulkner knew. You will be highly sought after if you succeed on your own away from the coach you have worked with for 10+ years. Santucci has followed Elko at every stop dating back to 2013. If he remains under Elko even at Texas A&M people still view it as Elkos defense.
 

yeti92

Helluva Engineer
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Techfan02 said:
Maybe He doesn't wanna be in elko's shadow and build his own name it happens a lot
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Eli said:
Or Santucci knows just what Buster Faulkner knew. You will be highly sought after if you succeed on your own away from the coach you have worked with for 10+ years. Santucci has followed Elko at every stop dating back to 2013. If he remains under Elko even at Texas A&M people still view it as Elkos defense.
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Someone on reddit mentioned that Elko DID offer him the DC job at A&M, and he turned it down for exactly the reasons y'all are stating - to get out from Elko's shadow and further his career. Idk how true it is, but it seems logical.

I'm excited to have him, looking forward to improved defense.
 
4shotB

4shotB

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yeti92 said:
Someone on reddit mentioned that Elko DID offer him the DC job at A&M, and he turned it down for exactly the reasons y'all are stating - to get out from Elko's shadow and further his career. Idk how true it is, but it seems logical.

I'm excited to have him, looking forward to improved defense.
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I remain hopeful that GT under Key and with top down support will return to a place where we are, at a bare minimum, competent in all 3 phases simultaneously. This is not a place where we have been (with the possible exception of a random outlier here or there) very often in the modern era and not seen under any coach since Ross departed. The ability to consistently win either a 10-7 game or a 48-45 shootout is a competent of all really good programs. I like this guy's resume.
 

bke1984

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Jacket05 said:
Key seems to have a good grasp on doing his homework on his hires, which is why it takes him time to hire everyone so I am cautiously optimistic about him. However this is the main reason I am hesitant about the hire too. He seems like he was Elko's right hand man much of his career so why would Elko not bring him along? How much of Duke's defensive success was from him vs Elko?

To answer my own questions, I could see Texas A&M telling Elko that he needs to bring in bigger names for DC and OC so that may be part of it. Also even if Elko was the main reason for Duke's defensive success, Santucci had to have learned a lot sitting under him for so long that he can implement here.
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Or…could be that we already had Santucci tagged before Elko left (or maybe he had multiple offers)
 

sonngy

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
18
According to Kelly, Santucci did have an offer from A&M but he wanted to be independent from Elko to further his career. He’s also the 1st person Key interviewed out of like 40 total interviews. He also had offers from several schools and still decided to coach for us. Great hire
 

GT33

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1,783
sonngy said:
According to Kelly, Santucci did have an offer from A&M but he wanted to be independent from Elko to further his career. He’s also the 1st person Key interviewed out of like 40 total interviews. He also had offers from several schools and still decided to coach for us. Great hire
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40 interviews is crazy. I can understand 4-6, maybe 8 but if you can't screen better than needing to do 40 interviews then you have a problem somewhere.
 
jojatk

jojatk

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GT33 said:
40 interviews is crazy. I can understand 4-6, maybe 8 but if you can't screen better than needing to do 40 interviews then you have a problem somewhere.
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This take goes to show that someone will always find fault if they are looking for it. With an important hire like this Brent screened a lot of people with virtual interviews and from that he got to his final choices. Thankfully he was able to get the guy he wanted.

What the high number indicates is a guy who will leave no stone unturned to make sure GT gets the absolute best. He didn’t limit himself to one type of candidate. He interviewed many to see if there was anything he was missing. But you go right ahead and think of it as a problem that we have a thorough coach who will stop at nothing to find only the best rather than someone who will shy away from hard work himself.
 
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