When he started at Tech, I think everybody thought his antics were funny, but after awhile, at least IMO, they got old, and they just weren't funny anymore. Plus his coaching really seemed to go down over the years, after such a bright start and beating the mutts in Athens. Too bad, because if he had ever got his priorities straight, he could have been a great coach. Like Johnson, though, he never could mount a good defense, even with players who overall were better than the players on D we have today.
If anyone thinks Trump and Obama are world class narcissists, they should have met Pepper. He was not easy to take, even while he was winning, although winning softened the sharp edges a lot. Unfortunately, he lost as much as he won and we weren't too disappointed to see him go.
A lot of it was cultural. Pepper absolutely embodied the whole 1970s groovy attitude right down to the perm haircut. Some of it was an extreme dislike among alumni. One of whom told me that Pepper's antics as a player did not always endear him to his teammates. He was just one of those guys that people either hated or liked there was very little middle ground. He did not cultivate relationships with either former players or alumni. He was rather popular with local media however. Just one of those things. His teams had their moments but poor recruiting and in some cases poor coaching led to a premature dismissal.
So you're saying he was actually Jim Harbaugh in disguise?
Nah, he was a creature of his times. A genius in some ways with offense not so much in other things that a head coach must do. He was an assistant coach at Florida with Ray Graves when the Gators beat Tech in 1961 or 1962 with a rotating quarterback combo of Bobby Dodd Jr. and a diminutive ball handling wizard whose name escapes me. (edit possibly Libertore) Anyway, Florida fans point to that game as one the very first big wins that ultimately propelled them to national prominence many years later. Likely as not, Pepper had a hand in creating the game plan for that game.
Yes, except that Pepper originally was an all state quarterback at Brown High School in Atlanta. This was the same school that several years later produced the "young left hander" Kim King. Your point is valid, Pepper was definitely a west coast, laid back kind of guy. He probably was humming "California Dreaming" to himself during practice.
He was just a jokester. I don't remember anything specific now, but he just had a cavalier approach to everything, and it rubbed some people wrong, including myself.
He was, but apparently the west coast culture of the 70s changed him a lot.
Boy, does that list of names bring back happy memories. Unfortunately, as you said, there was a considerable drop-off between the 1st and 2nd strings. I was there for that '78 game in Athens. That one game put my ETERNAL HATRED for the mutts in me, when the mutt defenders on the field were jumping up and down and pointing to the down and injured Eddie Lee. TOTAL lack of class on their part, and I still cringe from the memories of it. THWG !!!
