REPOSTED from STINGTALK: Paul Johnson as GT coach

[JacketFromUGA]

I'm mostly in agreement with your post, except, "hope next year is better". As I tell my 2 kids, HOPE is not a plan!

Actually HOPE is the plan for the vast majority of Georgia kids

 

[RonJohn]

My son who is a junior is at:
3-9
9-4
5-6

Make sure your son is using First and Ten. He can get twenty years worth of priority points in just a few years for not very much money.

 

[THWG]

Actually HOPE is the plan for the vast majority of Georgia kids

I don't need HOPE, I have ZELL

 

[chewybaka]

Bobby Dodd was a Hall of Fame coach his record from 1958 thru 1961 was as follows:

'58 5-4-1 UGA L
'59 6-5 UGA L Gator Bowl L
'60 5-5 UGA L
'61 7-4 UGA W Gator Bowl L

CPJ may be the 2nd best coach in GT history and the debate should be where he ranks against Heisman, Dodd, & Ross!

It's not just the head coach it's the others he attracts...Ross Friedgen and O'Leary...tough a bunch

 

[Sideways]

Bobby Dodd was a Hall of Fame coach his record from 1958 thru 1961 was as follows:

'58 5-4-1 UGA L
'59 6-5 UGA L Gator Bowl L
'60 5-5 UGA L
'61 7-4 UGA W Gator Bowl L

CPJ may be the 2nd best coach in GT history and the debate should be where he ranks against Heisman, Dodd, & Ross!

In Coach Dodd's biography he admitted that he entertained thoughts of going to Texas at that time. Recruiting had really gotten to him. His wife said that he was depressed about the whole situation especially the Hill. He felt like he just did not have the players and Tech was playing Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU at the time and that was a tough row to hoe. Admittedly, Auburn won a national championship in 1958 and Tech gave them all they wanted. Georgia was pretty good but nowhere near what they would become in a few years. It just seemed like we lost several heart breakers like 1961 to Alabama when we led 15-0 at the half. But he pulled himself and the team together and managed to recruit Billy Lothridge and Billy Martin among others to have some good years to end his tenure.

 

[85Escape]

My four years were:
1 - 10
6 - 5
3 - 8
6 - 4 - 1

One of those 10 losses included Hershal running past the Rat section leaving defenders scattered in his wake. I was in the front row and can still see it clearly in my mind. Trust me, we got it good, now.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

In Coach Dodd's biography he admitted that he entertained thoughts of going to Texas at that time. Recruiting had really gotten to him. His wife said that he was depressed about the whole situation especially the Hill. He felt like he just did not have the players and Tech was playing Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU at the time and that was a tough row to hoe. Admittedly, Auburn won a national championship in 1958 and Tech gave them all they wanted. Georgia was pretty good but nowhere near what they would become in a few years. It just seemed like we lost several heart breakers like 1961 to Alabama when we led 15-0 at the half. But he pulled himself and the team together and managed to recruit Billy Lothridge and Billy Martin among others to have some good years to end his tenure.

And we never will have those players again unless major changes are made in athletics and academics.

 

[LongforDodd]

I don't need HOPE, I have ZELL

Congrats! Keep it up.

 

[THWG]

Congrats! Keep it up.

Thank you!!

 

[Sideways]

My four years were:
1 - 10
6 - 5
3 - 8
6 - 4 - 1

One of those 10 losses included Hershal running past the Rat section leaving defenders scattered in his wake. I was in the front row and can still see it clearly in my mind. Trust me, we got it good, now.

Man, you said it. The late 70s and early 80s were much worse than today. There is literally no comparison. Someone in the athletic department said he knew we were in real trouble when one year we played a pretty bad Memphis State team in football and they had better players than we did across the board even though we somehow managed to win. Coach Curry had one of the most difficult rebuilding jobs in all of college football that's for sure.

 

[Sideways]

For the record, I originally posted our '58 - '61 record on another site because those were the seasons I experienced as a Tech student. I was not trying to cherry pick a bad stretch; just trying to provide a little perspective, especially for the trigger happy fire-the-coach crowd. Dodd's glory years were the early/mid 50s. After that, not so much. He was constantly being criticized for his ultra conservative offense.

He learned from the master General Neyland. Most coaches of Dodd's time believed in putting your best athletes on defense, and don't make mistakes on offense that jeopardized field position. But man even in that era fans could not stand his penchant for punting on third down. As a young boy, my vocabulary was shall we say broadened by the West Stands hanging jury at Grant Field when he would punt on third down. I never really heard profanity from those stands until he punted on third down and then the air was blue. "Damn you Dodd for kicking on third down!" One time he kicked on third down right before the half against Tulane when we were down a touchdown and boy did the boos erupt. I thought my dad was going to have a heart attack. Some things never change.

 

[Sideways]

I might add that expectations have changed along with the rest of college football. Look at William Alexander's record at Tech. Coach Alex had a 54% win ratio, but he also won a national championship and was the first coach to take a team to the four major bowls. That was enough to withstand several long droughts; from 1929 to 1938 Tech had one (1) winning season (6-3-1 in 1937) and broke even 3 times. God alone knows what fans would have done these days if a team that won the national championship (1928) then had eight straight losing or break even seasons. They wouldn't have stopped at firing him, that's for sure.

Coach Alex let the game pass him by during the 1930s and early 1940s. One book I read stated that he would not have survived anywhere but at Georgia Tech. We were that bad during the depression years and World War II.

 

[augustabuzz]

Man, you said it. The late 70s and early 80s were much worse than today. There is literally no comparison. Someone in the athletic department said he knew we were in real trouble when one year we played a pretty bad Memphis State team in football and they had better players than we did across the board even though we somehow managed to win. Coach Curry had one of the most difficult rebuilding jobs in all of college football that's for sure.

Our down period in the early '80s was caused by TECH. alumni in the late '70s who wanted Pepper gone. They purposely wrecked recruiting for the 1979 class. Dr. Petit came very close to shutting down the football program because of it.

 

[augustabuzz]

Coach Alex let the game pass him by during the 1930s and early 1940s. One book I read stated that he would not have survived anywhere but at Georgia Tech. We were that bad during the depression years and World War II.

That was also during the time the regents took our school of Commerce and moved it to Athens and then back to Atlanta as Georgia State a couple of years later.

 

[bke1984]

Coach Alex let the game pass him by during the 1930s and early 1940s. One book I read stated that he would not have survived anywhere but at Georgia Tech. We were that bad during the depression years and World War II.

I agree with the general premise on Alex in the 30’s, but we went to the Cotton, Sugar, and Orange bowls in 42, 43, and 44...all during WWII. Those were Alexander’s final three seasons...Tech was pretty good in the 40s

 

[bke1984]

No, we aren’t nearly as bad as we were in the late 70s and early 80s, but we seem to be regressing.

 

[Sideways]

Our down period in the early '80s was caused by TECH. alumni in the late '70s who wanted Pepper gone. They purposely wrecked recruiting for the 1979 class. Dr. Petit came very close to shutting down the football program because of it.

Yep. The alumni absolutely hated Pepper. Some of them were his old teammates. Sad

 

[Sideways]

I agree with the general premise on Alex in the 30’s, but we went to the Cotton, Sugar, and Orange bowls in 42, 43, and 44...all during WWII. Those were Alexander’s final three seasons...Tech was pretty good in the 40s

Yes, I forgot about that. For some reason I thought the first time Tech went to the Orange Bowl was after WWII when my Dad was at Tech early in Dodd's reign.

 

[Vespidae]

In Coach Dodd's biography he admitted that he entertained thoughts of going to Texas at that time. Recruiting had really gotten to him. His wife said that he was depressed about the whole situation especially the Hill. He felt like he just did not have the players and Tech was playing Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU at the time and that was a tough row to hoe. Admittedly, Auburn won a national championship in 1958 and Tech gave them all they wanted. Georgia was pretty good but nowhere near what they would become in a few years. It just seemed like we lost several heart breakers like 1961 to Alabama when we led 15-0 at the half. But he pulled himself and the team together and managed to recruit Billy Lothridge and Billy Martin among others to have some good years to end his tenure.

Don’t forget Bill Curry. It was Dodd who told him to take the Alabama job and that he’d never win at Tech. The deck was too stacked against him.

 

[Sideways]

Don’t forget Bill Curry. It was Dodd who told him to take the Alabama job and that he’d never win at Tech. The deck was too stacked against him.

The reason Coach Dodd said that is the recruiting. It always comes back to recruiting and how difficult it is to be competitive with the various roadblocks placed in front of our coaches from Dodd's time to today. Coaches all become discouraged and disheartened at losing players that would have been difference makers. I can't say I blame them the reality of all things Tech do seem soul crushing at times.