There are a boatload of reasons why one athlete, whether he's one of the best on the team or the worst on the team, might want to go elsewhere. And most of them don't indicate a systemic problem. Examples:
- Parker may just not like the personality of the new staff; sometimes two quality human beings don't get along with one another and can't work together and it doesn't mean either one is flawed
- Parker might not like the way CPJ's tenure ended; again, there's not a thing wrong with a young man feeling disappointment that a man/men he feels are his life mentors and that he feels close with aren't around and that without them it's time for a change (I've seen coworkers go through something like this where leadership with whom they are close or in whom they have tremendous respect are moved out or move out of their own accord and the new leadership are vastly different personalities and even though the role they would have might stay the same they feel discomfort and have, in some cases, left for other jobs - sometimes they've regretted it and sometimes it's been the right decision)
- Parker might feel like he's achieved everything he can at GT and that he has one more year to show everyone what he can do and feels that a bigger stage is a better place to do it (please stop with "the NFL will find the great athletes" stuff already... yes they will usually find the great ones but it's easier to get noticed when people are watching your team specifically for NFL athletes; maybe in the future we'll be more regularly ranked and my argument might change at that point but at this point we're something of an unknown)
- Parker might feel that there's a lot of potential at GT but that during this transition there's too many question marks for him to want to take any chances with his future
- Parker might feel like he's had a great time at GT, is getting his degree, and would like to try a new challenge and that this is the perfect time to do it given that the grad transfer rules make it possible to do so with no penalty
- Etc...
Parker leaving is not good for the team. He'd be a tremendous help this year because he's a great young man and a great athlete. I'm bummed that he didn't feel GT is the best place for him to finish his eligibility. There's absolutely a connection between the coaching change and his decision (though I suppose some might say it's possible he would have done the same thing regardless of whether we'd have had a coaching change or not, I'm assuming if CPJ were still here so would Parker). But just because there's a relationship between those two dots doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with either of those dots.
