Would love to hear how we are turning this into a Jim Hart board..All I have done is stated my thoughts on the situation and asked what others thought.
The problem hasn't been offense production and all the stats about the offense the last few years are great...but CPJ is the head coach not just the OC.
- The talent drop from 08 to now is tremendous...We have more depth but we do not have elite talent. Bay-Bay, Dwyer, Nesbitt, Burnett, Walker, Morgan were all a great part of the success in the 08 and 09 season's...Since that time we have seen a big talent drop off and I do not think anyone can really even aruge that.
- Defense. The defense has been absolutely pathetic...Coach Johnson was the one who hired Groh and Wommack.
- Special teams...CPJ used to preach about we did not need a special teams coach. After a few years of bad special teams we go out and hire a special teams coach...Special teams is still really bad.
- If CPJ was the OC then I do not think anyone would be saying to fire him....The offense has been really good...but overall we have been on a steady decline as a team.
- Losing 4 in a row vs VT, 5 in a row vs Miami, 4 in a row vs UGA and loses to the likes of Kansas and MTSU just is not acceptable.
Eric, let me begin by repeating that I really appreciate what you've done with your site and with your effort to get recruiting info out to fans without a subscription fee. Although I disagree with the spirit and opinion that motivated this thread, I don't question your commitment as a fan to GT. As you say, it's a fan board, and people can express their opinions.
I just fundamentally think that questioning whether GT should keep CPJ as coach at this point is simplistic and wrong headed. Practically every point you posted in this thread could have been made before we played the first snap this season: previous D coordinators, talent drop-off, losing to KS and MTSU. In my opinion, if you want to have the conversation based on that data, you have the conversation during the off-season. You don't troll a fan forum (my take on this thread) after an emotional loss.
Before addressing the issues of this season, let's look quickly at the difference between a HC and an OC that you raise. In 2008 we beat U[sic]Ga and in 2009 went to the Orange Bowl, and CPJ fired the DC because he wasn't satisfied with results on that side of the ball. We were still paying off Gailey and got Groh on the cheap. In retrospect, it was a bad hire, but I still think that it was a reasonable one at the time. Again, when that didn't work out, he made a change. In other words, CPJ has shown that he's not satisfied with mediocrity and will always be working to find ways to win every game. GT's not always had that in a coach and finding that in a coach is not as easy as you might think. I think you underestimate how difficult it is to maintain that degree of a competitive spirit at GT with all the recruiting and other academic handicaps. Most GT students enter with a HS GPA of well over 3.5 and the Dean's List is (or was last time I heard) 3.0. That means that A-students in HS are struggling to maintain B's at Tech. That's a tough environment for student athletes to thrive in. With CPJ we have a guy who is not content with mediocrity and has proven for five years that he can put a very productive offense on the field and is not satisfied with a less than productive defense.
Which brings me to the second point, which you know something about, talent. As you and anybody who's followed college football for a while knows that often the first pass in ranking teams is talent. That's the reason why Tech is picked to finish 4th in the Coastal almost every year. Our recruiting classes are not bringing in the same kind of difference-maker talent year after year. You're right that the talent has dropped off (in terms of the top 8) from 2008, but 2007 was a remarkable AND abnormal year. It's not like Tech was bringing in that kind of talent every year until CPJ came as an ignorant reading of your post might infer. So, admittedly, on paper, before you even get to the question of the coach, we should not be competitive with VPI who oversigns and CU, d'oh U, and FSU who bring in comparably stronger talent. However, we have been competitive. We haven't won the past few years, but we've been in the games and should've/could've won the games last year. Some credit has to go to CPJ for that competitiveness.
To put some numbers on that competitiveness, Gailey did better than 4-4 in conference only 1 time in his 6 years. CPJ has done as poorly as 4-4 in conference only once in five years.
Now, let's look at the last couple of games, d'oh U and vippysue. Against, VPI we didn't run out of the diamond, and some thought that was a mistake, but against the d'oh U we weren't really stopped (not counting the fumble) until we went to the diamond. Neither Justin nor Vad were able to be very successful from it.
Also, I think I saw the same person on twitter complaining that CPJ was stubborn for not playing to Vad's strengths and letting him throw the ball more against VPI and also complaining that CPJ called too many pass plays in a row for Vad against d'oh U. Last year against VPI, we got the ball, down 14-10, with just under 8 minutes left. We ran a 13 play drive for a TD. The first play was a pass, and we threw five passes on that drive. The difference was we only had one incompletion. Sometimes the issue just really is not play calling but execution. Saturday, Vad had to roll out but had time to make a throw when he overthrew Robbie (who had his defender beat by 2 steps) at the endzone during the second drive of the 3rd qtr. And many of the other 13 passes were there too. I expect that both Vad and JT are better in practice than they have been in tight games. If someone wants to blame CPJ for this (I'd disagree), I think that you still have to go back and look at the record of the offense over all.
Finally, your mention of KS and MTSU as points against CPJ also seem to me to be off-point. The 2010 team that lost to KS, by many accounts, had chemistry and team-psychology/locker-room problems. The 2012 loss to MTSU was by all accounts hang-over from the Miami loss. Both losses came relatively early in the season, and CPJ and the team were able to rally and still become bowl-eligible. I don't think CPJ was responsible for either situation arising. In my opinion, you don't judge a coach based on whether the team faces set-backs during his administration but how it bounces back and handles it.
I think a reasonable take on our team today has to take into consideration that we're not like the factories who go two or three deep at every position. Demond Smith is a player who's making a strong transition from QB to safety, but if we still had Fred Holton, IJ, or Golden, he'd still be spending more time developing for next year. Our OL is pretty good at the starting lineup, but yeah, given our druthers, we'd probably not have Bryan Chamberlain and Chase Roberts take as many snaps at tackle.
While this long post may not be as emotionally satisfying as a Tyler-in-Atlanta meltdown over why we should fire our coach, I think it's a reasonable take on why that's not a great idea, in my opinion.
