So who leaves? Attrition.

[Southpawmac]

You missed the point completely, as usual. You have to handle kickers with kid gloves. I know that "competition is king" and all that, but not with kickers. With someone like Wells, you accept their limits and work within them. And you don't undermine their confidence by basing their chances on anything but their performance in games. Giving him a scholarship then undermining all the happy talk by not depending on him to do the placekicking is exactly the kind of thing you don't do with a successful kicker. Especially when the player you pick to replace him is one who can't hit his kicks consistently.

It's water under the bridge now, of course. All we can hope for, like I say above, is that the new kids get handled better.

This is BS. Scott Blair chimed in on this situation on FB yesterday. He was benched by PJ and had to earn his way back. Kickers don't need special treatment. They either find their groove again or someone else will play.

 

[g0lftime]

It appears we are over weight with WR's and RB's. So those 2 positions are where I would expect attrition. Could easily lose 2 RB's and at least 2 or 3 WR's by fall. Where else are we that overloaded? DB? Maybe lose one there?

 

[yeti92]

Like Coach Johnson?

Let's edit WreckinGT's comment: "The fact that Patenaude went nearly 30 years without coaching in P5 football in any position, and with no major accomplishments to speak of at the lower levels before coming to GT is enough to judge him on. Hopefully we don't waste too much time with him."

 

[deeeznutz]

Was Wells ever told he would have a scholarship for the remainder of his eligibility? I highly doubt it. That usually is not the case with walkons. Unless the student athlete was misled no one should have a problem. I do not understand why some are assuming something wrong was done.

Unless we hear otherwise from a player leaving against their own wishes, I think it’s fair to assume that all exits were handled openly, honestly, and fairly. This younger generation is entirely willing to put people and institutions on blast when they feel they’ve been wronged, it would very likely come out if Collins was kicking off kids who wanted to stay. We aren’t a big fish and neither is Collins a super powerful coach, so there’s unlikely to be any real fear of repercussions from the broader football community against a GT “whistleblower”.

 

[g0lftime]

Most of these kids come to Tech for the education it offers. I hope that if they are told they will not play on Saturdays that they are given an option to stay in school in some capacity. Medical scholarships are open if a kid has a severe injury. There may be other ways for some of the disadvantaged kids. If they can't crack the line-up here they aren't going to make it to the next level. Get that education. It's good for life.

 

[Wrecked]

It appears we are over weight with WR's and RB's. So those 2 positions are where I would expect attrition. Could easily lose 2 RB's and at least 2 or 3 WR's by fall. Where else are we that overloaded? DB? Maybe lose one there?

Tobias Oliver fits that description. He is now on his third position, the second one he has to learn from scratch. Same with Swilling going from linebacker to a loaded RB position. Can't see how he sees the field in a game. Are they in jeopardy, no of course not. They show they are willing to work with the system and at least try to get on the field. Wells had no other position to play and was basically hosed once he lost the job. If Collins wasn't going to give him credit for his 2018 performance in determining whether he could win the job, he probably screwed up giving him a scholarship in the first place, unless Wells knew the deal upfront.

 

[finalbuzzer]

What previous year did we have 90+ scholarship guys on NSD?

Which previous year did we have 85 scholarship guys on September 1?

 

[bobongo]

Was Wells ever told he would have a scholarship for the remainder of his eligibility? I highly doubt it. That usually is not the case with walkons. Unless the student athlete was misled no one should have a problem. I do not understand why some are assuming something wrong was done.

Indeed. I imagine walkons are a somewhat different situation than recruits. With recruits, you pay your money and you take your chances. If a player is doing his best and doesn't want to leave, the scholarship should be honored for the duration.

Concerning walkons, if coaches are likewise locked into scholarships until the players graduate, coaches might be more reluctant to award them scholarships in the first place, and that would be to their detriment. Walkons don't have scholarships to begin with, so as you point out the understanding with walkons up front is probably different from scholarship players - that if they play their way into scholarships, they can play their way out of them.

 

[bobongo]

There is no point. You are taking all accountability and responsibility away from Wells and deflecting it elsewhere bc he didn’t live up to his scholarship

I understand why Wells wasn't awarded a scholarship for 2020, and I have no problem with that decision, but talk of "accountability" and "responsibility" and "living up to his scholarship" rings a bit of a sour bell in this case.

Wells already earned the scholarship he was awarded for 2019 by making 48 out of 48 kicks in 2018. He paid it forward. He had already "lived up to" the one-year scholarship he was awarded in advance.

 

[iceeater1969]

I understand why Wells wasn't awarded a scholarship for 2020, and I have no problem with that decision, but talk of "accountability" and "responsibility" and "living up to his scholarship" rings a bit of a sour bell in this case.

Wells already earned the scholarship he was awarded for 2019 by making 48 out of 48 kicks in 2018. He paid it forward. He had already "lived up to" the one-year scholarship he was awarded in advance.

We just heard from a Wells family member to let us know about Wesley and that they look forward to tailgating w us next year. We agreed but did not press. For some reason I feel like we will hear more about Wesley.

 

[jojatk]

I understand why Wells wasn't awarded a scholarship for 2020, and I have no problem with that decision, but talk of "accountability" and "responsibility" and "living up to his scholarship" rings a bit of a sour bell in this case.

Wells already earned the scholarship he was awarded for 2019 by making 48 out of 48 kicks in 2018. He paid it forward. He had already "lived up to" the one-year scholarship he was awarded in advance.

I completely agree with you that Wesley absolutely earned the scholarship he was awarded last year. And I’m also comfortable that perhaps he didn’t earn it being renewed. But I have zero knowledge about what happened in practices which is why I used the word “perhaps.” I’m glad we had Wesley on the team and will forever appreciate what he did on the field for us.


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[bobongo]

I completely agree with you that Wesley absolutely earned the scholarship he was awarded last year. And I’m also comfortable that perhaps he didn’t earn it being renewed. But I have zero knowledge about what happened in practices which is why I used the word “perhaps.” I’m glad we had Wesley on the team and will forever appreciate what he did on the field for us.


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Absolutely.

 

[MWBATL]

Meanwhile...what's the latest on, ya know...attrition?

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Wonder why some folks seem to think there will be a written in stone date about attrition.

We just started Spring Practice and may not even know when that is done.

May not know until the week before summer camp begins.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

Competition is King! Let's see who is left standing after spring practice. At least 5 have to go.

Go Jackets!

 

[TheFlyest]

I’m pretty sure some of the running backs & maybe a WR will move on.

 

[cyclejacket]

I thought this thread was referring to player attrition. Instead it has devolved, like so many, into a coaching attrition thread. A vocal group bemoaning the attrition of our previous coach, and campaigning for the attrition of our current OC. Another trying to counter them. Most of you are insufferably arrogant. I feel relatively sure that Coach Collins has a lot more riding on the success of his staff than any of us and will make whatever decision is in his best interest, which happens to coincide with ours: Winning. And the mods should be embarrassed to let this crap continue.

 

[MidtownJacket]

We just heard from a Wells family member to let us know about Wesley and that they look forward to tailgating w us next year. We agreed but did not press. For some reason I feel like we will hear more about Wesley.

Let them know we appreciate their son's effect on Ga Tech Football and are wishing him the best in whatever comes next for him!

 

[CuseJacket]

Moved the CDP discussion to https://gtswarm.com/threads/dave-patenaudes-offense.19979/

I thought this thread was referring to player attrition. Instead it has devolved, like so many, into a coaching attrition thread. A vocal group bemoaning the attrition of our previous coach, and campaigning for the attrition of our current OC. Another trying to counter them. Most of you are insufferably arrogant. I feel relatively sure that Coach Collins has a lot more riding on the success of his staff than any of us and will make whatever decision is in his best interest, which happens to coincide with ours: Winning. And the mods should be embarrassed to let this crap continue.

Please use the 'Report' feature when threads go off topic.

Aside from that, we're not going to shut down discussion on the coaches unless the posts violate site rules.

 

[takethepoints]

I completely agree with you that Wesley absolutely earned the scholarship he was awarded last year. And I’m also comfortable that perhaps he didn’t earn it being renewed. But I have zero knowledge about what happened in practices which is why I used the word “perhaps.” I’m glad we had Wesley on the team and will forever appreciate what he did on the field for us.


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From what Ballin' said earlier, the problem seemed to be that he wasn't hitting consistently from over 40 in practice or pre-game. Well, there's a shocker. I think he hit one FG in 2018 that was over 40 yards (43, again if my memory isn't failing me). I remember that kick. It was between the posts and just barely cleared the crossbar. Everything else was within 40 yards. He hit all of those.

One thing that made Welles's life easier in 2018 was that Paul wanted a TD every time the team got past the 30. He turned to Welles if and only if we couldn't punch it in. Needless to say, last year getting past the 30 was a major offensive achievement. I'm not surprised that Collins wanted a kicker who could hit from further out. Problem = Welles is not Harrison Butker. He is very accurate within his range, but his best range is in the higher 30s, not 40 to 50. So Collins went to King who has a stronger leg (slightly) and grinned and bore it when he missed. In short, what it boiled down to was that Paul wanted Welles to do what he could do and Welles responded with a great performance. He couldn't do what Collins wanted him to and now he's gone.

Let's hope the new kids can hit from greater range and put KOs in the zone every now and then. That seems to be what the staff wants.