Stansbury and Collins Dismissed

[slugboy]

That and he has a whole university to run. Dood probably had other meetings he had to get too.

I wouldn't pay any attention to it.

Auburn's prez was asked about the AD and made a ham-handed remark that directly led to the AD resigning.

Moral: If you are not prepared to take questions, don't.

These two quotes look like the right perspective to me

1. Cabrera has a university to run
2. We have an Interim AD. Today was his show. Cabrera turned the show over to the AD
3. Cabrera showed he was giving his support
4. Today wasn't about Cabrera, or a chance for him to say something regrettable. He made is points and left.

Also, there are "AND" things and "OR" things. When you have "AND" things, you have to do all of the "1 AND 2 AND ..." things or you fail. When it's an "OR" thing, you just need to accomplish one of them to succeed; i.e. out of "1 OR 2 OR 3", just accomplishing any of them is fine. Saying the right things is an "AND" thing with doing the right things. If we'd said the wrong things at the press conference, that would be enough to be going in the wrong direction. We said the right things. Now we have to do the right things.

 

[kg01]

Correct. Fat, drunk and stupid are the ways to go through life....

Mr. Blutarsky - 0.0

 

[FlatsLander]

I have a good friend who got out of Tech with a mechanical engineering degree and now has his own company. I asked him recently if he wanted to go with me to the homecoming game this year. He said he can’t imagine ever going to a Tech game again. The reason? He said he’s tired of sitting in a section where everyone is complaining about something. A sea of negativity is how he put it. He quit going in CPJ’s final year because he felt like Tech fans had become toxic.

I share that to say that if we continue to find ourselves arguing over Collins, even if it is by proxy using the firing process, we will perpetuate a habit pattern among Tech fans that continually holds back the program.

Our current messiness has been going on for four years. We can each find villains and scapegoats to carp on about. I hope we can move away from the constant complaining and begin to get hopeful again.

Recruiting, NIL, transfer portal, fragile athlete egos, changes in coaching philosophy, the shifting landscape of conferences and playoff systems, are all part of the challenge and opportunity that face Tech as we transition to the next steps in the program. I’m looking for things to be hopeful about.

Not exactly related, but also going to Tech games is boring, at least at the WCU game. And I love going to Tech games in person. A friend and I got the free upper north tickets and just walked to the lower level home sideline right on the 50 and found 2 empty seats to keep warm. Literally no one around us stood up for 3rd downs. No one around us yelled on 3rd downs. (I was raised in the band where we stood the whole game and yelled every play on defense and this is a hard habit to break, especially 3rd downs). We had a somewhat critical 3rd down and I just stood up (blocking the people sitting behind me) and yelled basically alone. Most of the night, our crowd was silent, or at most white noise from conversations. There is no home atmosphere, no 12th man, no energy in our stadium.

So that, in addition to the constant complaining by our fans (the past 3 years are understandable) does make it less enjoyable to go to games. There was a fan close to us at the WCU game yelling at CGC, angry with our play calling when we were just running out the clock before the half.

 

[BCJacket]

Most important thing I heard Cabrera say: "Our student athletes deserve the opportunity to compete at the very highest levels." He also listed a bunch of ways in which Tech is among the best public universities in the country and emphatically said "Athletics is no different." Tapping his fingers on the podium with each word.

Came across very genuine and believable. Said he is personally invested in building world-class athletics at Tech. (He and his wife are both alums.) Also he will travel with the team to Pitt to show support. I'm very impressed.

 

[GTLorenzo]

 

[Vespidae]

Most important thing I heard Cabrera say: "Our student athletes deserve the opportunity to compete at the very highest levels." He also listed a bunch of ways in which Tech is among the best public universities in the country and emphatically said "Athletics is no different." Tapping his fingers on the podium with each word.

Came across very genuine and believable. Said he is personally invested in building world-class athletics at Tech. (He and his wife are both alums.) Also he will travel with the team to Pitt to show support. I'm very impressed.

Tech has always had the ability to raise money. But with different donor bases in the Foundation, Alumni, and GTAA as well as by each school, it's been tribe vs. tribe. If Cabrera could insist on real development goals ... just like they have for each College ... it would be a very different result.

 

[takethepoints]

Tech has always had the ability to raise money. But with different donor bases in the Foundation, Alumni, and GTAA as well as by each school, it's been tribe vs. tribe. If Cabrera could insist on real development goals ... just like they have for each College ... it would be a very different result.

And that's why I bet he appointed his strategic guy to be interim AD. You can't find out how to fit the athletic program into the rest of the institute until you have someone there who can start to figure out how to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if Neville ends up with the job.

 

[jgtengineer]

Tech has always had the ability to raise money. But with different donor bases in the Foundation, Alumni, and GTAA as well as by each school, it's been tribe vs. tribe. If Cabrera could insist on real development goals ... just like they have for each College ... it would be a very different result.

If cabrera wants he should ask for 10 percent of a donation to the foundation also be matched and given over to the GTAA. Explaining that it doens't just pay for football but all athletics should be enough even to get nerdy "sportsball" hating doners to give (since usually olympic sports don't have that problem) We also really need a Soccer program.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I’m not saying I’m against positivity, but there are so many more toxic fan bases in college football that have way more successful programs, I hardly see this as a serious issue lol

Perhaps those programs have larger fan bases?

The percentage of negative fans with Tech seems to stand out more (easier to hear them because they are not being drowned out be thunderous cheering?) but maybe I’m not looking at it right. I just have run into several people over the years “who used to be Tech fans” and have drifted away for good, saying, “I got tired of all the negativity.”

 

[alagold]

Perhaps those programs have larger fan bases?

The percentage of negative fans with Tech seems to stand out more (easier to hear them because they are not being drowned out be thunderous cheering?) but maybe I’m not looking at it right. I just have run into several people over the years “who used to be Tech fans” and have drifted away for good, saying, “I got tired of all the negativity.”

If you hear negative comments from Tech folks its because they are use to EXCELLENCE in most everything from Tech.So when the athletics obviously are not up to a decent standard then to me its easy to see
the result. btw--many other schools fans do not have that same general excellence expectation.

 

[BeeRBee]

So I have a question about timing.

It was reported here that normal player meetings for Sunday were cancelled, which was taken as a sign that Collins was going to be fired.

Key said that the coaches were in their presumably regular Sunday meeting when their phones blew up with the rumors.

The AJC says Collins came in and went to work Monday, presumably not having been told to come in to see the President.

So if the coaches were going about business as usual, why were player meetings cancelled, if in fact they were? I can’t imagine anyone other than Collins making that decision given the other facts.

Also, what is the normal NCAA mandatory day off for the players? Is the school allowed to schedule mandatory meetings on that day?

 

[bigrabbit]

My kid was worried about going to GT because students complained so much on social media, always stressed out. I told her that complaining is the #1 favorite sport at GT and it would be ok. She loves GT, having a great time, working hard, playing hard, making good grades.

Re: transfers, we’ve talked a lot about GC’s unique style of handling and interacting with players, different from PJ, maybe different from Key and whoever comes next. Some players won’t adapt and will try somewhere else. Others will value getting their degree and persevere. It will sort itself out.

I had a couple bosses fired or reassigned - even though I understood why the changes happened, it was stressful and I wasn’t 20 years old. Our players knew something might happen, but it’s still a lot to deal with and not easy. Hope Key can help players push through this and make good decisions for their future.

 

[tmhunter52]

T

I’m not saying I’m against positivity, but there are so many more toxic fan bases in college football that have way more successful programs, I hardly see this as a serious issue lol

The only “toxic” comments I have heard at games over the last four years have been about our recently departed head coach. Start winning and the “toxicity” diminishes.

 

[wvGT11]

I'll be curious is thacker sticks around, after this season. He was tied to collins, came to Atlanta because Collins if I recall.
His d isnt consistent all all. Maybe that will change now , but so far not seeing a reason to keep him long term

 

[TomOReilly]

I liked CBK's press conference. Very forward thinking and SA focused. I hope he does well as interim HC.

 

[mts315]

I'll be curious is thacker sticks around, after this season. He was tied to collins, came to Atlanta because Collins if I recall.
His d isnt consistent all all. Maybe that will change now , but so far not seeing a reason to keep him long term

I will be amazed if anyone from the current staff besides Kenyatta Watson and maybe Mike Daniels are still employed by Georgia Tech.

 

[swampsting]

I wouldn't pay any attention to it.

Auburn's prez was asked about the AD and made a ham-handed remark that directly led to the AD resigning.

Moral: If you are not prepared to take questions, don't.

If you're not prepared to take questions, don't hold a news conference.. Cabrera is smart enough to know what questions are going to get asked and smart enough to be ready for them.
For Schultz, and the other news media there, my feeling is they wanted to know what led to Stansbury's dismissal - was it the contract? What else was involved? and as for the coach decision, what led to him keeping his job after last season and what was the tipping point?
You fire two very prominent members of the athletic department, Schultz and Suguira and Quinlan, et al,, are gonna want some details into the process. Those aren't questions for the interim AD and coach.

 

[Vespid]

I'll be curious is thacker sticks around, after this season. He was tied to collins, came to Atlanta because Collins if I recall.
His d isnt consistent all all. Maybe that will change now , but so far not seeing a reason to keep him long term

It will be interesting to see if the D improves moving forward. Sometimes having two generals performing the same responsibility can cause a little confusion amongst the ranks, especially if they're not exactly on the same page. Maybe the change of scenery and getting rid of a shoulder coach will be a good thing for Thack. Wishful thinking I know, but maybe. I'd love to see him succeed. He's a good guy.

 

[takethepoints]

I've heard loads of "toxic" comments in the stands at Tech and for a long while to boot. As pointed out above, this is usually tied to losing. To Ugag and Puke especially. This, I understand; I'd rather eat SPAM then lose to those people. Oth, I'm pretty sure that this is the rule for most college football teams; most of them have mediocre (under .500) all-time records and little history of better results. Tech is different in that it does have a history of good results; indeed, results that most college football programs would kill for. I think this set up a problem when Paul - and Chan, for that matter - were there. Tech had consistent success and sometimes (2009, 2014) great success. The undertone among some fans became, "Why can't we do 2014 every year?" Unfortunately, many of the Big Donors™ were part of that crowd and, as at many schools, that led to bad decisions. One thing we need to do is what Saban did at Bama: defang the Big Donors™ and "professionalize" the football program. That will take the Hill moving in and making some decisions. We'll see about that, I suppose.

 

[slugboy]

If you're not prepared to take questions, don't hold a news conference.. Cabrera is smart enough to know what questions are going to get asked and smart enough to be ready for them.
For Schultz, and the other news media there, my feeling is they wanted to know what led to Stansbury's dismissal - was it the contract? What else was involved? and as for the coach decision, what led to him keeping his job after last season and what was the tipping point?
You fire two very prominent members of the athletic department, Schultz and Suguira and Quinlan, et al,, are gonna want some details into the process. Those aren't questions for the interim AD and coach.

Cabrera said why they fired Stansbury and Collins during his talk. He said it was because of poor football results over 3+ seasons. I believe he also said that that the Athletic Department wasn't going in the right direction.

I saw reasons for keeping Stansbury, and I understood the financials of keeping Collins through the season.
Neville has been on the Board of Trustees and is not new to this situation. You could have asked him.
Also, it’s not hard to figure out the answer to your question. Stansbury was the AD. He vouched that Collins would turn the program around. Stansbury said we had close one-score games and those were the difference. He argued that we’d lose last year’s recruiting class if we fired Collins at the end of the year. In four games this year, we lost to Clemson by 41-10, beat WCU 35-17, lost 42-0 to Ole Miss, and then lost to UCF 27-10. The administration was embarrassed by the last two games of last season, looked at the first four games of this season, and saw more embarrassment coming.

If Schultz's question was "why did you fire Stansbury and Collins?", he's not investigating things very well.

BTW, Schultz has said he understands firing Collins--just not Stansbury.

Neville did answer what they're looking for in a new AD, and the second thing he said was roughly "someone who can navigate a rapidly changing NCAA". That's really the answer--we weren't adapting quickly enough.

What was there for Cabrera to answer?