Thacker out at DC, now Safeties coach

[bigrabbit]

Ken Sugiura: Brent Key’s coordinator change understandable, but reflects poorly on him

Perhaps in a year – or maybe even in a month – this will reveal itself to be a masterful decision.

www.gazettextra.com

Freebie posting for those of you, who like myself, wouldn’t pay a nickel for an AJC paper to line a bird cage.

“I don’t care what it reflects on me,” Key said. “That’s why I’m the head coach. … I care what matters most to those players and to Georgia Tech.”

 

[Southern psu fan]

Gives us more eyes up top too. Defense just had no consistency. Half of the game they played good getting to the football and getting tackles for losses but the plays they didn’t killed us. I really haven’t seen a team out there that’s been on the field more than our defense. When the offense is clicking they score pretty quick and it puts the defense right back on the field. Nothing really has gone their way so hopefully this change at DC lights a fire in their butts and they start playing better. I like the move.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

Ken Sugiura: Brent Key’s coordinator change understandable, but reflects poorly on him

Perhaps in a year – or maybe even in a month – this will reveal itself to be a masterful decision.

www.gazettextra.com

Freebie posting for those of you, who like myself, wouldn’t pay a nickel for an AJC paper to line a bird cage.

“I don’t care what it reflects on me,” Key said. “That’s why I’m the head coach. … I care what matters most to those players and to Georgia Tech.”

I gotta say, I think Ken is really off with the tone of this write up. Ken knows full well just how bad the D has been under Thacker. He even throws in a paragraph acknowledging what I believe to be true:
"A theory that would help explain the change with Thacker is that maybe Key wasn't entirely on board with Thacker when he retained him but felt compelled to keep him given how well the defense played during Key's eight-game tryout as interim. And, if that were the case, Thacker went into the season needing to show results quickly."

I believe this is the case and most folks that have watched this dumpster over the last few years would agree. I'm a little surprised that Ken presents this as an alternate theory.

It seems pretty straight forward to me. If the D played like it did at the end of last season, Thacker would be still be DC. Since the D reverted back to TFG era production and actually regressed from there this year, something had to change.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

The article strikes me as unusually negative for Ken Sugiura. He held his fire for a long time with Collins and usually just reported the facts in a fair straightforward way. I don’t remember him saying things in Collins first year especially like “this reflects poorly on him.”

Really seems like lots of people who cut Collins a lot of slack for extended periods, and overlooked a multitude of red flags, are really quick to pull the trigger with criticism of Key. In his first year as head coach no less. Sheesh.

I’ll repeat what I’ve said elsewhere. People act like keeping Thacker from last year was totally Key’s decision and that there were not larger contingencies to balance, especially financial. I think that’s naive.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

The article strikes me as unusually negative for Ken Sugiura. He held his fire for a long time with Collins and usually just reported the facts in a fair straightforward way. I don’t remember him saying things in Collins first year especially like “this reflects poorly on him.”

Really seems like lots of people who cut Collins a lot of slack for extended periods, and overlooked a multitude of red flags, are really quick to pull the trigger with criticism of Key. In his first year as head coach no less. Sheesh.

I’ll repeat what I’ve said elsewhere. People act like keeping Thacker from last year was totally Key’s decision and that there were not larger contingencies to balance, especially financial. I think that’s naive.

That's because Ken's job has changed. These kinds of articles don't come from the team stringers, they come from staff reporters not assigned to teams. Collins had his share of negative tone articles the first year, they were just from the general pool of reporters, not the stringer.

 

[stech81]

The article strikes me as unusually negative for Ken Sugiura. He held his fire for a long time with Collins and usually just reported the facts in a fair straightforward way. I don’t remember him saying things in Collins first year especially like “this reflects poorly on him.”

Really seems like lots of people who cut Collins a lot of slack for extended periods, and overlooked a multitude of red flags, are really quick to pull the trigger with criticism of Key. In his first year as head coach no less. Sheesh.

I’ll repeat what I’ve said elsewhere. People act like keeping Thacker from last year was totally Key’s decision and that there were not larger contingencies to balance, especially financial. I think that’s naive.

It's not just Sugiura, we have a few fans on here don't want to give key any room all because he was here with that other coach. I guess those people are perfect and always made the right decision in life.

If I remember correctly a lot of people on here wanted to give Thacker a chance after the second half of the season. we all know Tech ain't got the money to go out and hire a 10 million dollar head coach or hire a 1.5 million dollar coordinator. I have no way to know what happen in the thinking to keep who and who to cut.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

That's because Ken's job has changed. These kinds of articles don't come from the team stringers, they come from staff reporters not assigned to teams. Collins had his share of negative tone articles the first year, they were just from the general pool of reporters, not the stringer.

Interesting. So the stringer is required to be more of a homer and now that Ken is just a reporter we can see his true feelings. Had not been paying close attention to that.

 

[bobongo]

It's not just Sugiura, we have a few fans on here don't want to give key any room all because he was here with that other coach. I guess those people are perfect and always made the right decision in life.

If I remember correctly a lot of people on here wanted to give Thacker a chance after the second half of the season. we all know Tech ain't got the money to go out and hire a 10 million dollar head coach or hire a 1.5 million dollar coordinator. I have no way to know what happen in the thinking to keep who and who to cut.

There seems to be some revisionism concerning what most of us thought about Thacker after the last eight games of 2022. IIRC, most of the board was okay then with keeping him.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

It's not just Sugiura, we have a few fans on here don't want to give key any room all because he was here with that other coach. I guess those people are perfect and always made the right decision in life.

If I remember correctly a lot of people on here wanted to give Thacker a chance after the second half of the season. we all know Tech ain't got the money to go out and hire a 10 million dollar head coach or hire a 1.5 million dollar coordinator. I have no way to know what happen in the thinking to keep who and who to cut.

I thought last year that Key would be given certain parameters when hired, like you only have so much money for hiring new staff so you have to decide who you want to hire and who you want to fire, but you can’t fire everybody and hire all new staff. Key had to make some hard decisions and try to buy time. With what little money he had to work with.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Interesting. So the stringer is required to be more of a homer and now that Ken is just a reporter we can see his true feelings. Had not been paying close attention to that.

It's better to say that a stringer isn't generally going to go out of their way to harm the relationship between them and the GTAA since they rely on the GTAA for sources on stories. Homerism, to a point, is expected, not only to keep a good relationship with GT, but to placate the subscribers that want to read (generally positive) stories about their team.

I have met Ken personally several times over the years. He has stopped by my tailgate more than once while he was covering GT sports. There's not a more unbiased person reporting at the AJC than Ken. He may report something we might not like from time to time, but he doesn't generally let feelings intrude.

Edit to add an example: Ken recently wrote a very good column on the possibility that uga might not even make the playoffs this year. The uga stringers can't write that article, the general reporters and columnists can.

 

[tmhunter52]

It's not just Sugiura, we have a few fans on here don't want to give key any room all because he was here with that other coach. I guess those people are perfect and always made the right decision in life.

If I remember correctly a lot of people on here wanted to give Thacker a chance after the second half of the season. we all know Tech ain't got the money to go out and hire a 10 million dollar head coach or hire a 1.5 million dollar coordinator. I have no way to know what happen in the thinking to keep who and who to cut.

I don’t think it hyperbole that most every Tech fan last year (and before) knew Thacker was not the guy to run our defense, so it was a real head-scratcher that Key retained him. In hindsight, it makes the fans look smarter than the HC, which is never a good thing and is not a real confidence-builder. If the DC change works out, Key’s poor judgment with Thacker will be minimized. If not, Key will be second-guessed by many for a long time over a “what-could-have-been” lost season.

 

[Jacket20]

I gotta say, I think Ken is really off with the tone of this write up. Ken knows full well just how bad the D has been under Thacker. He even throws in a paragraph acknowledging what I believe to be true:
"A theory that would help explain the change with Thacker is that maybe Key wasn't entirely on board with Thacker when he retained him but felt compelled to keep him given how well the defense played during Key's eight-game tryout as interim. And, if that were the case, Thacker went into the season needing to show results quickly."

I believe this is the case and most folks that have watched this dumpster over the last few years would agree. I'm a little surprised that Ken presents this as an alternate theory.

It seems pretty straight forward to me. If the D played like it did at the end of last season, Thacker would be still be DC. Since the D reverted back to TFG era production and actually regressed from there this year, something had to change.

Seems as if he has an axe to grind for some reason.

 

[CEB]

I don’t think it hyperbole that most every Tech fan last year (and before) knew Thacker was not the guy to run our defense, so it was a real head-scratcher that Key retained him. In hindsight, it makes the fans look smarter than the HC, which is never a good thing and is not a real confidence-builder. If the DC change works out, Key’s poor judgment with Thacker will be minimized. If not, Key will be second-guessed by many for a long time over a “what-could-have-been” lost season.

Nope…
While a bunch of fans may not have had Thacker as their FIRST choice, I don’t recall many saying he was a BAD choice. We knew he was young and inexperienced but it also looked like he was on to something and maybe we had our diamond in the rough
What was unanimous and indisputable is that the offensive side of the ball was a train wreck and if we had to choose where to clean house, that was it.
I am speculating that we had to “choose” to be fair… but given the situation, Thacker seemed a reasonable retention.

 

[stech81]

Nope…
While a bunch of fans may not have had Thacker as their FIRST choice, I don’t recall many saying he was a BAD choice. We knew he was young and inexperienced but it also looked like he was on to something and maybe we had our diamond in the rough
What was unanimous and indisputable is that the offensive side of the ball was a train wreck and if we had to choose where to clean house, that was it.
I am speculating that we had to “choose” to be fair… but given the situation, Thacker seemed a reasonable retention.

That is how I remember it.

 

[slugboy]

I don’t think it hyperbole that most every Tech fan last year (and before) knew Thacker was not the guy to run our defense, so it was a real head-scratcher that Key retained him. In hindsight, it makes the fans look smarter than the HC, which is never a good thing and is not a real confidence-builder. If the DC change works out, Key’s poor judgment with Thacker will be minimized. If not, Key will be second-guessed by many for a long time over a “what-could-have-been” lost season.

I can find you a few outside analysts who wrote “wow, GT should keep whoever turned around their defense—that’s an impressive piece of coaching” comments from the second half of last year. Not on this board, but from people who cover and watch all of college football.

About this time last week, this board had a bunch of posts about the accolades for Key’s awesome head coaching from people like Kirk Herbstreit. This week, he’s a bum. Last week at this time, Thacker had turned around the defense. Now, we always knew he couldn’t coach.

The coaches SHOULD catch a lot of heat for losing this game. This is an awful loss, with postseason play at stake. This is a game that should have been circled as strategic for the team—not something that ended up as a “trap game”.

I read most everything on the board. There’s not a consensus opinion here—you could get whiplash going back and forth between all the different opinions.

History here changes after a win, and it changes after a loss.

The one thing I can tell you that most every Tech fan agrees on is that we should win more games. There was no consensus last year that Thacker should go.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

It's better to say that a stringer isn't generally going to go out of their way to harm the relationship between them and the GTAA since they rely on the GTAA for sources on stories. Homerism, to a point, is expected, not only to keep a good relationship with GT, but to placate the subscribers that want to read (generally positive) stories about their team.

I have met Ken personally several times over the years. He has stopped by my tailgate more than once while he was covering GT sports. There's not a more unbiased person reporting at the AJC than Ken. He may report something we might not like from time to time, but he doesn't generally let feelings intrude.

Edit to add an example: Ken recently wrote a very good column on the possibility that uga might not even make the playoffs this year. The uga stringers can't write that article, the general reporters and columnists can.

I’ve always liked Ken and believed him to be fair. That’s why I was surprised to see him express an uncharacteristically biased opinion. If he had said the decision to demote Thacker reflected positively on Key that would have been just as biased and just as much of a purely opinion piece but more like what we saw in the past from him.

 

[yeti92]

I think it's pretty obvious - if it weren't for the defense the 2nd half of last year, Key would not be HC, and you don't turn around and immediately shoot the guy who got you the job. It's that simple.

I don't think Key had delusions that Thacker was a brilliant DC hampered only by Collins. In fact I'd be willing to bet he explained to Thacker exactly what the situation was when he decided to retain him, how his group needed to perform to continue to hold that position, and explained why he was bringing in Sherrer. I'm sure Thacker understood what the expectation would be as well, he doesn't strike me as wildly delusional about his own abilities/performance like TFG.

 

[roadkill]

Was there any insight or speculation in this article that hadn't already been expressed in this thread? I didn't see any.

 

[57jacket]

We have always had problems recruiting DL and LB. Mainly academic issues, both grades and desire to attend Tech. I believe this is where NIL money could really help us. Allocate more NIL here where the need is greatest.

 

[Techwood Relict]

People act like keeping Thacker from last year was totally Key’s decision and that there were not larger contingencies to balance, especially financial. I think that’s naive.

There are almost always other factors.