Thacker out at DC, now Safeties coach

[iceeater1969]

Something like--rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic

Your right in general about the action, but Gt football is more like Huckleberry Fnn's raft that the Titanic.

 

[okiemon]

I hope it makes a difference, but color me skeptical with our current jimmies & joes. Defense, unlike the O side of the ball, comes down to hosses with “want to”. Hopefully with Thack out of the way, Sherrer will show us we have hosses who now have “want to”, but I doubt it.

I look at it this way: we’re not getting any new jimmies and joes in here mid-season, so it’s either Thacker with the same jimmies and joes, or Sherrer with the same jimmies and joes. Might as well try the devil we don’t know.

 

[roadkill]

I’m of the mind that Thacker should not have been retained after 100-0, and wanted him canned after ole miss last year. We had a decent defensive end to the season, so maybe that colored Key’s opinion, but he should have been replaced last year. Even us football morons knew that losing Charlie, Ace, Keion, Knight, and some other depth to transfer would make an “okay” defense look much worse this year. It calls into question Keys mindset when this happens. If you brought in sherrer to be the backup, why didn’t we just cut ties with him in the offseason and hire Sherrer. Offer Thacker the safety coaches spot in the offseason, then hire someone else if he balks.

You have had multiple years on the same staff, and had this man as your DC for most of a season and one offseason. If you had doubts about his coaching, why did it take to week 4 against a MAC team to figure out he shouldn’t be your DC.

There are probably machinations behind the scenes we will never know. Did we not have money to hire someone we liked, did we just cheap out, did we reach out and get laughed at when they saw our returning starts?

I applaud the move, but the timing does make me question Key’s judgement.

Well, hindsight is 20/20, and I wonder if Key is also now regretting his decision to retain Thacker at the end of last year. We’ll probably never know the whole story, but I still think Key had his doubts or he would not have brought in a co-DC. Had our defense not shown improvement during Key’s interim tenure, we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion.

 

[Techwood Relict]

The issue here is, if you even remotely thought it'd be possible he could be fire-moted by game 4, why TF didn't you make a real change in the offseason?

 

[Root4GT]

So... does this mean safeties were taken away from DB coach Tillman? Are we back to having separate coaches for cornerbacks and safeties?? That did not work too well.

Like this is working well now. Lol

 

[Root4GT]

The absurd part on the GT fans part was thinking the roster we have is good enough to have gone from terrible to good during one off season. We were one of the worst teams in college football on offense, defense and ST for 4 years.

The roster us still very weak overall. There are some bright spots for sure and the offense did upgrade talent during the off-season. The OL still isn’t strong in run blocking but they are improve. QB and receiver play is massively better. The offense is at least average now.

The defense is still lacking playmakers across the board. I am doubtful any coach could get this collection of defenders to be good. Getting them to not be terrible is step one. .

 

[iceeater1969]

The absurd part on the GT fans part was thinking the roster we have is good enough to have gone from terrible to good during one off season. We were one of the worst teams in college football on offense, defense and ST for 4 years.

The roster us still very weak overall. There are some bright spots for sure and the offense did upgrade talent during the off-season. The OL still isn’t strong in run blocking but they are improve. QB and receiver play is massively better. The offense is at least average now.

The defense is still lacking playmakers across the board. I am doubtful any coach could get this collection of defenders to be good. Getting them to not be terrible is step one. .

Nice summary. Maybe I missed it in the shifting of deck chairs, but, what if this works?
The way i see it :
The dc who long ago coached lb used is to side - over by dbs. They have vastly underperformed.

The coach of the lbs , who have also been terrible, is now dc. Are LB are on their own or do we find some extra guy sitting around to fill in?

Mixing a mess w less staff seems wierd?

Maybe we SIMPLIFY the dc game plan
1 "line up close to los" w 2 rush ends 3 dt 1 lb, 1 nicklel and 4 db.
2. "THEN bring it for 3 seconds.
3. MAKE PLAY IF NEAR BALL or COVER OUTLET till 5 seconds.
4. THEN Rally to ball.

REPEAT W RANDOM BLITZING.

 

[kg01]

Your concern is misplaced. I've completely gotten over it to the point I'm just sitting waiting for the next 2 and a half to three years to go by more than anything. Probably easier than trying to do the mental gymnastics it would take to delude myself into thinking Key is going to accomplish anything here.

 

[GTJake]

Thank Goodness, Brent Key is working to fix this and not sitting on his hiney (sp) ... there is the silver lining !!

 

[CuseJacket]

Well, either Key decided to be cagey at his presser, or J Batt told him if he wants support, he better do something. With that said, hard to believe that everything is Thacker’s fault since he was co-DC with the new DC.

I hope it makes a difference, but color me skeptical with our current jimmies & joes. Defense, unlike the O side of the ball, comes down to hosses with “want to”. Hopefully with Thack out of the way, Sherrer will show us we have hosses who now have “want to”, but I doubt it.

I'm with you.

There just really isn't a great explanation for how the press conference was handled vs. what happened < 24 hours later. Of the options you present:

• "Cagey" is a generous adjective. Typically when someone says/implies one thing and does the the opposite, there are other adjectives. Big hit to the "straight shooter" mantra.
• The alternative theory that Batt forced Brent's hand against his will would be worse for the future of the program. Optimistically, I really don't think this is the case.

I'll grant CBK the benefit of the doubt and offer the softest landing. My opinion is that we're taking our lumps with a first-time HC. He could have offered a better, non-committal answer to the question at the presser.

Bottom line, Key is eating his decision to hire (retain) Thacker as DC. Unless Sherrer is a miracle-worker, we may have lost a shot at a bowl game due to Key's decision this past offseason.

 

[tmhunter52]

Gonna be a long two to three years for you. Why do you seek negativity with the program?
I get we were embarrassed yesterday and that it's been well 8 years or so since we fielded good team, but you really don't see ANY positives with key ?

He talks and dresses more like an old school football coach than TFG. He is a Tech man. He also doesn’t have an unholy affinity to the Waffle House.

If he can show that his defenses are tough, no-nonsense, sound fundamentally and can tackle and that his offensive line can run block and that his running backs are able to consistently make tough yards in traffic after contact, I will add those as positives, as well.

 

[slugboy]

I'm with you.

…

• "Cagey" is a generous adjective. Typically when someone says/implies one thing and does the the opposite, there are other adjectives. Big hit to the "straight shooter" mantra.

maybe he’d been thinking about a change, and watched the film again.

He cut loose some coaches last year. Bad coaches, bad players, toxic personalities are easy choices—you cut them loose. Coaches and players with POTENTIAL are the ones that can be coach-killers—you expend a ton of energy trying to fix them.

Thacker is probably more than capable of being a great position coach if his heart, head, and attitude are in the right places.

 

[tmhunter52]

No fan was lost yesterday that hasn’t been lost over the previous 4 years. I find it hard to imagine a program that had its worst 4 year stretch ever folded the towel yesterday.

Maybe no new fans were lost with the embarrassing loss to Bowling Green, but there will likely be poorer attendance the rest of the way. People want to be able to believe there is a credible chance their team can win. That hope took a massive hit on Saturday. One can only stomach so much pain in a season.

 

[g0lftime]

I hope this is a wake up call for Thacker and he coaches the safeties to being the best unit in the ACC. He’s not a high paid coach, but he still will have earned close to 2.5M while coaching here and should be fine.

I’m not expecting miracles with the new DC, but anything better than one of the bottom defenses in the country will be a marked improvement.

$650,000 a year is not chump change. I doubt many people on this site ever made that much money in their jobs. That's CEO money for a medium sized company. The defense ratings under him did not ever rate that kind of pay IMO. I was surprised he lasted this long at DC

 

[DvilleJacket]

Some of you mention how bad our roster currently is but we rank in the 30s on 247 for overall talent. We lost several nice pieces on D but competent coaching should get this roster 6-7 wins.

 

[Lotta Booze]

The absurd part on the GT fans part was thinking the roster we have is good enough to have gone from terrible to good during one off season. We were one of the worst teams in college football on offense, defense and ST for 4 years.

The roster us still very weak overall. There are some bright spots for sure and the offense did upgrade talent during the off-season. The OL still isn’t strong in run blocking but they are improve. QB and receiver play is massively better. The offense is at least average now.

The defense is still lacking playmakers across the board. I am doubtful any coach could get this collection of defenders to be good. Getting them to not be terrible is step one. .

The roster is plenty good enough to not give up 38 to Bowling Green

 

[GTJake]

Maybe no new fans were lost with the embarrassing loss to Bowling Green, but there will likely be poorer attendance the rest of the way. People want to be able to believe there is a credible chance their team can win. That hope took a massive hit on Saturday. One can only stomach so much pain in a season.

I don't disagree with this and that's a part of a gut wrenching loss like this. We have plans on attending the UNC game, tickets, hotel, meeting up with friends and on Saturday in a fit of anger I told my wife to cancel everything. After sleeping on it, yesterday I asked her if she canceled our plans, luckily she knows me and didn't and we are still coming. But, that's me a long-time devoted GT guy, for the newbys, its probably a different story ... but it is what it is

 

[g0lftime]

The

The absurd part on the GT fans part was thinking the roster we have is good enough to have gone from terrible to good during one off season. We were one of the worst teams in college football on offense, defense and ST for 4 years.

The roster us still very weak overall. There are some bright spots for sure and the offense did upgrade talent during the off-season. The OL still isn’t strong in run blocking but they are improve. QB and receiver play is massively better. The offense is at least average now.

The defense is still lacking playmakers across the board. I am doubtful any coach could get this collection of defenders to be good. Getting them to not be terrible is step one. .

The defense never adjusted to the quick, possession passes BG ran the entire game. They doubled our time of possession with controlled passes. We gave them those 5 to 10 yard passes all game. That's on scheme. We couldn't tackle their RB Stewart either. Too many yards after contact. I remember hearing one of our DB's in the past saying they are taught to try to force fumbles. That may be why they tackle up high on the ball carrier.

 

[g0lftime]

I don't disagree with this and that's a part of a gut wrenching loss like this. We have plans on attending the UNC game, tickets, hotel, meeting up with friends and on Saturday in a fit of anger I told my wife to cancel everything. After sleeping on it, yesterday I asked her if she canceled our plans, luckily she knows me and didn't and we are still coming. But, that's me a long-time devoted GT guy, for the newbys, its probably a different story ... but it is what it is

Same for me but I am getting together with some of my frat guys from the 60's. Still coming but now it's whether I walk a couple of blocks to see the game. I probably will but so far the GTAA has made getting a block of 25 tickets impossible. That has been frustrating.

 

[wvGT11]

I think some are overlooking that gains Thacker has as sooner as Collins was gone. There was a night and day difference in how the defense played , which is likely why he retained the job, but on a short leash

Something really regressed with Thackers play calling and coaching this year.

Also tbh nothing against thacker, but remember coaching at this level was a big step up from Temple. Honestly I think he would be fine as a DC back down at that division. He hasn't been constant as a DC at this level.