The Late Kick showing GT some love...again.

[ncjacket79]

I was standing in a room with most of the faculty at my old college one day listening to a conversation between our development guy and one of my colleagues. She was saying that she had doubts about one of the many new programs our schools had started. The development guy went a bit off and said, "You're a buzz-killer! A buzz-killer!" He said this like he was accusing her of being an ax murderer.

I intervened and asked him to look around the room and tell me what he saw. "The faculty," he said. "No." I replied, "What you see is a room full of buzz-killers. We were educated to be buzz-killers. You should be happy about that because teaching students to be analytic about our subjects is what we are selling." He calmed down and said I was right.

And that's the dilemma I'm facing with some here. I'm a trained buzz-killer. It's been my job for a long time and I'm actually pretty good at it. That makes me automatically suspicious when I hear people saying that things are going great when the evidence isn't in that they are. Staying positive is something I'm also pretty good at; when I see a reason to get behind something, I do it whole hog. My problem is that I've seen 4 wins so far out of our new program and now read (look above) people saying that Tech is going to be in contention for national championships regularly. Sorry, Charlie. If they were saying contending for (and winning) ACC championships and an occasional shot at the CFP, then I'd agree; we've already reached that plateau and only 6 years ago. But … I can't see anything yet that says we're headed in that direction. Maybe so, maybe not.

That's being positive. And realistic.

Look, you’re obviously free to think and post what you want. You can be on the bandwagon or you can wait until you see irrefutable proof. You can explain why all you want. But the rest of us are also free to respond to your posts as we see fit. I’m not sure what the issue is.

 

[85Escape]

I have no idea what you’re going on about here. It’s a simple concept..,a thumbs up (like) or a thumb down. In what world would a thumbs down keep others from seeing a POV or being challenged by said POV? Why is “like” the only option?

Never mind. I guess you've never heard of Reddit and the voting system there so it's a moot point.

 

[LibertyTurns]

It’s so funny to read these post:

Now we’re discounting the FSU win? All last week, It was about FSU talent and how their OL will overmatch us. Now it’s UCF being pegged as the measure stick since FSU is a dumpster fire? Y’all are something else.

If you want to know why CPJ is no longer GT coach and coaching period,then look no further than the post on the thread. Every post reads CPJ offense, not CPJ TEAMS! The best part about Saturday was the balanced attack. ST was horrendous but CGC took full ownership of it and It will get fixed. This is the biggest reason I believe we will be perennial coastal/ACC contenders

Preach on brother! The fanbase that likes to hate itself.

 

[ncjacket79]

Never mind. I guess you've never heard of Reddit and the voting system there so it's a moot point.

I’ve heard of Reddit but this is a message board.

 

[gtstinger776]

Why can't people just be happy about being a part of the national narrative? That tends to correlate with recruiting success. Why does this have to turn into a CPJ vs. CGC debate?

I liked CPJ, but do his avid fans really think we were on a sustainable / auspicious path - #50 recruiting classes, alienating the media, running an offense predicated on cut-blocking when the rules are moving against that? It was a fun ride, let's enjoy / acknowledge the good times.

But, the program was growing stale and our competitors were getting better. The floor we had for a while - 7 wins - was dropping b/c we could no longer rely on beating up on the mediocre ACC programs (e.g. UVA, UNC, Duke) that were investing in football and recruiting.

 

[85Escape]

It's shocking that we are part of the national narrative this quickly! Really, who could have expected it. Maybe we get some benefit from a football starved world and no SEC yet, but regardless it is awesome and I'm really thankful that we put ourselves in a position to take advantage of the opportunity. Kudos to all involved!

Here's hoping we can continue the good times with an upset on Saturday!!

 

[CPJacket]

We tend to look at things with the benefit of hindsight. I and a lot of others were intrigued by what running a unique system would do for the school and thought that we could get enough of the "one off" recruits that might fit our system particularly well. The JT who wanted to play QB. The "too short" lineman like Shaq that were overlooked by the factories. The Orwin Smiths who did not have a ton of offers iirc.

Also, the thinking was that because of his experience at GaSo he would have connections into the Georgia HS pipelines that would pay big dividends.We know how it turned out now but I didn't think we all expected it to end exactly like it did. But it was not foreseeable. Just like the final outcome for CGC is not. It is a shame that CPJ was handcuffed by the school but, as they say, iiwii.

But why would we want "one off" recruits over elite recruits? Truth is, like @Ibeeballin said, big time recruits didn't want to come play in our system. Didn't have anything to do with PJ being handcuffed. The top players didn't want to come, so we got levels under that and we couldn't win with those level players. PJs first two years we had P5 players and we were good. When they ran out and none came in it was harder to win. 2014 was exception more than rule. Things had to change.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

The big difference so far between Collins and Johnson is Collins has been given everything he can be given to succeed. Because Stansbury knows it takes money and AD support. Johnson's tenure started with being hamstrung at the DC position. And then it was a tooth and nail fight for funding for coaches the entire time. We had no recruiting staff when teams were adding a ton in the critical time between 2012-2016 (seriously even duke was dumping funding into recruiting at this time and we were not). When Bohannon left Johnson wanted to bring in someone else to help with the offense couldn't had to settle for Cook. We were fortunate to get 2014 to click like it did. Johnson didn't hire Roof that was a booster hire. But honestly Roof was a good injection at the time (2013 he took that dumpster fire al groh had in 2012 and made it a respectable run defense).

I am glad Collins is getting full buy-in. But i can only imagine how horrible he'd have it if he had to deal with the AD johnson did during that critical time period. The truth is Johnson's failing on the recruiting trail mainly lay in honesty. I mean **** we lost holyfield because the staff didn't lie to him and said that in our system the position he would play wouldn't be a feature back but he'd get touches both receiving and running. He played that up as a told he couldn't be an every down back... Which last i checked no one is in the NFL. Things like that. Hell johnson told vad lee he was going to change the offense up for him.... did so. Then Vad was Vad and wouldnt' even run the smallest amount of the base offense.

Sorry i don't mean to derail here but Hosts like this that act like an Orange Bowl win in the past 6 years hasn't been some kind of ceiling for us don't really know what the hell they are talking about. The narrative should not be "bring GT back" because truthfully there is only one 3 year stretch they can be talking about (o'leary 98-2000) where that applies. It should be, moving GT forward. I get the branding and its definitely targeted at some boosters but still its disingenuous.

Great synopsis.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

They’ve listened to the academic crutch so long it scares them that it isn’t as drastic as made out to be.

I think we all know that Gailey, Johnson, and several other coaches got blindsided by the Hill. That’s in the past and hopefully over with.

 

[85Escape]

So do you five think we are the Flavor of the Week, or will it continue if we get the upset on Saturday and go into the Loserville game 3-0?

 

[lv20gt]

Johnson could have used more investment to help with recruiting, but there is also the fact that Collins has a completely different approach that is more effective in bringing in higher tier recruits. A lot more focus is on branding, building popularity, and overall presenting GT as a place where it would be fun to be. Basically, while there is more investment now, there is also more emphasis. People will often point to Johnson as "old school" as a positive thing, and in some ways it was. When it came to recruiting, he was also old school, but not in a good way. Ultimately, that aspect, and being unable to solve the defensive side of things, is why he was overall similar to Gailey in win% and not significantly higher.

Johnson was really good at designing an offense and calling plays. He was not good at recruiting, nor good at defense, at least while here. And ultimately the advantage on offense wasn't able to overcome those two things to elevate us. So we hired a defensive oriented coach who had a rep, and history here, of recruiting. We're hoping that his coaching ability can get that side back to where we need, that his recruiting ability elevates the talent, and that we can get him a good enough OC and offensive staff to have the overall situation be enough to elevate us. Maybe it will be, maybe it won't. So far I like the direction we're going with recruiting and Defense, and the offense has shown good progress in limited time in year 2.

 

[croberts]

And a lot of our fans are fatally asshurt at the very idea that CGC could possibly accomplish something that CPJ Could not.

Total BS

 

[4shotB]

But why would we want "one off" recruits over elite recruits? Truth is, like @Ibeeballin said, big time recruits didn't want to come play in our system. Didn't have anything to do with PJ being handcuffed. The top players didn't want to come, so we got levels under that and we couldn't win with those level players. PJs first two years we had P5 players and we were good. When they ran out and none came in it was harder to win. 2014 was exception more than rule. Things had to change.

Please note that I am not defending it rather than commenting on the typical mindset of the fanbase when Paul was hired. We all know we have always wanted the type of players that OSU and Bama gets no matter who was coaching. However, we have never gotten them in the quantities required to play at the top level for any extended period of time.So the hope was that the system could overcome enough that we did not need the elite athletes. To say it didn't pan out as well as we all hoped for is correct but we have data now.

 

[croberts]

Something that is totally lost in the PJ vs CGC discussion is the one thing that made them attractive to GT ADs.
They both came here convinced they could win a championship when others didn’t.
PJ because of his belief in his system and history of punching above his weight class and Collins because of his vision.
I can’t tell you how many times I was told about the # of coaches (during both hiring cycles) that didn’t feel they could win here or felt the move would kill their career.
You can Be negative about either or both hires but you should recognize that both men came here thinking they had or have a plan to win and win big.

 

[rfjeff9]

It's shocking that we are part of the national narrative this quickly! Really, who could have expected it. Maybe we get some benefit from a football starved world and no SEC yet, but regardless it is awesome and I'm really thankful that we put ourselves in a position to take advantage of the opportunity. Kudos to all involved!

Here's hoping we can continue the good times with an upset on Saturday!!

I don't know how much of a narrative it is or will be, however it is always great to hear the talking heads give a shout out to the team without "prolific offense" being the catch all phrase to describe us.

 

[WreckinGT]

So do you five think we are the Flavor of the Week, or will it continue if we get the upset on Saturday and go into the Loserville game 3-0?

This week is our last week to maximize national attention so we need to take advantage of it with a win. Once the SEC starts, there isn't much we can do outside of beating Clemson to get the same level of attention.

 

[WreckinGT]

But why would we want "one off" recruits over elite recruits? Truth is, like @Ibeeballin said, big time recruits didn't want to come play in our system. Didn't have anything to do with PJ being handcuffed. The top players didn't want to come, so we got levels under that and we couldn't win with those level players. PJs first two years we had P5 players and we were good. When they ran out and none came in it was harder to win. 2014 was exception more than rule. Things had to change.

The real question is can we get elite recruits at all. There still isn't much proof that we can. While Collins has improved recruiting, we still aren't really getting many elite level recruits. One hopes that will change once we start winning more and more but its still a bit of a hope more than anything.

 

[ncjacket79]

The real question is can we get elite recruits at all. There still isn't much proof that we can. While Collins has improved recruiting, we still aren't really getting many elite level recruits. One hopes that will change once we start winning more and more but its still a bit of a hope more than anything.

What do you mean “still”? Did you expect it to happen overnight? To me were are ahead of schedule. Last year was better than I expected and with some luck this year could be really good as well. Even if we finish in the 30s I think it sets us up well for 2022. Just showing the offense we did last week has shocked some people and gotten the attention of HS kids. Nothing is proven yet of course but I’m very comfortable with what I’m seeing.

 

[croberts]

The real question is can we get elite recruits at all. There still isn't much proof that we can. While Collins has improved recruiting, we still aren't really getting many elite level recruits. One hopes that will change once we start winning more and more but its still a bit of a hope more than anything.

There is absolute proof. The portal has delivered a 5 star and multiple 4 star transfers and a top 10 ga athlete last cycle and produced 2x 4 star running backs in two years. The last 4 star back (Dwyer) was also recruited by Collins when he was here. I loved Paul but facts are facts.

 

[VintageWreck]

This week is our last week to maximize national attention so we need to take advantage of it with a win. Once the SEC starts, there isn't much we can do outside of beating Clemson to get the same level of attention.

And beat Notre Dame. Then, we will be rolling!
Media can't help but notice and give some kudos.