The Vote of Confidence is in...

[Ibeeballin]

Well … no other option that fit what the "Big Money" wanted. We had several good - heh, heh - options that were simply ignored.

Based on what?

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Theys transitions and transitions apparently. I recall what people wrote before Paul's first year as coach. "Massive transition!" "It'll take years to get players who fit his system!" "They might win 3 games!" "It'll never work at the P5 level!"

And Paul then took players recruited for a completely different system and who had gone 7 - 6 and lost to Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl and turned them into a team with a 9 - 3 record and a loss to LSU in the Peach Bowl. You simply can't find a more perfect squelch to the constant drumbeat of "historic transition" then that.

Knowing how to coach makes a difference. And having a bunch of good D players helped. Gailey could flat spot talent.

Oh but transitioning from a conventional offense to a spread option is so much easier don’t you know.

tic

 

[bobongo]

Based on what?

One example I've read on these pages reported by Augusta Jacket is that Tony Elliot was contacted, but the Big $$ demanded the job be offered to Whisenhunt. By the time Whisenhunt turned us down, Elliot had seen the writing on the wall and bowed out of consideration. I can't find the post, but that's what he said and I take his word for it.
What a shame...

 

[slugboy]

One example I've read on these pages reported by Augusta Jacket is that Tony Elliot was contacted, but the Big $$ demanded the job be offered to Whisenhunt. By the time Whisenhunt turned us down, Elliot had seen the writing on the wall and bowed out of consideration. I can't find the post, but that's what he said and I take his word for it.
What a shame...

There were newspaper and other media reports that Whisenhunt had been offered the job. There was a fan backlash. Ken turned us down after the backlash.
The timing might be related, or not.
It should not be hard to find it through Google

 

[tmhunter52]

All this time I was expecting that the difficult “transition” was going from Johnson’s scheme to Collins’ scheme. Teaching OL to squat before the snap, without putting hands on the ground. And switching the intricacies of the speedy TO, like holding the ball and handing off the ball and pitching the ball and running the ball with holding the ball and handing off the ball and passing the ball. I am not sure how changing from the TO really should have been a problem for the defense or ST. I guess I thought these football players would be a bit more capable of learning some new stuff. We used to do that in Pee Wee football every year. Anyway, now I know the biggest, most stupendous transition was going from a coach who knew how to coach to one who clearly does not. What year of his contract should we expect the coaching “light bulb” to come on?

 

[gt02]

I didn't take it as "blaming" CPJ or his system, but rather an admission that transitioning from that system was going to take time. I said years ago that when CPJ left, should we transition from the option, it would take 5-7 years before we would be a competent team again. With the advent of new transfer portal rules, that timeframe should now be 4-5 years. We need to be realistic about what it takes to transition.

1. A completely different type of QB than what we had on the roster. Of the QBs CGC inherited, the only one with another P5 offer to play QB was Graham, and that was from Kentucky. He was a highly recruited ATH that was projected to play WR at this level. Our other QBs were ATH that were good #o QB candidates, but did not possess the skill set for this new offense. (Note: Yates, who committed to CPJ prior to the coaching change was a Rivals 4* DT QB, but was a true freshman for CGCs first year)

2. Completely different OL. Our OL was recruited for a completely different style of play. They were the completely wrong body types to run the new kinds of blocking schemes.

3. WRs/TEs were insufficient. We had no TEs and the WRs we recruited were not all suited to play in this offense. Some, (Camp), excelled anyways, but we needed to revamp the position.

4. RBs had too many on the team. There was no real home for most of our ABs in the new offense.

5. Building depth in all of these positions takes years in order to keep class separation so we don't end up back at square one in a few years.

To address these issues, we've leaned heavily on the transfer portal. While the transfer portal is a crutch, it is not a magical healing pill for depth and talent on a team. For the most part, the transfer portal is filled with people not good enough to start on their previous team. It's merely a way to get bodies on the team for depth and keep class separation. In two years you won't (hopefully) see nearly the amount of transfers coming in as we do now. The biggest issue with depth is on the OL. Of all the areas where you need years of working together, OL is it. We don't have that yet. It's looking a LOT better than it did in 2019, but it needs another year or two to mature into the OL we need to maintain going forward. Some of our issues against NIU were due to the OL being gassed at times from lack of depth.

QB is still developing for us as well. Sims is a promising young QB, but he is still young. He came out flat Saturday and got hurt before the coaches could get him settled down. I have confidence he will improve drastically this season, and now we have the bonus of having a proven backup behind him in Yates.

The next argument we hear is that CGC should have run the offense to suit the players he had. I understand the idea behind that, but I disagree. The absolute best thing he could have done was to begin running his new offense. CDP ran a limited playbook for two years. We saw real progress from year one to year two. Sure, the win total stayed the same, but we looked a whole lot better on the field last year. Had we run an modified option to suit our players, we might have won 4-5 games each year, but we'd be no closer to improving with our new offense. I will not fault CGC for his decision there, and neither should you.

It's easy to find fault in a team that has 6 wins over the course of 2+ seasons. It's even easier if you allow emotion to overrule intellect. There is a LOT I am concerned about with CGC. It's fair to begin to hold him accountable for some of these things, but we also need to be reasonable and understand exactly what it takes to transition.

There. You guys have forced me to defend CGC once again. Don't get me wrong, I have real doubts about his ability to succeed here long term, or even short term, but I can't so far fault the route he's chosen to take and I can agree that the obstacles he faces are far steeper than any other coach hired in the last few years. One of those obstacles shouldn't be a fan base that refuses to use logic and reason though. This season is far from over, and it's entirely possible we can salvage a season that will make all of us feel a lot better. Step one is this weekend. We WILL win that game.

As others have said, this makes sense when we are talking about some losses. But not to NIU. We are way more talented them them — which of their starters would start on our team? It comes down to bad clock management, poor play calling, players not knowing assignments, failure for the coach to accept fault afterwards. All of these things are coaching issues. And I actually am beginning to wonder if the communication style he uses with the media and fans is the same he uses with the team. Because if so, he conveys absolutely zero substance.

This is getting old. Someone name for me the top 10 wins of the Collins era. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

 

[Pointer]

Can someone enlighten me as to the meaning of transition when used in general speech.

The way I understand it is if we are transitioning away from a scheme, that implies we are gradually moving away from it. This implies that it will take a while for the change to be complete.

I have heard many times, however, that this staff has decided to rip the band-aid off. Dive right into the new schemes. This implies a sharper change, but quicker turn around.

That being said, I don't like hearing the transition excuse for the reason as to why this has gone so poorly.

I will grant that this team is young. There are also many transfers who have recently came into the program. These things can lead to some of the disorganization we saw this past weekend (not saying this explains it all). That's the better excuse in my opinion. That is also the reason I have some hope for a season turn around. Just stop telling me the transition excuse.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

I’m with you. I don’t like excuses period.

 

[Pointer]

According to the cognoscenti, Collins demanded it and we had no other option. He was offered 5, but turned it down. We were negotiating from a position of weakness. Nobody worth their salt wanted the job. Just reporting what I'm told...

According to this article, Clemson OC was interested.
Take it for what it's worth, but it sounds like we never contacted the guy, even though we intended to.

Also, if Georgia Tech requests to talk to Elliott about its head coaching vacancy, sources have told us Elliott would be interested in the job.

Again, take it for what it's worth, sounds like we either passed on him, or never got in touch.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I’ve posted many times that I’ve enjoyed the process of watching a program be built from the ground up. It doesn’t happen often and what we did was a complete 180. From a great game day coach who cared little about anything else to a coach who appears only competent to the “everything else” and has no clue on game day. I’ve given Collins 2.5 years of my life. And what we saw on Saturday was worse than what we saw against Pitt in the last game last year. Our defense was lost against Pitt and was lost on Saturday. And the offense was waaaay worse. Right now I’m like a dog whose owner fake threw a stick for the 10th time in a row. I’m looking for it because I love my owner but I also know it’s never where it should land and I’m beginning to think my owner is laughing at me behind my back. That’s how I feel about Collins. I want to believe he isn’t laughing at me behind my back as he checks his bank account but I’m not sure. At least his post game handshake has gotten better during the past 10 months even if his team hasn’t.

 

[bobongo]

There were newspaper and other media reports that Whisenhunt had been offered the job. There was a fan backlash. Ken turned us down after the backlash.
The timing might be related, or not.
It should not be hard to find it through Google

I was mainly lamenting the fact that we didn't hire Elliot and that he never even got an interview, which is tangentially related to the Big $$'s infatuation with Whisenhunt as I understand it. The whole process was fairly hush-hush, so the only info I have to go on is what some insiders here have to report about it. Tony Elliot is going to make someone a great HC some day, and he's well suited for this job in some very important ways. But I digress...

 

[GT_05]

One example I've read on these pages reported by Augusta Jacket is that Tony Elliot was contacted, but the Big $$ demanded the job be offered to Whisenhunt. By the time Whisenhunt turned us down, Elliot had seen the writing on the wall and bowed out of consideration. I can't find the post, but that's what he said and I take his word for it.
What a shame...

I also remember quite a few people on this board pulling for Brian Bohannon and Jeff Monken. I wonder if they were ever on TStan’s list or they were just hopefuls for CPJ/3O supporters on GTSwarm. Well, I guess we will all get to see BB in action at Bobby Dodd on Saturday.

 

[UgaBlows]

Bingo. It all comes down to practice. The college team I was on back in the Jurassic was dead serious at practice. Everything was game speed. Nobody talked unless talked to. If you weren't in a drill, you watched and got ready for your rep. The games were actually a relief of sorts; we just went out and did what we did in practice and things worked out.

Having fun was winning.

Yes Absolutely, playing football is not supposed to be fun, especially freaking practice. Have your fun after you win

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

One example I've read on these pages reported by Augusta Jacket is that Tony Elliot was contacted, but the Big $$ demanded the job be offered to Whisenhunt. By the time Whisenhunt turned us down, Elliot had seen the writing on the wall and bowed out of consideration. I can't find the post, but that's what he said and I take his word for it.
What a shame...

You're getting some of that a bit off. Tony Elliott was contacted. He wasn't turned down because of Whisenhunt. Some of the big donors did really want Whiz though. I never insinuated that Elliott turned us down because of Whiz though. TE turned us down because he viewed being an OC at Clemson as the better position now for his long term career most likely. I just know he submitted a resume and then removed his name from consideration.

 

[smokey_wasp]

There were newspaper and other media reports that Whisenhunt had been offered the job. There was a fan backlash. Ken turned us down after the backlash.
The timing might be related, or not.
It should not be hard to find it through Google

I remember suggestions at the time that Whisenhunt wanted a big budget for assistants and we just didn't have it. Could have been a factor, as well. Makes sense if he wanted to bring in guys he worked with in the pros.

 

[bobongo]

You're getting some of that a bit off. Tony Elliott was contacted. He wasn't turned down because of Whisenhunt. Some of the big donors did really want Whiz though. I never insinuated that Elliott turned us down because of Whiz though. TE turned us down because he viewed being an OC at Clemson as the better position now for his long term career most likely. I just know he submitted a resume and then removed his name from consideration.

I thought you said after Whisenhunt was offered (due to the influence of the Big $$), that Elliot saw the writing on the wall and by the time Whisenhunt turned us down he had lost interest. Maybe I got that wrong. But I think the main point is that if he submitted a resume, he was interested at one point and there was a possibility he would have come here.

I think we missed our chance to get a very good HC. Just my opinion. A guy who had the best grades on the football team in Engineering and earned a scholarship after walking on has got to have a lot of moxie and intelligence.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I was mainly lamenting the fact that we didn't hire Elliot and that he never even got an interview, which is tangentially related to the Big $$'s infatuation with Whisenhunt as I understand it. The whole process was fairly hush-hush, so the only info I have to go on is what some insiders here have to report about it. Tony Elliot is going to make someone a great HC some day, and he's well suited for this job in some very important ways. But I digress...

Elliot was my choice. Felt like he would grow into the job and had lots of mentors to turn to for advice and help.

Sigh.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

I thought you said after Whisenhunt was offered (due to the influence of the Big $$), that Elliot saw the writing on the wall and by the time Whisenhunt turned us down he had lost interest. Maybe I got that wrong. But I think the main point is that if he submitted a resume, he was interested at one point and there was a possibility he would have come here.

I think we missed our chance to get a very good HC. Just my opinion. A guy who had the best grades on the football team in Engineering and earned a scholarship after walking on has got to have a lot of moxie and intelligence.

Don't get me wrong, Elliott was my first choice as well. It's hard to report on here sometimes without getting my conjecture intertwined. All I can say factually is that GT did contact him, but it didn't go very far very before Elliott pretty much removed himself from consideration. My opinion is that he did see the writing on the wall and quietly asked his name to be removed so as not to seem passed over. But that last part is opinion. For whatever reason, it was shortly after Whiz that CGC became the odds on favorite.

Edit to add that several, not all, big $$ boosters were very high on Whiz.

 

[MusicalBuzz]

.. “What bothers us is not that the new regime thinks //CPJ// was the anti-Christ, though their obsession is kind of juvenile, it is that the new regime thinks we are really that stupid, that we are going to continue to put up with lousy coaching because it’s the former coach’s fault.

I hesitated more than once to reply on this, but what the hell..

We can all recognize this exact scenario has played (is playing) out at the national level with far more life consequence.
[And I would submit from one sideline more so than the other]

But this to say: this is not an anomaly. It is not a matter of stupidity, but that there is entrenchment no matter what and excuses and reasons every step of the way. We are witnessing a microcosm of the real world, including the obligatory and templated stamp of approval, from the powers that be. But it becomes really messy and divisive to try to affect things one has little control over.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Bc the 1st two yrs was deemed rebuilding
Yr 3 is really yr 1

Also, Yr 4 can’t be the final exam bc CGC first full recruiting would still only be Covid Sophmores/Juniors. Yr 5 is honestly nut cutting time

Fair enough. I can see Year 5. However, seven years still is a lot. That’s two whole seasons that wasn’t necessary to give a somewhat unproven coach.

According to the cognoscenti, Collins demanded it and we had no other option. He was offered 5, but turned it down. We were negotiating from a position of weakness. Nobody worth their salt wanted the job. Just reporting what I'm told...

I’m not saying your sources are wrong, but I also feel like that is just an excuse from The Money, TS or both. There were definitely other options. There are plenty of coaches who would kill for an opportunity to coach a Power 5 school. Now, how many of those did we actually want? Sure, that’s a different answer, but a good negotiator would have used such things to bring Collins down to five. The seven year contract made a lot people squeamish, even plenty of those who liked the hire overall.