Time to Bury the Asterisk?

[FlatsLander]

The 2019 season had a monumental asterisk attached to it with the completely new coaching staff, not to mention the unbelievable transition on offense. The 2020 season had another asterisk for being played during a pandemic with a shortened spring practice, nearly 0 official summer workouts, an altered fall camp, and a shuffled, inconsistent schedule. Should 2021 be the year without an asterisk for CGC and the staff?

 

[Tundeballer]

Yes. Significant portion of the roster are going to be Collins' guys or guys they wanted to keep. Not expecting an undefeated season but should be competitive with everyone besides Clemson, UGA and ND.

 

[forensicbuzz]

There should never be an asterisk. There's always something.

 

[smokey_wasp]

Assuming we have a relatively normal spring, I see no reason not to expect significant improvement. We'll still be fairly young, so I am not expecting to win the division or anything, but yes, you start judging the wins and losses next year.

 

[billga99]

I would give it one more year. The reason is I think recruiting was really hurt this year with the inability to get prospects on campus. GT is not the known commodity for most high school players. The personal touch that our staff has provides a major boost to our ability to get higher rank athletes. However the reason for only one more year is no matter how sales oriented our staff is, kids want to not only get exposure for future NFL considerations (and with so many games being on TV, not too hard to get the attention) and also to play on a winner. We need to be at .500 or better in 2021 to gain momentum on the recruiting trail.

 

[Pointer]

I think this year has been tough, and really the practice time was cut pretty short. It was almost like year one still in new systems on both sides of the ball. Combine that with the fact that GT is just a different animal when it comes to D1 football and it magnifies the case even more. There was an interview with Jonathan Dwyer after he left here that talked about how tough the coursework was here compared to lots of other guys he knew at other D1 programs. He also mentioned that many other FB players at GT at one point had a breakdown in class (hell I know I had many of those and I wasn't playing a sport). I think that makes it even tougher for our athletes to focus solely on football and learn two new systems, more so then many other programs under new coaching.

With all that being said, next year shouldn't, hopefully, have these practice restrictions and most of the guys be should familiar with what we are trying to do on both sides of the ball. Even the incoming transfers should also be almost there as they have spent at least a year in college conditioning programs. I echo @smokey_wasp in that I don't expect to be world beaters next year, but I expect respectable results.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

I would give it one more year. The reason is I think recruiting was really hurt this year with the inability to get prospects on campus. GT is not the known commodity for most high school players. The personal touch that our staff has provides a major boost to our ability to get higher rank athletes. However the reason for only one more year is no matter how sales oriented our staff is, kids want to not only get exposure for future NFL considerations (and with so many games being on TV, not too hard to get the attention) and also to play on a winner. We need to be at .500 or better in 2021 to gain momentum on the recruiting trail.

Good lord. When you add the 6 quality transfers to the 16 high school recruits, we had a very, very good recruiting year.

 

[malak05]

My expectations this year are pretty simple a .500 season would be measuring stick and anything above is sugar on top and good sign of trending upwards

 

[gtmike]

No asterisks for any years. All those excuses are going to be exposed if there aren't significant wins next season and especially the one after.

 

[WreckinGT]

Asterisks imply that a coach can be as bad as he wants for a period of time which im not sure I agree with. Even with a tough situation a coach can be judged on how well he handles it. As for the future, if we break it down in wins and losses, we need to be at least a bowl team next year. If he can't achieve that in year 3 then we have a problem.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I never really gave CGC an asterisk like I never really gave CJP one either. I mean, new coaching staff, new systems, everyone predicted each coach was going to have a tough go for 2-3 years. That was just the nature of their situation. There's no excuse for 10 penalties a game or missing 25 yard field goals, so I suspect people will give each team leeway where deserved, and a short criticism leash where also deserved. Kind of is what it is.

 

[mtodd30]

No excuses if we have full spring and summer. I am one of Collins’s biggest apologists. I am expecting significant improvement both on the field and in the W column. I’m expecting over .500 next year with a bowl. Time to wake the sleeping giant after that

 

[buzzed]

No excuses next year. It’s more than reasonable to expect a competitive team in year 3. This team needs to improve in every phase, but that means we have opportunities in every phase. Particularly on defense where the fact that we ran the triple on offense is irrelevant and with Collins having built his reputation on defense, we need results.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

The 2019 season had a monumental asterisk attached to it with the completely new coaching staff, not to mention the unbelievable transition on offense. The 2020 season had another asterisk for being played during a pandemic with a shortened spring practice, nearly 0 official summer workouts, an altered fall camp, and a shuffled, inconsistent schedule. Should 2021 be the year without an asterisk for CGC and the staff?

I don't know about asterisks. I do know that another 3 win season will cause the natives to become restless even the Tech brand natives which tend to be forgiving to football coaches. Not that it matters, given the financial situation it could be that TStan will ride this horse as far as he can.

 

[Vespidae]

Do any of our opponents in the official records get to claim an asterisk? If the coach decides to play, it’s an official game. And ... you go to war (or play a competitive sport) with the army (team) you have, not the army (team) you hope to have.

Next year, I expect to see Geoff getting very hot in his seat. Not that he’s worried ... but frustrated. Press conferences should be interesting.

As to athletes breaking down in class, I had a student recently and to be honest ... the quality of work wasn’t even ninth grade. All I could think was, “What is this individual doing in college?“ I really hope we are better than that .. and it’s not an issue of having capable recruits. Too many sad stories out there.

 

[mtodd30]

Seeing as our very talented (highest ranked since 2012) freshman class just averaged a 3.0 (deans list) that doesn’t seem to be a major problem.

Tech is hard for everyone, that’s why we “get out”

 

[g0lftime]

Do any of our opponents in the official records get to claim an asterisk? If the coach decides to play, it’s an official game. And ... you go to war (or play a competitive sport) with the army (team) you have, not the army (team) you hope to have.

Next year, I expect to see Geoff getting very hot in his seat. Not that he’s worried ... but frustrated. Press conferences should be interesting.

As to athletes breaking down in class, I had a student recently and to be honest ... the quality of work wasn’t even ninth grade. All I could think was, “What is this individual doing in college?“ I really hope we are better than that .. and it’s not an issue of having capable recruits. Too many sad stories out there.

I live in Chapel Hill and several years ago when Crum was the coach a woman who taught art at UNC was telling us she had a couple of FB players in her class that literally couldn't read. I'm thinking to myself how on the world can GT compete with that. It's been a long time ago but has it really gotten that much better? BTW this would have been before AFAM classes. Maybe that was the reason they started them.

 

[SteamWhistle]

If you think a season with a 6 win team being in the playoffs doesn’t involve an asterisk I don’t know what to tell you. As far as next year goes, win 6/7 and recruit better, if not year 4 is his last chance.

 

[g0lftime]

The question I have is whether he reaches 7 years on the flats. Either miserable record that gets him fired or becomes a hot coach that gets hired away. In second scenario it can take only one good year.

 

[mtodd30]

If he’s a hot coach I don’t see him moving away. Remember he’s from here and Tech is his dream job. If he’s doing that well I’m sure we’ll take care of him in the $ department