Vad Lee, Reggie Ball potentially successful at Tech?

[Old South Stands]

Saw the Vad Lee ESPN video yesterday on Youtube... Looks like he's a great fit at JMU. A number of months ago I was wondering, what would have happened if Reggie Ball had played under Paul Johnson? Or what if Vad Lee had been old enough to play for Chan Gailey? Vad very well could have thrived in Chan's offense. And Ball might have done very well with the option, especially under Johnson's tutelege...

 

[Boomergump]

Interesting thoughts. I have often wondered what RB would have done playing for CPJ. On the surface, he seems like the ideal fit physically. He was very tough, quick, elusive, low, and had a pretty decent arm. However, what I don't feel sure about is the decision part (reads) of the offense. Decision making on the fly was not RB's forte. The reads in our offense are fast and critical. I just dunno. All the physical tools are there. Was the mental part? Great question.

On the flip side, had VL played for CCG, I think we would have had one of the best offenses in recent (last 30 years) memory. I really do. CCG, IMHO, don't crucify me, was a great offensive and QB coach. He just didn't have much to work with at QB, ever. It was his biggest failing and the primary reason his record against UGAg was so abysmal. VL was a better passer than RB, TB, AJS, or DB, and he had some escapability to go with it. Just imagine VL with Megatron and Tashard Choice at RB. I'm just saying.

 

[Techster]

Interesting thoughts. I have often wondered what RB would have done playing for CPJ. On the surface, he seems like the ideal fit physically. He was very tough, quick, elusive, low, and had a pretty decent arm. However, what I don't feel sure about is the decision part (reads) of the offense. Decision making on the fly was not RB's forte. The reads in our offense are fast and critical. I just dunno. All the physical tools are there. Was the mental part? Great question.

On the flip side, had VL played for CCG, I think we would have had one of the best offenses in recent (last 30 years) memory. I really do. CCG, IMHO, don't crucify me, was a great offensive and QB coach. He just didn't have much to work with at QB, ever. It was his biggest failing and the primary reason his record against UGAg was so abysmal. VL was a better passer than RB, TB, AJS, or DB, and he had some escapability to go with it. Just imagine VL with Megatron and Tashard Choice at RB. I'm just saying.

The irony with Gailey and QBs is he never had a stud QB during his coaching tenure, but he hit the QB recruiting motherload his last couple of classes with Nesbitt (top 10 dual threat QB), Steven Threet (Top 15 pro style), and had a commit from Sean Renfree (top 10 pro style) who ended up at Duke after we hired CPJ and is now playing for the Falcons. I think Nesbitt would have eventually moved over to safety, a position many thought was his best position. Morgan Burnett at Free Safety and Nesbitt strong safety...wow.

GT could have had an explosive offense. Renfree at QB - Jonathan Dwyer at RB - Demaryius Thomas at WR - DJ Donley opposite BayBay at WR. Many thought Donley was more naturally gifted than DT...and reports out of practice was Tenuta use to chew out his defense because DJ would abuse the DBs.

Obviously it worked out with CPJ, but the scenario above is one of the great "what ifs" in GT football history...

 

[DvilleJacket]

Man that Donley kid could have been another great receiver for Tech! Some people have it made and just don't realize it.

 

[GTBandit22]

I think Reggie would have been a good potential QB, but is more intriguing as an A back. Low center of gravity, tough runner, and not afraid to get physical.. He was also pretty elusive in the open field. We could use some of his toughness on the edge right now.
Hard to tell with Vad. If you magically transport him back, he would probably be successful. The question is if Gailey/Bond/whomever would have recruited him at all. Or if he would have come to Tech. Butch Davis had just started at UNC running a pro style.

 

[bke1984]

The irony with Gailey and QBs is he never had a stud QB during his coaching tenure, but he hit the QB recruiting motherload his last couple of classes with Nesbitt (top 10 dual threat QB), Steven Threet (Top 15 pro style), and had a commit from Sean Renfree (top 10 pro style) who ended up at Duke after we hired CPJ and is now playing for the Falcons. I think Nesbitt would have eventually moved over to safety, a position many thought was his best position. Morgan Burnett at Free Safety and Nesbitt strong safety...wow.

GT could have had an explosive offense. Renfree at QB - Jonathan Dwyer at RB - Demaryius Thomas at WR - DJ Donley opposite BayBay at WR. Many thought Donley was more naturally gifted than DT...and reports out of practice was Tenuta use to chew out his defense because DJ would abuse the DBs.

Obviously it worked out with CPJ, but the scenario above is one of the great "what ifs" in GT football history...

LOL...yeah...OK. We had the most dominate receiver ever playing for us and our offense was the most vanilla piece of crap I've ever seen. They treated him like he was a normal player. Entire halves would go by where we'd throw him the ball one time.

What about our play calls on third and three/four...remember any of those? Off tackle to the center of the field to hedge our bet with a straight field goal if we don't get it. I think we had like 3-4 NFL tight ends under Gailey, as well that had something like 5 combined catches for their careers.

Wouldn't have mattered if it was Joe Hamilton or Joe Montana...we were not going to have a good offense under Chan....period.

Guy was an incredible recruiter, but a horrible offensive mind

 

[Boomergump]

I think Reggie would have been a good potential QB, but is more intriguing as an A back. Low center of gravity, tough runner, and not afraid to get physical.. He was also pretty elusive in the open field. We could use some of his toughness on the edge right now.
Hard to tell with Vad. If you magically transport him back, he would probably be successful. The question is if Gailey/Bond/whomever would have recruited him at all. Or if he would have come to Tech. Butch Davis had just started at UNC running a pro style.

Great point. RB for AB in our system. Reggie might have been the best blocking AB that ever saw the field for us.

 

[Boomergump]

Guy was an incredible recruiter, but a horrible offensive mind

Really? C'mon. He just happened to be hired as OC in the NFL over and over because he has a terrible mind for the game. CCG was a very good offensive mind and understood the game. His downfall was never getting a good QB, for his system, to come here. With a good QB, or string of such players at that position, he would be talked about in the same breath as guys like Bobby Dodd and would probably still be here.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

Boomer, that's the point. An average OC looks good with a great QB. A great OC makes do with what he has and still looks good.

We had 3 NFL TEs, 4 NFL WRS, 3 NFL RBs, several NFL lineman on offense and were conistently putrid.

The NFL loves retreads, why else is Rex Ryan still coaching?

 

[Tech First]

Don't kill me for this and I am not saying we should go back but I believe at the time that Chan with his last recruiting class (The one that CPJ did so well with) was on the verge of becoming that coach that could stay with Tech forever. Just my two cents worth.

 

[OldJacketFan]

9-6

 

[ATL1]

I'm still not sold on Vad being s great passer. He had a great arm and could fling it deep better than anyone but his short & intermediate throws accuracy was questionable I would even say poor.

 

[Nook Su Kow]

Interesting thoughts. I have often wondered what RB would have done playing for CPJ. On the surface, he seems like the ideal fit physically. He was very tough, quick, elusive, low, and had a pretty decent arm. However, what I don't feel sure about is the decision part (reads) of the offense. Decision making on the fly was not RB's forte. The reads in our offense are fast and critical. I just dunno. All the physical tools are there. Was the mental part? Great question.

On the flip side, had VL played for CCG, I think we would have had one of the best offenses in recent (last 30 years) memory. I really do. CCG, IMHO, don't crucify me, was a great offensive and QB coach. He just didn't have much to work with at QB, ever. It was his biggest failing and the primary reason his record against UGAg was so abysmal. VL was a better passer than RB, TB, AJS, or DB, and he had some escapability to go with it. Just imagine VL with Megatron and Tashard Choice at RB. I'm just saying.

That's the difference between a college gig and the NFL. Recruiting at Ga Tech seems a little more difficult than drafting players, sign free agents in the NFL.
Unless your Thomas Dmitroff. That guy sucks.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I think Gailey was a good coach. With two more years of patience keeping him??? No Telling. He had some failings though. Had Tenuta...Great! Had Nix....pretty awful (maybe this is a bit unfair...I never tried to break it down on film...but my recollection of the O with Nix is that it was not good and way way too vanilla)

 

[AE 87]

I think Gailey was a good coach. With two more years of patience keeping him??? No Telling. He had some failings though. Had Tenuta...Great! Had Nix....pretty awful (maybe this is a bit unfair...I never tried to break it down on film...but my recollection of the O with Nix is that it was not good and way way too vanilla)

I credit Nix for a big part of a win for us in 2008.

 

[Techster]

LOL...yeah...OK. We had the most dominate receiver ever playing for us and our offense was the most vanilla piece of crap I've ever seen. They treated him like he was a normal player. Entire halves would go by where we'd throw him the ball one time.

What about our play calls on third and three/four...remember any of those? Off tackle to the center of the field to hedge our bet with a straight field goal if we don't get it. I think we had like 3-4 NFL tight ends under Gailey, as well that had something like 5 combined catches for their careers.

Wouldn't have mattered if it was Joe Hamilton or Joe Montana...we were not going to have a good offense under Chan....period.

Guy was an incredible recruiter, but a horrible offensive mind

Dude, you really don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Techster]

I think Reggie would have been a good potential QB, but is more intriguing as an A back. Low center of gravity, tough runner, and not afraid to get physical.. He was also pretty elusive in the open field. We could use some of his toughness on the edge right now.
Hard to tell with Vad. If you magically transport him back, he would probably be successful. The question is if Gailey/Bond/whomever would have recruited him at all. Or if he would have come to Tech. Butch Davis had just started at UNC running a pro style.

I think Vad would have been fine in this offense had he totally bought in and didn't want the staff to do all the exotic spread option schemes that are prevelant now. Let's not forget the MONSTER game he had at UNC in 2012, and some of the good things he did in other games. The physical potential was there. The 2013 UNC game where he got his so hard it probably changed him in terms of this offense seemed like the turning point for his GT "triple option" career. That's the hardest hit I've seen a CPJ QB take on an option play.

It's all speculation, but it's kinda crazy all the QB talent that has left the state of GA the past few seasons. Josh Dobbs (Tennessee), DeShaun Watson (Clemson), Jonathon McRary (Vanderbilt), Stephen Collier (Ohio State), Lorenzo Nunes (South Carolina), Anthony Jennings (LSU). Gotta think Gailey's "pro style" offense could have kept a few of those guys home...especially Josh Dobbs who's an aerospace engineering major at UT. It was said he was extremely interested in our engineering program but didn't like our offense.

This is fun to talk about and speculate, but the reality is Gailey probably would have left on his own eventually if GT didn't can him. Remember all the flirtations and interviews he had with NFL teams during his time here? It was probably only a matter of time either way.

 

[AE 87]

I think Vad would have been fine in this offense had he totally bought in and didn't want the staff to do all the exotic spread option schemes that are prevelant now. Let's not forget the MONSTER game he had at UNC in 2012, and some of the good things he did in other games. The physical potential was there. The 2013 UNC game where he got his so hard it probably changed him in terms of this offense seemed like the turning point for his GT "triple option" career. That's the hardest hit I've seen a CPJ QB take on an option play.

It's all speculation, but it's kinda crazy all the QB talent that has left the state of GA the past few seasons. Josh Dobbs (Tennessee), DeShaun Watson (Clemson), Jonathon McRary (Vanderbilt), Stephen Collier (Ohio State), Lorenzo Nunes (South Carolina), Anthony Jennings (LSU). Gotta think Gailey's "pro style" offense could have kept a few of those guys home...especially Josh Dobbs who's an aerospace engineering major at UT. It was said he was extremely interested in our engineering program but didn't like our offense.

This is fun to talk about and speculate, but the reality is Gailey probably would have left on his own eventually if GT didn't can him. Remember all the flirtations and interviews he had with NFL teams during his time here? It was probably only a matter of time either way.

I agree with you about Vad. If he had committed to the system, I think he would have been fine.

I'm not so sure about Gailey.

 

[Bogey]

I think Gailey was a good coach. With two more years of patience keeping him??? No Telling. He had some failings though. Had Tenuta...Great! Had Nix....pretty awful (maybe this is a bit unfair...I never tried to break it down on film...but my recollection of the O with Nix is that it was not good and way way too vanilla)

Nix was terrible. Reggie had a gun for an arm but no finesse, and Nix and Gailey did nothing to improve his touch. I remember sitting thru the Wake ACCCG, sick as a dog. My wife trying to get me to leave after half time but I said as soon as we score a TD, we never did. Late in the game. We had 2 men open in the end zone, one in front and one in back, from about the 10 yd line. Reggie zings it over the head of the one in back when a lob throw to the guy in front would have won the game. That is when I gave up on CG, but maybe too soon. He seemed to figure out recruiting at Tech the next year, which takes awhile, and never got the chance to utilize the kind of players he needed for his system. I keep hoping that PJ improves his recruiting. If he does, I think we can win big most years, though I don't expect any more NC's with today's format. To win a NC now, we will have to win at least 14 games, and beat 4 top notch FB teams in a row, UGA,Atlantic div champ, and 2 teams in the top 4. Will never happen in my mind.

 

[bke1984]

Really? C'mon. He just happened to be hired as OC in the NFL over and over because he has a terrible mind for the game. CCG was a very good offensive mind and understood the game. His downfall was never getting a good QB, for his system, to come here. With a good QB, or string of such players at that position, he would be talked about in the same breath as guys like Bobby Dodd and would probably still be here.

Being hired as an NFL coach/coordinator over and over again does not mean you're a great coach. There's a coaching shuffle in the NFL every year where like 6 teams fire their coaches, then they all hire the same guys back at different positions for different teams.

I'm probably being a bit more harsh than I need to be on the guy, but let's take a look at his history...I did a bit of digging this morning. The table below shows his team's offense rank by points and total yards and the team's overall record for every year Gailey has a HC or OC in the NFL or major college football.

Granted, he had some good offenses in the 90's, but nothing that would blow your mind.

How about this...he has never been involved with a team in the NFL of FBS as a head coach or an OC that has lost less than 5 games in a season...

The guy is just mediocre...he's what I would bring into a dumpster fire of a program to get things straightened out before trying to vie for championships....then I'd get rid of him and hire someone else