I'm an admitted CCG apologist. I love CPJ and think DRad knocked that hire out of the park. I was very disappointed with CCG's firing, and hiring CPJ was one of the few hires that I could get on board with. Feel very fortunate that GT was fortunate enough to get CPJ as our coach. CCG was my coach, and I respect him greatly for both on the field stuff and off the field stuff.
Anyway, here's my rationale for sticking with CCG. He had JUST turned around recruiting in '07 and then you're going to fire him the next year. He didn't even get a chance to coach the guys who made the best class in GT history. He had made 2 key decisions - 1 to get rid of the recruiting coordinator (and special teams coach) and 2 to hire Giff Smith, both extremely significant moves. There was going to be a big payoff for that no matter who our future coach was. So, imagine GT with 2007 classes year after year from then on because that's what it had become - the culture had changed. The other big piece is that CCG had 2 out of 3 major categories nailed - defense and the running game - we were top 20 in defense every year and led the ACC in rushing (or top 3) every year. ALL we needed was improvement at ONE position (we all know what it is, no need to say it). So, pull a Dabo and keep hiring coaches until you find the right guy (in this case OC/QB coach), but don't rip out the whole thing when it was almost there. The uga games in '06 and '07 were the most asinine games ever - the UT game this year being in that same vein. We dominated them on the field and somehow lose (both had referee calls playing huge roles). I actually think Taylor Bennett was starting to play strong and could've been pretty darn good as a senior (keeping the same OC - forgot his name - the guy after Coach Nix), but what would've been very interesting to see is how either Josh Nesbitt or Steven Threet were going to totally change the outlook of the position. So, again, imagine GT with CJT keeping top 20 defenses, Choice and Dwyer (Dwyer for the next 3 years) making the running game even better. We had a very good OL coach in Coach D'Allesandris and were going to be better there as well through stronger recruiting. In your scenario, adding Calvin for that last year. Improving the QB play significantly. And, top 15 recruiting classes. I don't feel unjustified to say that we would've seen comparable success to what CPJ has brought here. I know that view may be contrarian to this board because people had their minds made up (for them?) on CCG. People also felt that way about Frank Beamer his first 6 years also right before he turned it around and became national title contenders. All he needed was a quarterback ... that's all we needed too.
