What Is The Worst Fan Criticism You Have Seen At Tech?

[Heisman's Ghost]

You are blending together 2 different games. The Rudy game was 1975 when we had the worst injury year since I've been watching Tech football. ('68 was close but was concentrated at the qb position and 2015 was similar but still not on the same scale). The '77 game was the shellacking in response to the '76 upset.

You are correct. It was the 69-14 debacle that I was referencing. I still do not understand how any team could lose that badly and then to a rather mediocre at best Navy team and still beat UGA in the last game of the season. It is a funny game sometimes.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

In your mind how dissatisfied is the fan base with our current coach compared to past coaching situations?

I remember when Bud Carson followed Bobby Dodd at Tech. Some fans hated him from the get go. Criticisms were that his coaching style was too hard on players, he was not affable and the warm fuzzy Dodd was, and that he was a “yankee.”

Pepper Rodgers was considered a “Hollywood showboat” by his biggest critics and some fans just didn’t like anything about him.

Bill Lewis probably soured the fan base quicker than any coach in history for a variety of reasons.

Bobby Ross was booed from the stands, got hate mail and was almost run off in 1989.

We could name others and give more details but I am interested in whether the current criticism of Geoffrey Collins is the worst you have seen in your life time and how you think it compares in intensity to past coaching controversies. I am not just talking about relative popularity but the urgency for change as expressed by the fan base.

I don't know about Carson being a "Yankee". Maybe he was but he played as a defensive back at UNC. He believed in conditioning and outhitting the other team. Those were physical years to be sure.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

That's how it started, but it all started falling apart with he way Carson treated his players. He thought we were all as dumb as the players he'd had as an assistant at UNC and USC(e) or his Marines. And it went down hill from there. He often said since he knew how to take apart an opposing offense as DC, he therefore knew how to build an offense. Never trusted his offensive assistants.

At the 1995 25th Anniversary Sun Bowl Reunion, I heard him say to one of his former assistants, in all seriousness, "I never understood what was so difficult about HOTEL management." He was forever clueless.

BTW, the 50th (Plus 1) Sun Bowl Reunion team will recognized at the Pitt game on Oct 2nd. We may be the only people in the stands.

And Doug Barfield followed Shug at Awbern, not that it matters.

You are correct it was Doug Barfield who had quite a collection of backfield talent in his time. William Andrews among others. Just not a whole lot of success. I am not surprised at how surly he was or how he demeaned the players. It must have been...difficult to have been a player under him. I will say this though when Rock Perdoni or Smylie Gebhardt hit you by George you knew it.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I don't know about Carson being a "Yankee". Maybe he was but he played as a defensive back at UNC. He believed in conditioning and outhitting the other team. Those were physical years to be sure.

He was from Pennsylvania where they played pretty hard nosed football.

He invented the cover 2 defense in the early 70s and later exported it to the pros. All pro linebacker Jack Ham said he had the Steeler defense doing things no one had ever seen before. The owner of the Steelers, where Carson invented The Steel Curtain defense, said he was the best defensive mind in football.

I can still remember when he was at Tech hearing some pads pop when a Tech defender hit someone.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

He was from Pennsylvania where they played pretty hard nosed football.

He invented the cover 2 defense in the early 70s and later exported it to the pros. All pro linebacker Jack Ham said he had the Steeler defense doing things no one had ever seen before. The owner of the Steelers, where Carson invented The Steel Curtain defense, said he was the best defensive mind in football.

I can still remember when he was at Tech hearing some pads pop when a Tech defender hit someone.

I stand corrected then but did he play college ball in Pennsylvania? I did not know he invented the cover 2 while at Pittsburgh. He did great work in the pros. I guess he was one of those guys that was best suited to be a coordinator and not the face of the program.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

But how would compare fan criticism of Collins to the criticism of other Tech coaches?

I guess to me it feels like Bill Lewis in the sense that criticism is deep and wide throughout the fan base. But I get the Zook comparison in that one game finally unleashed a mountain of pent up frustration.

I don't know but in Geoff's defense he has a much greater scrutiny involved with the internet, talk shows, and wisenheimers like me second guessing everything but then he gets well paid for it.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Yep. I dont know why but Nix and Chan didn't seem to trust or coach up Reggie.

Well, I would not blame Reggie if he did not "trust" either one of them.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I don't know but in Geoff's defense he has a much greater scrutiny involved with the internet, talk shows, and wisenheimers like me second guessing everything but then he gets well paid for it.

I’m not sure. The internet has so many opinions these days I think it is hard to build consensus around anything, positive or negative. Carson and Rodgers both faced a time when more people got their information from the same sources and when those sources turned against you there was no where else to turn.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I stand corrected then but did he play college ball in Pennsylvania? I did not know he invented the cover 2 while at Pittsburgh. He did great work in the pros. I guess he was one of those guys that was best suited to be a coordinator and not the face of the program.

He played college ball for UNC as you rightly pointed out.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

CGC ??

Collins.

 

[Ibeeballin]

That they will be cheering for KSU this weekend

 

[Northeast Stinger]

That they will be cheering for KSU this weekend

Yikes.

 

[Wreck07]

That they will be cheering for KSU this weekend

This weekend has the potential to be a marketing/PR nightmare, even if we kill KSU. I wouldn't be surprised if we get the UGA/Clemson treatment at BDS, with KSU fans outnumbering Tech fans. The one thing that we have going for us is that KSU's color scheme is similar enough to ours that it will be hard to detect visually in stadium.

 

[yeti92]

That they will be cheering for KSU this weekend

We've got former players in that group.

 

[BuzzDraft]

Every coach has their moments of catching heat from fans, but a couple notable things come to mind...

When Pepper flew in from UCLA to accept the Tech job, he stepped off the plane with a hair perm and wearing a man purse. He lost a hell of a lot of "Tech men" from that moment. He was too flamboyant for the more conservative boosters. However, he had BY FAR the greatest, most entertaining weekly coach's show.

The amount of outright anger and rage expressed by fans in the stadium during a game was astonishing towards the tailspin end of Lewis' tenure. It wasn't just booing or chanting or complaining, it was red-faced outraged screaming directed at him.

And I'll never forget at the home game, when Gailey appeared on the jumbotron making a public service announcement, and the crowd drowned out the message with boos. That was awkward, with Gailey standing on the sideline.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Cremins early years was bad with the students with bags over their heads

I think that was Morrison not Cremins.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

I don’t think the problem has been our coaches. The problem is just GT, it’s fans and fan support. Bud Carson went on to be a Super Bowl defensive coach, Bill Curry went to Alabama, Bobby Ross went to the NFL, George O’Leary went to Norte Dame, Chan Gailey went to the NFL. Since Dodd, every coach gone on to much bigger things except Fulcher, Rodgers, Lewis and Johnson.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

I think that was Morrison not Cremins.

When I first came on campus I remember hearing how Cremins asked fans not to wear bags on their head at games. I assumed that was a problem

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

I found this quote from him as well

Cremins gave that tip. Upon taking over the Tech program in 1981, he had a team that went 12-41 the previous two seasons.

“That’s exactly what I did,” he said. “I went around to the fraternities and sororities and asked them to come to games, and begged them not to wear bags over their heads. I said, ‘Just give me a few years before wearing the bags.’ “

 

[LibertyTurns]

When I first came on campus I remember hearing how Cremins asked fans not to wear bags on their head at games. I assumed that was a problem

Yes Cremins did that. Far as I remember I didn’t see any bags during his tenure. I did see Lefty empty tank hats, a 3’ long fake doobie, a ton of pizza boxes, a full length poster of a naked woman behind the basket, more panties than I’ve ever seen in one place ……. Bags over heads, don’t remember any but then again I drank a lot back then.