Why Dodd why?

Supersizethatorder-mutt

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Heisman's Ghost said:
At any football factory not just Clemson, the whole school is "football dedicated" not just the athletic facilities. Clemson has been trying for decades to be thought of as an honest to goodness football factory spoken in the same breath as UGA, Alabama, FSU, Miami, Auburn, and the like. That they have not was not due to a lack of effort in building state of the art facilities and such but probably a combination of ordinary coaching through the years, a limited recruiting base to some degree in South Carolina, and just plain bad luck. 2011 is a good example. Here was Clemson poised at 8-0, ranked #5 in the country, and filled to the brim with stellar athleticism on both sides of the ball attempting at week 9 to do what had been done only once before in ACC history. That is, get to 9-0. All they had to do was beat a pretty average Georgia Tech team at Grant Field. Tevin Washington had, perhaps, his best game as a Yellow Jacket and Tech ruined yet another top 10 team's quest for glory. Those days of upsetting Clemson by Tech or any of the other peasants are probably gone for the present. Tip of the hat to Dabo he has done what Danny Ford, Tommy Bowden, Coach West, and others could not do and knock down the door to the exclusive football factory club.
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I don't know how the Clemson players and coaches feel about Tech "for the present," but the fans still fear us. I have close friends who are Clemson alums and live in the Clemson area, buying season tickets every year, and they definitely take us seriously every time we play. A young Clemson fan sitting across the aisle from me 2 years ago was not satisfied with the lead Clemson had because he knew what Tech had done too many times in the past, and he wanted a big enough lead for that not to happen again, which he feared might happen.
 

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Supersizethatorder-mutt said:
I don't know how the Clemson players and coaches feel about Tech "for the present," but the fans still fear us. I have close friends who are Clemson alums and live in the Clemson area, buying season tickets every year, and they definitely take us seriously every time we play. A young Clemson fan sitting across the aisle from me 2 years ago was not satisfied with the lead Clemson had because he knew what Tech had done too many times in the past, and he wanted a big enough lead for that not to happen again, which he feared might happen.
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Well, they are probably not old enough to know this but one game in past stands out as testament to what you say: In 1966, Tech was undefeated and heavily favored playing a pretty good Clemson team at Grant Field. The score was tied pretty late in the game and truth to tell, Clemson has outplayed Coach Dodd's last Tech team which was ranked in the top 10. I was 12 years old sitting in the old North Stands and all of a sudden with time winding down here comes Lenny Snow breaking tackles and out running the entire Clemson team on a routine off tackle play. He scores a touchdown and that was that at 21-14 (I think). Anyway, my dad was friends with some of the Clemson coaches and I had an older cousin who played for Clemson so we were permitted to stay outside of the locker room. They came out (huge guys to a 12 year old) crying and bawling their eyes out. I actually felt sorry for them. Dad did too and consoled my cousin. A great series with memorable wins on both sides and little if any of the boorish behavior exhibited by mutts.
 
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Heisman's Ghost said:
Well, they are probably not old enough to know this but one game in past stands out as testament to what you say: In 1966, Tech was undefeated and heavily favored playing a pretty good Clemson team at Grant Field. The score was tied pretty late in the game and truth to tell, Clemson has outplayed Coach Dodd's last Tech team which was ranked in the top 10. I was 12 years old sitting in the old North Stands and all of a sudden with time winding down here comes Lenny Snow breaking tackles and out running the entire Clemson team on a routine off tackle play. He scores a touchdown and that was that at 21-14 (I think). Anyway, my dad was friends with some of the Clemson coaches and I had an older cousin who played for Clemson so we were permitted to stay outside of the locker room. They came out (huge guys to a 12 year old) crying and bawling their eyes out. I actually felt sorry for them. Dad did too and consoled my cousin. A great series with memorable wins on both sides and little if any of the boorish behavior exhibited by mutts.
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When I was a student, we always chanted "Big fat farm boys" at the Clemson players.
 
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Say what you want about the SEC but Tech would fill that stadium every week and it would help so much with recruiting. (Yes I know Tech would only Fill the stadium because of the other teams fans.)
 

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SteamWhistle said:
Say what you want about the SEC but Tech would fill that stadium every week and it would help so much with recruiting. (Yes I know Tech would only Fill the stadium because of the other teams fans.)
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While Tech's rival games filled the stadium, the non rivals, not so much. Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, Notre Dame, Clemson and South Carolina would fill the stands. Those are the same ones who would fill it today with the addition of FSU.
 
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augustabuzz said:
While Tech's rival games filled the stadium, the non rivals, not so much. Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, Notre Dame, Clemson and South Carolina would fill the stands. Those are the same ones who would fill it today with the addition of FSU.
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Yes, those big name rivals helped fill the stands, but back in the 60s and earlier, the number of Tech fans still outnumbered the rivals' fans. When we beat Bama in '62 in the "remember Darwin Holt" game, I was there, and despite a large number of Bama fans, it was still by far a Tech crowd. It would be the same today IMO, because attractive opponents drive attendance, including attendance by Tech fans, and unfortunately, other than Clemson, FSU, VT, and maybe Miami, there just aren't many attractive teams in the ACC. I don't think that's a good reason for not supporting the Jackets through ticket sales and attendance, but sadly, it's a fact. Of course a string of 8+ win seasons would obviously help, but I believe that consistent support contributes to winning, in the same way that winning increases support. With the stands full of your own fans screaming their heads off, you can't tell me that the performance of the team on the field isn't affected, even if it's just an increase in adrenaline.
 
iceeater1969

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Heisman's Ghost said:
Well, they are probably not old enough to know this but one game in past stands out as testament to what you say: In 1966, Tech was undefeated and heavily favored playing a pretty good Clemson team at Grant Field. The score was tied pretty late in the game and truth to tell, Clemson has outplayed Coach Dodd's last Tech team which was ranked in the top 10. I was 12 years old sitting in the old North Stands and all of a sudden with time winding down here comes Lenny Snow breaking tackles and out running the entire Clemson team on a routine off tackle play. He scores a touchdown and that was that at 21-14 (I think). Anyway, my dad was friends with some of the Clemson coaches and I had an older cousin who played for Clemson so we were permitted to stay outside of the locker room. They came out (huge guys to a 12 year old) crying and bawling their eyes out. I actually felt sorry for them. Dad did too and consoled my cousin. A great series with memorable wins on both sides and little if any of the boorish behavior exhibited by mutts.
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Heisman's Ghost said:
Well, they are probably not old enough to know this but one game in past stands out as testament to what you say: In 1966, Tech was undefeated and heavily favored playing a pretty good Clemson team at Grant Field. The score was tied pretty late in the game and truth to tell, Clemson has outplayed Coach Dodd's last Tech team which was ranked in the top 10. I was 12 years old sitting in the old North Stands and all of a sudden with time winding down here comes Lenny Snow breaking tackles and out running the entire Clemson team on a routine off tackle play. He scores a touchdown and that was that at 21-14 (I think). Anyway, my dad was friends with some of the Clemson coaches and I had an older cousin who played for Clemson so we were permitted to stay outside of the locker room. They came out (huge guys to a 12 year old) crying and bawling their eyes out. I actually felt sorry for them. Dad did too and consoled my cousin. A great series with memorable wins on both sides and little if any of the boorish behavior exhibited by mutts.
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Was a gt student in west stands - great game. L Snow was a great rb and dodd played close to vest. We won 13 to 12 irrc.

But next game gt 6 tennesse 3 was classic.
 

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1979jacket said:
BD was a great coach but a poor AD. He mainly played tennis during his AD. He was a football coach and not a business man.
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I don't know how much tennis he was playing, but one does have to wonder what was Dodd's vision for Georgia Tech was around the early 1970s. We surely weren't headed in the direction of becoming the Notre Dame of the south. Dodd had been the AD and head football coach since the 1950s. Tech football was declining and basketball to be mild was a joke. I don't know the inter-workings at Georgia Tech, but it appears to me Tech was on a slow boat. The role of a university AD had changed or was changing. Some retired coaches did OK as ADs and maybe some others we not great business men. We installed an astro-turf football field, but our weight room was somewhere under the football stadium with a saw-dust floor. But those were different days. Bobby Dodd was a good football coach.
 

65Jacket

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The group that wanted us to be MIT won out over the group that wanted us to be GT in the sixties.. I would rather be the GT of the 60s than the GT of today. I don't get any thrill by sitting around being proud of being the # 29 school in the world.
 

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Oakland said:
I don't know how much tennis he was playing, but one does have to wonder what was Dodd's vision for Georgia Tech was around the early 1970s. We surely weren't headed in the direction of becoming the Notre Dame of the south. Dodd had been the AD and head football coach since the 1950s. Tech football was declining and basketball to be mild was a joke. I don't know the inter-workings at Georgia Tech, but it appears to me Tech was on a slow boat. The role of a university AD had changed or was changing. Some retired coaches did OK as ADs and maybe some others we not great business men. We installed an astro-turf football field, but our weight room was somewhere under the football stadium with a saw-dust floor. But those were different days. Bobby Dodd was a good football coach.
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"Good"? Hiring Dodd to coach your football team would be like getting Michelangelo to paint your ceiling.
 
bobongo

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Skeptic said:
"Good"? Hiring Dodd to coach your football team would be like getting Michelangelo to paint your ceiling.
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Indeed. The biggest reason Georgia Tech football declined after Dodd left the field is because "that damned Dodd", as Bear Bryant called him, wasn't on the field any more. He felt the same head winds against him recruiting-wise as any coach who followed him - he was just so damned good at it. Even though he was a great recruiter, with all he had going against him (opposing coaches would bring calculus textbooks on recruiting visits to show kids what they were up against if they went to Tech) he still fielded teams that had to find ways to beat opposing teams that were often physically superior. And he did that, consistently. He was a great coach. Not just good, but one of the great college football coaches of all time. And his players loved him for it.
 

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bobongo said:
Even though he was a great recruiter, with all he had going against him (opposing coaches would bring calculus textbooks on recruiting visits to show kids what they were up against if they went to Tech) ...
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I've never heard that story before and in a twisted kind of way I can kind of admire its duplicity. I knew physics and calculus were used against Tech in recruiting, but the textbook is really sinister. One would have to be a confident student indeed not to recoil at the sight, particularly in the rural South of the '50s and '60s. Ah, what the hell, In the rural South today. Education is not a goal where I grew up. It's a target.
 
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Skeptic said:
I've never heard that story before and in a twisted kind of way I can kind of admire its duplicity. I knew physics and calculus were used against Tech in recruiting, but the textbook is really sinister. One would have to be a confident student indeed not to recoil at the sight, particularly in the rural South of the '50s and '60s. Ah, what the hell, In the rural South today. Education is not a goal where I grew up. It's a target.
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That was one of Wally Butts' signature moves against Tech
 
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