Why Geoff Collins's Georgia Tech Rebuild Starts With a Rebrand

[Techster]

I read something last week I got in the mail from GT about a bunch of various fundraising updates. It detailed what I've read in multiple other places - 4x as many people give back to the academic side of GT than do athletics.

Yup, several on here have touched on how the GT the school does handicap GT the athletic program when it comes to fundraising. Since we touched on the topic of synergies, I REALLY hope our new president will make that a priority. GT athletics can be just as good for GT the school and vice versa. Both can work together and form a great relationship, there's no need for the academic side to work against the athletic side.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Dang good article!

 

[Animal02]

I agree with you, but maybe we should change the...er...narrative (I've come to hate that word). While we are not in a rebuild, we are in a transition, which has some similar characteristics. We have talent, but maybe not the experience we need in the the positions where we need to have it.

Did I tap dance good?

I think "transition" would have been a far more accepted and less negative term than "rebuild"

 

[iceeater1969]

I think "transition" would have been a far more accepted and less negative term than "rebuild"

Completly agree on field

On the field
Year 1
We have plenty of talent going into the transition to tell if we have major deficiencies in coaching ability or game day decisions.
Year 2
System transition should be rear view mirror and recruiting should clearly be on up swing. We should know what coaches cant get us to next level.

For those expecting miracles - check out football scoop and see the salaries of ol coaches- uga 800,000 plus and 10 others above 600,000.

Its going to take time to fill bds w expensive seats but w have a solid foundation and are cgc has proactively started to put buzz into bds.

Year 3
The OD and DC need to be winning some big games w their minds like Coach did.

 

[ncjacket79]

I think "transition" would have been a far more accepted and less negative term than "rebuild"

I agree but the accepted narrative is negative towards the 30. We know it’s not true and that Johnson did a fine job here but we won’t win going against the flow. We can fight it and lose the positive energy we are getting from recruits and media outlets or just let it go and make it a positive.

 

[takethepoints]

I love CPJ and think he did a great job with his players and for the school but he was not good at building a positive national perception of the program. This staff is working to change the national perception to believing that we should and will be in the discussion with programs like Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, LSU, etc..

It wasn't that Paul didn't do whatever he could to build a "positive national perception of the program." He did. The problem was that other programs had every incentive to try to create a negative perception of Tech. There were, I think, two reasons for this.

First, there was the Rocky III problem. If you recall, Mick didn't want Rocky to fight Clubber Lane because he was the wrong kind of fighter for him to go up against. By the same token, Tech had a hard time getting out-of-conference teams scheduled. Anyone who looked at the results when we took on a team that hadn't played an option running team in some time could see that it was likely that we would a) win and b) embarrass them in the process. How do you excuse this? By saying as much negatively about Tech as possible and by the old "They cut block! They're a dirty program!" stuff. That way you don't have to fight Clubber.

Second, there was the "OMG! What if Tech got a collection of good players together regularly?" Like, say, the players we had from 2008 - 2010. Well, that would be bad news for everybody Tech played. So do whatever you can to diss Tech football to recruits. To some extent, this is SOP; to a large extent, football recruiting is negative recruiting. Oth, the use of the spread option and Tech's fearsome academic rep made it easier to negatively characterize the program, especially to players who were looking for an excuse not to study (a substantial majority, imho) or had deceived themselves into thinking they were NFL material, an illusion coaching staffs readily pounced on.

Well, that did have an effect, though not so much on the field. And it was hard for Paul to overcome to the extent some Tech fans wanted. I was willing to live with it since I had seen what we could do with a good QB and BB combo, like we would have had this next season. But Paul seemed to have lost his fire for the job. Now we'll see what happens.

 

[B Lifsey]

It wasn't that Paul didn't do whatever he could to build a "positive national perception of the program." He did. The problem was that other programs had every incentive to try to create a negative perception of Tech. There were, I think, two reasons for this.

First, there was the Rocky III problem. If you recall, Mick didn't want Rocky to fight Clubber Lane because he was the wrong kind of fighter for him to go up against. By the same token, Tech had a hard time getting out-of-conference teams scheduled. Anyone who looked at the results when we took on a team that hadn't played an option running team in some time could see that it was likely that we would a) win and b) embarrass them in the process. How do you excuse this? By saying as much negatively about Tech as possible and by the old "They cut block! They're a dirty program!" stuff. That way you don't have to fight Clubber.

Second, there was the "OMG! What if Tech got a collection of good players together regularly?" Like, say, the players we had from 2008 - 2010. Well, that would be bad news for everybody Tech played. So do whatever you can to diss Tech football to recruits. To some extent, this is SOP; to a large extent, football recruiting is negative recruiting. Oth, the use of the spread option and Tech's fearsome academic rep made it easier to negatively characterize the program, especially to players who were looking for an excuse not to study (a substantial majority, imho) or had deceived themselves into thinking they were NFL material, an illusion coaching staffs readily pounced on.

Well, that did have an effect, though not so much on the field. And it was hard for Paul to overcome to the extent some Tech fans wanted. I was willing to live with it since I had seen what we could do with a good QB and BB combo, like we would have had this next season. But Paul seemed to have lost his fire for the job. Now we'll see what happens.

I think another factor that many schools found it easy to negatively recruit us because our 3O offense was so different. If we ran same O as other big time colleges, they couldn't fault it. But, since it was so different, it became an opportunity for negativity.

 

[YellowJacketFan2018]

What Geoff Collins is trying to do at Georgia Tech is what Bobby Bowden did at Florida State from 1976-1986 and what Howard Schnellenberger did at Miami from 1979-1983. Changing the culture of a football program is a hell of a lot of work.

 

[GT_receivers]

What Geoff Collins is trying to do at Georgia Tech is what Bobby Bowden did at Florida State from 1976-1986 and what Howard Schnellenberger did at Miami from 1979-1983. Changing the culture of a football program is a hell of a lot of work.

Were on the right track.

 

[iceeater1969]

I think another factor that many schools found it easy to negatively recruit us because our 3O offense was so different. If we ran same O as other big time colleges, they couldn't fault it. But, since it was so different, it became an opportunity for negativity.

If we could have maintained the pace of the last 5 games of 14 , the only thing they could be negative about was the chance for their defense stopping us.
During our pregame campus walk at ND 15 , the fans were saying they hoped nd could score enough to keep it close. ( We told them we hoped it would be close too& did an eye roll).
After that game , we only won really big games by amazing coaching and effort by players. Then we got stuffed for last 2 years and the negative recruiting was rampant.

If we had a few bounces in 17 and less goof ups in 18 , the narrative would have been much more positive. It is what it is.
Coach was like a modern day John Henry trying fight a steam hammer.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Staples made it clear what CPJ accomplished for GT...but he also verbalized something a lot of GT fans were feeling towards the end of CPJ's tenure:

Let’s get one thing straight. The option was good for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets won the ACC in 2009 (the title was later vacated by the NCAA) and won the Coastal Division in 2014 running that offense. It was an experiment that worked, but it also was an experiment that had run its course.

People have short memories. The last two years were blah. The next two might have been good and that would have become the new narrative.

Right now little has been accomplished. The focus is on new possibilities. In two years we will have a new narrative one way or the other.

 

[GoodBuzz]

Great article! Thanks for posting! He even called out this part (which seems to always be left out unless you're a Tech fan):

"He was a freshman at Western Carolina in 1990 when the Yellow Jackets shared a national title with fifth-down-aided Colorado."

 

[Milwaukee]

Good stuff.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

What Geoff Collins is trying to do at Georgia Tech is what Bobby Bowden did at Florida State from 1976-1986 and what Howard Schnellenberger did at Miami from 1979-1983. Changing the culture of a football program is a hell of a lot of work.

I also keep coming back to what Dabo did at Clemson. He has slowly put together a football dynasty but he first changed the culture with his over the top enthusiasm. He got buy-in from fans and administration that allowed him to concentrate on recruiting.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Great article! Thanks for posting! He even called out this part (which seems to always be left out unless you're a Tech fan):

"He was a freshman at Western Carolina in 1990 when the Yellow Jackets shared a national title with fifth-down-aided Colorado."

There was also a phantom clip penalty against Notre Dame that worked to Colorado's advantage. Exhibit #538 of why it is hard to be a Tech fan.

 

[Ibeeballin]

Look Staples copy and pasted few of my post minus the rebuild word.

 

[LibertyTurns]

I also keep coming back to what Dabo did at Clemson. He has slowly put together a football dynasty but he first changed the culture with his over the top enthusiasm. He got buy-in from fans and administration that allowed him to concentrate on recruiting.

Agree that Dabo injected enthusiasm into the program, but I encourage everyone to investigate his leadership principles because that’s what really propelled the program and built the sustainable momentum. His enthusiasm was critical to getting a toe hold, but the man’s core principles go a lot deeper than that.

I mocked Dabo incessantly because a coach at that level should not have breakdowns in fundamental decision making processes on game day. To his credit, we has accumulated a staff that has much better game day planning & has developed a recruiting juggernaught getting the type of players that make his system work then manages them systematically once they’re in the program. His philosophy for building a winning team is remarkable & rivals what you find in elite military units.

It’s really quite remarkable but it has been 16 years in the making & Clemp AA/school leadership needed to provide support AND most importantly buy into the system to the point that they were highly criticized for not dismissing him early on when the results were not there. I hope GT has the same resolve.

 

[Skeptic]

https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/02/04/geoff-collins-georgia-tech-recruiting-signing-day

So while Clemson's standard is "the best" Georgia Tech's is ... the Waffle House? With greasy bacon, overcooked sausage and undercooked hash browns? That's the brand change?

 

[GTRambler]

So while Clemson's standard is "the best" Georgia Tech's is ... the Waffle House? With greasy bacon, overcooked sausage and undercooked hash browns? That's the brand change?

That’s what makes the food so good ‘n yummy at the Waffle House. LOL

 

[GoodBuzz]

There was also a phantom clip penalty against Notre Dame that worked to Colorado's advantage. Exhibit #538 of why it is hard to be a Tech fan.

Yes! Pretty sure it was Rocket Ismael carrying the ball on that play/return. I used to always state both reasons we should have been concensus champs.