Your choice for Head Coach

[BainbridgeJacket]

Curious if this is team-wide opinion:

85 scholarship players + walk ons, training staff, etc.

No opinion is universal with that sample size.

 

[Vespidae]

i doubt we will ever publicly get that from key. there is really no benefit to doing so and it’s really not a good look for a coach to be piling on a guy when everyone knows collins failed. if we get anything other than “i disagreed with some of the things he did and said but he worked hard and loved his guys” i will be pretty surprised

Saban was really pissed about the play calling in the LSU game by BOB and not very happy with Golding either. Asked in a press conference, Saban simply said, "I have spoken to both and expressed my views. I don't see any reason to share those views in public."

I think that's the right approach.

 

[stinger 1957]

we don’t need a unique anything. we need fundamentals, discipline and good athletes. from there you can figure the rest out. it doesn’t matter what scheme you’re running if you don’t have those things

Absolutely!!!! Right on!!!! So many put the cart before the horse.

 

[GoldZ]

Hopefully Batt stays clear minded and hires from his in-depth research and not by emotion like most of us fans woulhasd do.

Probably already has, imo.

 

[bobongo]

I gotta say, if you're making this hire, the results of these games can't weigh as heavily as they apparently do with us fans.

As I said earlier, 'better than Collins' is not the bar. All these results prove is just how bad he was as a HC. The roster isn't near as bad as it looked. These ACC opponents aren't near as elite as we made them look under Collins.

I hope the decision makers stick to the fundamentals and don't get swept up in emotion, as it seems we are.

All absolutely true, but there are perfectly rational reasons to favor Key. He's had a seven-game audition, with one game to go. I'd say up to now he's done pretty darn good overall.

 

[bobongo]

This is my issue with Key. He SHOULD have quit and then told the GT fanbase why. He sat there for 3 plus years and watched his school get destroyed by 1 man, Whether or not he gets the job he owes us an explanation about what happened, I just don’t understand why it is so hard to simply give your opinion. All Key has to say is “the previous coach didn’t have a clue and he ran ineffective practices which led to losses on game day”. A statement like that would put it to rest. But this code of silence leads me to want a clean break from anyone associated with Collins.

He's going to flush $650,000 a year down the toilet? I presume he has a family. It's not the real world. The only way he could fix the mess was bide his time until Collins got canned. And you don't know that he didn't give his opinion.

 

[bobongo]

Huge difference between The Former Guy (TFG) and Brent Key:

TFG was a showhorse.

Key is a workhorse.

Well said.

 

[tomknight]

This is my issue with Key. He SHOULD have quit and then told the GT fanbase why. He sat there for 3 plus years and watched his school get destroyed by 1 man, Whether or not he gets the job he owes us an explanation about what happened, I just don’t understand why it is so hard to simply give your opinion. All Key has to say is “the previous coach didn’t have a clue and he ran ineffective practices which led to losses on game day”. A statement like that would put it to rest. But this code of silence leads me to want a clean break from anyone associated with Collins.

this is completely ridiculous. he owes you nothing. you are seeing the results right now.

do you think he'd ever get another coaching job if he stroked your hurt feelz like you want him to?

 

[Randy Carson]

we don’t need a unique anything. we need fundamentals, discipline and good athletes. from there you can figure the rest out. it doesn’t matter what scheme you’re running if you don’t have those things

Aaaaaand what if we had both?

 

[Randy Carson]

Lots of votes shifting today. (Yes, you can change your vote in this poll.)

Key's stock is understandably on the rise.

Have to say, I don't understand the Deion votes at this point.

(I mean, I get it, but no...I don't buy it. Whatever. Vote for Ross Perot if you want to. )

 

[kg01]

I agree with you, cagey. You always right ....

This is all I heard.

 

[slugboy]

My understanding is that Key was not a "Get along to go along" kind of sidekick to Collins. Apparently, he and Collins disagreed loudly and Key even threatened to quit.

I don't know who Batt will select. But stability is not a bad thing. If the fans are energized, the team playing well, and the culture intact ... Key makes sense. Honestly, I don't think we have had a real culture fit since Curry. Key would be the first in a long, long time.

Neville strikes me as smart and incisive. Cabrera cares about the front porch of the Institute. I am far removed from actually seeing Key do his job (except for the results on Saturdays), but it appears that he’s a massive improvement.

When the Houston Rockets built their analytics and scouting program years ago, it was innovative for the NBA. One thing they learned is “don’t describe a prospect like an existing or former player”. Too many scouts looked at a prospect and shoehorned them into a “like Barkley, but lanky”, “out of the Magic Johnson mold” that they misappraised the prospects that they could shoehorn into an existing archetype and the completely missed the Steph Curry’s and other players who didn’t fit the mold. I’m tempted to compare Key to Fickell, but I could also compare him to Roof at Duke who got the players buy-in as an interim and then never panned out. The people closer to Key can evaluate him on what he does. I think he has upside, though. And the culture fit is huge.

For the elephant in the room—working out the revenue problem—that strikes us across all sports, but especially basketball and football. It’s one of the things that Batt is here to solve, but I doubt it’s going to be Batt’s problem alone. I think he’s going to get support from Cabrera and from Neville, and he’ll have reports to help with that issue. It’s frustrating that it was left to fester as a problem by multiple preceding ADs over about 25 years. I think Hewitt’s early success concealed that for a while. It really makes the previous ADs look bad in retrospect.

I gotta say, if you're making this hire, the results of these games can't weigh as heavily as they apparently do with us fans.

As I said earlier, 'better than Collins' is not the bar. All these results prove is just how bad he was as a HC. The roster isn't near as bad as it looked. These ACC opponents aren't near as elite as we made them look under Collins.

I hope the decision makers stick to the fundamentals and don't get swept up in emotion, as it seems we are.

We were lucky at Pitt, and a little lucky against Duke. We played well there, too—especially on defense. We were unlucky and not well prepared against UVA. We did not show up ready against FSU and Miami. We had a little luck against UNC—good and bad. Key definitely moved the needle in the right direction by a significant amount. When he became interim, the goal that circulated around here was 6 wins, with consideration for 5 wins. He got to 5 wins, but his last one was a big upset, and everyone remembers your last game.

For myself, I keep in mind that UNC wouldn’t have been a 21-point favorite if we hadn’t laid massive eggs against UVA, Miami, and FSU. Yes, it was a big upset, but partially because we built it up by playing badly in some recent games.

Our defense is good enough to keep a UNC team missing their best receiver under 21 points. But we couldn’t keep FSU and Miami in check, and we couldn’t score much against them.

I’d say Long’s offense has been disappointing this year, even though yesterday is the best that it’s looked. It’s not all the blocking (though that’s gotten better). Gibson had a nice touch on the frequent swing passes. While he might be the OC that looked really good at ND, I think it’s more likely he’s the OC that underperformed at Tulane.

So, all-in-all Key’s track record isn’t bad. I’d also understand if we went in a different direction if we did a really good job evaluating the “outside” coach.

We tend to think the grass is greener on the other side and the other players and the other coaches are better than ours. Some of our coaches have been doing a good job.

So, I’m OK if we get a really good coach from elsewhere. I could be OK with Key if he does a good job building his staff and is open to getting more interesting on offense and defense.

 

[iceeater1969]

This is my issue with Key. He SHOULD have quit and then told the GT fanbase why. He sat there for 3 plus years and watched his school get destroyed by 1 man, Whether or not he gets the job he owes us an explanation about what happened, I just don’t understand why it is so hard to simply give your opinion. All Key has to say is “the previous coach didn’t have a clue and he ran ineffective practices which led to losses on game day”. A statement like that would put it to rest. But this code of silence leads me to want a clean break from anyone associated with Collins.

The defense shut down an 8-1 team that has a qb thats a Hiesman candidate who passes to a bilitnikoff wr candidate.

We actually called several RB go out for short pass which the 3rd string qb can complete. Then in red zone we put in 4th string qb and ran the ball.

DONT LOOK OUT the back of the bus or you will miss the change coming.

 

[bobongo]

This is all I heard.

"A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest, lie la lie lie lie la lie la lie la lie...." - Paul Simon, "The Boxer".

 

[Randy Carson]

For myself, I keep in mind that UNC wouldn’t have been a 21-point favorite if we hadn’t laid massive eggs against UVA, Miami, and FSU. Yes, it was a big upset, but partially because we built it up by playing badly in some recent games.

Good post. My only nit to pick would be on this point: Tech's "massive eggs" may have contributed to the spread, but they didn't contribute to UNC's #15 ranking.

(Interim) Coach K has TWO wins against ranked opponents in their cribs.

 

[Deleted member 6494]

What is not the way it works if Key is up for the Job and does not get it, he would not stay.

That is the way it should be if this was a perfect world; in an imperfect world, these actions happen often.

 

[VRTechFan]

Nah. There were fans who hated CPJ when he was hired. They still hated him after the 2008 season when we beat ugag. They still hated CPJ even after winning the ACC on 2009 because we lost to ugag and Iowa. Then they complained when we regressed after Nesbitt's injury in 2010. They complained in 2015 when the team was decimated. They complained that he could not win without Chan's recruits. They complained that CPJ could neither recruit nor beat Clemson or ugag with his HS offense. They complained so much he finally gave up and retired.

Truth

 

[4shotB]

Good post. My only nit to pick would be on this point: Tech's "massive eggs" may have contributed to the spread, but they didn't contribute to UNC's #15 ranking.

(Interim) Coach K has TWO wins against ranked opponents in their cribs.

I am very curious if ANY GT FB coach has accomplished this when, in both cases, we were 20+ underdogs as assessed by neotral observers. OTOH, I am not curious enough to look it up either. I would speculate that it HAS never been done - especially since we haven't historically been his big of an underdog. Part of this is due to woes of our own doing but the other part is the trend to offenses that score 50+ points routinely (see UNC). In the "old days" a 27 - 10 loss was a beatdown of sorts.

 

[Randy Carson]

Ya know...I never thought about this before, but try this on for size:

Are engineers simply more cynical than the average person? Are they "glass half empty" types? Do they take pride in "number-crunching" and "being realistic"?

I mean, on the DISC profile, we're probably not talking about a lot of high D, high I folks in that pool, are we? I'd be willing to bet that engineers, programmers, scientists, analysts, etc, tend to high on the S & C end of the spectrum. But that could also lead to a generally negative, skeptical outlook on coaches, life, whatever.

So, does that make Tech fanbase hard to please out of the gate?

 

[cpf2001]

Ya know...I never thought about this before, but try this on for size:

Are engineers simply more cynical than the average person? Are they "glass half empty" types? Do they take pride in "number-crunching" and "being realistic"?

I mean, on the DISC profile, we're probably not talking about a lot of high D, high I folks in that pool, are we? I'd be willing to bet that engineers, programmers, scientists, analysts, etc, tend to high on the S & C end of the spectrum. But that could also lead to a generally negative, skeptical outlook on coaches, life, whatever.

So, does that make Tech fanbase hard to please out of the gate?

I think this is definitely true of Georgia Tech engineers, a good bit less so for others I’ve worked with.

The Shaft, The Hill, it all adds up to create an (un)healthy cynicism before someone “gets out.”