All I want is some names. Changing everything else (The Hill, the GTAA, the academic offerings) goes without saying and would clearly help Paul Johnson as well. I said after the third straight loss to UGA that I would support changing the direction of the team.
Names. That's it. Names.
Well, fan names don't always work so well.
I'd like to see Johnson succeed here. But we should have the other changes in place for at least one year before considering a new coach, assuming we don't already have that coach in hand.
Success has a lot to do with the head coach, but even more to do with how the school provides support to 1) recruit; 2) evaluate recruits; 3) train athletes; 4) tutor athletes to maintain the veneer of being an academic institution; 5) mangage the day-to-day of the school; 6) provide after-graduation jobs to players.
Tech invests a lot in many of these things, but seems to drop the ball in a lot of others---for example, how many times in the past 4 years have we shown up wearing the wrong type of cleats to an away game? And as for #6, not many of our alumni own dealerships or law firms where you can hire a semi-popular star for a good salary and corresponding boost in PR/sales.
You can also see how important the school's staff is for evaluating talent (these are people outside the coaching staff): see Florida.
If GT made some of the changes we've all heard about, I'd like to see Johnson have a few more years. I like the offense, and am not eager to change things.
If, Johnson leaves, we could draw up a list of who we'd love to have, but there' s a lot more to it than that. Coaches I'd like to hire, but who will never come to GT:
1. Ken Whisenhunt. Not realistic.
2. Greg Schiano. Not realistic. But he is unemployed. And many NFL HC's who lost have won in college: Spurrier, Carroll (the first time), Schiano, Mora, etc.
3. Greg Roman. Probably wants to be NFL headcoach as 49er's HC.
4. Kliff Kingsbury. He's not coming here.
5. Pat Fitzgerald. Not leaving Northwestern. And I'm sure a lot of our fans would complain about his w-l record.
Coaches we might get, if there was mutual interest:
1. Ted Roof. Not a fan of this, but lots of programs like losing with home-grown talent. And who knows, he's turned into a great DC. But for all the people who want to lose with home-grown talent (the same who wanted Curry as AD), consider how Ted Roof was as Duke's headcoach.
2. Dan Mullen. A long shot, but I think he realizes there is a ceiling at Mississippi State and I think he also realizes that large programs are not always run by people smart enough to hire him after running into that ceiling. It would be easier to win at GT. UF will have made a decision by the time our job is open (hopefully it isn't), and if he isn't tabbed, the better jobs aren't coming open soon, unless LSU goes a different direction. He'd be gone from GT after 2 or 3 years.
3. Bud Foster. Not a fan of this either.
4. Pete Lembo. Ball State HC. Probably would be my top realistic choice, but he probably won't be available by the time this matters. But if we had to make a choice today, this would be the first realistic call I'd make.
5. Matt Campbell. Toledo HC. Success may be more derivative than self-created.
6. Craig Bohl. HC ND State.
7. Mark Hudspeth.
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Bottom line is that I'm not convinced any of the realistic choices are an upgrade over Johnson. Nor am I convinced that some of the unrealistic choices are either. I think Johnson is a good coach. I think there were some weak spots for the coaches this year. We'll see what happens in 2014.
I'm not generally a fan of hiring coordinators.
I would not replace Johnson this year or next year barring a disaster.