Commitment

johncu said:
Y'all aren't seriously trying to argue that Clemson doesn't have enormous built-in advantages over GT, right?

As a fan of both schools and someone who attended Clemson, I can promise you that the playing field is far from level. All of the aforementioned reasons are valid, but the biggest difference is quite simple. When we have tens of thousands of sidewalk fans lining up to donate money to the GT athletic department year after year, then we can start talking about trying to match Clemson. Until then, we're just taking baby steps but will never truly be able to level the playing field with the top 25ish FBS programs. The fact that we have outpaced many of these teams for about half of CPJ's tenure is pretty remarkable, but it's never going to be sustainable or consistent. It just isn't.
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Clemson's definitely got a poon advantage over us.
 
Nobody that makes Johnson's money should be whining and complaining. Paul knew the drill when he came here. I think then, he relished the challenge. But now he is falling back on that challenge to explain away some shortcoming in his program. Just because they're true doesn't mean I want to hear him whining about it as he cashes his nearly $3 million paycheck every year.
 
GT65_UGA89 said:
He's starting to sound like Chan Gailey. I heard Chan doing an interview back during his tenure here and he really didn't understand what the big deal was about winning 7 games a year. According to him, he was beating the teams he was supposed to beat and can't be expected to win consistently against teams he was not expected to beat.

This actually wasn't the case with his teams but this was his mindset in regard to his "success" here.
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I believe OLeary said the same or something similar.. I am sure it's just a coincidence right?

and since he has beaten Clemson as many times as they have beaten him, he must be a helluva coach.
 
Architorture23 said:
Nobody that makes Johnson's money should be whining and complaining. Paul knew the drill when he came here. I think the relished the challenge. But now he is falling back on that challenge to explain away some shortcoming in his program. Just because they're true doesn't mean I want to hear him whining about it as he cashes his nearly $3 million paycheck every year.
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You can't tie a guy's hands and feet, and then tell him "Hey! We're paying you $3million a year! Why the öööö aren't you winning football games like Clemson? Why the öööö aren't you beating Georgia! Oh you won some games in 2014? Big whoop, we paid you $3million, we deserve that!" Because that is stupid. If you want that kind of a relationship then he can just sit there lose games and take the beating from you and collect the paycheck. Him pushing back is a sign that he cares about the future of the program and is willing to be unpopular and speak about it. Because like I said he can just sit there collect the paycheck and say "I'm sorry guys. That was all my bad. I suck."

Have you guys ever thought about the fact that the reason he can't fire Sewak is maybe because he can't afford to hire a better oline coach?

What do you want him to do? Pay people out of his pocket? When your boss tells you this is your salary, you will do this and this. And I'm gonna provide you with this budget. But then he falls short on the budget and yells at you for your project going behind, do you go and pay people out of your own pocket?

Some of y'all need to grow up. Sooner or later he will probably quit for a less stressful job where the expectations are not as asinine. And then we can all have a suck party.
 
Ish said:
We're bottom tier of the ACC in coaches salary, we have the bare minimum amount of coaches when teams like Bama and Clemson and even FN Duke have an extra 10 "coaching consultants" that help gameplan during the week and scouting HS players.
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This is some place I would love to see improvement in. If ND can hire a coach that spends all year developing a defensive gameplan vs us, we should do the same vs UGA.

Hire 2 UGA specialists who's only job is to predict what plays the UGA coaches will call. Have them spend months learning it. Then use them as dummies during the game to call plays against.
 
Akinji07 said:
Have you guys ever thought about the fact that the reason he can't fire Sewak is maybe because he can't afford to hire a better oline coach?
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Ummm...Coach Akinji07 would be a better OL coach. And would probably do the job for less.
 
Architorture23 said:
Nobody that makes Johnson's money should be whining and complaining. Paul knew the drill when he came here. I think then, he relished the challenge. But now he is falling back on that challenge to explain away some shortcoming in his program. Just because they're true doesn't mean I want to hear him whining about it as he cashes his nearly $3 million paycheck every year.
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iiwii
 
To be honest, some of y'all interpreted his comments completely differently than I did. I don't think he's whining, I think he's trying to make a point that we can be better if we make more of a commitment to the program. We're not gonna get a Clemson level commitment, but we could do better, for sure.
 
johncu said:
To be honest, some of y'all interpreted his comments completely differently than I did. I don't think he's whining, I think he's trying to make a point that we can be better if we make more of a commitment to the program. We're not gonna get a Clemson level commitment, but we could do better, for sure.
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I took it the same way. For those that didn't hear from the horse's mouth, here's the full quote.

“Here’s what has to happen, it’s what I tell our team about playing: commitment has to meet expectations,” Johnson said, via the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “You can’t have expectations with no commitment. It won’t work, no matter what you do.

“So, if you say you want to be on this level, then you have to be committed to be on that level and you have to do what those people are doing. It’s as simple as that.”
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If you want sustained success at GT that leads to regularly competing against major school you will need to overcome the natural disadvantages we have, yes. You will also need to rebuild the infrastructure of the program to be more competitive. All of that starts first and foremost with the coach.


If CPJ left today, we would be in desperate need of a young coach with a hot offense that is looking to compete in a P5 conference and is looking for long-term program building. I’d look at <40 with a system that is proven to work either in other P5 conferences or at mid-majors. Or hire the motivator coach that can spend all of his time doing the networking while the hot shot OC runs the offense. Your scenarios are either:


1. An offensive coordinator from a spread system that is known to work (think Ed Warriner, Buckeyes OC)

2. A mid-major school with a head coach that has consistently outperformed expectations (formerly Chris Petersen… Not sure who compares in quality vs. attainability today)

3. An assistant today that is ready to take on the role of a head coach with the hot shot OC (Think of a Dabo type situation here). This option is attractive because this coach is going to need to do a lot of talking to the media, the hill, the players, the fans, etc. to generate as much excitement as possible.


Order of importance for the new coach:

1. Start building a program. Get the back-to-back 8+ win seasons. Get any sort of momentum going that recruits and fans will notice and want to latch onto.

2. Find a place to hide players. Digital communications would work just fine here – anything that helps broaden the overall academic selection.

3. Generate the buzz with the fan base. Be a promoter of the team and the program. Curmudgeons don't sell tickets. Get recruits on board with what you are building. Have a philosophy - some plan you can vocalize on how you are going to improve the team instead of complaining about your problems. You have to build a successful program, and we’re just sustaining at current rates. A new coach has to create something, not just bring a scheme.

4. After every successful year look at staff expansions. As the overall profitability of the program increases, find ways to syphon some of that into your staffing budget.

5. Get a new weight room attached to the indoor practice facility just for the football team. Let the rest of the athletic departments use the old Hugh Spruill center. Make the football team feel special and insular.

6. Improve the locker room & social spaces for the football team. We don’t need an indoor fountain, but renovate for the modern times.

7. Build a new stadium. Where is attendance now? Do we need to expand? (hint: we will probably never need to expand our stadium size.) We will probably need to DECREASE our stadium size. Like it or hate it, BDS is too big for our team. We can have one of the best teams in the country and we will probably never fill an 80,000 seat stadium. We may sell our current stadium out once a season, but it looks barren for most of the season (somewhere around 80% capacity). Our current location isn’t optimal for parking, etc., but it is optimal for a new stadium design. Personally, I say build something that has a similar feel to Autzen. Instead of having seas of orange/green/red among the gold/white, designate a visitor side seating, and get the rest of the stadium to rise up over the field to give the overall impression of a much larger stadium. We would have something like a small wall on the east side of the stadium that wraps and builds into a huge wall on the west side of the stadium. I would think something in the neighborhood of 40,000 seats would probably work for us. Plenty of assumptions here around ticket prices, demand, limiting opponent seating, etc.



That’s just me thinking about it off the top of my head. You do that and you are looking at a coach that can win you 9 games a year, with plenty of ways to have potentially increased recruiting (coach, major selection, facilities), and a stadium that feels electric with big noise potential. A coach that can work both ends of the rope – getting recruits excited and working with the Institute to find ways of turning budget shortfalls into profits – would be the first step to re-energizing any degree of willingness for the AD to authorize facilities improvements or for the fan base to fill the seats.
 
Diseqc said:
Let's play a game. For just one day let's have arguments in support of Johnson that don't harken back to a bowl game 2 years ago. I don't think it's possible.

It'll be 5 bowlless seasons from now and people will still be bringing up the Orange Bowl from 2014 as why Johnson's offense isn't the problem.
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You are full fledged ööööing moron with no perspective of the situation we are currently in. You look at the Coach as the end all be all of why we can't beat two top 20 teams. So lets go fire the coach and hire someone else, right? That will fix everything will it? Because if you think it will, you are an imbecile who just needs to take his full time seat at the baby table and you can big cry your stupid little ass until you get what you want. What YOU want will put us one step closer to irrelevance and obscurity. Our program is a hairs width away from being a perennial doormat and you're so ööööing stupid to understand that you think changing coaches is the answer.

Now am I perfectly happy with Paul Johnson as our coach? No. I think his recruiting has sucked donkey balls and some of his position coaches most notably his fat bag for a OLine coach are damn horrific. Do I think he is the best we can hope for given our current set up? You are damn right I do and if you don't understand that you 1.) lack understanding of our history 2.) lack understanding of our financial situation, 3.) lack understanding of the commitment by our school and athletic association.

The leadership in the GTAA since Homer Rice left has been in absolute shambles. Dave Braine wasn't half bad at raising money, but he was ööööing horrible in managing money hence the Gailey and Hewitt buyouts which have practically crippled us. Then we hire DRad and he brought some excitement and enthusiasm, but he got out the door to Clemson as soon as he realized the horrible financial situation we were in would take years to fix. Then we get good ole MBob which polarized the few big donors we had and furthermore polarized the majority of donating alumni and fans.

GT has had one foot in the door and one foot out the door on their commitment to generating top athletic programs for years. For a school that is committed to excellence in everything it does, it blows my mind why the attitude that excellent academics and excellent athletics are for the most part mutually exclusive. O'Leary worked hard in forcing that issue. When he left, we brought in Chan, accepted the NCAA fates of core curriculum requirements, and the Hill pushed for less tolerance in accepting athletes. This stagnated with an inability to break the 7 win barrier. Paul Johnson was promised changes by the Hill in order to run what he deemed to be a successful operation. Those changes have not matriculated. Paul Johnson was hired because the school didn't want to emphasize athletics anymore. They just wanted a coach and a system that could even the playing field. That's basically what PJ has done. In the meantime for marginal season he has had, he has given us two 10+ win seasons, and one 9 win season. Better than all of his predecessors. He took us to a BCS bowl and won.

Until you recognize the extremely fragile nature that is Georgia Tech athletics, be careful what you wish for. We won't be luring away any prime time coaches to come to this öööö hole environment with minimal athletic support and staff restrictions given the restrictive nature with which the school allows GT athletic programs to operate. Firing PJ is only going to deepen the doo doo we are in. Fix the mindset of the program and the commitment the school gives to athletics. Open up the budget to include for more recruiting evaluators, staff, facilities, etc. Fix the financial issues that plague the GTAA, and then and only then does it make sense to fire a coach for not performing.

You may not like it but the bottom line is if we don't address the macro problems our program has, addressing the micro problem of our coaching is obsolete.
 
johncu said:
To be honest, some of y'all interpreted his comments completely differently than I did. I don't think he's whining, I think he's trying to make a point that we can be better if we make more of a commitment to the program. We're not gonna get a Clemson level commitment, but we could do better, for sure.
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The problem is that asking for it without showing how he'd use it to become more successful turns making a point into complaining.

When I look at the state of our football program I don't see any evidence that we have a plan to become more successful on the field. Quite the contrary, it seems like a lot of the communication I hear is that our scheme is perfect and we just can't execute. What is the future goal of CPJ long-term for GT? Where does he want to take us? Is there any evidence he is doing that successfully?
 
BarrelORum said:
Let me just stop you right here. You are full fledged ööööing moron with no perspective of the situation we are currently in. You look at the Coach as the end all be all of why we can't beat two top 20 teams. So lets go fire the coach and hire someone else, right? That will fix everything will it? Because if you think it will, you are an imbecile who just needs to take his full time seat at the baby table and you can big cry your stupid little ass until you get what you want. What YOU want will put us one step closer to irrelevance and obscurity. Our program is a hairs width away from being a perennial doormat and you're so ööööing stupid to understand that you think changing coaches is the answer.

Now am I perfectly happy with Paul Johnson as our coach? No. I think his recruiting has sucked donkey balls and some of his position coaches most notably his fat bag for a OLine coach are damn horrific. Do I think he is the best we can hope for given our current set up? You are damn right I do and if you don't understand that you 1.) lack understanding of our history 2.) lack understanding of our financial situation, 3.) lack understanding of the commitment by our school and athletic association.

The leadership in the GTAA since Homer Rice left has been in absolute shambles. Dave Braine wasn't half bad at raising money, but he was ööööing horrible in managing money hence the Gailey and Hewitt buyouts which have practically crippled us. Then we hire DRad and he brought some excitement and enthusiasm, but he got out the door to Clemson as soon as he realized the horrible financial situation we were in would take years to fix. Then we get good ole MBob which polarized the few big donors we had and furthermore polarized the majority of donating alumni and fans.

GT has had one foot in the door and one foot out the door on their commitment to generating top athletic programs for years. For a school that is committed to excellence in everything it does, it blows my mind why the attitude that excellent academics and excellent athletics are for the most part mutually exclusive. O'Leary worked hard in forcing that issue. When he left, we brought in Chan, accepted the NCAA fates of core curriculum requirements, and the Hill pushed for less tolerance in accepting athletes. This stagnated with an inability to break the 7 win barrier. Paul Johnson was promised changes by the Hill in order to run what he deemed to be a successful operation. Those changes have not matriculated. Paul Johnson was hired because the school didn't want to emphasize athletics anymore. They just wanted a coach and a system that could even the playing field. That's basically what PJ has done. In the meantime for marginal season he has had, he has given us two 10+ win seasons, and one 9 win season. Better than all of his predecessors. He took us to a BCS bowl and won.

Until you recognize the extremely fragile nature that is Georgia Tech athletics, be careful what you wish for. We won't be luring away any prime time coaches to come to this öööö hole environment with minimal athletic support and staff restrictions given the restrictive nature with which the school allows GT athletic programs to operate. Firing PJ is only going to deepen the doo doo we are in. Fix the mindset of the program and the commitment the school gives to athletics. Open up the budget to include for more recruiting evaluators, staff, facilities, etc. Fix the financial issues that plague the GTAA, and then and only then does it make sense to fire a coach for not performing.

You may not like it but the bottom line is if we don't address the macro problems our program has, addressing the micro problem of our coaching is obsolete.
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Epic.

The whiners here should be forced to write this by hand 100 times.
 
BarrelORum said:
Now am I perfectly happy with Paul Johnson as our coach? No. I think his recruiting has sucked donkey balls and some of his position coaches most notably his fat bag for a OLine coach are damn horrific. Do I think he is the best we can hope for given our current set up? You are damn right I do and if you don't understand that you 1.) lack understanding of our history 2.) lack understanding of our financial situation, 3.) lack understanding of the commitment by our school and athletic association.
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The reality is that @Diseqc feels just like you do here. But he's doing some sort of performance art, season-long troll posing as a hater. Either that or he's a baby like you said.
 
ScionOfSouthland said:
If you want sustained success at GT that leads to regularly competing against major school you will need to overcome the natural disadvantages we have, yes. You will also need to rebuild the infrastructure of the program to be more competitive. All of that starts first and foremost with the coach.


If CPJ left today, we would be in desperate need of a young coach with a hot offense that is looking to compete in a P5 conference and is looking for long-term program building. I’d look at <40 with a system that is proven to work either in other P5 conferences or at mid-majors. Or hire the motivator coach that can spend all of his time doing the networking while the hot shot OC runs the offense. Your scenarios are either:


1. An offensive coordinator from a spread system that is known to work (think Ed Warriner, Buckeyes OC)

2. A mid-major school with a head coach that has consistently outperformed expectations (formerly Chris Petersen… Not sure who compares in quality vs. attainability today)

3. An assistant today that is ready to take on the role of a head coach with the hot shot OC (Think of a Dabo type situation here). This option is attractive because this coach is going to need to do a lot of talking to the media, the hill, the players, the fans, etc. to generate as much excitement as possible.

Order of importance for the new coach:

1. Start building a program. Get the back-to-back 8+ win seasons. Get any sort of momentum going that recruits and fans will notice and want to latch onto.

2. Find a place to hide players. Digital communications would work just fine here – anything that helps broaden the overall academic selection.

3. Generate the buzz with the fan base. Be a promoter of the team and the program. Curmudgeons don't sell tickets. Get recruits on board with what you are building. Have a philosophy - some plan you can vocalize on how you are going to improve the team instead of complaining about your problems. You have to build a successful program, and we’re just sustaining at current rates. A new coach has to create something, not just bring a scheme.

4. After every successful year look at staff expansions. As the overall profitability of the program increases, find ways to syphon some of that into your staffing budget.

5. Get a new weight room attached to the indoor practice facility just for the football team. Let the rest of the athletic departments use the old Hugh Spruill center. Make the football team feel special and insular.

6. Improve the locker room & social spaces for the football team. We don’t need an indoor fountain, but renovate for the modern times.

7. Build a new stadium. Where is attendance now? Do we need to expand? (hint: we will probably never need to expand our stadium size.) We will probably need to DECREASE our stadium size. Like it or hate it, BDS is too big for our team. We can have one of the best teams in the country and we will probably never fill an 80,000 seat stadium. We may sell our current stadium out once a season, but it looks barren for most of the season (somewhere around 80% capacity). Our current location isn’t optimal for parking, etc., but it is optimal for a new stadium design. Personally, I say build something that has a similar feel to Autzen. Instead of having seas of orange/green/red among the gold/white, designate a visitor side seating, and get the rest of the stadium to rise up over the field to give the overall impression of a much larger stadium. We would have something like a small wall on the east side of the stadium that wraps and builds into a huge wall on the west side of the stadium. I would think something in the neighborhood of 40,000 seats would probably work for us. Plenty of assumptions here around ticket prices, demand, limiting opponent seating, etc.

That’s just me thinking about it off the top of my head. You do that and you are looking at a coach that can win you 9 games a year, with plenty of ways to have potentially increased recruiting (coach, major selection, facilities), and a stadium that feels electric with big noise potential. A coach that can work both ends of the rope – getting recruits excited and working with the Institute to find ways of turning budget shortfalls into profits – would be the first step to re-energizing any degree of willingness for the AD to authorize facilities improvements or for the fan base to fill the seats.
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If we would do all of those things for a new coach, why wouldn't we do them for the existing coach?
 
I haven't had a chance to read all the posts, but to those of you bitching about PJ blaming everyone, hear this: Like him or not, he is calling out the truth. Whether he is doing it for his own ego or not, he is calling out the truth. He is calling out the truth. Thank goodness it is being made public knowledge. Lets get on the administration's ass for not giving him the things he needs to win. Maybe that will help.
 
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