Was it a mistake to fire Rodgers?

Was firing Rodgers a mistake?

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Pepper was two plays (1976 and 1978) away from beating uga 4 out of 5. The 1978 game in athens when Ivery got hurt is, to me, the turning point in that series that we have yet to recover from. Win those two and neither we nor uga experience what happened in the early 80's. I think Pepper would have coached for us for another 10-15 years.

Pepper's style was probably more suited for west coast recruiting than the Southeast in the 70's. He did leave the cupboard bare. I remember Curry saying that when he arrived, he met with each player and asked them why they chose Tech. Almost all said it was the only scholarship offer they had.
 
Killick said:
Pepper was two plays (1976 and 1978) away from beating uga 4 out of 5. The 1978 game in athens when Ivery got hurt is, to me, the turning point in that series that we have yet to recover from. Win those two and neither we nor uga experience what happened in the early 80's. I think Pepper would have coached for us for another 10-15 years.

Pepper's style was probably more suited for west coast recruiting than the Southeast in the 70's. He did leave the cupboard bare. I remember Curry saying that when he arrived, he met with each player and asked them why they chose Tech. Almost all said it was the only scholarship offer they had.
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For the young whippersnappers here (myself included) - can you give us a rundown of what happened in 76 and 78 COFH that cost us?
 
gth874t said:
For the young whippersnappers here (myself included) - can you give us a rundown of what happened in 76 and 78 COFH that cost us?
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In 1976 the Dwags kicked a late field goal to win 13-10, In 1978, the aforementioned play that injured ELI crippled our offense and we ended up losing a big lead to drop the game 29-28.
 
ETBee said:
In 1976 the Dwags kicked a late field goal to win 13-10, In 1978, the aforementioned play that injured ELI crippled our offense and we ended up losing a big lead to drop the game 29-28.
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Appreciate the info, ETBee. That must've been tough to watch. Amazing how much of an impact the small things can have in a whole series.
 
The '76 Dawgs were a really good team. They had beaten Alabama and were Cotton Bowl bound. Goff and Robinson were their QB's. We had beaten Auburn and Notre Dame, but were only 4-5-1. It was 10-10- late and we were driving to win the game. Bless his heart, Adrian Rucker just plain dropped a handoff. They recovered. Their stadium cam alive. They kicked and won. In '78 they not only injured Eddie Lee, which turned a rout into a close game, but many of us thought Belue's knee touched before pitching out on the two point conversion that won the game 29-28. There were horrific calls all day long. Even so, we should have won 28-27.
 
coit said:
Why don't you go ahead and make the BL one then?
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I'll end the suspense.

We should not have fired Bill Lewis.

We should have taped him to a stadium stanchion and implanted an alien embryo in him.
 
Techbert said:
I'll end the suspense.

We should not have fired Bill Lewis.

We should have taped him to a stadium stanchion and implanted an alien embryo in him.
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Too good for him. (Can somebody find a gif of Natasha Henstridge in Species?)
 
77GTFan said:
The '76 Dawgs were a really good team. They had beaten Alabama and were Cotton Bowl bound. Goff and Robinson were their QB's. We had beaten Auburn and Notre Dame, but were only 4-5-1. It was 10-10- late and we were driving to win the game. Bless his heart, Adrian Rucker just plain dropped a handoff. They recovered. Their stadium cam alive. They kicked and won. In '78 they not only injured Eddie Lee, which turned a rout into a close game, but many of us thought Belue's knee touched before pitching out on the two point conversion that won the game 29-28. There were horrific calls all day long. Even so, we should have won 28-27.
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Appreciate the synopsis, 77GTFan. Is there video of that 1978 game anywhere that you know of?
 
Here's the whole game with Al Michaels on the call. Sadly at that point, the series record was 31-36-5. Since that point, we are 9-29...

 
77GTFan said:
The '76 Dawgs were a really good team. They had beaten Alabama and were Cotton Bowl bound. Goff and Robinson were their QB's. We had beaten Auburn and Notre Dame, but were only 4-5-1. It was 10-10- late and we were driving to win the game. Bless his heart, Adrian Rucker just plain dropped a handoff. They recovered. Their stadium cam alive. They kicked and won. In '78 they not only injured Eddie Lee, which turned a rout into a close game, but many of us thought Belue's knee touched before pitching out on the two point conversion that won the game 29-28. There were horrific calls all day long. Even so, we should have won 28-27.
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IIRC, in '76 they were ranked Top 5 and nobody had scored on uga in the 4th qtr or something like that. We were down 10-0 going to the 4th, tied the game and were kicking their ass. There was no doubt we were going to score again when Rucker dropped the ball. They got a first down and Butler hit a long FG as time expired. In 1978, there were many plays that were just screwy to uga's advantage. Seems like in the first half Kelly slipped and fell near their goal line that caused us to kick a FG rather than get a TD. Didn't they score the go ahead TD on a 4th down pass when we busted a coverage? Ivery had 150+ yds before he got hurt in the 3rd. They had no answer for him that day other than to hurt him. So many chances, and they all went to uga.
 
Killick said:
IIRC, in '76 they were ranked Top 5 and nobody had scored on uga in the 4th qtr or something like that. We were down 10-0 going to the 4th, tied the game and were kicking their ass. There was no doubt we were going to score again when Rucker dropped the ball. They got a first down and Butler hit a long FG as time expired. In 1978, there were many plays that were just screwy to uga's advantage. Seems like in the first half Kelly slipped and fell near their goal line that caused us to kick a FG rather than get a TD. Didn't they score the go ahead TD on a 4th down pass when we busted a coverage? Ivery had 150+ yds before he got hurt in the 3rd. They had no answer for him that day other than to hurt him. So many chances, and they all went to uga.
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Accurate description of the entire series with the dwags, unfortunately :/

These are some great synopses BTW. It's wild how close Rodgers was to being a Tech legend in this series.
 
Pepper was a good coach. He did not receive the support he needed nor did we have the facilities necessary to be successful. For God's sake, our dressing room was a cellar under the east stands, a cave. What prospect would be drawn to that...... ? Under Homer Rice he would have been a great coach. He did lose his incentive after years of non support.
SkyBuzz
 
Mystery Jacket said:
Pepper was a good coach. He did not receive the support he needed nor did we have the facilities necessary to be successful. For God's sake, our dressing room was a cellar under the east stands, a cave. What prospect would be drawn to that...... ? Under Homer Rice he would have been a great coach. He did lose his incentive after years of non support.
SkyBuzz
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The weight room had a dirt floor under the north stands. It's a wonder Pepper did as good as he did.
 
You know, that is what still gives me hope after all the long years. We have been able to find good coaches and get them to come to one of the toughest jobs in college football. Coaches that have proven themselves at other schools. What seems to have been missing is stability. Pepper was very close, but wasn't supported. Curry stopped the bleeding when uga and Clemson were ascendant nationally, no small thing. But he had taken us as far as his abilities allowed, I think, so I don't blame him for leaving. Ross (and us old fart fans) then walked thru the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I still don't believe what then happened, but I will always have hope because of what I witnessed. Ross wanted a Super Bowl to go with that, and I can't blame him for leaving. Then I still don't believe what happened next, but I will always have doubts because of what I witnessed. Another long walk thru the Valley. And a long climb out onto the plateau, relatively high for college football as a whole, where we have been for 20 years. The plate under that plateau shook hard the last two years. It's either going to thrust up or open a crevice. I think it's going up.
 
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