Another CPJ Recruiting Thread

That is a fair assessment for Southern, especially with the playoffs. Not so sure about the lack of opponent experience at Navy, but I buy the rest. Im not sure what the root cause(s) of CPJ’s twilight were at Tech, whether they were scheme or coaching. The scheme didn’t attract elite talent, but I recall some coaching decisions in the latter years that were head scratchers compared to the play calling style in the former years. I’m OK accepting that it is some degree of both without knowing the weighting for either.

For me, it came down to not capitalizing on 2014 in recruiting and not having a QB to bridge from Thomas to Graham or Yates, both of whom I think would have been great in his scheme. Lucas getting hurt and Ratliffe's accident played heavily, IMO. Matthew Jordan was injury plagued, too. I think the play calling suffered from lack of talent at key spots.

Above all, it was just time. Onward.
 
The roster and the scheme are part of what passed him by IMO. It is harder for elite recruits to see their path to the NFL in the TO because the NFL doesn’t run anything like it. The TO heyday were the 80s and 90s.
Agreed.
 
It would have been interesting to see CPJ in a UGA type program. My 93 year old mother as coach could recruit a top 10 class to the state university of a state with this much in-state talent. I have yet to see a UGA coach not recruit well. Thus far, bowl haircut head has possibly taken it up a notch with top 3 classes but every UGA coach recruited well. Give CPJ that type of recruiting where you get the players no matter what and I believe he would have done very well and he did pretty darn well with lesser players. But in my opinion, talent was his achilles heel. It was clear other teams just manhandled us most years.
 
It would have been interesting to see CPJ in a UGA type program. My 93 year old mother as coach could recruit a top 10 class to the state university of a state with this much in-state talent. I have yet to see a UGA coach not recruit well. Thus far, bowl haircut head has possibly taken it up a notch with top 3 classes but every UGA coach recruited well. Give CPJ that type of recruiting where you get the players no matter what and I believe he would have done very well and he did pretty darn well with lesser players. But in my opinion, talent was his achilles heel. It was clear other teams just manhandled us most years.

I don’t think CPJ would have recruited a top 10 team regardless of where he was.
 
“for the first time since Dodd”... were you around for O’Leary? I remember believing we had a chance and seeing real success every year during his time. I appreciate CPJ as well, but let’s not overstate
I agree.

Also, you've been a member of this board for over three years and *this* is what prompted your first post? Hmm.
 
CPJ had very good players at Southern. I can agree he isn’t or doesn’t seem to be on the level of our new staff for such things. We still need to see much play out before we will really see how well our new staff will stick in the current momentum. I think CPJ would have done fine at a place where he didn’t have most of the state already against him only based on the school he represents. It’s really tiresome hearing the comparisons as BOTH the old staff and the new represented GT. CPJ did a good job even though lots of his momentum tailed off towards the end. He beat ugag several times and had a couple of teams that were very very good. My main concern is I hope our new staff can maintain the recruiting by keeping our commitments, move forward in gathering more, and if for some reason this season isn’t perfectly ideal everyone here continues believing/the recruits continue believing.
 
So what is Paul Johnson’s involvement in 2020 recruiting again? Maybe we need a thread on retired coaches where you guys can debate his accomplishments to your heart’s content...
I think that CPJ is one of the best offensive play callers to have walked our or any other sidelines. The problems is that at this level play calling alone isn’t going to cut it at any sustainable level.

For whatever reason, another significant flaw was his inability to field anything better than a mediocre defense. I don’t know if that is due to his offensive scheme, recruiting, coordinator selection, or what, but it was bad and kept us from some really good seasons.
 
“for the first time since Dodd”... were you around for O’Leary? I remember believing we had a chance and seeing real success every year during his time. I appreciate CPJ as well, but let’s not overstate

O'Leary signed much better talent than CPJ did. I always thought we had a chance to win with O'Leary. Johnson hated recruiting, and for the most part it was obvious he did.
 
O'Leary signed much better talent than CPJ did. I always thought we had a chance to win with O'Leary. Johnson hated recruiting, and for the most part it was obvious he did.

Ya, he hated recruiting so much that he won our first OB in 50 years, beat more Top 5 and Top 10 teams since Dodd, beat UGA x2, and wrestled away one of our all time great QBs from Darth Saban.

TL;DR...öööö off.
 
CPJ had very good players at Southern. I can agree he isn’t or doesn’t seem to be on the level of our new staff for such things. We still need to see much play out before we will really see how well our new staff will stick in the current momentum. I think CPJ would have done fine at a place where he didn’t have most of the state already against him only based on the school he represents. It’s really tiresome hearing the comparisons as BOTH the old staff and the new represented GT. CPJ did a good job even though lots of his momentum tailed off towards the end. He beat ugag several times and had a couple of teams that were very very good. My main concern is I hope our new staff can maintain the recruiting by keeping our commitments, move forward in gathering more, and if for some reason this season isn’t perfectly ideal everyone here continues believing/the recruits continue believing.
CPJ enjoyed coaching and scheming and beating Bud Foster or Uncle Rico much more than the liked recruiting. He had success doing what he did best.
 
CPJ also doubled as offensive coordinator, and he was a ****ing savant at it. CGC is more of a program manager who sees his job as recruiting, hiring the best coordinators to surround him, loving/engaging the players, and recruiting. It's just a different strategy of where to place emphasis.

CPJ was highly successful before the last couple years, but it's worth noting the last half-decade has seen the CFP title go back and forth between two coaches who fit the CGC model. I'm glad we had CPJ and I'm glad we have Collins now.
 
it's worth noting the last half-decade has seen the CFP title go back and forth between two coaches who fit the CGC model. I'm glad we had CPJ and I'm glad we have Collins now.

Not entirely true. This fits Dabo, but Saban is a total micromanager and asshole to assistants. He commands respect and uses intimidation to motivate players in many cases. However, he definitely sees the importance of recruiting and puts a high level of emphasis on it.
 
O'Leary signed much better talent than CPJ did. I always thought we had a chance to win with O'Leary. Johnson hated recruiting, and for the most part it was obvious he did.

Is there a reason that you crap on CPJ in every single crappy post you make? Posting your tripe to cut him down doesn't build the new coach up.

CPJ did some really good things at GT. He had his shortcomings like every coach at GT has had. I'm thankful for the good/great seasons he had.

I'm also enjoying the different direction that GT is taking with Coach Collins. I am hopeful that his coaching can match the uptick in recruiting that we are seeing thus far.
 
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