1996

D

Damarius

Guest
If a Foreseer of the future came up to you, as a supporter of Georgia Tech Football, in 1996, a non-bowl year and a loss to Georgia, and told you, "Your Program, The Georgia Institute of Technology, will earn a placement into a post-season Bowl game for the next 12 seasons."

What would your reaction have been?

What if that same foreseer said Current Highly-Successful Georgia Southern Head Football Coach Paul Johnson, famous for running the "Hambone" under Erk Russell in the 80s, and valiant leader of Georgia Southern to national prominence in the mid-late 90s as Head Ball Coach, will be running your program in 12 years, after 11 consecutive bowl appearances? What would your reaction be?

I'd say my reaction is ebullience and ineffable awe at the state of the football program. 12 consecutive bowls? That is remarkable. We are a spoiled fan base. You know you're a spoiled fan base when a Coach takes his program to six consecutive bowls and is criticized and disliked 'cause he couldn't beat the Southern arch-rival. Got to love it.

2009 Tornado Warning: The Nesbone
 
I'd then ask this Foreseer to qualify those bowls to temper my reaction. I don't think I'd get too excited about lots of smurf-turf and nut bowls. :ugh:
 
Even a foreseer wouldn't have guessed this from a beebad disciple and defender:
I'd say my reaction is ebullience and ineffable awe at the state of the football program. 12 consecutive bowls? That is remarkable. We are a spoiled fan base. You know you're a spoiled fan base when a Coach takes his program to six consecutive bowls and is criticized and disliked 'cause he couldn't beat the Southern arch-rival. Got to love it.
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Enuratique said:
I'd then ask this Foreseer to qualify those bowls to temper my reaction. I don't think I'd get too excited about lots of smurf-turf and nut bowls. :ugh:
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Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, Southern Cal, Alabama, Miami, etc. sure wish they had always been good enough to qualify for a bowl.
 
Damarius said:
I'd say my reaction is ebullience and ineffable awe at the state of the football program. 12 consecutive bowls? That is remarkable. We are a spoiled fan base. You know you're a spoiled fan base when a Coach takes his program to six consecutive bowls and is criticized and disliked 'cause he couldn't beat the Southern arch-rival. Got to love it.
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I wonder how many of those bowls ended with a 6-7 season?
 
You consider some of those bowls something to be proud of? Winning records are good but a string of 7-5's isn't as much.

Being a GT man, I've always strived to better myself and never accepted mediocrity.
 
I think people forget what 2007 should of looked like going in. We had a good people coming back, we had the best recruiting class in years, we were a year removed from winning the coastal. Then we go and have a 7-6 season with what I think I remember was a losing record in the ACC when the ACC sucked.
 
This is a stupid thread but I'm sure we haven't had a losing season in the ACC since that streak started either.
 
Damarius said:
... "Your Program, The Georgia Institute of Technology, will earn a placement into a post-season Bowl game for the next 12 seasons."

What would your reaction have been?
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I would have taken into account that there are 30+ bowl games --so around 60 teams will be going bowling on any given year. There are 119 D1 teams --so I would hope to go bowling somewhere in every one of those 12 seasons.

The 12 bowl games in a row is fine. What is not fine is that GT has dropped it's last 4 bowl games.

Of those 12, 5 were either the Humanitarian, Emerald, Silicon or Seattle --GT went 2-3.

GT did play in either the Peach, Gator or Champs/CarQuest 7 times during the stretch, going 3-4.

GT has won 5 bowl games from '97-'08, a similar stretch last occurred from '52-'65, with GT going 7-3 over that stretch.

The GT bowl record has taken a pounding over the last 10 years, with a 3-7 record during that span. Prior to 1997, GT held the highest bowl winning percentage at .703 (19-8). Now, at .595 (22-15) GT is 7th. I always enjoyed having that record.

So of the 15 bowl losses GT has, almost half took place over the previous 12 years.
 
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2008 Peach Lsu L
2007 Blue Turf Fresno State L
2006 Gator WV L
2005 Emerald Utes L
2004 Champs Syracuse W
2003 Blue Turf Tulsa W
2002 Silicon Fresno L
2001 Seattle Stanford W
2000 Peaches LSU L
1999 Gator UM L
1998 Gator ND W
1997 Carquest WV W

12 straight is great and all but are u really impressed with that? 5-7 0-2 vs Fresno State 0-2 vs LSU The only thing that impresses me was the 98 Gator and the 01 win vs Stanford considering we had an interim coach and they were pretty danged good that yr
 
Sorry to derail the thread, but...

FOUR straight bowl losses. That's GOTTA end this season!!
 
LongforDodd said:
Being a GT man, I've always strived to better myself and never accepted mediocrity.
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You must have hated life in the 70's and 80's! I know that I did. I remember it well..and being a GT fan the past 12 years has felt NOTHING like those two decades.

Over the 23 season period we had 11 losing seasons and 10 what many call "mediocre" seasons at .500 or just above. Only 2 seasons had 8 or more wins over a 23 year period...and that took us to the All-American Bowl in Birmingham and the Sun Bowl in El Paso.

Lets start in 1967:

1967: 4-6
1968: 4-6
1969: 4-6
1970: 9-3 (Sun Bowl)
1971: 6-6 (Peach Bowl)
1972: 7-4-1 (Liberty Bowl)
1973: 5-6
1974: 6-5
1975: 7-4
1976: 4-6-1
1977: 6-5
1978: 7-5 (Peach Bowl)
1979: 4-6-1
1980: 1-9-1
1981: 1-10
1982: 6-5
1983: 3-8
1984: 6-4-1
1985: 9-2-1 (All-American Bowl)
1986: 5-5-1
1987: 2-9
1988: 3-8
1989: 7-4

Then...to top it off...we put together the worst 4-year record following a national championship win of any team ever. We went 11-0-1 in 1990 then 8-5 the following year. After that we went 5-6, 5-6, and 1-10....then followed that with a 6-5 and 5-6 in 1995 and 1996.

In summary...the past 12 seasons have been far better than any stretch in the previous THIRTY years!! If people want to talk GT football tradition...they have to go WAY back. I am thrilled with where our programs stands today...and what it is in an arms reach of being!
 
hiveredtech said:
Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, Southern Cal, Alabama, Miami, etc. sure wish they had always been good enough to qualify for a bowl.
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There is no way those schools could care any less about going to the smurf or nut bowl. And they would never advertise participation in such on their stadium.
 
texstinger said:
There is no way those schools could care any less about going to the smurf or nut bowl. And they would never advertise participation in such on their stadium.
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...and I bet NONE of their fans whined, groaned, and moaned about their "travesty" of a program during a losing season and the post-season that followed. They just said..."Well...we had a losing season.....but at least we were not good enough to go to a lower tier bowl." :biggthumpup:
 
hiveredtech said:
Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, Southern Cal, Alabama, Miami, etc. sure wish they had always been good enough to qualify for a bowl.
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I'd trade that bowl streak for a national championship or at least one BCS bowl during that time in a heartbeat
 
knoxjacket said:
I'd trade that bowl streak for a national championship or at least one BCS bowl during that time in a heartbeat
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Absolutely.....but what is funny is how many speak of this GT football tradition like it has been continual for some period of time...when in reality it disappeared nearly half a century ago.

The last 12 years have been....by a long shot...the best 12 year stretch since the one ending in 1966.

Look at my post above regarding our record from 1967 forward....most of that is sad...and the last 12 years have been the only consistent bright spot.
 
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