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ATLANTA-When Georgia Tech athletic director Dave Braine first started his search for a new football coach three weeks ago, Chan Gailey's name wasn't even on his list.
But when Braine finally met Gailey in person a week before Christmas, it took him less than a half hour to decide he was looking at George O'Leary's successor.
"This guy meets us in Miami and the hotel where we were meeting - a very quiet person, very unassuming person, but had that air of confidence about him," Braine recalled. "It wasn't 20 minutes before I realized the guy was going to be our next coach. I felt the same way about Chan that I did about (basketball coach) Paul Hewitt."
Braine's hiring of Hewitt paid immediate dividends when the Jackets went to the NCAA Tournament last March in Hewitt's first season, but Tech is one of only three schools in the ACC where football is king. Clearly, this hire will stand as Braine's legacy at Tech, and he's staking his reputation with a native Georgian who resume includes a Division II national championship, a two-year stint as the Dallas Cowboys' head coach, and experience as both an offensive and defensive coordinator.
Not included on Gailey's bio: A humility not often found in someone with 28 years of coaching experience.
"He didn't care what kind of car he drove and he didn't care where his parking spot," Braine said in describing the negotiations. "That was very symbolic of the type of person he is."
Gailey, the Miami Dolphins' offensive coordinator, signed a five-year, guaranteed contract worth $900,000 annually on Saturday, joining a list that includes names such as John Heisman, William Alexander and Bobby Dodd in becoming the 11th coach in school history.
"I look forward to a long tenure here. I don't want to move again," Gailey told a crowd of reporters and boosters at a morning press conference. "I hope we can make this thing a great, long tenure, we can win a bunch of football games and a lot of people will be happy for many years."
Gailey, who will turn 50 next weekend, will remain with the Dolphins through the end of their season, which could last into late-January or even February if Miami reaches the Super Bowl.
Gailey has retained two former O'Leary assistants - offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien and running backs coach Glenn Spencer - to oversee the Jackets' recruiting efforts until he gets the rest of his staff in place. Gailey will be using a private plan to fly to Atlanta every Friday for the on-campus recruiting visits that begin next week, then will return to Miami to rejoin the Dolphins each Saturday.
"If I'm going to talk to players about loyalty and commitment and integrity, I can't jump ship on the Miami Dolphins and leave to come to take the job," Gailey said. "If you're talking about a long-term relationship, what's an extra two, three or four weeks if we get the right fit."
Braine believes Gailey is the right fit from a personality standpoint.
Just as impressive as Gailey's 24-11 career record as a college head coach and his NFL credentials were to Braine, he also wanted someone to restore the program's relationship with a fan base and Atlanta-area media contingent that had soured on O'Leary during his seventh and final season.
O'Leary came under criticism this year for not accepting more responsibility for his team's failings, getting booed during at least two home games. O'Leary was 52-35 as the fourth-winningest coach in school history, but Tech went only 7-5 under O'Leary this season after beginning the year ranked in the top 10.
When he left on Dec. 9 to become the head coach at Notre Dame, the sometimes cantankerous O'Leary received several scathing parting shots from Atlanta media members, even before he was forced to resign after only five days at Notre Dame for misrepresenting himself on his bio.
In fact, when Braine interviewed the five principal candidates - Boston College's Tom O'Brien, Maryland offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe, New York Giants assistant Jimmy Robinson, Tech interim head coach Mac McWhorter and Gailey - he began by asking each of them read two of the Atlanta columnists who had ripped O'Leary.
"Our criteria was to hire a football coach as good as George O'Leary, but someone that did have a different personality," Braine said. "That's not being critical of George. We just wanted someone that is easy-going and wanted to buy into the family type of atmosphere, and (Gailey) does."
Gailey is a religious man who married his high school sweetheart from Americus. He's said not to drink nor swear very often. And the night before his introductory press conference, he asked Tech officials to supply him with pictures of the Atlanta press corps so he could place names with faces.
But Gailey knows there's more to the job than again making Tech's practices open to the media and trying to improve upon a 33 percent graduation rate that was last in the ACC in the most recent study. With Tech in the midst of a $63 million expansion of Grant Field that will increase capacity to 55,000, it will take more than handshakes and smiles to fill the seats.
"I did ask: Do we have the ability to win the national championship? Because I want to win. That's part of the process," Gailey said. "You want to win a championship. That's why you play. That's why you line up. That's why you work and why you go out and lift weights in the offseason."
If Gailey is successful at Tech, school officials have nothing more than his word to stop him from returning to the NFL. There is no buyout in Gailey's contract, meaning that he can leave before his five-year term is up without any financial recourse. Because his deal is guaranteed, however, Tech would owe Gailey the balance of his contract were he to be fired.
"Obviously when you have a high-profile offensive coordinator in pro football, the first thing you think about is, "Would he leave to take a pro job if it was offered?" And he said he would not," said Braine. "He made a promise to the search committee that he would not, and that was good enough for us."
Said Gailey: "If I tell you I'm going to stay, I'm going to stay."
Gailey has coached for nearly three full decades, but this will be his first job in his home state. Born in Gainesville, Gailey lived in Macon and Baxley before his family settled in Americus, where he played at the same high school as Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who is eight years older than Gailey.
Gailey's in-laws still live in Americus, and his oldest son, Tate, who was at Saturday's press conference, works for a bank in Clarkesville.
"If this was Kentucky Tech, I probably wouldn't have been as interested," he said. "But it's Georgia Tech and I love this state. That had an appeal to me."
"It's great," Tate Gailey said. "I live in north Georgia and for him to be close, I can't ask for any more."
After working the room at the conclusion of his press conference, meeting boosters and school administrators, Gailey was whisked away to the airport for a noon flight back to Miami.
But he'll return soon enough. And if he's the type of man and coach that Braine believes him to be, Gailey could end up staying a while.
But when Braine finally met Gailey in person a week before Christmas, it took him less than a half hour to decide he was looking at George O'Leary's successor.
"This guy meets us in Miami and the hotel where we were meeting - a very quiet person, very unassuming person, but had that air of confidence about him," Braine recalled. "It wasn't 20 minutes before I realized the guy was going to be our next coach. I felt the same way about Chan that I did about (basketball coach) Paul Hewitt."
Braine's hiring of Hewitt paid immediate dividends when the Jackets went to the NCAA Tournament last March in Hewitt's first season, but Tech is one of only three schools in the ACC where football is king. Clearly, this hire will stand as Braine's legacy at Tech, and he's staking his reputation with a native Georgian who resume includes a Division II national championship, a two-year stint as the Dallas Cowboys' head coach, and experience as both an offensive and defensive coordinator.
Not included on Gailey's bio: A humility not often found in someone with 28 years of coaching experience.
"He didn't care what kind of car he drove and he didn't care where his parking spot," Braine said in describing the negotiations. "That was very symbolic of the type of person he is."
Gailey, the Miami Dolphins' offensive coordinator, signed a five-year, guaranteed contract worth $900,000 annually on Saturday, joining a list that includes names such as John Heisman, William Alexander and Bobby Dodd in becoming the 11th coach in school history.
"I look forward to a long tenure here. I don't want to move again," Gailey told a crowd of reporters and boosters at a morning press conference. "I hope we can make this thing a great, long tenure, we can win a bunch of football games and a lot of people will be happy for many years."
Gailey, who will turn 50 next weekend, will remain with the Dolphins through the end of their season, which could last into late-January or even February if Miami reaches the Super Bowl.
Gailey has retained two former O'Leary assistants - offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien and running backs coach Glenn Spencer - to oversee the Jackets' recruiting efforts until he gets the rest of his staff in place. Gailey will be using a private plan to fly to Atlanta every Friday for the on-campus recruiting visits that begin next week, then will return to Miami to rejoin the Dolphins each Saturday.
"If I'm going to talk to players about loyalty and commitment and integrity, I can't jump ship on the Miami Dolphins and leave to come to take the job," Gailey said. "If you're talking about a long-term relationship, what's an extra two, three or four weeks if we get the right fit."
Braine believes Gailey is the right fit from a personality standpoint.
Just as impressive as Gailey's 24-11 career record as a college head coach and his NFL credentials were to Braine, he also wanted someone to restore the program's relationship with a fan base and Atlanta-area media contingent that had soured on O'Leary during his seventh and final season.
O'Leary came under criticism this year for not accepting more responsibility for his team's failings, getting booed during at least two home games. O'Leary was 52-35 as the fourth-winningest coach in school history, but Tech went only 7-5 under O'Leary this season after beginning the year ranked in the top 10.
When he left on Dec. 9 to become the head coach at Notre Dame, the sometimes cantankerous O'Leary received several scathing parting shots from Atlanta media members, even before he was forced to resign after only five days at Notre Dame for misrepresenting himself on his bio.
In fact, when Braine interviewed the five principal candidates - Boston College's Tom O'Brien, Maryland offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe, New York Giants assistant Jimmy Robinson, Tech interim head coach Mac McWhorter and Gailey - he began by asking each of them read two of the Atlanta columnists who had ripped O'Leary.
"Our criteria was to hire a football coach as good as George O'Leary, but someone that did have a different personality," Braine said. "That's not being critical of George. We just wanted someone that is easy-going and wanted to buy into the family type of atmosphere, and (Gailey) does."
Gailey is a religious man who married his high school sweetheart from Americus. He's said not to drink nor swear very often. And the night before his introductory press conference, he asked Tech officials to supply him with pictures of the Atlanta press corps so he could place names with faces.
But Gailey knows there's more to the job than again making Tech's practices open to the media and trying to improve upon a 33 percent graduation rate that was last in the ACC in the most recent study. With Tech in the midst of a $63 million expansion of Grant Field that will increase capacity to 55,000, it will take more than handshakes and smiles to fill the seats.
"I did ask: Do we have the ability to win the national championship? Because I want to win. That's part of the process," Gailey said. "You want to win a championship. That's why you play. That's why you line up. That's why you work and why you go out and lift weights in the offseason."
If Gailey is successful at Tech, school officials have nothing more than his word to stop him from returning to the NFL. There is no buyout in Gailey's contract, meaning that he can leave before his five-year term is up without any financial recourse. Because his deal is guaranteed, however, Tech would owe Gailey the balance of his contract were he to be fired.
"Obviously when you have a high-profile offensive coordinator in pro football, the first thing you think about is, "Would he leave to take a pro job if it was offered?" And he said he would not," said Braine. "He made a promise to the search committee that he would not, and that was good enough for us."
Said Gailey: "If I tell you I'm going to stay, I'm going to stay."
Gailey has coached for nearly three full decades, but this will be his first job in his home state. Born in Gainesville, Gailey lived in Macon and Baxley before his family settled in Americus, where he played at the same high school as Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who is eight years older than Gailey.
Gailey's in-laws still live in Americus, and his oldest son, Tate, who was at Saturday's press conference, works for a bank in Clarkesville.
"If this was Kentucky Tech, I probably wouldn't have been as interested," he said. "But it's Georgia Tech and I love this state. That had an appeal to me."
"It's great," Tate Gailey said. "I live in north Georgia and for him to be close, I can't ask for any more."
After working the room at the conclusion of his press conference, meeting boosters and school administrators, Gailey was whisked away to the airport for a noon flight back to Miami.
But he'll return soon enough. And if he's the type of man and coach that Braine believes him to be, Gailey could end up staying a while.
