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- Mar 28, 2011
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- 39,324
Over the past 4 years Geoff Collins truly implemented the greatest transformation in college football history for Georgia Tech. This transformation was not about the offensive strategy or recruiting rankings, it was about setting expectations very low for every component of Tech football from the players on the field to the fans in the stands. One of the early warning signs for this was replacing the depth chart with the ATL chart. What has traditionally been used as a way to separate those who worked hard for their spot on the team was replaced with a pool for each position. We stood by. We were hungry for a return to prominence and we were promised a stable of 4 and 5 stars to come play for the white and gold. A lot of us saw through the gimmicks but we let it go because we were told, this is what you need to do to recruit biGTime.
However, those gimmicks were the first symptoms of the drop in quality for Georgia Tech. In an effort to create a playground for 18 year olds with a fun coach who pats you on the back even when you öööö up, Geoff Collins managed to create a culture of inferiority on North Avenue. The emphasis on the gimmicks, the swag, moneydown, social media stunts, DJs in practice, Juice Crew, 404theCulture, everything he implemented chipped away at the focus on coaching basics of playing football and turned the program into a circus. For a coach who brought the slogan "Competition is King" to Georgia Tech, he's done anything but instill a competitive drive in his team and instead created an environment where these kids can't improve and even regressed. We watched all this happen. In year one he painted a picture for us where the players he inherited and recruited never played a single down of real football because of his predecessor running option plays out of the wishbone. A loss to Citadel, a loss to his former team Temple and a shutout against VT at home were unacceptable, but we bought the transformation pitch and we lowered our expectations too. Even after a loss to NIU and closing his third year 3-9 with last two losses 100-0, some of us hoped that with a better OC and better assistants and his increased "focus" on defense he might maybe make a bowl game in 2022 to keep his job. That is a very low standard for a fanbase who prides in having 4 national titles. The kids were spoiled into it and we were lied and beaten into it. This is the transformation that Geoff Collins created.
There is no blame to pass around to the players or the fans in this transformation. You, as a single fan, are powerless to enact change. Regardless of when you saw it coming, or when you jumped off the Juice train, or when you stopped donating, you couldn't have helped fight this travesty by yourself. Derrick Moore couldn't and he'd been a source of motivation and a spiritual leader for almost two decades for Georgia Tech. He left. You support the program with donations, you buy season tickets, you buy jerseys, Adidas shirts, hats, you spend 3 hours in Atlanta traffic and pay overpriced parking just to go cheer for the team in your beloved stadium, and at the end of the day you want to hope that all this time, money and effort is for a light at the end of the tunnel. I can't even blame those who still hoped for something to change after WCU game. There's no blaming the players either, if anything they're in victim status because some of them trusted this man to get them ready for the next level for four years and he failed them. Those who finally recognized this at the end of last season did the best thing they could do for themselves and left.
In the coming days or weeks or months, this dark period of Georgia Tech Football will come to an end. For those in power, the losses in fan attendance, revenue and donations will eventually outweigh the cost of firing those responsible for this transformation. Today, we're united in an unprecedented level, at least in my meager 20 year experience of being a Tech fan, in our desire get out of this nightmare and I know each and every one of you will rejoice to see this end, at least until we're at each others' throats about hiring option coaches vs non-option coaches. My biggest hope for this program is that whoever we hire is someone who does not have low standards, who doesn't favor coddling the players over educating them and who reverses this greatest transformation in college football history to make all of us not be ok with a culture of inferiority.
Go Jackets and THWg
However, those gimmicks were the first symptoms of the drop in quality for Georgia Tech. In an effort to create a playground for 18 year olds with a fun coach who pats you on the back even when you öööö up, Geoff Collins managed to create a culture of inferiority on North Avenue. The emphasis on the gimmicks, the swag, moneydown, social media stunts, DJs in practice, Juice Crew, 404theCulture, everything he implemented chipped away at the focus on coaching basics of playing football and turned the program into a circus. For a coach who brought the slogan "Competition is King" to Georgia Tech, he's done anything but instill a competitive drive in his team and instead created an environment where these kids can't improve and even regressed. We watched all this happen. In year one he painted a picture for us where the players he inherited and recruited never played a single down of real football because of his predecessor running option plays out of the wishbone. A loss to Citadel, a loss to his former team Temple and a shutout against VT at home were unacceptable, but we bought the transformation pitch and we lowered our expectations too. Even after a loss to NIU and closing his third year 3-9 with last two losses 100-0, some of us hoped that with a better OC and better assistants and his increased "focus" on defense he might maybe make a bowl game in 2022 to keep his job. That is a very low standard for a fanbase who prides in having 4 national titles. The kids were spoiled into it and we were lied and beaten into it. This is the transformation that Geoff Collins created.
There is no blame to pass around to the players or the fans in this transformation. You, as a single fan, are powerless to enact change. Regardless of when you saw it coming, or when you jumped off the Juice train, or when you stopped donating, you couldn't have helped fight this travesty by yourself. Derrick Moore couldn't and he'd been a source of motivation and a spiritual leader for almost two decades for Georgia Tech. He left. You support the program with donations, you buy season tickets, you buy jerseys, Adidas shirts, hats, you spend 3 hours in Atlanta traffic and pay overpriced parking just to go cheer for the team in your beloved stadium, and at the end of the day you want to hope that all this time, money and effort is for a light at the end of the tunnel. I can't even blame those who still hoped for something to change after WCU game. There's no blaming the players either, if anything they're in victim status because some of them trusted this man to get them ready for the next level for four years and he failed them. Those who finally recognized this at the end of last season did the best thing they could do for themselves and left.
In the coming days or weeks or months, this dark period of Georgia Tech Football will come to an end. For those in power, the losses in fan attendance, revenue and donations will eventually outweigh the cost of firing those responsible for this transformation. Today, we're united in an unprecedented level, at least in my meager 20 year experience of being a Tech fan, in our desire get out of this nightmare and I know each and every one of you will rejoice to see this end, at least until we're at each others' throats about hiring option coaches vs non-option coaches. My biggest hope for this program is that whoever we hire is someone who does not have low standards, who doesn't favor coddling the players over educating them and who reverses this greatest transformation in college football history to make all of us not be ok with a culture of inferiority.
Go Jackets and THWg
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