I ask this question because I am confused over the fact that our basketball coach is able to recruit some of the most highly ranked recruiting classes in America, while our football coach seems to believe it is impossible to compete for the top notch recruits because of academic requirements, and has more or less given up on recruiting in our own state.
I am honestly confused. Are basketball players just smarter than football players? I mean, our academic requirements certainly don't differ from sport to sport. But of course, we know that basketball players aren't smarter than football players. Only an idiot would believe that.
So, we must search for another explanation. The one that I thought of is that the ability to overcome academic obstacles and recruit top recruiting classes must vary from coach to coach. Yes, that makes sense. Cremins could recruit the nation's number one recruit to Tech, while Curry left Tech for Alabama because he didn't think he could recruit the players to win a national championship at Tech.
Then Bobby Ross and George O'Leary found out that, with very hard work, they could recruit the state of Georgia and compete very well with the University of Georgia and everybody else for the nation's best football players.
Now we have a basketball coach who is recruiting top rated players from inside the state of Georgia and everywhere else, and a football coach who thinks it can't be done. Since recruiting is the life-blood of college athletics, I think we need these matters addressed.
If Cremins, Ross and O'Leary could recruit with the best of them despite our academic standards while they were at Tech, and if Hewitt can do it now, don't we need to hold our football coach to the same standard?
Should we give the football coach a free pass on recruiting the state of Georgia and going after the highest rated players in the country just because he says it can't be done, while our basketball coach is proving every day that it can be done?
It is no accident that our basketball team is now poised to take its place among the top teams in the nation's strongest basketball conference. It's due to the fact that our basketball coach can coach and recruit, and mainly because he can recruit. Because there are some things you can't teach people, like how to be taller or faster or more talented.
Now you can develop that talent and take a bunch of talented people and mold them into a great team. That's where coaching comes in. But first you've got to recruit the talent. At least you do in college. You can't draft it, like you do in the NFL.
I guess recruiting is the hardest part of a college coach's job. Maybe some coaches are hungrier than others to do it. It's especially hard at Georgia Tech. But some coaches have proven it can be done, while others have just stated it can't be done. Remember Dwayne Morrison? He didn't think it could be done.
Then a kid named Cremins who people had trouble even understanding came in and did it from his first day. He was hungry to succeed and looked at the Tech job as a place to make a name and life for himself, not as a cozy retirement home. He didn't think he was smart enought to coach inferior talent to championships against the best talent in America. He got to the final four and won three ACC championships, too. People said he couldn't coach, but he was voted the nation's best recruiter.
Dwayne Morrison and Bill Curry said you just couldn't recruit the best players to Tech. They didn't, and they weren't able to make up for it with their coaching ability. On the other hand, Bobby Cremins, Bobby Ross, George O'Leary and Paul Hewitt all decided they would find a way to recruit great players to Tech without breaking any rules, and they did. And great things followed.
So, if any coach wants to say that it's impossible to recruit head to head with the University of Georgia for the best players in the state or to recruit the best players from around the country to Tech, that's their business. But if we let them get away with saying that if the face of facts to the contrary, we don't have anybody be ourselves to blame for what follows.
Personally, I don't buy it for a minute. I just will never believe that basketball players are smarter than football players. And this is not a flame. This is just an attempt to address the number one priority for success in college athletics, recruiting.
I don't think we need to fire Chan Gailey. But I do think we need to tell him he's wrong in thinking Tech can't recruit top recruiting classes from within the state of Georgia and everywhere else. Because it's been proven, and it's being proved, by other coaches at Tech that it most certainly can be done.
I want Chan Gailey to succeed. And I think the best way to help him is to straighten out his thinking on recruiting. Because if he doesn't recruit, he will be gone in three or four years no matter how good a coach he is. And he'll be a couple of million dollars richer than when he got here, and we'll be much worse off.
I am honestly confused. Are basketball players just smarter than football players? I mean, our academic requirements certainly don't differ from sport to sport. But of course, we know that basketball players aren't smarter than football players. Only an idiot would believe that.
So, we must search for another explanation. The one that I thought of is that the ability to overcome academic obstacles and recruit top recruiting classes must vary from coach to coach. Yes, that makes sense. Cremins could recruit the nation's number one recruit to Tech, while Curry left Tech for Alabama because he didn't think he could recruit the players to win a national championship at Tech.
Then Bobby Ross and George O'Leary found out that, with very hard work, they could recruit the state of Georgia and compete very well with the University of Georgia and everybody else for the nation's best football players.
Now we have a basketball coach who is recruiting top rated players from inside the state of Georgia and everywhere else, and a football coach who thinks it can't be done. Since recruiting is the life-blood of college athletics, I think we need these matters addressed.
If Cremins, Ross and O'Leary could recruit with the best of them despite our academic standards while they were at Tech, and if Hewitt can do it now, don't we need to hold our football coach to the same standard?
Should we give the football coach a free pass on recruiting the state of Georgia and going after the highest rated players in the country just because he says it can't be done, while our basketball coach is proving every day that it can be done?
It is no accident that our basketball team is now poised to take its place among the top teams in the nation's strongest basketball conference. It's due to the fact that our basketball coach can coach and recruit, and mainly because he can recruit. Because there are some things you can't teach people, like how to be taller or faster or more talented.
Now you can develop that talent and take a bunch of talented people and mold them into a great team. That's where coaching comes in. But first you've got to recruit the talent. At least you do in college. You can't draft it, like you do in the NFL.
I guess recruiting is the hardest part of a college coach's job. Maybe some coaches are hungrier than others to do it. It's especially hard at Georgia Tech. But some coaches have proven it can be done, while others have just stated it can't be done. Remember Dwayne Morrison? He didn't think it could be done.
Then a kid named Cremins who people had trouble even understanding came in and did it from his first day. He was hungry to succeed and looked at the Tech job as a place to make a name and life for himself, not as a cozy retirement home. He didn't think he was smart enought to coach inferior talent to championships against the best talent in America. He got to the final four and won three ACC championships, too. People said he couldn't coach, but he was voted the nation's best recruiter.
Dwayne Morrison and Bill Curry said you just couldn't recruit the best players to Tech. They didn't, and they weren't able to make up for it with their coaching ability. On the other hand, Bobby Cremins, Bobby Ross, George O'Leary and Paul Hewitt all decided they would find a way to recruit great players to Tech without breaking any rules, and they did. And great things followed.
So, if any coach wants to say that it's impossible to recruit head to head with the University of Georgia for the best players in the state or to recruit the best players from around the country to Tech, that's their business. But if we let them get away with saying that if the face of facts to the contrary, we don't have anybody be ourselves to blame for what follows.
Personally, I don't buy it for a minute. I just will never believe that basketball players are smarter than football players. And this is not a flame. This is just an attempt to address the number one priority for success in college athletics, recruiting.
I don't think we need to fire Chan Gailey. But I do think we need to tell him he's wrong in thinking Tech can't recruit top recruiting classes from within the state of Georgia and everywhere else. Because it's been proven, and it's being proved, by other coaches at Tech that it most certainly can be done.
I want Chan Gailey to succeed. And I think the best way to help him is to straighten out his thinking on recruiting. Because if he doesn't recruit, he will be gone in three or four years no matter how good a coach he is. And he'll be a couple of million dollars richer than when he got here, and we'll be much worse off.
