SGA_Jacket
Flats Noob
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2012
- Messages
- 814
I'm going to get hammered for this. I'm aware. There are people on here who won't even consider what I'm about to say. This isn't a "Fire Paul Johnson" thread. I've defended Paul Johnson the last couple of years and I had a lot of confidence in his ability to take us to the next level. This is just something I've been thinking about and I think it could make for a good discussion.
If Chan Gailey was our coach right now would we be a better football program? I think it is a legit question. I know people are going to come back with "PJ won the ACC and Chan never beat UGA. Hear me out before you stop reading.
Chan was not a great recruiter. His classes from 2002-2006 were not overly impressive, even though we had several All-Conference and All-American performers. In 2007, he put together a stellar class. Those guys are the reason we beat UGA in 08 and won the ACC in 09 and PJ did a good job of coaching those years.
During the Chan era, it seemed like our problem, personnel wise, was the QB position. Our defense was pretty good and kept us in a lot of games, our offensive line was solid most years, we cranked out productive RB's every single year (Hollings, Daniels, Choice) and we had a guy named Calvin Johnson followed by Demaryius Thomas. We even had really good kickers and punters. However, we won 7 games a year and we were anemic on offense. It seemed like we were really good in every aspect except for the QB position for 6 years.
Chan was putting together another solid class in 2008. That class included Sean Renfree, who was a 4 star recruit and ranked the #10 QB in the class of 2008. Renfree has been pretty good at Duke considering their talent. It seemed like we finally had a competent QB on the roster and it looked like we were going to have our second really good recruiting class in a row.
We all know what happened.
If we would have kept Chan around and stayed the course, with our recruiting trending upward and a couple of talented QB's on the roster, would we be in a better position than we are right now?
If Chan Gailey was our coach right now would we be a better football program? I think it is a legit question. I know people are going to come back with "PJ won the ACC and Chan never beat UGA. Hear me out before you stop reading.
Chan was not a great recruiter. His classes from 2002-2006 were not overly impressive, even though we had several All-Conference and All-American performers. In 2007, he put together a stellar class. Those guys are the reason we beat UGA in 08 and won the ACC in 09 and PJ did a good job of coaching those years.
During the Chan era, it seemed like our problem, personnel wise, was the QB position. Our defense was pretty good and kept us in a lot of games, our offensive line was solid most years, we cranked out productive RB's every single year (Hollings, Daniels, Choice) and we had a guy named Calvin Johnson followed by Demaryius Thomas. We even had really good kickers and punters. However, we won 7 games a year and we were anemic on offense. It seemed like we were really good in every aspect except for the QB position for 6 years.
Chan was putting together another solid class in 2008. That class included Sean Renfree, who was a 4 star recruit and ranked the #10 QB in the class of 2008. Renfree has been pretty good at Duke considering their talent. It seemed like we finally had a competent QB on the roster and it looked like we were going to have our second really good recruiting class in a row.
We all know what happened.
If we would have kept Chan around and stayed the course, with our recruiting trending upward and a couple of talented QB's on the roster, would we be in a better position than we are right now?
