GTFLETCH
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- Jun 30, 2014
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Who are the topic targets for Georgia Tech as the next head football coach?
Jeff Schultz: I know it’s been more than five weeks since Collins was fired but it’s still relatively early in the hiring process. Here are names I believe Georgia Tech could pursue, and maybe more importantly potential candidates who may be gettable.
Interim coach Brent Key won his first two games as the interim replacement for Geoff Collins, but consecutive ugly losses to Virginia and Florida State likely hurt his chances. I’m guessing the Jackets would have to finish strong in the last four games for him to have a realistic shot at the job.
One obvious candidate would seem to be former Tech assistant Bill O’Brien, who’s currently Alabama’s offensive coordinator and overlapped with new athletic director J Batt in Tuscaloosa. O’Brien looked like a better fit as a college head coach (Penn State) than in the NFL (Texans) But he might have other/better offers.
Here are some potential candidates worth looking at:
Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken: He’d be a great hire but I suspect his next job is back in the NFL as a coordinator and I’m not certain if he wants to be a head coach again.
Western Kentucky coach Tyson Helton: A former Tennessee assistant, he had nine-win seasons in two of his first three seasons at WKU, and in 2021 quarterback Bailey Zappe set single-season records for passing yards and touchdowns.
Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell: He’s likely to get a job in a Power 5 program in the near future and the question is whether Georgia Tech is a job he would jump at.
Army coach Jeff Monken: He has been highly successful at Army and Georgia Southern and is a former Georgia Tech assistant from the Paul Johnson tree. But hiring him would constitute an acknowledgment that the triple option is the best route to success at Georgia Tech. That may be accurate but I don’t know if Batt is there, yet.
James Madison coach Curt Cignetti: He’s not young (61) but he was a receivers coach for Nick Saban and he has succeeded in three head coaching jobs at IUP (53-17), Elon (14-9) and JMU (38-7). The Colonial to the ACC would represent a big jump, however.
Deion Sanders: I’m putting him last because at this point I just don’t have a great sense that there’s momentum to go after him, his success at Jackson State notwithstanding. I’m also not sure that Tech would be Sanders’ first choice, despite the Atlanta ties, given the academic and financial constraints for a P5 program. But he’d certainly create a buzz.
theathletic.com
Jeff Schultz: I know it’s been more than five weeks since Collins was fired but it’s still relatively early in the hiring process. Here are names I believe Georgia Tech could pursue, and maybe more importantly potential candidates who may be gettable.
Interim coach Brent Key won his first two games as the interim replacement for Geoff Collins, but consecutive ugly losses to Virginia and Florida State likely hurt his chances. I’m guessing the Jackets would have to finish strong in the last four games for him to have a realistic shot at the job.
One obvious candidate would seem to be former Tech assistant Bill O’Brien, who’s currently Alabama’s offensive coordinator and overlapped with new athletic director J Batt in Tuscaloosa. O’Brien looked like a better fit as a college head coach (Penn State) than in the NFL (Texans) But he might have other/better offers.
Here are some potential candidates worth looking at:
Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken: He’d be a great hire but I suspect his next job is back in the NFL as a coordinator and I’m not certain if he wants to be a head coach again.
Western Kentucky coach Tyson Helton: A former Tennessee assistant, he had nine-win seasons in two of his first three seasons at WKU, and in 2021 quarterback Bailey Zappe set single-season records for passing yards and touchdowns.
Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell: He’s likely to get a job in a Power 5 program in the near future and the question is whether Georgia Tech is a job he would jump at.
Army coach Jeff Monken: He has been highly successful at Army and Georgia Southern and is a former Georgia Tech assistant from the Paul Johnson tree. But hiring him would constitute an acknowledgment that the triple option is the best route to success at Georgia Tech. That may be accurate but I don’t know if Batt is there, yet.
James Madison coach Curt Cignetti: He’s not young (61) but he was a receivers coach for Nick Saban and he has succeeded in three head coaching jobs at IUP (53-17), Elon (14-9) and JMU (38-7). The Colonial to the ACC would represent a big jump, however.
Deion Sanders: I’m putting him last because at this point I just don’t have a great sense that there’s momentum to go after him, his success at Jackson State notwithstanding. I’m also not sure that Tech would be Sanders’ first choice, despite the Atlanta ties, given the academic and financial constraints for a P5 program. But he’d certainly create a buzz.
ACC mailbag: How does the Big 12 TV deal affect ACC? And who should Georgia Tech hire?
It’s relatively early in the hiring process, but top candidates for Yellow Jackets include Bill O'Brien, Todd Monken and Jamey Chadwell.
theathletic.com
