Misery Index notebook: Texas wasted money on new coaching staff; Iowa was massively overrated
Georgia Tech: No fan base in the country was as mentally prepared to lose for multiple years as the Yellow Jackets. When Paul Johnson and Georgia Tech went their separate ways, it was understood that the next coach would need a significant amount of time to overhaul a roster that was recruited to play option football.
But a major part of the attraction to Geoff Collins was his track record of building defenses relatively quickly that were aggressive, difficult to prepare for and dynamic because of how creatively he used his personnel. This was true as a coordinator and a head coach at Temple, so you'd think it would happen at Georgia Tech, too.
But at the 30-game mark of his tenure, patience is starting to wear thin — not just because Georgia Tech's offensive production has been predictably inconsistent, but because the defense has been a total flop. Though Collins has a defensive coordinator in Andrew Thacker, he's the face of it when the Jackets are on the wrong end of Virginia Tech's season-high output of 491 yards in a 26-17 loss. He's the face of it when Georgia Tech scores 40 but loses to Virginia because it allows 636 yards. He's the face of Pitt winning 52-21 in Atlanta.
Collins is just 9-21 as the Georgia Tech head coach, but he doesn't seem to be particularly on the hot seat. This is a long rebuild, and Tech's cash-strapped athletic department has little choice but to see it through.
However, the lack of competitiveness on defense is a major concern. If Collins can't get that fixed by next year, the message board complaints will start to bleed into administrative intervention sooner rather than later.
Texas paid big to buy out Tom Herman and hire Steve Sarkisian, but the results haven't improved. And Iowa's once promising season now an afterthought.
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