18in32
Petard Hoister
- Joined
- May 23, 2010
- Messages
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Just returned from an FCA fundraiser at which CGC spoke. (Were any of you there, too?) Thought I'd share some of this comments for those with an interest in every drop of juice they can get...
(1) Today is CGC's birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to him. I ate some of his birthday cake. Pretty good.
(2) CGC and DMo have a relationship dating back to CGC's tenure here with CCG. In fact, CGC used to steal DMo's audio clips and use them for video at Temple. DMo's voice was all over the Temple football complex, with Temple flavoring thrown onto it. There was never any doubt that CGC was going to keep DMo around.
(3) I've been going to these FCA lunch-with-coach things for years, and today CGC did something that CPJ never did – he shared his personal testimony. He was involved with FCA in high school at Rockdale. Though he was involved, he didn't really understand what all the 'born again' terminology meant. Then one day he was brought to Christ by Coach Thacker's step-father, Bruce Miller, who was a coach at RCHS. He remembers exactly where it happened, one morning in the hallway at RCHS.
(4) On RCHS letter jackets, players could put any kind of slogan or name or whatever they wanted. (CGC joked that Coach Burton – who has also in attendance – probably would've put his girlfriend's name on his.) CGC put a Bible reference on his: Psalm 37:4. ("Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."). He said he has prayed that verse for many years, and indeed God has given him the desire of his heart – to be the HC at GT. He can't believe they pay him to do something he loves so much, every day. He believes GT is a destination job, and it's home for him.
(5) During his stints as a DC, he learned how programs have "policy manuals" that spell out each person's responsibilities. But he realized that the policy manuals had no page describing the HC's responsibilities. So when he became HC at Temple, he added a page to the manual, spelling out the HC's responsibilities. The first responsibility? "Love your players." He mentioned a Bobby Dodd quote that is apparently on a poster at the CFB HOF: "Either love your players or get out of coaching."
(6) First question he received was "When are we going to beat UGA?" ("I thought this was an FCA meeting" he joked back.) He said everyone in the building knows how important beating UGA is. For example, no red is allowed to be worn in the building. He said he was taking his daughter to a Braves game recently, and she was wearing her favorite red shoes as they left the house. ("Red's my favorite color," she said.) He explained to her the facts about red, and she changed shoes before they left.
(7) In the same vein, he told a funny story. Once he was in a meeting with GOL and Coach Burton, and Burton was wearing a shirt "that Burton called 'salmon' but that GOL called 'red'." GOL made Burton take off the shirt and sit through the meeting shirtless. NO RED!
(8) Another question: "Where does your energy come from?" (I was half hoping he would say the Holy Spirit!) He said, "From my clarity of vision. I know what I want to accomplish and I'm excited to get there." He repeated some of his mantras that we've heard elsewhere – e.g., elite players push themselves in every facet of life & the way you do anything is the way you do everything. When he gave that presentation on branding to the MBA students, someone commented how he spoke longer than anyone expected. Why? Because he has genuine passion, and it carries out into everything he does, even little "unimportant" things.
(9) Another example of his focus on details. When players are at the training table, those players who are on special diets (trying to lose weight, or trying to gain weight), are required to show their plates (before they start eating) to a S&C coach for approval. Also, photos of the plates are taken and distributed to a dozen people in the program who will help hold each S/A accountable for what they're eating.
(10) Another example of his focus on details. He loves the gold-white-gold traditional uniform and thinks it's one of the great college uniforms. But he also sees varying uniforms *during practice* as a motivational tool for the kids. Spring practice is long and hard and can get to be a grind. He wants to do anything he can to get the kids excited and high energy for practice. So he varies uniforms every day during spring practice so they'll be excited to see what they're wearing *today.* This inspires them to share their excitement on social media. If a player has a great play in practice on day 1 wearing G-W-G, he'll Tweet out a pic of it. But if he has another great play on day 2, he'll be less likely to Tweet it out if he's in G-W-G. Put him in a different uniform, and he's a lot more likely to Tweet it out. By varying uniforms in practice, you increase player excitement and get more social media enthusiasm. This lifts the team and obviously communicates to recruits that players love playing here. (Note, he made no comment on how this theory affects game uniforms, if at all.)
(11) Another example of his focus on details. One day during practice the "ACC" helmet badge (on the face mask right above the nose) came off of a player's helmet. Underneath were the words "Rydell" in RED. This caught his eye across the field and he got someone to replace the ACC badge immediately. *Every detail matters.*
(12) Another example of his focus on details. Why is the spring game at 7:29 pm? Well, every meeting meets at :29 instead of :30. Why? Because our first game is against Clemson on Aug 29. The meeting times remind players of what they're building to. When meetings are at the top of the hour... they start at :07. Why? Because we have 7 home games next year. Nothing that happens in the program is done arbitrarily or by chance. *Every detail matters.*
(13) Another question: "How are you dealing with the transition from the triple option?" CGC: "Focusing on scheme totally misses the point. Scheme means *zero* – players mean everything." He wasn't bothered by taking over a triple option team – except that it meant the roster mgmt that CPJ used was way out of whack. There were 13 RB's and 0 TE's. He's moving players around to try to deal with this, and he thinks the players have responded really well. Obviously coaches are going to call plays that are tailored to the players we have, not the ones he wishes we had. He seemed particularly bothered by the lack of TE's.
(14) There was also some references to the recent death of Brandon Adams (by CGC and Keshun Freeman and others). CGC noted that he thinks the team has handled the death pretty well, and that's only possible if the players feel loved and supported. Various people noted what a wonderful person Brandon was, that he was a Christian, and that he died without any suffering.
If anyone else was present and wants to add anything, I'd welcome your memories, too.
EDIT: Forgot to mention. He had the WH styro with him, of course.
(1) Today is CGC's birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to him. I ate some of his birthday cake. Pretty good.
(2) CGC and DMo have a relationship dating back to CGC's tenure here with CCG. In fact, CGC used to steal DMo's audio clips and use them for video at Temple. DMo's voice was all over the Temple football complex, with Temple flavoring thrown onto it. There was never any doubt that CGC was going to keep DMo around.
(3) I've been going to these FCA lunch-with-coach things for years, and today CGC did something that CPJ never did – he shared his personal testimony. He was involved with FCA in high school at Rockdale. Though he was involved, he didn't really understand what all the 'born again' terminology meant. Then one day he was brought to Christ by Coach Thacker's step-father, Bruce Miller, who was a coach at RCHS. He remembers exactly where it happened, one morning in the hallway at RCHS.
(4) On RCHS letter jackets, players could put any kind of slogan or name or whatever they wanted. (CGC joked that Coach Burton – who has also in attendance – probably would've put his girlfriend's name on his.) CGC put a Bible reference on his: Psalm 37:4. ("Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."). He said he has prayed that verse for many years, and indeed God has given him the desire of his heart – to be the HC at GT. He can't believe they pay him to do something he loves so much, every day. He believes GT is a destination job, and it's home for him.
(5) During his stints as a DC, he learned how programs have "policy manuals" that spell out each person's responsibilities. But he realized that the policy manuals had no page describing the HC's responsibilities. So when he became HC at Temple, he added a page to the manual, spelling out the HC's responsibilities. The first responsibility? "Love your players." He mentioned a Bobby Dodd quote that is apparently on a poster at the CFB HOF: "Either love your players or get out of coaching."
(6) First question he received was "When are we going to beat UGA?" ("I thought this was an FCA meeting" he joked back.) He said everyone in the building knows how important beating UGA is. For example, no red is allowed to be worn in the building. He said he was taking his daughter to a Braves game recently, and she was wearing her favorite red shoes as they left the house. ("Red's my favorite color," she said.) He explained to her the facts about red, and she changed shoes before they left.
(7) In the same vein, he told a funny story. Once he was in a meeting with GOL and Coach Burton, and Burton was wearing a shirt "that Burton called 'salmon' but that GOL called 'red'." GOL made Burton take off the shirt and sit through the meeting shirtless. NO RED!
(8) Another question: "Where does your energy come from?" (I was half hoping he would say the Holy Spirit!) He said, "From my clarity of vision. I know what I want to accomplish and I'm excited to get there." He repeated some of his mantras that we've heard elsewhere – e.g., elite players push themselves in every facet of life & the way you do anything is the way you do everything. When he gave that presentation on branding to the MBA students, someone commented how he spoke longer than anyone expected. Why? Because he has genuine passion, and it carries out into everything he does, even little "unimportant" things.
(9) Another example of his focus on details. When players are at the training table, those players who are on special diets (trying to lose weight, or trying to gain weight), are required to show their plates (before they start eating) to a S&C coach for approval. Also, photos of the plates are taken and distributed to a dozen people in the program who will help hold each S/A accountable for what they're eating.
(10) Another example of his focus on details. He loves the gold-white-gold traditional uniform and thinks it's one of the great college uniforms. But he also sees varying uniforms *during practice* as a motivational tool for the kids. Spring practice is long and hard and can get to be a grind. He wants to do anything he can to get the kids excited and high energy for practice. So he varies uniforms every day during spring practice so they'll be excited to see what they're wearing *today.* This inspires them to share their excitement on social media. If a player has a great play in practice on day 1 wearing G-W-G, he'll Tweet out a pic of it. But if he has another great play on day 2, he'll be less likely to Tweet it out if he's in G-W-G. Put him in a different uniform, and he's a lot more likely to Tweet it out. By varying uniforms in practice, you increase player excitement and get more social media enthusiasm. This lifts the team and obviously communicates to recruits that players love playing here. (Note, he made no comment on how this theory affects game uniforms, if at all.)
(11) Another example of his focus on details. One day during practice the "ACC" helmet badge (on the face mask right above the nose) came off of a player's helmet. Underneath were the words "Rydell" in RED. This caught his eye across the field and he got someone to replace the ACC badge immediately. *Every detail matters.*
(12) Another example of his focus on details. Why is the spring game at 7:29 pm? Well, every meeting meets at :29 instead of :30. Why? Because our first game is against Clemson on Aug 29. The meeting times remind players of what they're building to. When meetings are at the top of the hour... they start at :07. Why? Because we have 7 home games next year. Nothing that happens in the program is done arbitrarily or by chance. *Every detail matters.*
(13) Another question: "How are you dealing with the transition from the triple option?" CGC: "Focusing on scheme totally misses the point. Scheme means *zero* – players mean everything." He wasn't bothered by taking over a triple option team – except that it meant the roster mgmt that CPJ used was way out of whack. There were 13 RB's and 0 TE's. He's moving players around to try to deal with this, and he thinks the players have responded really well. Obviously coaches are going to call plays that are tailored to the players we have, not the ones he wishes we had. He seemed particularly bothered by the lack of TE's.
(14) There was also some references to the recent death of Brandon Adams (by CGC and Keshun Freeman and others). CGC noted that he thinks the team has handled the death pretty well, and that's only possible if the players feel loved and supported. Various people noted what a wonderful person Brandon was, that he was a Christian, and that he died without any suffering.
If anyone else was present and wants to add anything, I'd welcome your memories, too.
EDIT: Forgot to mention. He had the WH styro with him, of course.
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