CPJ's Birmingham Radio Interview

[johncu]

Wommack doesn't look so bad now, does he?

 

[Diseqc]

Groh was a big name hire when the program needed a big name. His defenses were pretty consistently good at UVA.

I don't think at the time it was a bad hire. I just think there was a major personality clash and Groh was stubborn to change what obviously wasn't working here. It was definitely time to go our separate ways.

 

[hdtvfan]

Groh was a big name hire when the program needed a big name. His defenses were pretty consistently good at UVA.

I don't think at the time it was a bad hire. I just think there was a major personality clash and Groh was stubborn to change what obviously wasn't working here. It was definitely time to go our separate ways.

He was a big name hire but it is not good that
CPJ did not recognize we did not have
The needed personnel for Groh's scheme and
That our recruiting challenges would make
It difficult to get those guys, to me another
indication that CPJ badly underestimated
the special recruiting challenges at GT

he may get it now but we have suffered with
that learning curve

And I DO want CPJ to succeed and stay
At GT but Dayum

 

[Diseqc]

He was a big name hire but it is not good that
CPJ did not recognize we did not have
The needed personnel for Groh's scheme and
That our recruiting challenges would make
It difficult to get those guys, to me another
indication that CPJ badly underestimated
the special recruiting challenges at GT

It's not like UVA is a homerun recruiter. They have comparable or worse talent levels than we do and his defenses there weren't as bad as they were here.

 

[GTCrew4b]

It's not like UVA is a homerun recruiter. They have comparable or worse talent levels than we do and his defenses there weren't as bad as they were here.

True, but I think a key difference is that the state of VA produces more students who value education. The comparison was there from a school standpoint (good academics, good football) but not from a recruiting pool standpoint.

Which is why CPJ made the move to more Catholic and Prep schools in recruiting, if nothing else, Groh taught us where to look for kids who value academics and football, and gave us some decent relationships in the DC Area.

 

[ContactBuzz]

exactly, but I think a key difference is that the state of VA produces more students who value education.

which is why CPJ made the move to more Catholic schools in recruiting, if nothing else, Groh taught us where to look for kids who value academics and football, and gave us some decent relationships in the DC Area.

Didn't UVA have {at least} one class (when Groh was HC) where they had more non-qualifiers than anyone from the SEC? Around the time of Ahmad Brooks.

Your point makes sense but they were recruiting your traditional dumb jocks when he was there.

 

[swampsting]

He was a big name hire but it is not good that
CPJ did not recognize we did not have
The needed personnel for Groh's scheme and
That our recruiting challenges would make
It difficult to get those guys, to me another
indication that CPJ badly underestimated
the special recruiting challenges at GT

he may get it now but we have suffered with
that learning curve

And I DO want CPJ to succeed and stay
At GT but Dayum

I think for one, PJ really doesn't like or trust the Atlanta sports talk radio folks. Again, he can be pretty vanilla in live radio spots. It's the off the record stuff where his humor and candor really come through, and that's the advantage print guys have with him. There is no off the record with live radio.
And believe me, he knew what he was getting into at Tech. One, PJ doesn't coach for the money. He's got that and plenty of it (he's invested well. Very well). Two, he likes winning. Three, he likes to recruit kids who aren't turds. He does not like to take chances on kids of superior athletic ability but less than marginal character. He had great athletes and good kids (and that's doing a disservice to a bunch of his players who were tremendous kids) at Southern, good athletes and great kids at Navy.

He wanted to compete and win at the highest level and he wanted to do that with kids he wouldn't be ashamed of bringing into his program. I thought it was a good fit then and I still think it's a good fit now for PJ and Tech.

 

[GTLiebs]

True, but I think a key difference is that the state of VA produces more students who value education. The comparison was there from a school standpoint (good academics, good football) but not from a recruiting pool standpoint.

Which is why CPJ made the move to more Catholic and Prep schools in recruiting, if nothing else, Groh taught us where to look for kids who value academics and football, and gave us some decent relationships in the DC Area.

I think you are glorifying Virginia high schoolers a bit (or demonizing more southern ones lol). Lets not forget that Virginia is the state that brought us Micheal Vick and Percy Harvin (this more of measure of studiousness).

I personally think it was much more scheme and how well it was being taught to the players than anything else. Plus personnel requirements for his defense shouldn't really effect the secondary much but that was struggling as well.

 

[alpha]

Maybe he just didn't want to throw Groh under the bus?

I thought this was pretty clear.

For anyone that wanted more than "it just wasn't working", I'd suggest you watch this:

[y]GfqmnkpZ_Po[/y]

 

[Legal Jacket]

True, but I think a key difference is that the state of VA produces more students who value education. The comparison was there from a school standpoint (good academics, good football) but not from a recruiting pool standpoint.

Which is why CPJ made the move to more Catholic and Prep schools in recruiting, if nothing else, Groh taught us where to look for kids who value academics and football, and gave us some decent relationships in the DC Area.

Dude, it has nothing to do with high schoolers in virginia wanting an education. Virginia is the flagship school of the state, i.e. uva is that states version of uga. Anyone wanting a generally good education goes to uva.

 

[alpha]

Never heard this "lost respect of players" thing of Wommack when he was let go. Any more info on that?

 

[odw]

Maybe he just didn't want to throw Groh under the bus?

This

 

[GTCrew]

Dude, it has nothing to do with high schoolers in virginia wanting an education. Virginia is the flagship school of the state, i.e. uva is that states version of uga. Anyone wanting a generally good education goes to uva.

As a graduate of Jefferson's University, I take great offense to that comparison.

 

[GTCrew4b]

Dude, it has nothing to do with high schoolers in virginia wanting an education. Virginia is the flagship school of the state, i.e. uva is that states version of uga. Anyone wanting a generally good education goes to uva.

not totally true. William & Mary attracts a fair number of UVA acceptees as does Virginia Tech because it has Tech in its name and it does appear to have a better engineering program than UVA.

Virginia doesn't have the STEM/not-so STEM split in its university system like GA so they're pretty different situations.

I mean just looking at the enrollments of all the schools in VA would tell you that UVA is not a very similar situation at all to UGA.

 

[bravejason]

This. 2 reasons.

1) Groh was married to scheme that needed NFL caliber players on the DL.

2) Groh was a dick. Dicks are ok if successful, but there is nothing worse than an unproductive dick.

I think Groh was married to his scheme in the same way that CPJ is married to his. It is what he knows and he's had success with it. I think CPJ has been better at adjusting his scheme than what Groh was at adjusting his.

Your second point seems off base to me. I don't recall ever hearing anything that made me think Groh was a dick. As far I ever heard, the players enjoyed playing for him.

 

[Bogey]

He didn't say "If I knew, I'd have fixed it." He said "If I knew, I'd know."

Furthermore, CPJ really does know. There has to be a solid and concrete reason that Groh didn't work out.

It was something like "he didn't trust his assistants" or "had too complicated a scheme and we didn't have enough practice time to teach it" or "didn't recruit good enough players to his defense" or "his scheme simply doesn't work" or some combination of all of those.

But there is a reason and rest assured, CPJ knows what the reason is. I don't expect him to actually tell us, and I'm fine with that. But by firing Groh, it says to me that he knew what was wrong and he didn;t feel like it could be fixed with Groh. Like, if it was the fact that our players aren't good enough to run a scheme, then we have to run a different scheme because we're not going to be getting better players.

But to say "If I knew, I'd know" is just a way of side-stepping the question.

Either way, it was not an attack on Groh.

Exactly. At the time of firing, it came out that a main reason that Groh's system did not work is that Groh had the players only for a few hours a day, guys missing practices because of afternoon labs, and the kids having to study for courses and not defense formations, all causing confusion on the field. Unlike the pros. But I think he has realized that to keep telling that the academics and labs at Tech was the main reason for failure was not good for recruiting so he has backed off.