I nearly broke into tears last night

L

luckyjacket

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watching the presentation of The Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award. I love the award because the recipient must show integrity, and MUST win.

I know its a different age, but you can still field a winning football team that goes to class,has discipline,and represents the institute in a manner that would make the Silver Fox proud. That can happen at Georgia Tech as long as its people in charge demand it. What we have now makes me puke.

I think we quit in Athens. I don't know what the hell we did yesterday.

A team that quits is one that is ill prepared by the ones we pay. The act of quitting starts in the classroom. It starts during spring drills. It continues during 2 a days in August, and in the weight room. Its a process that leads to a losing mentality, which is fostered by losers with whistles around their neck.

Dodd would be ashamed.

Does anyone remember the hiring of Bobby Ross?
Before accepting the TECH job, he recently accepted an assistants job on Marv Levy's staff in Buffalo. When Homer Rice came calling, he notified Levy that he would not be joining him with the Bills. He had a reason: Bobby Ross revered everything about Bobby Dodd and Ga Tech, and he wanted to be a part of the tradition that Tech is. I can't remember if Dodd was alive when Ross arrived, but I know he was proud either way.

We MUST have someone who bleeds White and Gold, not someone who sees this as just a well paying job.
 
LuckyJacket, in my opinion, a very good post. I agree the losing starts way before the ball game. It does start with the mentality of both the coaches and the players.

I believe we had problems in both areas this year.

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Yes, But Dodd Made The Worse Bonehead Decision Of All Our coaches including Chan, pulling us out of the SEC. He will be revered in Tech lore forever for his coaching style but that one decision continues to hurt our program 35+ years later.
 
Although I felt betrayed by Curry at the time, it never soured me on him as a coach or a person. He just succumbed to the bright lights of the big time (so he thought) and made a bad decision. He may not have been pleased with recruiting either since the team was trending downward.
 
I was never impressed with Curry as a game day coach but thought he was a good recruiter and one of the finest people I had ever met. Given the choice I would prefer my sons to play ball for him over most any other coach in the country. I believe my sons would become better men because of his influence on their lives. Since leaving coaching he has turned into one of the finest announcers in the business. I thoroughly enjoy listening to him during a game.
 
Leaving the SEC did PROVE to be a mistake (to an extent) just as the South's seceding from the Union PROVED to be a mistake. Dodd made the decision to leave based on principle and high moral character, not wishy-washy politics. He might well have realized his goals if it hadn't of been for TECH's ultra-conservative academic turn during the period. The facts are, whether anybody likes it or not, if we had stayed in the SEC we would be playing a more traditional SEC schedule but our records over the years might actually be worse. Ultimately, the most significant difference has been the emergence of the BBall program.
 
I anticipate getting bashed for this, but I'll endure. Bill Curry, chosen to start and end the Bobby Dodd award clip, was one of Dodd's boys and is a very good speaker and stands for a lot of the same things as Dod. I assume that is the rationale for his selection.
However, I will never forget or forgive Bill for walking out on GT. He left, taking his entire staff, at a time during the year, when the next coach basically lost a year in recruiting. He left because he thought GT was mediocre and he wanted to be part of a winner. He wanted his star and causes to shine a little brighter than GT could polish them. In all of the years of Dodd, couldn't we find another person who equals or exceeds Curry?
I guess the best part was he left; Boss Ross proved GT could be a winner; someone will again!
 
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