I'm really surprised at how many folks here aren't giving coach a pass this year?

There are some very fair criticisms we can make of this staff:
  • Switching from the 3O doesn't make you have a delay-of-game penalty to start a game. There have been a few similar boneheaded warnings, penalties and weird timeouts this year that we're not used to because CPJ was a good game manager.
  • There has been a lot of inconsistency - we followed dramatic improvement with dramatic regression over and over.
  • People got tired of the "we don't talk about starters" mess when we kept rotating QBs.
  • I think the 3O switch is less impactful than everyone is making it out to be. CPJ beat UGA in his first year without "his players", and Parker Braun is having a great year in a pro offense at Texas.
  • Finally, it personally drives me crazy to keep hearing how this is a player-based and not scheme-based offense, and then see PNode trying to hammer round pegs into his square hole for 60 minutes. Our best offensive performances have come in the rare instances where we actually suited our players' skills. Like last night, we used Graham's legs and when we really needed a yard on 4th down, we ran option.
But all that being said, I'm very optimistic.
  • Graham is getting better and showing flashes of brilliance.
  • This team will finish the year with 1 senior contributing as a starter: Brentavious Glanton. The others got injured. Our entire team is essentially a sophomore about to become a junior, and that'll do a lot for us.
  • Kenny Cooper and Jahaziel can come back next year, and the wait will be over for Clayton. So the lines will be improved. Plus we get Ezzard.
  • We're already on track for the best recruiting class since 2007, and it looks like it's going to get better before signing day.
  • In year 1, CGC matched the record of CPJ's 2015 debacle which was helmed by Jt5 himself. I think CPJ knew this was coming even if he'd stayed, since the OL was decimated. CPJ did us a favor by ripping off the band-aid and letting the bad year happen during new coach's year 1. It's why he retired before the bowl game, so we'd have time to find a new coach and recruit. When we're winning 10 games in a few years, people need to remember CPJ for that.
  • Year 2 should be even better recruiting than year 1 because the coaches are established.
 
Flywheel said:
There are some very fair criticisms we can make of this staff:
  • Switching from the 3O doesn't make you have a delay-of-game penalty to start a game. There have been a few similar boneheaded warnings, penalties and weird timeouts this year that we're not used to because CPJ was a good game manager.
  • There has been a lot of inconsistency - we followed dramatic improvement with dramatic regression over and over.
  • People got tired of the "we don't talk about starters" mess when we kept rotating QBs.
  • I think the 3O switch is less impactful than everyone is making it out to be. CPJ beat UGA in his first year without "his players", and Parker Braun is having a great year in a pro offense at Texas.
  • Finally, it personally drives me crazy to keep hearing how this is a player-based and not scheme-based offense, and then see PNode trying to hammer round pegs into his square hole for 60 minutes. Our best offensive performances have come in the rare instances where we actually suited our players' skills. Like last night, we used Graham's legs and when we really needed a yard on 4th down, we ran option.
But all that being said, I'm very optimistic.
  • Graham is getting better and showing flashes of brilliance.
  • This team will finish the year with 1 senior contributing as a starter: Brentavious Glanton. The others got injured. Our entire team is essentially a sophomore about to become a junior, and that'll do a lot for us.
  • Kenny Cooper and Jahaziel can come back next year, and the wait will be over for Clayton. So the lines will be improved. Plus we get Ezzard.
  • We're already on track for the best recruiting class since 2007, and it looks like it's going to get better before signing day.
  • In year 1, CGC matched the record of CPJ's 2015 debacle which was helmed by Jt5 himself. I think CPJ knew this was coming even if he'd stayed, since the OL was decimated. CPJ did us a favor by ripping off the band-aid and letting the bad year happen during new coach's year 1. It's why he retired before the bowl game, so we'd have time to find a new coach and recruit. When we're winning 10 games in a few years, people need to remember CPJ for that.
  • Year 2 should be even better recruiting than year 1 because the coaches are established.
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CPJ was not a great game manager. We used timeouts on the dumbass offside play and then had to run the ball in the 2 min offense because we had no plan other than 4 snaps of Hail Mary.

edit - not to mention there was no option of a hunh because of the way plays were sent in. Being behind by a TD with 3 minutes left was almost certain stupidity.

collins has made some boneheaded calls, but he’s a young HC and has a very young team with a qb getting his first significant PT. There are going to be errors.
 
savbandjacket said:
CPJ was not a great game manager. We used timeouts on the dumbass offside play and then had to run the ball in the 2 min offense because we had no plan other than 4 snaps of Hail Mary.

collins has made some boneheaded calls, but he’s a young HC and has a very young team with a qb getting his first significant PT. There are going to be errors.
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Don't forget the great PJ Death March when down 21 pts in the 4th qtr to Duke....or the 2-minute offense which consisted of taking 25 seconds to run-in every play, usually resulting in a magical QB Keeper....or having the lead late in the 4th and bizarrely taking the snap with 19 seconds left on the play clock rather than running it down to 2, like CGC did last night....

Yeah, CPJ's game mgmt skills are definitely overrated.
 
1) People seem to forget that GT wasn't all that great for the last 4 years. Forgetting all the frustrating mistakes the team made. Yes, we won games because Johnson knew how to maximize offensive production but outside of that, we didn't do a lot well. We are trying to change everything for the better and will be different on offense. We will not be as efficient on offense but I think the long term trade off is the ability to hit explosive plays against good defenses.

2) Rather you liked Johnson or not, it seems everyone is having a very hard time moving on. GT games are going to be different now; they aren't going to play at the same pace or have the same flow. Everyone needs to watch more college football and compare us to other teams and stop comparing us to their soften, unrealistic memory of the Johnson years.
 
CPJ retired. Period, end of discussion. That’s on him. We had to hire a coach and CGC is who we picked. I suppose we could have gone Monken and stuck with that style, but excitement in the program had really dwindled since the Orange Bowl season. We needed some juice and we hired Mr. Juice himself.

The sooner people can let go of what our retired former coach did or did not do well, the better their sanity will be as Tech fans. If you’re only a Tech fan because you liked the option, then Kennesaw State is right down the road and could use more fan support.
 
Walton said:
1) People seem to forget that GT wasn't all that great for the last 4 years. Forgetting all the frustrating mistakes the team made. Yes, we won games because Johnson knew how to maximize offensive production but outside of that, we didn't do a lot well. We are trying to change everything for the better and will be different on offense. We will not be as efficient on offense but I think the long term trade off is the ability to hit explosive plays against good defenses.

2) Rather you liked Johnson or not, it seems everyone is having a very hard time moving on. GT games are going to be different now; they aren't going to play at the same pace or have the same flow. Everyone needs to watch more college football and compare us to other teams and stop comparing us to their soften, unrealistic memory of the Johnson years.
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We definitely have to re-train ourselves a bit. I can understand missing the offensive production, but you also have to remember getting behind the chains because we turned one guy lose and knowing that not only was a drive over but we were now behind schedule because we needed to score nearly everytime we had the ball. I have seen enough to know we can be successful playing more conventionally once the pieces are there. Good defense and special teams will give us a margin for error we didnt have before.
 
TampaBayJacket said:
I've almost stopped reading this board this year because it's become a pit of dispair and "I ****ed your mom" responses. Alas, I'm a ST addict so here I am. Anyway, so really, what were some people expecting? Everybody under the sun expected a painful experience this year because *news flash* the triple option is a total program commitment that you cant just undo instantly. Nobody likes to be 3-8 but we knew this was going to happen so I pretty much committed before the season to forgive whatever I saw on the field this year. My hope was to see progress even if it didnt add up to wins on Saturday but I expected some really ugly games too and wallah, we got the Citadel, Temple and VT.

So here's the progress I see. I see a team that continues to play hard and hasn't been lost by the coach. That's way more important than you think. I see a young QB have ups and downs but he has enough flashes that he's not a throw away starter this year and we can build with him. I see a defense that has always struggled under CPJ continue to struggle but at least looks like it can stop some people. It will probably be much better with a deeper talent. I see the best recruiting class since 2007 coming in. Let's hope we can hold the class together by signing day (fingers crossed).

Anyway, thrilled about the win last night and hope others can see the foundation at least, even if the walls aren't framed yet.
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Now you know how we've felt about you and Yukon and RW92 and all the rest of you punks for the last 11 years.
 
Some dumbass called into Packer and Durham yesterday complaining about the 7 yr contract CGC got and about how bad our gameday sideline coaching was. First off, in his opinion, all we were lacking to run a more pro-style offense was a QB and TE so there's no way we should be this bad on offense. :eekfacepalm: But mainly my point is that Wes addressed it all pretty well I thought. First off, the longer contract is becoming the new norm, especially for new coaches, in college football. Also, he gave some insight that the GT administration wanted things to move and transition pretty quickly. So it's not only him and his staff that want to separate themselves from the option, that's being directed internally also. And lastly, but a very important factor I think many people are ignoring, his staff is comprised of many good coaches, and may end up being a tremendous staff, but this is year 1 of all of these guys coaching together. Some have been together and with CGC in the past but the entire staff has not. Wes alluded to the fact that those things take time to gel and have one cohesive unit on the sidelines on game day. Said that the hope is that gets much better next year and more-so moving forward. We view our team and staff under microscope, but only see the big picture at most other places. We're quick to draw comparison to other first, second, third year coaches and their successes, but we rarely see the full spectrum of what we see with our own. I'm sure Matt Rhule has probably made some bonehead calls this year, or questionable timeouts that have fans scratching their heads. Those types of things happen everywhere, but you just have to keep working to get all that stuff to a minimum. Time will tell if we are heading the right direction or not.
 
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With schools firing coaches after 1.5 years, you’re probably going to see hot up and coming coaches demand even longer initial contracts.

FSU is gonna have to give someone a 10 year contract just to get anyone worth a shit to go there.
 
Diseqc said:
With schools firing coaches after 1.5 years, you’re probably going to see hot up and coming coaches demand even longer initial contracts.

FSU is gonna have to give someone a 10 year contract just to get anyone worth a öööö to go there.
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I hope FSU goes bankrupt from contract buyouts.
 
DressCheeseSideSeaboard said:
I blame CPJ for that. He said we had a six win team coming back.

It set my expectations too high.
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6 wins was probably best case scenario if guys picked things up quickly and we stayed totally healthy. I put my hopes on that. Didnt happen. He should have said nothing but seems like he got defensive about his recruiting.
 
smokey_wasp said:
6 wins was probably best case scenario if guys picked things up quickly and we stayed totally healthy. I put my hopes on that. Didnt happen. He should have said nothing but seems like he got defensive about his recruiting.
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For me 6 wins was based on staying healthy and designing a offense that fits the personnel we had like was stated prior to starting the season. Had they said prior to season start that they were going to 'rip the bandaid off', go straight to 'pro-style', and do a QB rotation until mid-season; I would have been a lot less optimistic.
 
Diseqc said:
Anyone remember this gem?



that was after a timeout. So the great Gameday coach got a delay of game after running that dumbass timeout play.

cPj WaS a GoOd GaMe MaNaGeR
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Here's what I see:

Underdog, on the road, down 10 in the 3rd quarter, so there's room to take some risk.
Ball is nearly in the middle of the field, its a 37 yard field goal. But you are down 10 and its 4th and 3 (not 4th and 10), CPJ wants a touchdown.
Trot the offense out with a play, based on the way the defense is lined up on the fake offsides/time out play, run the play or switch to the field goal. Defense is lined up with a single high safety instead of the double they showed earlier, so audible to the FG team instead of running into the walked up safety (true, this isn't standard practice).
A young Kenny Cooper ran onto the field, but then ran off, so there were 10 men on the field -> visible confusion -> no snap. CPJ gets in his face about it, but then cools down quickly because now, the worst case kicks in and Harrison Butker kicks a 42 yard field goal. BFD. Took a chance at retaining possession, on the road, with very little downside. Looked dumb and didn't work because of a freshman mistake, but IMO, wasn't a bad way to try to steal 4 points.

For the record, if there would have been 11 guys on the field, they had time to snap the ball.

For transparency, I liked the see-how-they-line-up, try-to-get-them-offsides, call-a-timeout play as the long con that payed off in the 2009 ACCCG vs Clemson. Confirmation bias says if you hate it, it never worked, but we got multiple first downs on penalties and ran a play for a key first down several times. Also, I liked CPJ and I like CGC, neither are perfect.
 
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