Key and Chadwell interviewed This Week

savbandjacket

Dr. SBJ
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I don’t exactly know the significance of this (probably none), but I noticed Pyron is following Jamey Chadwell on twitter.
I’ve mostly wrapped my mind around the idea of Chadwell being the next coach and getting pretty excited about it.

If we hire Key at this point, it feels like we are settling on the hire and that the donors interfered in the process. Not that I won’t support him, but it will lack the excitement of a new hire.
 

QuadF

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I think key is making a solid case but Chadwell seems like he is the better bet. The most difficult part for me is that I really want key to succeed based on how the team has improved and it's really hard to improve things as an interim coach. Maybe my standard was unrealistic (6wins) when he first took over. If the OL was the bright spot of this team things would be different, but then again the Geoff Collins culture was too strong.
 

BrentwoodJacket

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I’ve mostly wrapped my mind around the idea of Chadwell being the next coach and getting pretty excited about it.

If we hire Key at this point, it feels like we are settling on the hire and that the donors interfered in the process. Not that I won’t support him, but it will lack the excitement of a new hire.
Do we have any confirmation that the donors are pushing for Key?
 

jacketfanatic15

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I remember Scott Satterfield name coming up a lot during the past coaching search. If we hire Chadwell, I will get behind that, but I worry about him being the next Satterfield. His past success at App State hasn't exactly transferred over to Louisville.

Just my opinion, but I prefer Key with a good support staff and couple of good recruiters like T. Choice on staff. I don't think Key is a bad coach. I think TFG was a cancer to the entire team due to the way he ran it.
 

aeromech

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Fritz has "established himself" by having success before 60 as well. That's why he is a candidate.

Saban was almost 60 when he started at Bama.

I don't know that Fritz is the right guy for the job but I don't think "62 is too old" is a great argument.
Saban was not almost 60 when he started at Bama in 2007, he as 55 going on 56 and he had won a national championship. Fritz is older than CPJ when he retired though.
 

GEETEELEE

We suck this much.
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OK, maybe I misremember on Johnson. I did remember his name coming up before the hire, I just don't remember him being considered a frontrunner.
Group I was sitting with during Gailey’s last season at the game (forgot which game) said Johnson wants to come here and he has recruiting contacts all over the state.
 

justafan

college sports doomer
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Any candidate but Key, please!

Brent Key facts:
- Bad loss to a soft Virginia team at home that cost us bowl eligibility
- Multiple bad gametime calls (two punts inside opponent's 40!)
- No excitement to him as next head coach
- No demonstrated ability to lead a program
- No demonstrated ability to recruit
- Several years of failure here while he was an assistant coach, particularly poor OL play (his position group)

The pro-Key people seem to want him because he's had marginally more success with someone else's team than them and because he's a "Tech man". Woopty do. Hiring a former player for a coaching job instead of hiring purely on merits is a dumb move that we've done before (e.g. Roof) and other schools do which often leads to failure.
 

GEETEELEE

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Bad loss to a soft Virginia team at home that cost us bowl eligibility
Yes, a mystifying loss, but remember he had been HC for all of 2 games, and the Collins hangover was strong.
Multiple bad gametime calls (two punts inside opponent's 40!)
You‘re not going to kick a FG from the 40 and it was 4th and long with a struggling offense. What else would you do?
No excitement to him as next head coach
Pretty sure the players will be excited.
No demonstrated ability to lead a program
He’s done pretty well with the train wreck he inherited.
No demonstrated ability to recruit
Actually recruiting is going pretty well considering the coaching uncertainty.
Several years of failure here while he was an assistant coach, particularly poor OL play (his position group)
The oline performance was indeed poor, but I think there was more going on than Key being a poor coach. Head coach is a different job from position coaching.

Key being a Tech man is just icing on the cake; no one is saying that’s a major qualification. I won’t be upset it it isn’t Key, but I’m not enamored with Chadwell either. I’ve seen too many FCS coaches crash and burn in the big leagues.
 

TechRush

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I remember Scott Satterfield name coming up a lot during the past coaching search. If we hire Chadwell, I will get behind that, but I worry about him being the next Satterfield. His past success at App State hasn't exactly transferred over to Louisville.
I'm not sure if you've noticed but Louisville is sitting at 7-4 this season. Some of you all need to do some research before just spouting BS to make yourself feel better about settling on Key.
 

justafan

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Yes, a mystifying loss, but remember he had been HC for all of 2 games, and the Collins hangover was strong.
Not that mystifying--he's not a great coach.


You‘re not going to kick a FG from the 40 and it was 4th and long with a struggling offense. What else would you do?
Go for it on 4th and a few yards inside opponent's 40, like every decent coach would.

Pretty sure the players will be excited.
We mainly need recruits to be excited.

He’s done pretty well with the train wreck he inherited.
He's going to be a .500 interim coach, losing a winnable game against a bad UVA team, costing us bowl eligibility and killing the excitement that was building over Tech football.

The oline performance was indeed poor, but I think there was more going on than Key being a poor coach. Head coach is a different job from position coaching.
When someone is not good at their job, who doesn't say "wow they should be the boss!"

Key being a Tech man is just icing on the cake; no one is saying that’s a major qualification. I won’t be upset it it isn’t Key, but I’m not enamored with Chadwell either. I’ve seen too many FCS coaches crash and burn in the big leagues.
I agree on Chadwell not being a sure thing. May not be the right hire. My position is just No Brent Key.[/QUOTE]
 

stinger78

Jacket by the grace of God.
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Any candidate but Key, please!

Brent Key facts:
- Bad loss to a soft Virginia team at home that cost us bowl eligibility
- Multiple bad gametime calls (two punts inside opponent's 40!)
- No excitement to him as next head coach
- No demonstrated ability to lead a program
- No demonstrated ability to recruit
- Several years of failure here while he was an assistant coach, particularly poor OL play (his position group)

The pro-Key people seem to want him because he's had marginally more success with someone else's team than them and because he's a "Tech man". Woopty do. Hiring a former player for a coaching job instead of hiring purely on merits is a dumb move that we've done before (e.g. Roof) and other schools do which often leads to failure.
Let's compare Key to George O'Leary as interim coach:
- GOL failed to win a game
- GOL lost to a mediocre (5-6) Clemson team 20-10
- GOL lost to a bad (3-8) Wake Forest team 20-13
- GOL got blown out by a mediocre (6-4-1) UGA team 48-10
Under these criteria, GOL never would have been hired as HBC at GA Tech. I think we can all agree that would have been a big mistake.

To your summation of Key's demonstrated leadership, yes, he had the bad loss to UVA. That was bad. However, he has indeed led a program to beat 3 teams (Pitt, Dook, and UNC) with winning records, two of which (Pitt and UNC) were ranked at the time - UNC from 17 points behind with creative use of his #3 and #4 QB's.
To your summation of his recruiting, he has served as Recruiting Coordinator for 11 years, including the personnel that transformed UCF into a winning program, ultimately winning 69 games between 2007 and 2014, before O'Leary crashed and retired in 2015. That personnel included #1 QB Blake Bortles. Two years later, under HC Scott Frost, the juniors and seniors of Key's last 2 classes won 25 games in two seasons (2017-18) under Scott Frost.
To your summation of his OL, his OL has gelled remarkably well since TFG left, after Key reinstituted a set 2-deep, indicating an established 1st team with clear accountability to perform. He also returned to playing his OL as a unit - even all FR/SO's - so they could learn to play together as a unit, rather than plugging in transfer after transfer looking for a quick fix. The growth has been significant over the second half of the season.

No, Key is not the perfect candidate. Chadwell may even be the better option - I doubt we know. However, he is not a bad choice, though it appears you have convinced yourself that he has no merit at all.
 

GTLiebs

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Let's compare Key to George O'Leary as interim coach:
- GOL failed to win a game
- GOL lost to a mediocre (5-6) Clemson team 20-10
- GOL lost to a bad (3-8) Wake Forest team 20-13
- GOL got blown out by a mediocre (6-4-1) UGA team 48-10
Under these criteria, GOL never would have been hired as HBC at GA Tech. I think we can all agree that would have been a big mistake.

To your summation of Key's demonstrated leadership, yes, he had the bad loss to UVA. That was bad. However, he has indeed led a program to beat 3 teams (Pitt, Dook, and UNC) with winning records, two of which (Pitt and UNC) were ranked at the time - UNC from 17 points behind with creative use of his #3 and #4 QB's.
To your summation of his recruiting, he has served as Recruiting Coordinator for 11 years, including the personnel that transformed UCF into a winning program, ultimately winning 69 games between 2007 and 2014, before O'Leary crashed and retired in 2015. That personnel included #1 QB Blake Bortles. Two years later, under HC Scott Frost, the juniors and seniors of Key's last 2 classes won 25 games in two seasons (2017-18) under Scott Frost.
To your summation of his OL, his OL has gelled remarkably well since TFG left, after Key reinstituted a set 2-deep, indicating an established 1st team with clear accountability to perform. He also returned to playing his OL as a unit - even all FR/SO's - so they could learn to play together as a unit, rather than plugging in transfer after transfer looking for a quick fix. The growth has been significant over the second half of the season.

No, Key is not the perfect candidate. Chadwell may even be the better option - I doubt we know. However, he is not a bad choice, though it appears you have convinced yourself that he has no merit at all.
The comparison to O'Leary is foolish. O'Leary had little to do with the failings of the previous coach, didn't even have a full season with them. The situations are not really comparable.

As to some other notes: I'm not sure how much his recruiting at other schools really matters comparison to the recruiting he has already been trying to do at the place he would he hired at. Also you're OL points are either stupid or subjective. He put in a two-deep....really? Whooped de do that is not something to be crowing about. I also would counter your subjective opinion that the OL has been doing well with my subjective opinion that it mostly has not. The offense has not really grown at all over the season; sure you could argue that the reason is the QB situation and not Key, that's a separate discussion, but to claim there has been "significant" offensive improvement isn't true.

Not trying to argue Key is bad, just that your points claiming he is good are.
 
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