looking at the history of Georgia Tech Football (warning: painfully long)

[ylojk8]

always fun to look at history. it tends to repeat itself. in the very least, it gives perspective. even more fun to discuss it with the privileged who've lived it .. we have some like 'at here.

so i went back and looked at how tech performs after a coaching change.

case study: coach bobby dodd
1st year as HC: 1945

coach bobby dodd took over from bill alexander in 1945. coach dodd inherited a program that was riding high in the form of back to back SEC championships in '43 and '44 accompanied with major bowl appearances.

1st year head coach dodd's team saw a dramatic drop in performance. the bottomline = 4-6.

it wasn't as if coach dodd was jumping into something new, something he was totally unfamiliar with. he had been an assistant at tech under coach alexander for 10+ years (coach dodd came to tech in 1931).

had the internet and stingtalk existed .. coach dodd would have been ridden out of town. however coach dodd quickly recovered from his embarrassing 1st season at HC and his team in 1946 went 9-2. his next losing season did not occur till 1950.

case study: coach bud carson
1st year as HC: 1967

in 1967, coach bud carson took over a georgia tech football program that hadn't had a losing season since 1950.

he took reigns from the legendary coach dodd under whom, Tech had recently left the SEC in 1963. coach dodd's team had the records of 7-3 in 1964, 7-3 in 1965 and 9-2 in 1966 accompanied by a losing effort in the orange bowl.

1st year coach bud carson's team went 4-6. his 2nd and 3rd year didn't show any improvements at all and had the same record as his 1st year.

however, in 1970, tech went 9-2 in coach carson's 4th year. that was his penultimate season as HC@Tech. coach carson coached tech in 1971 for the final season with a bottomline of 6-6.

case study: coach bill fulcher
1st year as HC: 1972

tech was still struggling to find a solid footing. coach carson's stay was a brief 5 years which saw only 1 winning season.

coach fulcher took over in 1972 and went 7-4-1 in his first season with a win in the liberty bowl. things were looking upwards. however his team went 5-6 in '73, which would be fulcher's last season at tech.

case study: coach pepper rodgers
1st year as HC: 1974

tech was struggling as an independent and coach rodgers struggled to keep the ship steady. he had a mediocre six year run at tech with the best record being 7-5 and the worst being 4-6-1. in the 6 year period, Tech went bowling only once, the liberty bowl, which was a losing effort.

1st year HC rodgers team went 6-5.

Tech joined ACC in 1979, the last year we were coached by pepper rodgers

case study: coach bill curry
1st year as HC: 1980

all yellow jackets rejoiced at the hiring of bill curry as head coach. bill curry was and is a true tech man. jackets felt that a tech man leading them would work wonders.

coach curry's record as 1st year HC: 1-9-1
coach curry's record as 2nd year HC: 1-10

finally in coach curry's 6th season, tech had a break out year and went 9-2-1 and earned a bowl bid.

his next year, coach curry's team performance sank back to a mediocre 5-5-1 record. coach curry was/is an ambitious person and left Tech to pursue a NC at alabama.

case study: coach bobby ross
1st year as HC: 1967

just as all jackets had rejoiced when coach curry became HC at tech, they were shocked and dismayed when coach curry left the program.

his replacement was coach bobby ross. bobby ross came to tech to inherit a dismayed tech team.

1st year coach ross' team went 2-9.
2nd year coach ross' team improved to 3-8.

thankfully, stingtalk was still not in existence. coach ross' 3rd team went 7-4.

then we had a breakout season in 1990 under coach ross. 1990 was the best year for ga tech athletics. we won the MNC in football for the 4th time and the 1st time since the 50s. we also had our one and only final four appearance in round ball under bobby cremins who had been carrying the GT athletic program during the struggles of the 80s.

1991 was the last year coach ross coached at tech. his last team went 8-5.

case study: coach bill lewis
1st year as HC: 1992

coach lewis inherited a tech program that was riding high with an MNC in 1990 and a good showing in 1991.

we all know about his struggles at tech. his first two years were typical for a new head coach and tech went 5-6 in both those years.

in his third year, we sank to a level not seen since coach curry manned the sidelines. just 4 years after winning the MNC, tech sank to a record of 1-10. coach lewis resigned before that season ended. coach o'leary took over the last 3 games of that season.

case study: coach george o'leary
1st full year as HC: 1995

coach o'leary saw through the last three games in '94 and started afresh in '95.

his 1st year saw a huge improvement. we won 6 times more in '95 than we did in '94.

1st year coach o'leary's record: 6-5
2nd year: 5-6

coach o'leary brought in his trusted sidekick, coach friedgen to create the super coach tandem, a tag team that we all wish still existed at tech. those two coaches were worth their weight in gold .. and that folks would be a lot of gold.

tech went 10-2 in 1998 to win it's 2nd ACC title but we didn't get the automatic BCS bid because the 1998 ACC title was shared with papa bowden's FSU, which beat us and therefore got the BCS bid.

fridge left after 2001 to coach at his alma mater. coach o'brien tried to fill in the fridge's pants and folks, those are big pants to fill.

in 2002, we were expecting big things but tech went 7-5 in the regular season, losing to georgia for the first time in 4 years.

suddenly tech was exposed. it's offense without fridge disappeared like ice does when the fridge is defrosted. it's defense was always protected by the high octane offense but without the run support, the team tanked.

coach o'leary left us to try and pursue his irish dream of coaching at notre dame.

macwhorter in the meantime took a jaded tech squad to the seattle bowl and won it in convincing fashion against PAC 10 runner ups Stanford coached by the dude who eventually filled the notre dame position that o'leary wanted.

case study: coach chan gailey
1st full year as HC: 2002

1st year coach chan gailey went 7-6.

he got thrashed by arch rival georgia in a manner that will forever haunt everybody who roots for tech.

he also got beat by a MAC team or a WAC team (whatever, who cares) in a meaningless bowl even though that team had lost quite a few starters due to academic problems.

moreover, gailey's team for 2003 has already been handcuffed since it has lost 10 players due to a new system created by the AD when o'leary left.

plus, it's just the spring in '03 and who knows how many more student athletes might flunk out in the summer??

wow .. that took a lot of typing.

bottom line. ever since coach dodd took over, the common theme that every coaching change has is that it has not been smooth.

give the guy a chance.

borrowed from an article i read while coming up with this looooong post ...

Bobby Dodd, who came to Tech as an assistant coach in 1931, was Alexander's choice to become the new head coach. Dodd lionized Coach Aleck.

"He taught me to treat athletes as men, not boys--to never use their failings as an alibi for a loss," Dodd said. "I never heard him alibi in defeat."

coach o'leary used joe burns as an alibi for the UMd loss. disgraceful. it should never have come to joe burns staying in bounds in the last 1 minute to dry out the clock to preserve a 3 pt victory.

after game ending drives by Suggs against Clemson, WFU and FSU .. gailey defended Suggs to such an extent that people here started calling him Sugg's Dad. O'Leary would have stated .. "we put the players in the position to win the game but they did not execute."

god damn, coach gailey sounds awfully similar to coach dodd. the time is right, tech needs an anchor of a man at the helm. this man can succeed if we let him. if he does fail, he will be replaced. no one person, not even coach dodd is bigger than the institution itself. but no person, no one, deserves to be treated like some of us treat gailey.

we were patient with bill curry and bobby ross. history tells us that we will be prudent if we exhibit a similar attribute towards chan gailey.

facts and quotes derived from:

http://gtalumni.org/StayInformed/techtopics/fall92/football.html

http://www.footballencyclopedia.com/sechome.htm#secalltimechampions

www.ramblinwreck.com

opinions are my own. comments welcome.

 

[swGAboy]

Good job on the study! It should be remembered that TECH was very unlucky last year. Especially with injuries. I really thought that Gailey was doing a good job of holding things together, constantly regrouping, and then beating N.C. State and Virginia. Those were really good wins last year. What rankles is the lack of preparation for the UGA and bowl games. He's the coach and they're OUR Jackets. So we have to show up each Saturday (protect our turf) and cheer loudly for our team from start to finish. Because there are doubts about Gailey, a reassessment should be done after this season. GO JACKETS!

 

[ahsoisee]

This is generally the norm at most schools when there is a change in the football coach.

There are so many variables that have to be resolved. Now, that is not to say all schools have a drop in the won-loss record.

Sometimes a coach comes in with the innate ability to motivate people, has very good material, knows the X's & O's, steps into a team with the right frame of mind, and the team wins big.

You can have the same coach step into another program with same abilities, same good material, but the team does not have the right frame of mind, and the team does not do well.

You can vary the conditions and the won-loss records will vary. You can take an "extremely few" set of coaches, place them in almost any invironment and they will win.

Each coach has his own methods and seldom can use the same methods as the previous coach. Sometimes, not only is there a learning curve for the athletes in a new system, but an unlearning curve.

Many times, it is easier to learn something new, if you don't have to unlearn some of the habits acquired from the previous coach's teachings. Often, a player has to unlearn at the same time he is trying to learn a different way.

Of course, there is most always the human factor of wanting to continue doing the same things you have always done. One of the first things out of an athlete's mouth is, "but coach, that is not the way we have been doing this!".

So, many times the athlete is averse to the new methods. It generally takes time.

I bet if you made a study of all coaching changes over all Division I teams for the past 50 years, you would find at least 80% of them having worse years in their first year. Even, some of the most successful coaches.

Thanks for the post Ylojk8. By the way, I did not think it was too long!

 

[Axe]

We all have to give Coach Gailey the chance to succeed. He screwed up last year, but as you pointed out, so did many other first year Tech coaches. Gailey gets a lot of crap because Tech fans are still trying to wake up from the nightmare of the Fridge leaving. The fact of the matter is that is when things started to fall apart. We were so close we could taste it and it slipped through our hands. I know it hurts, time to get over it, we are where we are now. Lets give the man a chance to build this thing.

 

[The Jacket]

Great post yoljk8! This is a great read for all Stingtalkers.

 

[JJacket]

I think I am more on edge (along with some others) about Tech football nowdays because of the whole Bill Lewis Fiasco. He seemed to be a good fit coming in, but was obviously ill equipped to be a head football coach at our level of competition. Most of us want to guarantee that we never again sink to that level of incompetence again.
That being said, I do not think there is even a slight resemblance between Chan's operation and Lewis' operation. I think recruiting is going to get better. We'll start getting in some bigger and better players and I believe the program will take a step forward.
I don't see any reason in the expanded ACC why the top teams won't be Miami, FSU, Tech and possibly Virginia. Maryland seems to be a cyclical team, they'll sink again. We should always recruit better and beat NC State, Clemson and VT(?) due to our academic program and having the best location in the ACC. As for the rest of the ACC, I don't see any credible threat to Tech's program.
All Chan has to do is organize and implement and we'll do great.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

whylowh8's quote: "always fun to look at history. it tends to repeat itself. in the very least, it gives perspective. "

gailey's tenure as a head coach:
(don't you chanbangers even think about commenting about him leaving jobs for better ones.. you can make all the excuses you want for the chanster but fact of the matter is this guy lasts in head coaching positions about as long as a nickel cigar)

College:
Troy State 1983-84
Samford 1993

NFL:
Birmingham Fire 1991-1992
Dallas Cowboys 1998-1999

If whylowh8's theory of the past being the window into the future... then this is gailey's last year.. he's had 4 other head coaching jobs & none of 'em lasted longer than 2 years... gailey's own record is a far better determinant of what will happen in his career at GT than things that happened at GT before many of us were born... Take whylowh8's post for what it is, senseless drivel... The only thing whylowh8 was correct about is that his post is painfully long...

 

[MsTechAnalysis]

BB: What's that saying, 'just the facts sir'! Everyone else seems to be looking back at others careers and disecting, this is going to be interesting!!

 

[The Jacket]

I agree with MsTA, all this relfection and comparasin with coaches like O'Leary is absurd.

 

[ylojk8]

sigh, beebad needs serious help in reading comprehension besides other things.

we have two choices .. we can be patient with gailey or we can fire him and be patient with our new hire.

bottom line is that we have to be patient with a new hire at georgia tech. history suggests that a new hire at georgia tech takes about 2 to 3 years before "earning" the support of fans like MsTA.

bottom line is that without giving a new hire at georgia tech a couple of years, history suggests that we will not be able to find out whether the new hire is a bill lewis or a bobby ross.

lastly beebad .. nick moore! shut your pie hole!