Most Impressive of Tech FB Staff

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ahsoisee

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After reading all the bios, you might want to respond to this post.

I am picking three of the staff personnel that impresses me the most. I am leaving Chan Gailey out of the mix, because we have already covered his bio pro and con for months.

The most important and most impressive to me is Jon Tenuta. He brings a ton of experience and past accomplishments to lead the Tech defense. Since defense has been our Achilles Heel, he seems to be what the doctor ordered.

Glenn Spencer gets my nod for the next most impressive staff member. Even though most of his experience was with West Georgia College, his record there is exceptional.

Patrick Nix gets my nod as the third most impressive staff member. He excelled at Auburn in the Quarterback position, and he has excellent statistics as an offensive coach in his past experiences.

He also is the son of a coach, which probably has helped him learn the little things in football that count a lot.

I will be keeping my eye on these three this year to see how they perform in their duties. It will also be interesting to see how recruiting for this next year fares under Nix.

Any takers?

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I like Coach Tenuta too. GT ,imho, has the most strength on the D side of the ball. Here's hoping for DEFENSE .

BoB on the Offensive side will be challenged in developing the new QB's. Finally, we will get to see BoB's full package each and every game.

Coach Spencer has a very important task in developing the rush of the D line so the LB's can do their thing.

I don't know what the record will be but I personally have a very good feeling about this year like I did in '98 and '00.

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Here are the three coaches who I feel will be the impact coaches.

1. Jon Tenuta--At first, I was disappointed that Rick Smith didn't get to stay, but I really believe in this guy's pedigree. He really knows defense, and I feel like he will make The Wreck more aggressive and better tacklers.

2. Curtis Modkins--How long has it been since Tech's DBs were well coached? Randy Edsall was good, but it's been 3 long years since he left. His New Mexico corners had 15 picks last year, and I don't think Tech's DBs came close.

3. Patrick Nix--The players love this guy. I was hoping that O'Brien would move back to RB coach to make room for this guy. He could flat-out play at Auburn. Watch for him to the OC and QB when O'Brien leaves. By the time he leaves Tech to become an HC, he'll be the best recruiter on staff.

I think that we improved ourselves at every coaching position except for two spots. I think that Coach Mac and Coach D'A are about equal, and I don't think that Brick is an improvement over Roof. However, I do feel that Tenuta is an improvement over Roof.
 
Ahso,

Have enjoyed your posts concerning the staff and I must say I agree with your choices. It's very hard to argue with the success that those three have had. Especially in Spencer's and Nix's cases, they were head coaches (if on a smaller level).

What is interesting to me is that with the exception of Tenuta and maybe Nix, all of Gailey's hires are from down and out programs, so I can see why that may be unnerving to some people.
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But I have no reason to doubt Gailey's judgement of coaching ability - in fact based on his experience, he should be darn good at it. I'm not ready to say we've "upgraded" the staff yet - but I'm also not ready to say we have "downgraded" either. I'm cautiously optimisitc. I can't wait to see how this fall turns out!!
 
get,

Allow me to explain why I feel we upgraded the staff. This could get lenghty as I'll take a position at a time.

1. DC--Tenuta is an improvement over Roof due to his experience and his defenses are able to tackle, pressure the QB, and stop the run. As some people noted, Tech often had a leaky Roof regarding in game adjustments. Tenuta over Roof.

2. DB--Modkins over Crossman because of the sheer number. Looking thru the gold tinted glasses, there is no way that New Mexico has more talented DBs than GT. The New Mexico DBs turned in 15 picks (Did Tech have this many takeaways last season?) and the pass defense got better every year he was at UNM. Don't forget that Tenuta is helping out here also. Think back to some of those NFLers he tutored at Ohio State. Modkins and Tenuta over Crossman.

3. DL--It gets a little tricky here. Glenn Spencer is recognized as one of the best young coaches in the ACC. He's replacing a pair of coaches that I felt did a good job, but others disagree. Spencer has the HC experience, but he also has major playing experience. A little shakier but Spencer over Thompson and McCarty.

On to the Offense

4. RB--Glenn Spencer is a defensive guy. I'm not saying that he was the problem at RB b/c JFB was amazing, but Patrick Nix has been in more offensive meetings and understands the role of the RB in multiple offenses. Nix over Spencer.

5. WR--Here's it gets controversial here. I like David Kelly, but I always felt that the route running under Kelly was suspect. Yards after the catch also seemed to be hard to come by. Before Kelly got here, the route running was better and more yards were gained after the catch.
In his place, we have hired a guy who worked with Michael Irvin and the Cowboys. In the couple of OSU games I watched, route running was good. When we worked with the WRs in Dallas, route running was good, but some of that was Michael too. Alas I pick Robinson over Kelly.

As I noted earlier, I feel that Mac and D'A will be about equal. I have long felt that Roof is one of the best LB coaches in the SE. Brick and Tenuta have a ton of talent to work with, but I don't think that combination is an improvement over Roof at LB.

Oh well, I'm just trying to keep the conversation going.
 
Indian Buzz, pretty good analysis. I think you tried to be fair in your assessment, and that is the main factor.

It won't be too long now before we get a chance to test our predictions. It is beginning to look like an exciting year is just over the horizon.

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Indian Buzz, THANK YOU for keeping the conversation going!! This next 100 days (or less) is going to be a LOOOONG sometimes trying wait til the season starts. We have GT baseball and golf now, but soon that will be history and then it's a good, long, dry wait til early August when practice starts. ANY, I repeat, ANY talk about the upcoming season will be welcomed!

I hope you all know that many over there in poopy dog land feel like we've taken a step backwards with all the new coaches. They think we'll lose big in recruiting AND of course in November in dawgtown. We've got to keep our spirits up and accentuate the positive going into the season. They will ALWAYS doubt our abilities until we rattle off SEVERAL convincing victories in a row over them. It sometimes takes a repeated beating to teach an old dog new tricks. So let's all hope for the best, keep it upbeat, and whip the HELL outta UGA and as many of the rest on our schedule as possible.

I BEELIEVE the future is bright and for the record, I feel we've upgraded in almost ALL areas of the staff!
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PCB,

You brought up something I missed, recruiting. Recruiting is the life blood of college football. O'Leary's last staff could flat out recruit. Thompson, Kelly, O'Brien, Mac, Roof, man, those guys could do it. I don't know how the new guys can recruit. I've read that many feel Nix is the best recruiter on staff. When Tommie Robinson was hired, the OSU boards were sad b/c he was their best recruiter. BTW, Les Miles will eventually turn that program around. My friends at Baylor say Brick can recruit too. So we know that Robinson, Brick, O'Brien, and Nix can all recruit, but who else is a noted recruiter? I was ecstatic about the Chan Gailey hire, and after hearing him speak a couple of times, I believe that he'll do very well at Tech. However, who else on this staff is known for their recruiting?
 
Indian Buzz,

Recruiting will be the wild card for this staff since we don't have a full season for which to judge them yet. Thankfully, this offseason turmoil was during a low # of schloarships to give and the staff kept most of the verbal committs to the previous staff.

David Wilson (good recruiter @ Miss St.) is in an adminstrative capacity, developing good relations w/HS coaches in GA. He also recruited Mississippi, Louisana and Florida at his old job. Also, Butch Brooks (longtime respected HS coach out of Washington Wilkes) is staying on staff to help Wilson and the new staff.

O'brien is the one chiefly responsible for our Nat'l recruiting efforts over the last year or two. He is the main wild card since we don't know how long he'll be here. It would be nice to keep him for this recruiting season.

Nix's father is a coach at a big time program in the state of GA, Northside.

I feel that the recruiting season (which is critical w/25 ships to give) will be a good one provided that the team can get 8 wins. More than that and the recruiting could be a fantastic year. We'll see...
 
Indian,
Personally, I'm not ready to say that Robinson is an improvement over David Kelly. I'll have to see it before I believe it. On the other positions, I agree with you. How's that for in-depth analysis?
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I REALLY think after I read different reports on Chan Gailey speaking, and all the great track records our new staff has we're gonna be FINE in recruiting. I was mainly referring to the fact that the dogs in dogland think that since we've done so well the last few years in recruiting and now we've got a NEW staff, our recruiting efforts will suffer. I DON'T think this will be the case. Just about ALL the guys we have on staff now have great connections in Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. What about Florida and Louisiana?? Those are places we've done fairly well of late.

Thoughts??
 
Based on bios at other schools and where the coaches have coached before, I've put together a listing of area/state each coach may have. No doubt that Chan has assigned these men to different areas, but this is an idea of connections that each man already has. I feel pretty sure that each one of them are developing new contacts in GA, FL, SC, TN, and the surrounding area.

O'Brien--This guy has contacts everywhere. As noted earlier, he's the national guy. From what I've gathered he has recruited Ohio, the Northeast, I think he was the contact in California also (may be wrong there). I don't know if he's recruited GA or not.

Nix--He has contacts in GA. His dad is the famed coach at Northside-Warner Robbins. He played and coached in AL, so he knows people there. He also spent time as an HC in Arkansas. We'll probably start to get some guys from Arkansas now too.

Robinson--He went to school in AL, and he's coached there since. He also has numerous ties to TX as well. I feel pretty sure that he has ties to Oklahoma as well.

D'A--He's been at several places, but my best guess is that his better contacts are in NC and GA.

Tenuta--I seem to remember the UNC folks telling us he didn't recruit. If he did, probably a lot of contacts from his many years at Ohio State and that area.

Spencer--Former HC at West Georgia will have many contacts in GA and the surrounding states as well.

Brick--From his past experiences, it would be reasonable to assume he has good contacts in AL, TX, and he's probably recruited Houston specifically.

Modkins--From the UNM media guide, he recruited Dallas, Ft. Worth, central TX and Oklahoma.

Raye--He went to GA Southern and graduated from UGA, so he probably has some good contacts in GA. However, from his many years at the Naval Academy, we can assume he has contacts everywhere too.

Chan--No tellin where he knows people. I feel that he'll probably be strongest in GA and TX.

Butch Brooks--He's the key when it comes to recruiting GA.

David Wilson--He's the key into MS and probably LA and FL.

This list is by no means how Chan and Nix have set up the recruiting areas. My guess is that we'll be strong in Georgia, Texas, and Alabama. I also feel that you'll see this staff develop some strong ties to Florida and Louisana. This staff seems to have connections all over the South which is very, VERY good.

Feel free to correct me if I'm totally off base with the areas.
 
Sounds reasonable to me Indian Buzz. The MAIN hotbed states to recruit are Florida, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. If we do well in the majority of those states, we'll be just fine. I DO think we'll do better in Georgia now than in recent years, though. It just seems like we've got more of a "southern" staff with connections like crazy to Georgia and Alabama. As we all know, UGA, Alabama, Auburn, and Tennessee have been raiding those states forever. 'Bout time we did some damage there too!!
 
I'm glad we finally have a Southern coaching staff again instead of a NY/Northeast based staff which we've had ever since Ross took the reins in '87. YEE-HAW!
 
Originally posted by FHstinger:
I'm glad we finally have a Southern coaching staff again instead of a NY/Northeast based staff which we've had ever since Ross took the reins in '87. YEE-HAW!
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">GOOD POINT!!!!
How could we possibly want a staff like Bobby Ross had when we can have a staff led by Hank ... err....uh... I mean 'Buck' and some of his rowdy friends?!?!

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Indian Buzz,

Thanks for the response to my post a few days ago. I have been out of town and just read your response. I appreciate your analysis and made me think about some points I had not thought of before. Thanks.
 
Indian Buzz,

As a postscript to my earlier post, I agree with your assessment of Kelly. While I think he's a good coach and appreciate what he did, I don't think he was the WR guru some make him out to be. For example, almost everyone at GT would say that we upgraded from Hixon to Kelly...but I bet the LSU fans would say they upgraded from Kelly to Hixon!!! Just look at what the LSU receivers have done since Hixon has been there (i.e. Josh Reed) and they have one of the best young WRs around in Michael Clayton.
 
Getwrecked,

That's a good point about the LSU receivers. I still remember Josh Reed's toe-down catch in the end zone in the peach bowl. That was spectacular, but unfortunately, for the opponent.

Still gonna miss Kelly though. Oh well. I really do think we upgraded on the defensive side and that's where we needed it the most.
 
From the Gwinnett Tech Club, we've learned that the regions break down like this. This is also my best guess at who the Hiver was talking about. Again this is not official, just my guesses except for Tenuta and O'Brien who are official.

All 9 assistants work GA.
2 in Dallas--Modkins and Robinson
1 in Houston--Brick
1 in FL Panhandle and Orlando--Nix
1 in Jacksonville and Tampa--Raye
1 in NJ and North Carolina--D'A
Tenuta has Ohio
O'Brien has Pennsylavania
1 in South Florida--Spencer.

My guess is that they will work other areas as well. This is just a report from the Hive and Coach Wilson. These are just total guesses, but give some insight into the Chan's thinking.
 
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