The Culture of GT Football

Tampa Jacket said:
“College” football has evolved into an completely different entity than the days of Dodd and Homer Rice. College football is as different now as telephone communication is. The era you are talking about used rotary telephones and telephone booths at gas stations for a quarter. The internet and social media didn’t even exist back then.
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Dodd:
google-free-home-phone-service-100682218-primary.idge.jpg

Homer:
et-phone-home.jpg
 
BuzzLaw said:
Has Geoff ever said what comprises the culture he’s installed?

I’m guessing one part of it is love of each other.
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Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels is credited with the quote “When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver”. In the 60’s the rock band Mission Of Burma had a song called That’s When I Reach For My Revolver. What does this have to do with this long rambling thread? I’m not sure, my mind wanders.
 
Tampa Jacket said:
I would describe the QB position as “a lot potential “. But it’s hard to call any QB “solid”

This board is about GT football. GTs reputation in engineering has always been stellar. I’m not sure what that has to do with football.
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It’s a severe recruiting disadvantage. Not saying there’s a huge universe of football players wanting to be Enginees, but have you ever wondered why when a top athlete really is interested in academics they mention Stanford, Notre Dame, etc and shun GT. We have a proud heritage of weeding out that nobody else has & our academic elitism runs people off. What if there were regular old college classes for athletes instead of whatever the hell Literature, Media … is? It’s the only major we have for athletes because most don‘t want the regular grind them out classes GT offers.
 
Liberty said:
It’s a severe recruiting disadvantage. Not saying there’s a huge universe of football players wanting to be Enginees, but have you ever wondered why when a top athlete really is interested in academics they mention Stanford, Notre Dame, etc and shun GT. We have a proud heritage of weeding out that nobody else has & our academic elitism runs people off. What if there were regular old college classes for athletes instead of whatever the hell Literature, Media … is? It’s the only major we have for athletes because most don‘t want the regular grind them out classes GT offers.
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Well this is definitely an old man post. We haven't had a culture of "weeding out" in almost two decades. Our retention numbers clearly show that nobody flunks out of GT anymore (lol). 80% of athletes at GT pursue a degree in Business Administration. On a list of reasons the football program isn't competing this is way down at the bottom, but whenever GT is failing people always reach for things like this that really don't matter much at all. To the OP's point, this is a part of our ACTUAL culture.

"There must be a problem with the school!" Nah. All that Hill stuff was valid at one time, now it's just digging up old arguments and nostalgia. We have a crap coach and GTAA is a cluster.

On the 404 and ATL stuff, there is nothing inherently wrong with it at all. Unfortunately because we lost so badly, to me the overwhelming perception among Atlanta sports fans is that GT was trying to ride the coattails of an existing solid brand (ATLANTA) and fell on its face. Badly. Atlanta is even more of a UGA town three years after this branding which only makes it look even worse. Right now this branding is tainted with three seasons of embarrassment. We're going to have to earn a different perception for it to really endear itself to anyone outside of recruits.
 
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@GT flunkout From 2005-2019 I helped with GT academic recruiting outside of Georgia. We have a lot of GT candidates decline scholarships because “GT is a ball buster” school and they’d rather go to FSU, UF, etc where they can get a degree and have a decent college experience.

GT has an academic reputation, maybe not as bad as back in the day of look left, look right, but it’s still a real deal.
 
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GT flunkout said:
Well this is definitely an old man post. We haven't had a culture of "weeding out" in almost two decades. Our retention numbers clearly show that nobody flunks out of GT anymore (lol). 80% of athletes at GT pursue a degree in Business Administration. On a list of reasons the football program isn't competing this is way down at the bottom, but whenever GT is failing people always reach for things like this that really don't matter much at all. To the OP's point, this is a part of our ACTUAL culture.
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We may not weed out anymore but we definitely still have a culture of academic elitism. If anything, it's probably worse now than it was two decades ago. I don't know how much that affects recruiting but I would be kind of surprised if it doesn't have an impact.
 
Liberty said:
It’s a severe recruiting disadvantage. Not saying there’s a huge universe of football players wanting to be Enginees, but have you ever wondered why when a top athlete really is interested in academics they mention Stanford, Notre Dame, etc and shun GT. We have a proud heritage of weeding out that nobody else has & our academic elitism runs people off. What if there were regular old college classes for athletes instead of whatever the hell Literature, Media … is? It’s the only major we have for athletes because most don‘t want the regular grind them out classes GT offers.
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I totally agree about Georgia Tech’s unwritten policy of “weeding people out”.
My high school in Georgia sent 2 valedictorians to GT, both of whom were really good students and nice people that “flunked out” of GeorgianTech. George Tech it seems has always taken pride in that sort of thing. That’s unfortunate.
I was actually pleasantly surprised when I went to medical school —-that it was the exact opposite way. The professors and graduate students there would bend over backwards to try to help you if you were struggling to learn the basics sciences your first two years. They wanted very much to keep you in if at all possible once you got in.
 
Tampa Jacket said:
I totally agree about Georgia Tech’s unwritten policy of “weeding people out”.
My high school in Georgia sent 2 valedictorians to GT, both of whom were really good students and nice people that “flunked out” of GeorgianTech. George Tech it seems has always taken pride in that sort of thing. That’s unfortunate.
I was actually pleasantly surprised when I went to medical school —-that it was the exact opposite way. The professors and graduate students there would bend over backwards to try to help you if you were struggling to learn the basics sciences your first two years. They wanted very much to keep you in if at all possible once you got in.
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My problem in college was drinking age was 19 and strippers bend over forward.
 
Tampa Jacket said:
I totally agree about Georgia Tech’s unwritten policy of “weeding people out”.
My high school in Georgia sent 2 valedictorians to GT, both of whom were really good students and nice people that “flunked out” of GeorgianTech. George Tech it seems has always taken pride in that sort of thing. That’s unfortunate.
I was actually pleasantly surprised when I went to medical school —-that it was the exact opposite way. The professors and graduate students there would bend over backwards to try to help you if you were struggling to learn the basics sciences your first two years. They wanted very much to keep you in if at all possible once you got in.
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As flunkout said, I think you guys are behind the times. We are basically the same as U[sic]GA with regards to retention these days.

U[sic]GA:

First year retention rate: 87%
Four year completion rate: 69% (nice)
Six year completion rate: 87%

GT:

First year retention rate: 97%
Four year completion rate: (Not disclosed in GT paper I found -- probably lower because so many students co-op)
Six year completion rate: 87%

Sources:

https://news.uga.edu/uga-completion-rates-2019/

https://oue.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/GEORGIA TECH CCG STATUS REPORT 2019 FINAL.pdf
 
Tech used to love being Parris Island for engineering students. Survival of the fittest and the weed out was a good thing. That had to change when rating schools on the quality measures like retention became important.

But Tech grads were always hard to recruit and retain in "regular" engineering jobs. Its like the BS Eng degree was just an audition for management positions in the company and if grads didn't get promoted in a few years they were job hopping off to the big city for career progression. Starting your own business meant you had failed in your chosen educational field within corporate America.

With the demise of corporate loyalty (both ways) and the decline of manufacturing base in our country which seemed to employ most grads at the time, now the BS Eng from Tech just seems like a first step in qualifying for a post-graduate degree. So before you were weeded out by flunking out and now you are weeded out by not getting into grad school at Tech. That's not a great culture to aspire too IMHO.

Georgie's All American LB this year carried a 4.0 average in Mech Eng. What does that tell you? No football player who wants a chance to play in the NFL but also wants an Eng degree is every going to want to come to Tech unless he is a freakin' genious.
 
ramblinwise1 said:
Tech used to love being Parris Island for engineering students. Survival of the fittest and the weed out was a good thing. That had to change when rating schools on the quality measures like retention became important.

But Tech grads were always hard to recruit and retain in "regular" engineering jobs. Its like the BS Eng degree was just an audition for management positions in the company and if grads didn't get promoted in a few years they were job hopping off to the big city for career progression. Starting your own business meant you had failed in your chosen educational field within corporate America.

With the demise of corporate loyalty (both ways) and the decline of manufacturing base in our country which seemed to employ most grads at the time, now the BS Eng from Tech just seems like a first step in qualifying for a post-graduate degree. So before you were weeded out by flunking out and now you are weeded out by not getting into grad school at Tech. That's not a great culture to aspire too IMHO.

Georgie's All American LB this year carried a 4.0 average in Mech Eng. What does that tell you? No football player who wants a chance to play in the NFL but also wants an Eng degree is every going to want to come to Tech unless he is a freakin' genious.
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It's engineering at UGA. I know what it tells me.
 
CornerBlitz said:
CGC says he has established the culture and is now ready to coach. I agree culture is important..whether in business, sports, community or any aspect of life. This got me thinking about what actually is the culture of GT football.
I might offer that we have one of the most consistent cultures in college football.
I would say our culture is this…we earn everything and declare nothing. We demand academic performance. We focus on fundamentals, are sly on game day, and squeeze every ounce of value from our players. We honor our commitments and don’t try to cheat the system.

That said, what say you? I’m genuinely curious to hear the opinions of other GT folks.
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I would say that a huge amount of non-factory schools would say this is their culture as well.
It also doesn’t take three ööööing years to ‘establish a culture’ especially in something as totalitarian as a football team. As the late Al Davis said, “Just win baby”
 
Culture is set. 100-0 and all red stadium in last home game - check. On to coaching
 
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