USA TODAY: First-half grades for first-year coaches in college football

[GoGATech]

No, Smelter and Waller were gone, but so too were both B-backs (Laskey and Days) and nearly the entire rotation of A-backs (Perkins, Zenon, Hill, and Bostic).

Man don't remind me of those guys. I still think we would've beaten FSU that year with Smelter. And who was the A-back that got hurt early in the game and didnt return? Zenon? That was also the same year Snoddy broke his own leg vs Clemson. Ugghhh.

 

[GTStoner]

I still don't understand how and why people make this argument at all. You can't "take an X record team and go X with them" in college because the roster changes every year. They had 18 guys graduate from the 2016 team, 3 drafted in the NFL. Three others drafted the prior season (5 of those 6 were Addazio's recruits). Sure Rhule had 2 good years at Temple but he also didn't have immediate success. It is extremely rare for a successful team to change coaching staffs and show immediate improvement. That typically only happens when a bad team changes staff, and that still isn't a good indicator of that staff yet. Saying that CGC "took a 10-4 team and made them 7-6" is the same thing as saying Rhule came in and took a bad 4-7 Temple team and made them even worse by going 2-10. Or it's like saying CPJ took an 11 win team to a losing record the very next year, twice. And that was without any changes. You simply just can't make that type of argument in college football with the amount of roster turnover.

That's fine then you can't make the argument about CGC is handicapped this year b/c he's working with CPJ recruits.

The facts are very simple; we haven't been this bad in about 25 years. It is highly likely we will go 1-11 (I'd love to be wrong). We've gone through 4 coaches since then and we've never had this bad of a year afterwards. If you want to blame this year on CPJ-that's fine, but next year is definitely on CGC. The schtick of blaming poor results on the field to the previous coach gets real old-real fast.

Say CGC is an awesome coach (that's an unproven if), sometimes awesome performers are put in bad situations-this happens all the time in business. And awesome performers learn one of several lessons when that happens. Either you weren't all that to begin with, you prove your worth and shine like a star, or you learn to never get in that situation again-i.e. your good but being great also means not putting yourself in a bad situation!

Next year we find out if CGC is a good coach or simply a great snake-oils salesman who could sell ice to an Eskimo.

 

[GTRules]

This year is almost guaranteed 1-11. Next year if it's not .500, I'd advocate heads rolling. CGC has absolutely no laurels to rest upon. He's been a head coach for 3 years. The rah, rah 404 culture, money downs crap gets real old next year if it's not a solid year. We haven't had back-to-back losing seasons since '93. If CGC came with a good long track record (5+years) proven, etc. I'd say fine give him another year, but he doesn't.

All he's really done so far is be a really, really good salesman-and give him credit he is excellent at selling-but eventually your product has to be good or I'm not buying what you're selling.

What you said in this post is completely idiotic. Unless he is convicted of raping a coed, Collins will be here 6 years minimum. That’s nothing you getting mad will change.

 

[GTRules]

I remember when Dabo first took the Clempson job I felt good every time we played them, because I knew with him on the sidelines we had a good chance. I thought he was just a salesman.

Maybe having a salesman for a head coach is a pretty good idea.