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

18in32

Petard Hoister
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
27,979
You are right. There, you got it.... do not expect to hear that again. I would have liked a little more belief from you. I’m certainly not one of the folks dogging Johnson and I also will not be against Coach Collins at this point. Everyone has a belief in their direction or narrative. Coach Collins has his and I am willing to give the faith he deserves. Your narrative is the sweat hanging on my ballsack.
I don't know what you're talking about but if you agree with me you must be right
 

daBuzz

Dodd-Like
Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
35,005
"Worse wins" – plural?

This doesn't feel anything like 2015 to me. Most obviously, we the fan base were still coasting on the groovy vibes of 2014. There was a deeper reservoir of goodwill.

But in terms of results, we crushed the lower tier opponents by 63 pts and 55 pts, and then had the miracle victory over Top 10 FSU. And six of our nine losses were by one score or less. We were 63d in total scoring offense – this year we're 123d. What we're watching on the field this year is much, much uglier than 2015. That year was frustrating; this year is embarrassing (so far).
That year was 'frustrating'? Frustrating?

Bull. That year was embarrassing and some of the worst coaching I've ever witnessed, as well. Frigging Chan Gailey never missed going to a bowl at GT. CHAN. GAILEY!

We were coming off an 11-3 season in which we cracked the top 10, beat Georgia and barely lost to FSU in the ACCCG. Also, we returned Justin Thomas as starting QB. Yet somehow we managed to win THREE games...with two of them being Alcorn State and the other being Tulane. Everyone goes "But Florida State" like that one Kick Six makes up for ending an 18 year bowl streak.

Want to know how bad it was? Read this article and see what people were saying about our potential and the expectations by some for that year. And that team had talent and experience...something this team is severely lacking in both cases.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...221/georgia-tech-2015-preview-schedule-roster
 

RamblinWreck92

Dodd-Like
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Messages
12,950
That year was 'frustrating'? Frustrating?

Bull. That year was embarrassing and some of the worst coaching I've ever witnessed, as well. Frigging Chan Gailey never missed going to a bowl at GT. CHAN. GAILEY!

We were coming off an 11-3 season in which we cracked the top 10, beat Georgia and barely lost to FSU in the ACCCG. Also, we returned Justin Thomas as starting QB. Yet somehow we managed to win THREE games...with two of them being Alcorn State and the other being Tulane. Everyone goes "But Florida State" like that one Kick Six makes up for ending an 18 year bowl streak.

Want to know how bad it was? Read this article and see what people were saying about our potential and the expectations by some for that year. And that team had talent and experience...something this team is severely lacking in both cases.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...221/georgia-tech-2015-preview-schedule-roster
Agreed - 2015 was an unexpected disaster and embarrassing to go from the Mighty Orange Bowl Champs to a laughingstock in the span of a season. Interesting that the same excuses that derailed 2015 are ignored by the CGC haters in 2019, with a far-less experienced team.
 

18in32

Petard Hoister
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
27,979
That year was 'frustrating'? Frustrating?

Bull. That year was embarrassing and some of the worst coaching I've ever witnessed, as well. Frigging Chan Gailey never missed going to a bowl at GT. CHAN. GAILEY!

We were coming off an 11-3 season in which we cracked the top 10, beat Georgia and barely lost to FSU in the ACCCG. Also, we returned Justin Thomas as starting QB. Yet somehow we managed to win THREE games...with two of them being Alcorn State and the other being Tulane. Everyone goes "But Florida State" like that one Kick Six makes up for ending an 18 year bowl streak.

Want to know how bad it was? Read this article and see what people were saying about our potential and the expectations by some for that year. And that team had talent and experience...something this team is severely lacking in both cases.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...221/georgia-tech-2015-preview-schedule-roster
YMMV
 

Deke

Everybody relax, I'm here.
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
6,758
One thing that I find kind of disconcerting is, despite being on the losing side of the spread every game this year, how accurate it has been in all but one of our losses. I'm not saying that's indicative of anything, it's just kind of unfamiliar feeling.
 

GoGATech

Big Dummy
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
Messages
11,811
One thing that I find kind of disconcerting is, despite being on the losing side of the spread every game this year, how accurate it has been in all but one of our losses. I'm not saying that's indicative of anything, it's just kind of unfamiliar feeling.
There have been a couple that ended up close to the spread, but I don't think it's as accurate as you are remembering. As of now, we are averaging -8.6 points vs the spread, meaning we need to be getting an average of 8.6 more points than we have been getting to push. That's not good. Bottom 10 as a matter of fact. FWIW, Nebraska, Rutgers, VPI, and Vandy are all worse than we are.
 

Deke

Everybody relax, I'm here.
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
6,758
There have been a couple that ended up close to the spread, but I don't think it's as accurate as you are remembering. As of now, we are averaging -8.6 points vs the spread, meaning we need to be getting an average of 8.6 more points than we have been getting to push. That's not good. Bottom 10 as a matter of fact. FWIW, Nebraska, Rutgers, VPI, and Vandy are all worse than we are.
Fair enough, I'm mainly just remembering Duke and Clemson.
 

GTStoner

Varsity Lurker
Joined
Jan 8, 2007
Messages
15
Agreed - 2015 was an unexpected disaster and embarrassing to go from the Mighty Orange Bowl Champs to a laughingstock in the span of a season. Interesting that the same excuses that derailed 2015 are ignored by the CGC haters in 2019, with a far-less experienced team.
The big difference between 2015 and this year is that even in 2015 we were competitive. We lost 5 games by a touchdown or less. We only got blown-out (+14pts) that season by Clemson and Miami. We could have easily won 2-3 more games that year with any bit of luck.

We've been blown-out this year by:
Temple, UNC, Duke and Clemson.

2015 was bad, but 2019 is an order of magnitude worse, we aren't even competitive now. Luck would not have changed the outcome of any game this year except Citadel.

CGC gets a mulligan this year-but next year if he doesn't show some serious improvement it will be a track record that he's a bad coach.
He took a 10-4 temple team and they went 7-6 the next year and he improved it by 1 win the next year.

He took a 7-6 GT team and will most likely make it 1-11 the next year. If he only improves it by 1 win next year . . .well heads should roll.

Hopefully things get turned around, hopefully he has success. Hopefully we stop getting blown out and are at least competitive this year . . .
 

GTLiebs

Dodd-Like
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
10,233
He took a 7-6 GT team and will most likely make it 1-11 the next year. If he only improves it by 1 win next year . . .well heads should roll.

Hopefully things get turned around, hopefully he has success. Hopefully we stop getting blown out and are at least competitive this year . . .
I'm not certain Paul Johnson would of made a bowl this year, though he would of been more competitive because that whole system was designed to make things more competitive.

I don't know if any heads should roll even after next year. If we say Collins gets a mulligan this year cause of the transition, is the solution to another bad year more transition?
 

Yukonwreck

Dodd-Like
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
6,599
Agreed - 2015 was an unexpected disaster and embarrassing to go from the Mighty Orange Bowl Champs to a laughingstock in the span of a season. Interesting that the same excuses that derailed 2015 are ignored by the CGC haters in 2019, with a far-less experienced team.
There are no CGC haters. But he has done nothing since the actual games have started to instill optimism.
 

GoGATech

Big Dummy
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
Messages
11,811
He took a 10-4 temple team and they went 7-6 the next year and he improved it by 1 win the next year.
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.
 

GoGATech

Big Dummy
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
Messages
11,811
I'm not certain Paul Johnson would of made a bowl this year, though he would of been more competitive because that whole system was designed to make things more competitive.

I don't know if any heads should roll even after next year. If we say Collins gets a mulligan this year cause of the transition, is the solution to another bad year more transition?
I would hope we can improve the end results next year, but with the schedule we have and still being in the early stages of a transition, we may not see the biggest improvement in the W/L column. I think we will have to make that judgement based on the product we see on the field. Are we more competitive? Are we staying in tougher games longer? Are we keeping games closer? Are we not making as many mental mistakes (by coaches and players)? Things like that. If we come out next year and look exactly the same, then yes I would say something is not working.
 

GoGATech

Big Dummy
Joined
Aug 26, 2008
Messages
11,811
There are no CGC haters. But he has done nothing since the actual games have started to instill optimism.
Not sure what exactly you are looking for yet aside from wins. We have been slowly improving every week, and that is a reason to be optimistic.

Offensive yards by game:
294
257
301
307
321
379

Graham played most of Temple game and started the last 2. Those three games went:
100yd 0TD/1INT
171yd 2TD/2INT
206yd 1TD/0INT

Defense has shown flashes but has yet to put it all together for 4 complete quarters, but they are also having to be on the field more than the offense. If our offense can continue to improve and at least sustain more drives and flip the field, that will take some of the pressure off the defense.
 

jacket67

Dodd-Like
Joined
Aug 25, 2008
Messages
15,393
I don't care how CGC grades out on our field performance this season. I care more about his performance with recruiting and culture-building. It took until Dabo Swinney's 4th year for Clemson to win 10 games (they went 6-7 in his 3rd season), but since then, they have won double digits every year. And that was with all the inherent advantages that Clemson has.
 

RamblinWreck92

Dodd-Like
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Messages
12,950
The big difference between 2015 and this year is that even in 2015 we were competitive. We lost 5 games by a touchdown or less. We only got blown-out (+14pts) that season by Clemson and Miami. We could have easily won 2-3 more games that year with any bit of luck.

We've been blown-out this year by:
Temple, UNC, Duke and Clemson.

2015 was bad, but 2019 is an order of magnitude worse, we aren't even competitive now. Luck would not have changed the outcome of any game this year except Citadel.

CGC gets a mulligan this year-but next year if he doesn't show some serious improvement it will be a track record that he's a bad coach.
He took a 10-4 temple team and they went 7-6 the next year and he improved it by 1 win the next year.

He took a 7-6 GT team and will most likely make it 1-11 the next year. If he only improves it by 1 win next year . . .well heads should roll.

Hopefully things get turned around, hopefully he has success. Hopefully we stop getting blown out and are at least competitive this year . . .
no moral victories though. We looked like dogshit for almost all of 2015.

The 2019 team bares little resemblance to the 2018 team. Conversely, 2015 was the exact same team, except at the WR position and Mason.

Also, as has been pointed out, plenty foresaw greatness for us in 2015. Literally no one predicted that for 2019.
 

Ed Sawyer

I eventually banged Lucy Matthews.
Joined
Jul 26, 2014
Messages
687
Conversely, 2015 was the exact same team, except at the WR position and Mason.
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).
 
Top