-This was quite a season for me. I started out feeling less of an emotional committment to Tech sports. I tried to rally my enthusiasm in the middle of the season. By the end, I couldn't. The main factor was that my son, with whom I have attended almost all Tech games for many, many years, decided he didn't want to go anymore. That took the heart out of me. I couldn't possibly go without him. It was the time with him more than the games themselves that made going so special for me. Of course, this is just a personal matter, and couldn't affect anybody else. I just wanted to share it. As he grew older, our relationship got strained. I guess he's disappointed in me for a lot of reasons. Still, we always had those Tech football games that we enjoyed going to together. But when he decided he didn't want to go with me anymore, it just really hurt me, even though we did keep watching on TV. If he had kept going, I would have kept going regardless of how bad the team was just to spend time with him. But with him not wanting to spend that time with me anymore, my heart just wasn't in it. In fact, it broke my heart. It's really sad for me. And for you folks who call me a "crybaby" for saying that, I just hope it never happens to you.
-As for the team, things look very bad to me. Coach Gailey has no credibility with me any more. He said he thought this game would be decided in the final two minutes and that our team was ready to play. Obviously, he didn't know what he was talking about. And worse, he didn't know what his team was thinking about. His game plan was terrible. He seemed to create situations that were likely to produce disasterous results, like using three quarterbacks in the first three series, and starting the game around the Tech ten yard line with that trick play, if you could call it that. Obviously, he can't coach consistently. We've been playing Georgia for about 95 years, and no Tech coach, not Bill Lewis or Bill Curry or anybody else, ever managed to let them beat us this badly. Plus, since he didn't know what he was talking about with respect to how ready the team was and how close the game was going to be, I don't have one reason to believe he knows what he's talking about on the subject of recruiting, either. He is to football what Dwayne Morrison was to basketball: a good man who was not able to consistently win games or recruit players.
-People say it was just a loss. Well, it wasn't just a loss at all. There's a huge difference between losing and being poorly coached. We were just unsound and unprepared in our biggest game of the year. I think we'll be worse next year. We're losing some good players and we're not going to recruit very well. As long as Gailey is there, we'll just keep deteriorating. Poor recruiting class after poor recruiting class, and then poor coaching on top of that. To all the people who point to the wins over Virginia and NC State, I can just point out that the best you can say about Gailey is that he's inconsistent, and that's not what I'm looking for in a coach. Still, those slim wins are overwhelmed by the historical magnitude of the Georgia loss. For all the people saying he kept the team together, I say he didn't. The test of that theory was the Georgia game, and he not only didn't keep them together, he couldn't even get them to show up. And next year every team in the ACC except Tech will improve. I would not be surprised if we come in last in the ACC.
-This bowl speculation is pitiful. We're sitting here waiting to see which one of the most insignificant bowls in America will be stuck with us. It doesn't matter to me. I'm sure we'll lose wherever we play. A bowl is supposed to be a reward for the players. And I respect all our players and coaches as people, but it galls me that my money is being used by the GTAA to reward them with a vacation to anywhere. Reward for what? Making Tech the laughinstock of America as Georgia's whipping boy? They don't deserve a reward. They deserve to sit at home and ask themselves if they gave 100% against Georgia.
-Contrary to what some people say, the sports program does belong to the fans. If we didn't contribute, buy tickets and show up for games, there wouldn't be a sports program. We give the players a wonderful scholarship to come and play at Tech. That's a tremendous benefit they get. They get that whether they win or try or get injured or whatever they do. They don't deserve anything over and above that when they come out flat for the Georgia game and get totally humiliated. Sorry, but they don't deserve anything. And don't tell me the seniors deserve the bowl trip. They've already had three bowl trips. If they wanted to go to a meaningless bowl game, they should have played better in a very meanigful Georgia game. And as for the benefits of three more weeks of practice... with this coaching staff, the less time the players spend with them the better.
-Of course, we will go to a bowl. Have fun, everybody. We will be either murdered by Virginia Tech in Charlotte or murdered by a Pac 10 team in Seattle. Who cares which? Maybe you do, but I don't.
-The future will unfold like this. Gailey has proven that he can't coach consistently or recruit. If you haven't figured that out yet, you will. He should be fired, but Braine's ego will not allow him to do what is in the best interest of Tech and fire him. He won't get fired next year either, because the stadium will be full, despite a losing record, due to us having our best home schedule in years. But after he has a terrible season in front of a half full stadium in 2004, he'll be gone. Of course, his phantom recruiting philosophy will mean he'll leave almost no talent behind. On the bright side for him, he will take home about three million dollars for ruining Tech football.
-Now if you can get excited about girls' volleyball and ice hockey enough to offset your regrets about the football program, I'm happy for you. But it doesn't work for me. Basketball and the other sports are the icing on the cake for me, but football is the cake. And without the cake, the icing just makes me feel sick to my stomach.
-I know that only two things could fire me up about Tech sports, rejoining the SEC or getting O'Leary back as coach. But I know nobody agrees with me on that.
-College football is flawed. There is no level playing field. Coach Gailey will find that those players academically good enough to pass at Tech and athletically good enough to "win the ACC and beat Georgia every year" just don't exist. If Tech doesn't do something to make it easier to get players into school and to graduate them, our football program is doomed. You may not like hearing it, but you will see it's true. And to you "don't compromise on the degree requirements" purists, you can have your way, but you can't have your way and do very well in Div 1-A football.
-I have little hope that this football program will ever get back on its feet. It's sad, but it's true. Go ahead and post all your replies saying I'm not a loyal fan and I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't care. I believe that time will prove that I'm right. Oh yes, don't forget to tell me not to let the door hit me on the way out and about how you're glad I'm leaving because you'll be getting better tickets. Trust me, in 2004 you'll be able to sit wherever you want to.
-I'll never understand how a school can recruit great in basketball and terrible in football when the same academic requirements apply to everybody. I believe it's due to the coaches, but I'm sure most of you can't see that at all.
-I don't like it that it's come to this for me. I really loved Tech sports for longer than many of the people who will attack me have been alive, and probably loved Tech more, too. But like some wonderful marriages, this one has come to an end. Irreconcilable differences. The people running Tech aren't interested in what I think, and I don't have any faith in what they're doing.
-Braine is too proud to admit he made a mistake, poor Chan Gailey is totally clueless, and I'm completely disgusted and discouraged.
-And I won't be posting any replies to this post. Don't want to monopolize the board like I did with my SEC argument on The Hive. So criticize me to your hearts' content. The great thing about the message boards is that you get to get your feelings off your chest and it's all gone in a day. Like Lincoln said, "Few people will remember what we say here..." or something like that.
-I admire all of you who are still gung-ho for Tech and believe Chan will get it all fixed if we give him time. Tech needs people like you, and Braine is counting on your money. I'm afraid he won't be getting any more of mine.
-As for the team, things look very bad to me. Coach Gailey has no credibility with me any more. He said he thought this game would be decided in the final two minutes and that our team was ready to play. Obviously, he didn't know what he was talking about. And worse, he didn't know what his team was thinking about. His game plan was terrible. He seemed to create situations that were likely to produce disasterous results, like using three quarterbacks in the first three series, and starting the game around the Tech ten yard line with that trick play, if you could call it that. Obviously, he can't coach consistently. We've been playing Georgia for about 95 years, and no Tech coach, not Bill Lewis or Bill Curry or anybody else, ever managed to let them beat us this badly. Plus, since he didn't know what he was talking about with respect to how ready the team was and how close the game was going to be, I don't have one reason to believe he knows what he's talking about on the subject of recruiting, either. He is to football what Dwayne Morrison was to basketball: a good man who was not able to consistently win games or recruit players.
-People say it was just a loss. Well, it wasn't just a loss at all. There's a huge difference between losing and being poorly coached. We were just unsound and unprepared in our biggest game of the year. I think we'll be worse next year. We're losing some good players and we're not going to recruit very well. As long as Gailey is there, we'll just keep deteriorating. Poor recruiting class after poor recruiting class, and then poor coaching on top of that. To all the people who point to the wins over Virginia and NC State, I can just point out that the best you can say about Gailey is that he's inconsistent, and that's not what I'm looking for in a coach. Still, those slim wins are overwhelmed by the historical magnitude of the Georgia loss. For all the people saying he kept the team together, I say he didn't. The test of that theory was the Georgia game, and he not only didn't keep them together, he couldn't even get them to show up. And next year every team in the ACC except Tech will improve. I would not be surprised if we come in last in the ACC.
-This bowl speculation is pitiful. We're sitting here waiting to see which one of the most insignificant bowls in America will be stuck with us. It doesn't matter to me. I'm sure we'll lose wherever we play. A bowl is supposed to be a reward for the players. And I respect all our players and coaches as people, but it galls me that my money is being used by the GTAA to reward them with a vacation to anywhere. Reward for what? Making Tech the laughinstock of America as Georgia's whipping boy? They don't deserve a reward. They deserve to sit at home and ask themselves if they gave 100% against Georgia.
-Contrary to what some people say, the sports program does belong to the fans. If we didn't contribute, buy tickets and show up for games, there wouldn't be a sports program. We give the players a wonderful scholarship to come and play at Tech. That's a tremendous benefit they get. They get that whether they win or try or get injured or whatever they do. They don't deserve anything over and above that when they come out flat for the Georgia game and get totally humiliated. Sorry, but they don't deserve anything. And don't tell me the seniors deserve the bowl trip. They've already had three bowl trips. If they wanted to go to a meaningless bowl game, they should have played better in a very meanigful Georgia game. And as for the benefits of three more weeks of practice... with this coaching staff, the less time the players spend with them the better.
-Of course, we will go to a bowl. Have fun, everybody. We will be either murdered by Virginia Tech in Charlotte or murdered by a Pac 10 team in Seattle. Who cares which? Maybe you do, but I don't.
-The future will unfold like this. Gailey has proven that he can't coach consistently or recruit. If you haven't figured that out yet, you will. He should be fired, but Braine's ego will not allow him to do what is in the best interest of Tech and fire him. He won't get fired next year either, because the stadium will be full, despite a losing record, due to us having our best home schedule in years. But after he has a terrible season in front of a half full stadium in 2004, he'll be gone. Of course, his phantom recruiting philosophy will mean he'll leave almost no talent behind. On the bright side for him, he will take home about three million dollars for ruining Tech football.
-Now if you can get excited about girls' volleyball and ice hockey enough to offset your regrets about the football program, I'm happy for you. But it doesn't work for me. Basketball and the other sports are the icing on the cake for me, but football is the cake. And without the cake, the icing just makes me feel sick to my stomach.
-I know that only two things could fire me up about Tech sports, rejoining the SEC or getting O'Leary back as coach. But I know nobody agrees with me on that.
-College football is flawed. There is no level playing field. Coach Gailey will find that those players academically good enough to pass at Tech and athletically good enough to "win the ACC and beat Georgia every year" just don't exist. If Tech doesn't do something to make it easier to get players into school and to graduate them, our football program is doomed. You may not like hearing it, but you will see it's true. And to you "don't compromise on the degree requirements" purists, you can have your way, but you can't have your way and do very well in Div 1-A football.
-I have little hope that this football program will ever get back on its feet. It's sad, but it's true. Go ahead and post all your replies saying I'm not a loyal fan and I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't care. I believe that time will prove that I'm right. Oh yes, don't forget to tell me not to let the door hit me on the way out and about how you're glad I'm leaving because you'll be getting better tickets. Trust me, in 2004 you'll be able to sit wherever you want to.
-I'll never understand how a school can recruit great in basketball and terrible in football when the same academic requirements apply to everybody. I believe it's due to the coaches, but I'm sure most of you can't see that at all.
-I don't like it that it's come to this for me. I really loved Tech sports for longer than many of the people who will attack me have been alive, and probably loved Tech more, too. But like some wonderful marriages, this one has come to an end. Irreconcilable differences. The people running Tech aren't interested in what I think, and I don't have any faith in what they're doing.
-Braine is too proud to admit he made a mistake, poor Chan Gailey is totally clueless, and I'm completely disgusted and discouraged.
-And I won't be posting any replies to this post. Don't want to monopolize the board like I did with my SEC argument on The Hive. So criticize me to your hearts' content. The great thing about the message boards is that you get to get your feelings off your chest and it's all gone in a day. Like Lincoln said, "Few people will remember what we say here..." or something like that.
-I admire all of you who are still gung-ho for Tech and believe Chan will get it all fixed if we give him time. Tech needs people like you, and Braine is counting on your money. I'm afraid he won't be getting any more of mine.
