If our final three are Key, Chadwell, and BOB then I am satisfied with that.
The doom and gloom about BOB is dumb — Bama’s offense has been very good this year, despite losing a number of players on that side of the ball. Their issue the last couple years has been on defense. Enough with people pointing at Bama fans not liking him — we are looking for a HC, not an OC, and they’re just as irrational and stupid as our fans and every other school’s fans. BOB would bring a lot of experience to Tech at a time where that is needed - PSU HC after its worst period ever (sound familiar?), NFL HC, even NFL GM (yeah, objectively awful at it — but I’m positive he learned a lot). I’m sure 99% of reasonable people would agree on one thing at least — his coaching network is the deepest among these three and is most likely to give us the most experienced and capable overall staff. Yes, this would be the most Gailey hire, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing considering where we are today. Gailey took several years to understand recruiting since he came from the NFL but he really started getting it at the end — BOB would require no such grace period.
Chadwell is a system coach, and we have a school that has proven that system coaches can do well here by mitigating our recruiting disadvantages. His system is far more attractive to kids with NFL aspirations, which plugs that huge hole CPJ had. He has HC experience which I think is huge, even at a smaller program. He’s a little younger, more up and coming — very similar to what you see around the country with programs who turn it around and become contenders. Option fans are happy, non-option fans are happy because he slings it, anti-BOB fans are happy… it’s the most unifying option, and my preference.
Key has just 8 games of HC experience, and it would be too large a risk at this point of his career for us to hand the keys to him, especially considering the precarious position our program and financials are in. He was a big part of clown’s staff, the darkest period in Tech history. His position coaching group was the worst or second-worst on the field all 4 years. All of that is easy to forget given he got our kids to put effort into their play — but it was just 2 months ago. I think Brent Key is a good man and he loves Georgia Tech, but I hope we have learned that is not a job qualification by now. His interim job should land him a G5 head coaching position but if it doesn’t, his career was helped tremendously by it - and I would love to see him back at Tech one day, but not right now. That sucks to say, and I don’t envy Batt to have to say it, given the job he did and that he’s an alum - and great player here. If I’m wrong and Key somehow gets the job, I’ll support him. But he will have the shortest leash with our own fans, and he should - he wouldn’t be considered for any other P5 job right now because he’s just not quite ready (though i believe he will be with more experience, one day).
