Worst head coaching hires of the 21st-century

gtleviathan said:
I mean, yeah. That's obviously what happened. Our current coach was hired for the opposite effect. :dunno:
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At the risk of profoundly stating the obvious here...

Many thought his resume was good. It was not particularly. Too much hopping around, IMPO.

Sure, almost all young coaches hop around - you almost have to in order to get ahead. But too often they hop because either the guy who hired them was replaced or they themselves were replaced. Another reason is they are simply an opportunist looking to get ahead and just job hop up the chain. I would say that it usually takes 4-5 years to build a program, be that as HC or as an assistant coach. You learn most of your craft over those 4 to 5-year time spans. I would suspect that a coach who habitually job hops isn't really learning the lessons he should be. It's easy to get hired above your competency level that way. So, what was it that Stan (or anyone else) saw about his resume that impressed him? TFG was at 14 different places in 25 years after graduation - less than 2 years per.

Stan has been around and should have known these things. Was he impressed with his coaching or his marketing ideas? Was TFG hired to pivot the program regardless of on-field success? I'm really wondering these things. Maybe I'm slow on the uptake.

Key, by comparison, had no HC experience, but after graduation, spent 2 years at Tech as a GA, 1 year at W Carolina, then 11 years in various roles at UCF under GOL while they built that program. He then spent 3 years under Saban before being hired away by TFG to return to GA Tech. Key was at 4 different places in 18 years before coming home to Tech.

I dunno. Like I typed... maybe I'm just slow.
 
If Collins had been successful, we would all be eating up the Money Down, 404, ATL, etc... and talking about how genius it all was.

I hope that it is not lost on everyone GT needs to do a much better job of marketing itself and expanding the fan base. Hype matters, but it does need to be backed up with good football.

The one thing that Coach Prime has done exceptionally at CU without any room for debate is that there far more people watching CU football than there have been in decades. To put into that in perspective.....CU has single games where more people watched them than have watched GT in all 6 of its games combined so far this year. CU had 3.29 million people watch them lose to Stanford. 7.26 million people watch CU play TCU.....8.73 million vs Nebraska....9.3 million vs Colorado St....10.03 million vs Oregon....7.24 million vs USC
 
JTS said:
If Collins had been successful, we would all be eating up the Money Down, 404, ATL, etc... and talking about how genius it all was.

I hope that it is not lost on everyone GT needs to do a much better job of marketing itself and expanding the fan base. Hype matters, but it does need to be backed up with good football.

The one thing that Coach Prime has done exceptionally at CU without any room for debate is that there far more people watching CU football than there have been in decades. To put into that in perspective.....CU has single games where more people watched them than have watched GT in all 6 of its games combined so far this year. CU had 3.29 million people watch them lose to Stanford. 7.26 million people watch CU play TCU.....8.73 million vs Nebraska....9.3 million vs Colorado St....10.03 million vs Oregon....7.24 million vs USC
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He had success at Temple. Down from Rhule, but success on the field and recruiting. They flushed money down and area coding as soon as they could.
 
stinger78 said:
How many of you have that pit in your stomach because you’ve come to realize that TFG was hired because he and Stan agreed on rebranding and marketing concepts?
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Kinda knew that one right away.

Is it safe to go back to Waffle House now? or has the half-life of Collins' nuclear toxin not yet expired?
 
JTS said:
If Collins had been successful, we would all be eating up the Money Down, 404, ATL, etc... and talking about how genius it all was.

I hope that it is not lost on everyone GT needs to do a much better job of marketing itself and expanding the fan base. Hype matters, but it does need to be backed up with good football.

The one thing that Coach Prime has done exceptionally at CU without any room for debate is that there far more people watching CU football than there have been in decades. To put into that in perspective.....CU has single games where more people watched them than have watched GT in all 6 of its games combined so far this year. CU had 3.29 million people watch them lose to Stanford. 7.26 million people watch CU play TCU.....8.73 million vs Nebraska....9.3 million vs Colorado St....10.03 million vs Oregon....7.24 million vs USC
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Two things:
1. If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his butt every time he hopped.
2. Winning matters more than hype and that ultimately applies to Deion, too.
 
JTS said:
If Collins had been successful, we would all be eating up the Money Down, 404, ATL, etc... and talking about how genius it all was.
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That's a mighty big if, Kipling.
But, as I suspected at the time and as history has shown, Clown was never going to be successful. As a good high school coach told me, gimmicks are fine now but when you don't win, people ain't gonna give a öööö about the gimmicks. And Clown had no plan on winning. Just a plan on gimmicks. It was kind of like watching the South Park underwear gnomes try their hand at coaching, you know?
 
JTS said:
The one thing that Coach Prime has done exceptionally at CU without any room for debate is that there far more people watching CU football than there have been in decades.
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People are watching Deion. When he goes, and he will, viewership will go with him. People followed JSU when Deion was there. Most college football fans couldn't tell you what JSU's current record is.
 
When I should be doing my own work, I wanted to check some timelines.

Key was at Western Carolina for a year with Clown, and they were at UCF for a few years together. TStan came to UCF after Clown left but he and Key had overlap of 3-4 years.

Also wanted to check the timeline with Tyson Summers at UCF and he was there two years with Key and TStan. Though word got back to me from someone with a good source at UCF that Summers, as a coach, was a "joke."
 
stinger78 said:
At the risk of profoundly stating the obvious here...

Many thought his resume was good. It was not particularly. Too much hopping around, IMPO.

Sure, almost all young coaches hop around - you almost have to in order to get ahead. But too often they hop because either the guy who hired them was replaced or they themselves were replaced. Another reason is they are simply an opportunist looking to get ahead and just job hop up the chain. I would say that it usually takes 4-5 years to build a program, be that as HC or as an assistant coach. You learn most of your craft over those 4 to 5-year time spans. I would suspect that a coach who habitually job hops isn't really learning the lessons he should be. It's easy to get hired above your competency level that way. So, what was it that Stan (or anyone else) saw about his resume that impressed him? TFG was at 14 different places in 25 years after graduation - less than 2 years per.

Stan has been around and should have known these things. Was he impressed with his coaching or his marketing ideas? Was TFG hired to pivot the program regardless of on-field success? I'm really wondering these things. Maybe I'm slow on the uptake.

Key, by comparison, had no HC experience, but after graduation, spent 2 years at Tech as a GA, 1 year at W Carolina, then 11 years in various roles at UCF under GOL while they built that program. He then spent 3 years under Saban before being hired away by TFG to return to GA Tech. Key was at 4 different places in 18 years before coming home to Tech.

I dunno. Like I typed... maybe I'm just slow.
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Point well taken on the hopping around being a red flag. But I think it's incredibly clear (both now and at the time) that the "opportunity" he was taking advantage of in hopping was his perceived recruiting prowess. (Which is fairly interchangeable with "branding" in this context, imho.) The 2008 GT recruiting class was what got him on at Alabama, right? And he rode that reputation as far as it would take him. Really the only argument I remember at the time regarding his coaching bona fides was his "Minister of Mayhem" persona but even that was more of a "brand" than anything substantive. I don't remember anyone ever pointing out some notable improvement in any school's defense when he came in.

But I certainly don't have any special knowledge of Stansbury's thought processes so maybe there was some other coaching data he was using to justify the hire...
 
gtleviathan said:
Point well taken on the hopping around being a red flag. But I think it's incredibly clear (both now and at the time) that the "opportunity" he was taking advantage of in hopping was his perceived recruiting prowess. (Which is fairly interchangeable with "branding" in this context, imho.) The 2008 GT recruiting class was what got him on at Alabama, right? And he rode that reputation as far as it would take him. Really the only argument I remember at the time regarding his coaching bona fides was his "Minister of Mayhem" persona but even that was more of a "brand" than anything substantive. I don't remember anyone ever pointing out some notable improvement in any school's defense when he came in.

But I certainly don't have any special knowledge of Stansbury's thought processes so maybe there was some other coaching data he was using to justify the hire...
Click to expand...
Also, that class was as much Gif Smith as TFG.
 
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