November 21, 2007
Is Chan still the man at Tech?
Rumor out of Atlanta is that Georgia Tech football coach Chan Gailey will be fired at the end of the season - a move that has been sought by many boosters and fans over the past two seasons.
Jeff Schultz of the AJC notes that Gailey and Tech AD Dan Radakovich sat at seperate tables, back to back, facing away from one another during a lunch this week - just another public signal of the rift between the AD and the coach.
Radakovich has been non-committal on Gailey's future and Schultz wonders if an upset of rival Georgia this weekend would save Gailey.
At this point you wonder if even an upset Saturday would sway Radakovich to conclude that Gailey is the guy he wants for this program. It wouldn’t seem there are many people on the fence about Gailey. Fans are pretty well entrenched on one side or the other.
But others are making the case that Gailey has accomplished as much or more than previous Georgia Tech coaches and should be kept.
But there's no way Gailey should be fired after this season. The Yellow Jackets carry a 7-4 record into Saturday's game and finished 4-4 in the ACC. That means Gailey has led the Yellow Jackets to a winning record for the sixth straight season overall, and they have finished at least .500 in the ACC in every one of Gailey's seasons.The beloved George O'Leary couldn't match the six straight winning seasons (Georgia Tech was 5-6 his second season), and even Bobby Ross only had three winning seasons in his five at the helm, although he did lead Georgia Tech to the 1990 co-national title.
In fact, before this season, the Yellow Jackets had not had six straight winning seasons since Bobby Dodd himself accomplished the feat from 1961-66. That says a lot about the program. It's not bad, but it's certainly not great, and Gailey has done a pretty good job with what he has to work with.
There's some truth to the "what Gailey has to work with" argument. College football may be king in the South, but the Yellow Jackets are often page three news in Atlanta. And it's no secret that Georgia Tech is a heck of a good school -- with academic standards above the NCAA minimums. Those two factors have made recruiting difficult at Georgia Tech. Why would a five-star player want to play for a team who's own local paper doesn't notice them? That's the reality in Atlanta - it's a pro sports town, plain and simple.
It's easy for many Georgia Tech fans to want to compare the Yellow Jackets to the Georiga Bulldogs but that might not be a fair comparison. GT lacks the resources that Georgia enjoys. Bulldogs coach Mark Richt can recruit nationally whether his team has a good year or not... because it's Georgia - one of the most tradition rich football schools in the country. Georgia has the revenues, facilities, and reach that few schools in the nation can rival.
GT isn't at UGA's level, has never been UGA's level, and may never be UGA's level.
That is a statement of fact and it's nothing new. Georgia owns the Yellow Jackets and has for years. Gailey may be 0-5 against the Bulldogs, but... he's not the only Tech coach that UGA has owned. I'm no expert on the series, but just look at the scoreboard... 38-58-5... in Georgia's favor.
Gailey runs a clean program, graduates his players, and produces winning seasons. Could you ask for more?
Sure you could, but could you ask for more at Georgia Tech??
Comments:
posted on November 21, 2007 12:05 PM — link — abuse?Kevin Donahue
said:
I would normally agree that 0-6 against a rival gets you in hot water, but Georgia Tech has done worse than that in the past. I believe the record is 8 straight losses to Georgia.
Then again, I'm not sure you measure a coach on one game.
The frustrating issue for Tech is that they play to their level of competition, rather than above them. The play really tough against good teams and really poorly against poor teams. To me - that is a coaching issue.
Does it mean you fire a guy that's brought you six straight successful seasons... I don't know.
Clemson Joe said:
posted on November 21, 2007 12:19 PM — 165.166.31.249 — link — abuse?
Anyone who starts Reggie Ball as many times as he did deserves to never coach football again. The fact that the AD hasn't fired him yet is amazing to me. Maybe the AD needs to go.
Bottom line is that Georgia Tech has more talent that their record ever shows and that program could be much stronger than Gailey has allowed it to be. This all sounds familiar to me, wonder why...
posted on November 21, 2007 12:21 PM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse? said:
That's the perfect counter point that Schultz makes, that no Tech coach EVER has started with 6 straight winning seasons, not Dodd, not Curry, et al...
I'm a status quo guy. There better be a consistent pattern for me to want to dismiss a coach. ACC title game last year, ho-hum this year--no signature win. Perhaps another year?
One thing is for sure, though. Atlanta is a UGA town. Tech is 2nd fiddle to Georgia, and they're 70 miles away...
Diggs the Mountie said:
posted on November 21, 2007 12:30 PM — 76.114.231.180 — link — abuse?
I remember telling people last year that I was seriously in doubt about our chances in the Gator Bowl last year. That was all due to the fact that Reggie Ball wasn't going to be playing. If Taylor Bennett would've started the entire year I would see them losing only 1 game to Clemson last year. The rest they would've won for sure IMO.
Ramblin' Gator said:
posted on November 21, 2007 2:00 PM — 143.127.131.4 — link — abuse?
#3: Kevin sez...
"The frustrating issue for Tech is that they play to their level of competition, rather than above them. The play really tough against good teams and really poorly against poor teams. To me - that is a coaching issue."
That's really the heart of the matter for me. As you noted in the article, on paper Chan looks like a pretty good coach in terms of wins and losses. If you look deeper, you come to see he hasn't done much with the talent he's managed to recruit. They are the least consistent team in the NCAA (IMO).
BTW, The program isn't completely clean either. They've had several academic disqualifications in the last few years and some drug problems too.
I've heard some talk amongst alumni that GT basketball coach Paul Hewitt needs to leave and I always respond that I've never felt embarassed walking away from a GT basketball game coached by Hewitt, win or lose. Wish I could say the same for Gailey.
Ramblin' Gator said:
posted on November 21, 2007 2:24 PM — 143.127.131.4 — link — abuse?
#4: WEA, I don't think you can fairly compare Gailey to Ross, Dodd, or Curry. Before Gailey, GT played a much tougher non-conference schedule than it does now, so the W/L records are apples and oranges.
Also, you are right that UGA gets much more "love" from the local media in Atlanta than GT does. As Kevin noted, it's more of a pro sports town, so GT comes in third at best.
posted on November 21, 2007 2:33 PM — 64.12.116.136 — link — abuse? said:
Ramblin: I hear ya, but it wasn't my arguement, it was Jeff Schultz's. I agree, it's kind of hard to compare teams and coaches from different eras.
The question remains, however: Who would they get to replace him who could be better? Granted, Tech's a little harder school academically, but they do have a rich football tradition that compares with the best in the southeast. Tech claims 4 national titles, but they really only have one, the other 3 being back-dated titles.
Many Auburn and Alabama fans may find this hard to believe, but there was a time, back in the late 1940s through the 1950s that Georgia Tech was Auburn's BIGGEST rival. When Auburn and Alabama renewed their series in 1948, it hadn't quite picked up the steam it did when the Bear arrived, and Auburn sought respect from those big city slickers who forced us to come play in Atlanta the first 58 games or so we ever played.
Considering we own the all-time series record, you can say that we got that respect.
ATL-ien said:
posted on November 21, 2007 11:23 PM — 68.211.179.110 — link — abuse?
Okay I can't believe I'm saying this but, Chan should be fired. They have been mediocre and there is no excuse. He is in the middle of the 2nd biggest hotbed of players in the south (after Miami) and continues to be mediocre. Really people, I know that GT has tough academics and is in the ACC but is it really this hard to recruit players to come live in midtown Atlanta.
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M GO BLUE said:
posted on November 21, 2007 11:32 AM — 216.46.210.140 — link — abuse?0-5 vs in-state rival........0-6 could find chan a nice warm place in the garbage can.
Sorry, but 0-6 vs your hated rival is not acceptable no matter what school you are.