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The Chan Gailey era is over.
The Jon Tenuta era started and ended with a record of 0-1.
The Paul Johnson era starts January 2.
On a nice day in Boise Idaho, the Jackets got run on, run through and run over by the Bulldogs (these of the Fresno State variety). A final of 40-28 puts the stamp on an up-and-down, mostly frustrating season. The saga of coaching frustration is over as one chapter closes and another begins.
I don't think there is much point in breaking down this game in detail. It really is so insignificant when you think about the overhaul that's coming in the off-season. It's an interesting snapshot, but really has no bearing on where we are headed. However I will make a few points.
OUT-MUSCLED
Fresno State's head coach said after the game he told his kids to play head on, physical football, and that the first team to turn their heads was going to lose. He said their players got Tech to turn their heads first. You hate to admit it, but we flinched. No matter what spin you chose to believe on this game, we got outmuscled and out-toughed on that field in Boise. Yes, you have to give some credit to our team for fighting their way back. But in the end, when they needed to buck-up to give the offense the final shot to win, they got run over again.
TENUTA DEFENSE
So Jon Tenuta's defense gave up almost 600 yards of offense with him on the sidelines. No sacks. No INT's. No fumbles. Only two punts forced. All with JT on the sidelines. What does this say? Is Tenuta truly the MVP of the defense? In other words, does he need to be in the press-box, calling the plays, focusing on nothing but the D, making the adjustments? When he has to split his time and focus on other stuff, do things just fall apart? I don't know the answer, but clearly JT's defense had one of the worst efforts EVER since his arrival on the flats.
THE QB SHUFFLE
Six guys took snaps in Boise for the Jackets (3 RB's, 3 QB's). Bennett started but was told at halftime he was not coming back in because of his broken hand. Of course Bennett knew there was another reason:
"I came in at halftime and they told me I just wasn't going to go back in,"
Bennett said. "They said it was because I had a broken hand, but they hadn't
even X-rayed it yet, so they didn't know I had a broken hand. So that was kind
of odd. We did find out it was broken, but Dr. [John Xerogeanes] said I could
play. And I threw the ball fine. I was fine to go."
This is the way I see it. Jon Tenuta saw that the offense was getting nowhere after the first scoring drive, and Taylor had had his shots. Tenuta doesn't have the background to really make offensive playcalling adjustments, so he decides we might as well take a shot with a new QB. I don't blame him. We seen time and time again that this offense doesn't score many points quickly. To his credit, Calvin Booker did an admirable job, throwing for 3 TD's in the 2nd half. In fact, if you judge all the QB's this season, discounting the number of snaps they had, you would have to say that Booker was the best QB on the squad. He just didn't get many chances.
Ultimately the lack of defensive stops was our downfall - not the offense.
PAUL JOHNSON WATCHES FROM THE PRESS BOX
Our new coach flew in the night before, kept a low profile, watched from the press box, did a short interview for the TV folks. Some key things to know:
- He did fly back with the team.
- He will formally announce his staff today
- They will have their first staff meeting today, and begin their work immediately.
- The bowl game was in no way a tryout for anybody.
Here's a new piece of the coaching puzzle - Mike Sewak will become GT's new O-Line coach. Note that there is a video interview on that page. Also, here's a bio - which is a pretty good one. By the way, he coached Tight Ends at GT back in 1984.
Here's something PJ said about his philosophy and plans.
“For me, they’re going to find out that it’s all about the team. I’m more into the team than I’m into the individual,” said Johnson, owner of a 107-39 record after head coaching stints with Navy and Georgia Southern. “We’ll have plenty of opportunity over the next three or four months to have them show me what they can do. The big thing is, I just want to get our staff in and start to get our program installed.”
Evidently most of the players were not even aware he was there until after the game -and evidently that garnered some respect from the players.
"INTERIM" = LOSER
Evidently having the tag "Interim Coach" on your name badge is not a good thing. Coaches falling into that category are now 0-6 this bowl season. More interim coaches are on deck today, so we'll see if this trend plays out.
AT LEAST LEE CORSO WAS WRONG
He predicted that GT would be the biggest blown-out team of this bowl season. Yeah, rah-rah, Corso was wrong.
"TOUGHNESS" VS QUITTING
Scanning the net chatter, there are interesting discussions about "toughness" and our team "quitting". I don't think it's fair for one second to say our guys quit. They didn't. They are not quitters. However, I think it is fair to speculate that this group may not have the mental toughness it took to close out and win games. Having said that - mental toughness is a learned skill if you ask me - and it starts with the leader of the program. Everything we've heard about Paul Johnson is that he is as mentally tough as they come, and he's going to come in and instill toughness, grit and a mean streak into this group. From what I hear it's going to start with off-season conditioning, which is pretty brutal.
MOVING ON
We will hear today about Paul Johnson's new coaching staff. We will start to hear dribs and drabs on on the impact of recruiting. We will start hear about changes in off-season conditioning. Spring is just around the corner.
In the meantime, to occupy your time, there's always our frustrating and disappointing basketball team to follow - right? YEAH!!!!
GO JACKETS !!!
8 comments:
We have to tip our hats to Fresno, they clearly were the better team and deserved to win. If you watched the line of scrimmage, every time they said ‘hike’, they pushed our boys back 3-5 yards. When that happens, it’s not a hard game to call. They dominated the line of scrimmage, so they won.
I think you are right on about Johnson instilling toughness and grit needed to finish out games. I also agree that our guys seemed to NOT give up, though possibly were not as ‘up’ for the game as they would have had to be to overcome those big linemen ‘leaning on us’ the whole game. A lot to look forward to next year, though we need to be realistic that with a new coach and different schemes, it’s going to take some time for things and recruiting to settle into place. Let’s try to be patient with Johnson, as he has shown himself to be a winner in the ‘right way’. Sometimes the ‘right way’ isn’t instant gratification, but he will win if we the fan’s leave him alone for long enough.
Everyone have their season tickets reserved for next year? Where is the best place to sit do you think? :0)
I agree completely with the above comments. My puzzlement is why our defense was stagnant when all season they would jump around, fake and try to confuse the offense. I don't understand it. They played like a one legged ox in a pool of yogurt.
As much as Tech people would like to believe you can out X and O other teams, most times talent wins games. Fresno State had more talent overall.
I like the option as run by Paul Johnson, but ultimately you need high caliber athletes to compete at a high level. If we want to beat UGA anytime in the next decade, we'll need to find high caliber athletes.
Talent can certainly overcome a lot of issues, but there is no way that Fresno State had more talent than we did. We are talking about a 3rd place WAC team that didn't beat a team with a winning record all year until they played us. Talent was not the issue yesterday, it was motivation and orginization. Fresno State trumped us on both of those (they have done it twice now). If you want to say talent wins all the time then why have Miami and FSU fallen on such hard times when they are consistently at the top of the "expert's" recruiting rankings. (and I imagine that GT beat Fresno State in the recruiting "rankings" in the past 4 years as well)
I think the quality of the GT football player has risen under Mr. Gailey, and that is why it was so frustrating to watch them be so up and down in their performance. I hold no ill will toward Mr. Gailey and wish him well in his future, but think that he never caught what it took to effectively organize and motivate college kids on a consistent basis. His methods will likely serve him well as he heads back to the pros some day.
Mr. Johnson on the other hand has shown consistently that he knows how to motivate college kids to play as a team and outdo even vastly superior talent at times. I am excited to see his competitive toughness imprint on more talented kids at GT.
Current state of GT athletics is disappointing. How long do you figure Radakovich has before he is associated with this? Thinking about the Nebraska/Pederson relationship???
I remain optimistic.
gtpi....
where to begin?
happy new year all.
thank god chan gailey is gone. that game yesterday was a perfect example of a chan gailey game with chan gailey coached players. that game is a perfect example of why we were stalled as a fb program.
i agree that the 'most' of the players didnt quit. some of them did quit though.... again. i saw some gt players admonishing other gt players and only getting shrugs in response. i saw gt players get up after a good fsu hit and hang their heads as they walked back to the huddle. i saw this from the opening snap.
for those that dont remember... this is exactly how we looked the last time we got beat by a short handed fsu team.
gt teams under chan gailey are soft physically, tend to play as individuals and as scott pointed out they have minimal mental toughness.
thank god chan is gone. as most folks would admit... chan is a nice guy and its not his fault that he was hired to coach at gt.
nope the real culprit is Dave Braine. he is the guy who hired both coach gailey and paul hewitt. he is the guy who verbally limited our program as a 7 win a year program. he is the guy who gave chan gailey the extension without a byout or any incentive clauses.
Dave Braine.... thanks for nothing.
at first i was dissapointed that hatcher wasnt the new coach. i was ok with cpj though. the more i read about cpj the better i like him. i think he is exactly what this proram needs.
a no nonsense coach with an inovative offensive mind that is not locked in the past and is not locked into a 'one size fits all' approach.
these kids will prob have to cut their hair. start saying yes sir and no sir and have to attend all thier classes.
the chan gailey "me" will be replaced with the coach paul johnson "we" and we will have players who will be held accountable.
it is about time.
expect more transfers. these will be the guys who dont like the word 'we' and who dont want to conform. these will be the guys who are NOT mentally tough.
go jackets
If Hewitt finishes under .500 (which could definitely happen), then I think DRad will make a change and it will be a terrific hire...
just like CPJ.
Great post Scott.
After the game, I was thinking how I would have written this up, and you've captured it the way I would have. Let the Chan era come to an end and start fresh with the PJ era. Let's hope it becomes the PJ dynasty!
My thanks go out to the Seniors, who have given us so many great moments. Most notably, TC from my home town in Riverdale. Wheeler, the beast, the hogs on the O and D line and the superb special teams guys - Brooks and Bell.
And special props to Tenuta. Who, despite the anomaly on the blue turf, has been one hell of a D-man.
Now I'm ready and stoked about the future.
PN
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