Thanks to our new sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
Many wonder what will happen in the first season under new Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key. The underachievement under Geoff Collins and the quick bounce back with Key as the interim has fans excited about the 2023 campaign, but there are still many questions facing the Jackets as Key and his new (and a few returning names) aim to reset both the bottom and lift the ceiling on the program.
I thought it would be interesting to see how each of the current ACC coaches fared in year one and compare them against the previous season as well to shed light on the uncertain nature of these moves.
BC- Jeff Hafley took over during the awful covid season in 2020 and notched a 6-5 record including a beating of Georgia Tech in Chestnut Hill in front of a crowd of about 25 people working the game and zero fans. He won as many games as the man fired the year before Steve Addazio did. Hafley won six games each in his first two years before regressing to just three wins last year.
CLEMSON- Like Key, Dabo got a taste for coaching as an interim in 2008 going 4-3 including a 4-2 record in the regular season after taking over for the perpetual underachiever with the famous last name Tommy Bowden. Bowden’s last full season in 2007 ended with a 9-4 record. Dabo matched that in his first full season but lost twice to Georgia Tech including in the ACCCG to finish 9-5. He fell back to 6-7 in year two before posting 12 straight 10-plus win seasons and two Nattys as well as 7 ACC crowns in eight years. He is the high-water mark for the interim position coach taking over as head coach in recent college football.
DUKE- Ask anyone who knows a lot about college football who did the best coaching job in the Southeast last year and they will say Mike Elko. I have a soft spot for Elko after trying to get CPJ to hire him way back in 2013 when he was the DC at Bowling Green. Elko won nine games at Duke with a bad roster! His team played their asses off every week and benefitted from some truly horrid non-conference opponents like Northwestern and Temple who were historically bad last year. His team got better and won some key games down the stretch and it will be interesting to see what year two under Elko looks like. David Cutcliffe another coach I am fond of but who had a real beef against GT and Paul Johnson thanks to him always being Duke’s second choice won just five games in his final two seasons in Durham.
FSU- Things started very poorly for Mike Norvell as he had to take over a situation equally tarnished by a catchphrase-friendly quick-rising coach Willie Taggart. Norvell started off his Noles career taking a L to GT and Jeff Sims in Tally during the covid 2020 season and he had a losing record in year one and two and looked to be on the ropes going into 2022 before going 10-3 last year and ending the season in the 10 in the coaches poll. Like Key, Norvell had to fix a culture issue in the locker room that was enabled by both Jimbo Fisher and Taggart and really going back to the Bobby Bowden days of entitlement.
MIAMI- The mighty Hurricanes are probably the program all ACC schools could point to as being the one that has screwed the league over the most since joining as they were brought in to bring another big gun to the arsenal and instead turned into a peashooter. The Canes went 201-41 in the previous 19 years before joining the ACC with four national titles. Since 2004, they have a 141-97 record with not even a conference championship and just one division title to show for their efforts. Mario Cristobal is the latest coach aiming to bring back the U and he went 5-7 replacing the Collins-lite Manny Diaz who was fired after going 7-5 in 2021. Cristobal has had some recruiting drama and hasn’t hit the ground running the way people expected thus far in Coral Gables.
NC STATE- Dave Doeren is the cockroach of ACC coaches, he has survived through all kinds of drama and through leadership changes and just keeps doing enough to stay employed. Doeren had a rough start going 3-9 in his first season in 2013 replacing Tom O’Brien who went 7-6 the season prior and was fired. Doeren basically wins 8 or 9 games a season and has been the Chan Gailey without having to play a UGA every year of the ACC. He jumped to eight wins in year two.
UNC- Mack Brown 2.0 has been a more disappointing version of Dave Doeren at NC State so far with several bad losses including his two Ls to GT the last two seasons and not a lot of signature wins or moments despite having the second-most offensive talent in the league overall the last three or four years. Mack went 7-6 in year one and has won eight, six and nine games with one Coastal Division title last year. He did improve greatly on the crater Larry Fedora parked the Heels in his last two years with five wins total in his final two seasons.
PITT- Pat Narduzzi is the slightly better Dave Doeren punching above his weight in a difficult job at Pitt. His teams are tough outs and he had one really spectacular season with his 30-year-old QB in 2021 going 11-3 with the only non-Clemson or FSU ACC Title since 2009. Nard Dog went 8-5 his first two seasons after taking over Paul Chryst who somehow turned a 19-19 record and the most average Pitt tenure into the Wisconsin job. Narduzzi has had just one losing season as a HC.
CUSE- Dino Babers is probably near the end of the line at a difficult job at Syracuse. He has been all over the map with one-win seasons and a 10-3 campaign. He was 7-6 last year somehow making a bowl game with three good wins over Purdue, NC State and Louisville before the wheels came off and they lost six of their final seven games. Babers went 4-8 and 4-8 in his first two seasons taking over for a dreadful Scott Shafer.
UVA- Tony Elliott set the low bar for coaching transitions last year with a 3-7 season and just one ACC win over Georgia Tech with the wrong backup quarterback playing after Jeff Sims reinjured himself in that game and couldn’t run. Bronco Mendenhall quit after a 6-6 season when the Cavs administration allegedly forced him to fire one of his closest assistants. The former Clemson OC Elliott appeared to be in over his head in year one in Charlottesville.
VaTECH- Justin Fuente really screwed things up in Blacksburg replacing Frank Beamer and Brent Pry probably has the toughest rebuild job right now in the ACC. Pry went 3-8 last year including a L to GT. Fuente was let go in-season in 2021 and that team finished 6-7. The Hokies have lost their recruiting base to other programs and are struggling to rebuild it so it could be a long recovery there.
WAKE FOREST- Dave Clawson might be the best coach in the ACC pound for pound. The job he has done in Winston-Salem is impressive but it took a very conservative and long-term approach that would be difficult to replicate there to succeed. He redshirted everyone from the jump and tried to get old and stay old. The portal has screwed over his program as they’ve been hit hard losing key guys the last few years, but he still won 19 games the last two years and played for the ACC Title in 2021 falling to Pitt.
IN SUMMARY:
We don’t know what will happen and really history hasn’t been even a great indicator of future success or failure as some coaches like Norvell or Clawson had to claw their way out of bad situations while others hit their stride or didn’t quickly. I just thought it would be interesting to put some perspective on the situation.
Many wonder what will happen in the first season under new Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key. The underachievement under Geoff Collins and the quick bounce back with Key as the interim has fans excited about the 2023 campaign, but there are still many questions facing the Jackets as Key and his new (and a few returning names) aim to reset both the bottom and lift the ceiling on the program.
I thought it would be interesting to see how each of the current ACC coaches fared in year one and compare them against the previous season as well to shed light on the uncertain nature of these moves.
BC- Jeff Hafley took over during the awful covid season in 2020 and notched a 6-5 record including a beating of Georgia Tech in Chestnut Hill in front of a crowd of about 25 people working the game and zero fans. He won as many games as the man fired the year before Steve Addazio did. Hafley won six games each in his first two years before regressing to just three wins last year.
CLEMSON- Like Key, Dabo got a taste for coaching as an interim in 2008 going 4-3 including a 4-2 record in the regular season after taking over for the perpetual underachiever with the famous last name Tommy Bowden. Bowden’s last full season in 2007 ended with a 9-4 record. Dabo matched that in his first full season but lost twice to Georgia Tech including in the ACCCG to finish 9-5. He fell back to 6-7 in year two before posting 12 straight 10-plus win seasons and two Nattys as well as 7 ACC crowns in eight years. He is the high-water mark for the interim position coach taking over as head coach in recent college football.
DUKE- Ask anyone who knows a lot about college football who did the best coaching job in the Southeast last year and they will say Mike Elko. I have a soft spot for Elko after trying to get CPJ to hire him way back in 2013 when he was the DC at Bowling Green. Elko won nine games at Duke with a bad roster! His team played their asses off every week and benefitted from some truly horrid non-conference opponents like Northwestern and Temple who were historically bad last year. His team got better and won some key games down the stretch and it will be interesting to see what year two under Elko looks like. David Cutcliffe another coach I am fond of but who had a real beef against GT and Paul Johnson thanks to him always being Duke’s second choice won just five games in his final two seasons in Durham.
FSU- Things started very poorly for Mike Norvell as he had to take over a situation equally tarnished by a catchphrase-friendly quick-rising coach Willie Taggart. Norvell started off his Noles career taking a L to GT and Jeff Sims in Tally during the covid 2020 season and he had a losing record in year one and two and looked to be on the ropes going into 2022 before going 10-3 last year and ending the season in the 10 in the coaches poll. Like Key, Norvell had to fix a culture issue in the locker room that was enabled by both Jimbo Fisher and Taggart and really going back to the Bobby Bowden days of entitlement.
MIAMI- The mighty Hurricanes are probably the program all ACC schools could point to as being the one that has screwed the league over the most since joining as they were brought in to bring another big gun to the arsenal and instead turned into a peashooter. The Canes went 201-41 in the previous 19 years before joining the ACC with four national titles. Since 2004, they have a 141-97 record with not even a conference championship and just one division title to show for their efforts. Mario Cristobal is the latest coach aiming to bring back the U and he went 5-7 replacing the Collins-lite Manny Diaz who was fired after going 7-5 in 2021. Cristobal has had some recruiting drama and hasn’t hit the ground running the way people expected thus far in Coral Gables.
NC STATE- Dave Doeren is the cockroach of ACC coaches, he has survived through all kinds of drama and through leadership changes and just keeps doing enough to stay employed. Doeren had a rough start going 3-9 in his first season in 2013 replacing Tom O’Brien who went 7-6 the season prior and was fired. Doeren basically wins 8 or 9 games a season and has been the Chan Gailey without having to play a UGA every year of the ACC. He jumped to eight wins in year two.
UNC- Mack Brown 2.0 has been a more disappointing version of Dave Doeren at NC State so far with several bad losses including his two Ls to GT the last two seasons and not a lot of signature wins or moments despite having the second-most offensive talent in the league overall the last three or four years. Mack went 7-6 in year one and has won eight, six and nine games with one Coastal Division title last year. He did improve greatly on the crater Larry Fedora parked the Heels in his last two years with five wins total in his final two seasons.
PITT- Pat Narduzzi is the slightly better Dave Doeren punching above his weight in a difficult job at Pitt. His teams are tough outs and he had one really spectacular season with his 30-year-old QB in 2021 going 11-3 with the only non-Clemson or FSU ACC Title since 2009. Nard Dog went 8-5 his first two seasons after taking over Paul Chryst who somehow turned a 19-19 record and the most average Pitt tenure into the Wisconsin job. Narduzzi has had just one losing season as a HC.
CUSE- Dino Babers is probably near the end of the line at a difficult job at Syracuse. He has been all over the map with one-win seasons and a 10-3 campaign. He was 7-6 last year somehow making a bowl game with three good wins over Purdue, NC State and Louisville before the wheels came off and they lost six of their final seven games. Babers went 4-8 and 4-8 in his first two seasons taking over for a dreadful Scott Shafer.
UVA- Tony Elliott set the low bar for coaching transitions last year with a 3-7 season and just one ACC win over Georgia Tech with the wrong backup quarterback playing after Jeff Sims reinjured himself in that game and couldn’t run. Bronco Mendenhall quit after a 6-6 season when the Cavs administration allegedly forced him to fire one of his closest assistants. The former Clemson OC Elliott appeared to be in over his head in year one in Charlottesville.
VaTECH- Justin Fuente really screwed things up in Blacksburg replacing Frank Beamer and Brent Pry probably has the toughest rebuild job right now in the ACC. Pry went 3-8 last year including a L to GT. Fuente was let go in-season in 2021 and that team finished 6-7. The Hokies have lost their recruiting base to other programs and are struggling to rebuild it so it could be a long recovery there.
WAKE FOREST- Dave Clawson might be the best coach in the ACC pound for pound. The job he has done in Winston-Salem is impressive but it took a very conservative and long-term approach that would be difficult to replicate there to succeed. He redshirted everyone from the jump and tried to get old and stay old. The portal has screwed over his program as they’ve been hit hard losing key guys the last few years, but he still won 19 games the last two years and played for the ACC Title in 2021 falling to Pitt.
IN SUMMARY:
We don’t know what will happen and really history hasn’t been even a great indicator of future success or failure as some coaches like Norvell or Clawson had to claw their way out of bad situations while others hit their stride or didn’t quickly. I just thought it would be interesting to put some perspective on the situation.
