What is there to make of this team?? They appear to be having a magical season. Is it a lame duck season where they’re just going to go out there and do their best? Or does everyone know that if they make a bowl game Coach Key is probably gonna have the interim tag removed? Do we have enough depth to make it to the end of the season? Do we have enough pluck and luck to pull this off? We’re 3-3 at the midpoint of the season! What will happen next??
KQ- There is a long history in sports of coaches turning things around as an interim and that could be at play here. Pat Riley took over the Lakers job from Paul Westhead after 11 games in 1981 and won a Championship. In Atlanta you had Nate McMillan with the Hawks two years ago take over midseason. Looking at CFB, Coach O (Ed Orgeron) was 6-2 at USC after Lane Kiffin was fired in 2013. Of course, Dabo is the most famous one of all in 2008 when Tommy Bowden got fired. GOL went winless during his stretch. You just have no idea.
Curious what you think on Key through 2 weeks with the clock management and strategy piece. GT won and that’s what matters, but the ”finishing kick” or lack of it has made these two wins harder than they needed to be at the end. Snapping repeatedly with 20 seconds on the clock or at least seeming to not consider working it down with multi-score leads midway to late in the 4th quarter has been the only glaring negative for me. Any thoughts?
KQ- He is a guy doing this and learning on the job and there will be some execution issues and time mistakes and other things you have to live with as an INTERIM coach. He will need to improve on those areas if he wants to be the guy. Folks can't judge him the same way you judge a guy who had two seasons as a HC and several years even as a coordinator prior to taking over. Key is learning on the job and that is something you live with in this situation and you hope to see those things improve as the year goes on.
- Any scoop on the permanent 10th coach?
KQ- Not yet. I would not be shocked if he just promoted Nathan Brock his OL GA though. That would be a pretty simple move and something I've seen happen at other places.
What’s up with Kenyatta Watson. Is he hurt.
KQ- I don't think so, he is playing behind Myles Sims and the D isn't on the field a lot either in the last few games. Zamari Walton on the other side came out for injuries. Tillman doesn't like to rotate his CBs unless there is a deep shot and they are not seeing many of those because of the effective pass rush.
Seems like every NFL team has the same formation on a punt. Why do colleges try to get so cute. Can’t we just have two gunners and max protect?
KQ- Key and Semore put in the shield block to make sure punts don't get blocked. They can tweak that now with more time and get guys out in coverage.
Pardon me if I missed an earlier explanation (we had a kid, and all that stuff), but are you able to go into more detail on what exactly happened with CBK nearly going to USCe and what he was unhappy about? I mean, I think much of it’s obvious, but perhaps you can share more now.
KQ- This is hard to do because I know a little too much about the situation and am close to the people involved on all sides. Basically, Shane Beamer offer Key a bunch of money to be his OL coach and there was even talk of a package deal involving another staffer joining the SC staff as well with him. Our SC site at the time reported on that pretty extensively. There were issues between the offensive staff regarding strategy/coaching and other things that are clear now that Dave Patenaude was out, you had basically Choice/Key and then Patenaude/Wiesehan with Dixon in the middle ground as I've been told by sources on things. Again not uncommon for guys to not agree on things and typically the OL coach is one of the people bothered in my experience doing this for 20+ years now. Key got the offer, I think he had some issues with things and he worked it out with Collins and got what he needed to with his contract for him to stay. He had what we like to call "leverage" and used it. This is a business and guys get offered jobs all the time as well. Sometimes they are serious like the Key deal and sometimes they are overtures. My job is to try to figure out what is real so I don't just report every phone call someone gets gauging interest that comes on my radar too. That can be tough.
The defense has looked transformationally different in the last two games. Can you shed some light on how this came to be? Was the communication piece literally CGC only?
KQ- That is funny asking if communication issues were Collins. I think two things have happened and I hinted at this when it looked like Collins was going to get fired. Collins had his hands in everything he could except for the offense this season for the most part other than decisions on when to go for it or kick/punt. Thacker basically was cooking a meal with the chef analyzing, offering and probably making some decisions as well by what Collins himself said and what the kids said and frankly what I saw both on the field and in practice. I don't want to play dime store psychologist, but when things started going sideways I asked some trusted sources about Thacker and everyone said he would be safe in the change and that guys like Key and others think he can coach, he just needed some guidance on a few things like making some scheme/reads simpler (the kids have talked about this a little) and just letting them play. Key talked about this as well. His goal was for the D to just react and play. Guys have easier reads and it is pretty basic stuff with just some exotic blitzes here and there, but they are not facing Trevor Lawrence or Kenny Pickett where you have to hide so much pre-snap either. They challenged the guys to play hard and they also have a pass rush now with 4-5 guys which they've consistently had here for years. That credit also goes to Knight/Semore/Turner who are coaching the guys up in the front six.
Is there anything saying players can’t just yell at the top of their lungs after the ball is snapped? I feel like this could be really intimidating and something to whip out on like a 4th-and-1 conversion attempt. But nobody is doing it so I assume it’s stupid or illegal lol.
KQ- That sounds exhausting. You are trying to channel everything you have into each snap and that is a distraction and saps energy. Try yelling like that and running while someone tries to block you. Probably won't work out well.
Since there have been talks around here about possibly adding sports, what is the process for that typically? I know there has to be and equal men's/women's sports but are there any other requirements as far as facilities or things like that?
KQ- I think GT is a ways off from adding a sport right now. Women's Golf would be next in line from everything I've heard. There are some Title IX requirements on the quality of the facilities when you have both sports men's and women's. That is the third rung of Title IX. It is a big list of stuff, but like I said really the big thing is the scholarship piece and how that relates to the student body. That is where another sport coming in would start. I think you would need a benefactor to start up soccer which is the sport everyone is asking about. I think you would need someone to bankroll that and the logistics of how to fit that in, where they would practice and other pieces are tough. I've actually talked about soccer at GT with both D-Rad and MBob over the years and GT being so boxed in is part of the issue with it. You could play in BDS but that is like 10x the size of most soccer stadiums seating-wise, so where do you play games? Where do they practice? Stuff like that. This isn't Athens where you can build a non-rev sports area like 7-10 minutes off campus easily.
Why the vanilla play calling in the forth quarter? It's like my dad use to say all the time when Chan Gailey was at Tech...."playing not to lose" I also thought the clock management wasn't good.
KQ- They had no Jordan Williams and no Pierce Quick in the game. They were playing Will Lay at RG and Corey Robinson at LT and they were having a tough go. Robinson had a PFF Pass Blk grade of 28.2 which is why they brought Jakiah Leftwich in earlier in the game and flipped Williams to LT. Quick is one of the better OLs and without Fusile they were really scuffling with Lay who is a good center, but very average at guard against a solid DL and good LB blitzers.
