Tony Barnhart, on the Georgia Tech head coaching search:
… Will Muschamp, the Auburn defensive coordinator, fit the bill of an energetic young coach. But Muschamp was told that the fact that he is a Georgia graduate was something that could not be overcome.
Seriously? I mean, rivalries are great and all, but if you let something like that color your head coaching search… jeebus. I have no idea if Muschamp is ready to be a head coach, but I do know that he’s coached at two other SEC schools in the last five years, so he seems to be able to handle the emotional attachment to the dear ol’ alma mater thing just fine.
If Tech is willing to walk away from a viable candidate simply because he’s a Georgia guy, that speaks volumes about the depth of institutional insecurity to which that program has fallen.
Get The Picture 
David Cutcliffe = Alabama grad
Didn’t seem to bother Tennessee or Ole Miss.
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Lots of coaches have had success at rivals of their alma maters. Here are two:
Vince Dooley – Auburn
Pat Dye – Georgia
And how soon must they forget – they have already had a Georgia man coaching Tech. Mac McWhorter coached them to a win over Stanford in the Seattle Bowl in 2001.
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Check this out:
http://www.bbuzzoff.com/forum3/4833.html
To hear some of these guys talk, you’d think that uttering the blood oath “To Hell With Georgia” before Radakovich, Clough, God and country is something that they actually expect their prospective coaching hires to do, as if it were not a job interview but rather a Skull & Bones initiation ceremony.
From a Dawg’s perspective, it’s kind of cute, but as you said, it’s also kind of sick — there aren’t even that many world leaders, much less college athletic programs, that require loyalty oaths anymore, are there? When you’ve put yourself in the same category with Kim Jong-Il . . .
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You need someone to appreciate a rivalry, yes. Bit saying “to hell with Georgia” does not mean someone appreciates a rivarly.
Obviously, I have no idea if this shit is true. But that mentality seems to fit the techies. Tech has spent the past few *decades* talking shit about every last thing they could (which often wasn’t much). Hope helped take away the academic advantage (but that was overblown anyway; collegiate education is more about the student than the location, not that location isn’t a big deal and it’s probably moreso once you get into things like grad/law school). They had basketball to a degree but while they were better than us they didn’t get much more out of it and that time has passed (semi recent final four notwithstanding). Baseball: see basketball (and lol we have more titles than they do, in recent history anyway).
I think tech as a complex (or two) in a bad way, and it might prevent them from growing as a program.
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Come on, Senator – you must have spent some time on a bug message board. The bug would go nuclear if they hired a Georgia guy.
Personally, I think the facts that Edsall turned them down (if he really did) and that they cannot bring themselves to hire Muschamp are indicative of just how low the perception of Tech football is from the outside and just how unrealistic the perception is from the inside.
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True, but I can honestly say that as a Georgia grad I would NEVER work for Yech or be associted with them in any way, and I’m in the biotech industry. But that’s just my own personal bias I guess.
The bigger picture for me is Muschamp’s record against UGA. We’ve proven time & again that no matter where he coaches, we always seem to find a way to beat his defenses. I can see that as a very good reason for disqualifying him for the yech job, especially given the reason for Gailey’s firing.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Muschamp will make a great head coach, but I’m not sorry he’s out of the running at the nats.
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If what Barnhart wrote on AJC.com this morning is true, Tech may be down to a choice between desperately trying to outbid SMU for Paul Johnson and simply promoting Tenuta. And it is the “perception gap” that Bulldwagy mentioned, combined with the big-money fan base’s obsession with a type of coach that doesn’t really exist in nature, that has put them in that spot.
I’m wary of risking bad karma by getting a little too full of myself, but something tells me that if they do settle for Tenuta, we could run this streak well into double-digits before it’s over.
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Come on, Senator – you must have spent some time on a bug message board. The bug would go nuclear if they hired a Georgia guy.
BD, if you read the Tech message boards, there are quite a number of posters there that are enthusiastic about Muschamp. And many of them are surprisingly cool about Paul Johnson, who, to me, is the closest thing to a home run out of the bunch under consideration. Go figure.
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I’m wary of risking bad karma by getting a little too full of myself, but something tells me that if they do settle for Tenuta, we could run this streak well into double-digits before it’s over.
As I posted over at Paul’s blog, the sad thing here is that what I’ve heard is (1) Johnson was the top choice when the process was started; (2) Johnson got word back to Tech that he was interested in the position; and (3) everyone involved knew Tech would have a problem coming up with the money to pay him.
What Tenuta has going for him at this point is that he’s cheap and an easy hire (hey, Miles wants him!). Sounds about like Georgia Tech’s speed these days…
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What I don’t understand is, if they knew they couldn’t hire a Georgia guy, why even interview Muschamp? It’s not as if that information suddenly came to light in the interview. I hold the Bugs in low regard, but I do actually think they can read a resume.
But maybe not. In the same article, Barnhart notes that Tech interviewed Charlie Strong for the position, but he was later told that “Tech wanted to hire someone with head coaching experience.” That might hold water, since Tech could have come to that conclusion after the process began, but Barnhart is reporting that Tenuda, who has no head coaching experience, is one of the two finalists for the position.
Sounds like Charlie Strong is the latest victim of the token black coach interview machine. BCA, I hope you’re proud.
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You know, maybe I’m just waaay too loyal. If I’m the AD at UGA, I would never hire a coach that was a techie. And I’m like Ally, I would never seek employment with or work for a gnat. Yes, it means that much to me.
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