An alert reader brought this one to my attention: over at From The Rumble Seat, a blogger decided it would be an enlightening exercise to devote more than 2,500 words to the idea there’s something amiss with Georgia Tech’s recruiting that doesn’t involve the coaches.
I’ll leave you to guess what that is, if you’re so inclined.
Get The Picture 
Maybe they can do a Montana project. I’m guessing less than 5%.
But recruiting is all on the genius. Nerds.
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I guess the high school offense that no pro team even looks at, playing in front of 30,000 fans at home games, a hideous campus in the middle of a ghetto, a student body full of gruesome women, nerds and foreigners and a head coach who is a total asshole are all minor issues compared to the uniform supplier.
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Maybe they need to do a “gold out” game? All the players in tacky gold uniforms, and the fans in tacky gold clothing. I’m sure that would do the trick.
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Pretty interesting article and seems to have a point on branding. Points to consider for lots of businesses not just athletic administrations.
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An a-hole coach, a-hole alumni base, and a-hole student body probably have more impact on their ability to recruit than what uniforms they wear. Though I will admit, it’s not totally inconsequential.
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Branding is their problem. But not The Russell brand, the pencil-necked geek brand. And I don’t think they can change that one.
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A friend’s son played at tech in the late 90s. Even then, he said only about a third of the students knew or cared anything about football. The Asians, Indians and Africans focused solely on getting their degree and either going back home or moving to another part of the country. The white, American students were mostly uber nerds who were more into Dungeons and Dragons and ComiCon than football.
Some of the guys my age who graduated from tech and are fans have admitted they think tech football and athletics in general may be in something of a death spiral. The alumni base generally lives far from the state, generally does not care that much about sports and is increasingly foreign. All these things combine to create an environment where athletics are not a priority and cannot demand a great deal of financial and attendance support.
Tech is a great engineering school but it’s future is going to be more MIT than Stanford.
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Very insightful analysis JC. I spent a great deal of time at Tech in the late 60s as my best friend from HS went there and played on the Jackets football team. Tech never was what one would call a fun school even then although it was a whole hell of a lot better then than it is now. It also had the most adversarial relationship between the school administration (termed ‘the Hill” by Tech students) and its student body of any college in the nation. But Tech did have good (but not as “great” as they thought) academics and a very good football tradition with Bobby Dodd as HC. My friend went to Tech expressly to play for Dodd and then Dodd bailed. Tech hasn’t really had a quality HC since except for Bobby Ross and Ross got the hell out of there as soon as he could feather his nest elsewhere. The football program has been basically a rudderless ship for the last 50 years except for 1990. The Athletics Department at Tech is a shambles now because of neglect and incompetence and I think the place is never going to be anything again in any sport except golf (which Tech has been able to excel at in spite of itself due to the Bobby Jones/Dan Yates connection). Personally I think Tech would be better off if it de-emphasized all its major sports, became D-III in every sport except golf (if the NCAA would let that happen) and become sort of a public Emory–only about engineering. But the alumni will never let that happen so the “death spiral” you suggest is very real and will continue until the place becomes a perpetual doormat. I won’t shed a tear when that happens either–everything wrong with Tech athletics is self-created by Tech’s delusional almni and disinterested administration. They are a circular firing squad and it actually would be amusing if it wasn’t so pathetic.
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P.S. The hiring of the new AD at Tech may be the most important hire in the history of the school. Choke on this hire like they did the last one and Tech will be consigned to oblivion IMHO. Even if the place makes a great hire the Techsters are still in trouble. A bad hire seals the deal. It is unlikely that a quality AD will take the job now. Tech is in real trouble. 🙂
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Good insight, but I thought O’Leary was a pretty good coach…And as far as the death spiral of all their sports programs…they can probably hang on to being a pretty big-time basketball school. Basketball is played in a lot of places in the world (doesnt take a lot of equipment and space on a high school or community level) and it seems to thrive in inner city schools and nerdy schools that we don’t associate with athletics. But who knows. If GT drops football, then what chance does Ga. State have?
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It’s not their uniforms – it is the lack of local alumni and support- also the style of offense they run. Lets just hope they don’t wake up and fix things, it is a fine school and they sit on top of a lot of talent. Anyone who grew up in Atlanta in the sixties knows they are capable of getting powerful again. We need to keep rubbing their noses in the dirt so we can concentrate on hating florida.
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And their cheers – don’t forget the cheers : Rah! Rah! Ree! – kick’em in the knee! ; Rah! Rah! Rass! – kick’em in the other knee!
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While he does make a pretty decent point, it is kinda hard to market the color urine.
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Ok first off, geeze dude, you are writing for a web audience. Get to the point. The inability to boils your point down is just lazy.
I know why tech marketing has really fallen off…last year they had nifty billboards off i-75 for pest control services . Apparently there was a rash of yellow jacket attacks targeting their athletes?
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When I hear any combination with the word four, I immediately think of tech and “4 TIckets, 4 Hot Dogs, and 4 Cokes”. That is the type of branding that every Chief Marketing Officer would kill for.
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