Alas, it’s the end of an era.
Paul Johnson, who kept the triple option relevant in Power Five football, is set to retire after 11 seasons at Georgia Tech, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the school hasn’t announced it yet.
Johnson, 61, has been contemplating retirement for several weeks.
Georgia’s really had a great run, if you think about it. It’s not just Johnson’s eleven years; we’ve also been privileged with four years of Reggie Ball before the genius.
Whoever follows has some enormous clown shoes to fill. The search should be interesting.
Get The Picture 
Came here for the header. Not disappointed.
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I have always dreamed of GT ditching the triple option. It might actually come true now.
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Are we sure that they are going away from it? I hope they don’t try to keep Chopblock Tech with the Army or Kennesaw guys. Maybe FishFry the Johnson knew the rules against cut blocks were only going to get tougher.
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^^This. My bet is on KSU HC Brian Bohannon. Former Tech assistant and we all know how much the Techsters love “Tech Men.”
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“some enormous clown shoes to fill”
That made me chortle. It’s a line I’m going to borrow, but give you credit
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Kirby has now beaten 3 of our rivals so badly that they got rid of their coach. (UT, UF, and GT) Talk about a golden age of Georgia football.
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Kirby creates more jobs than the government
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Don’t close the book on adding Malzahn to that list. And yes, its mostly the belief they can not compete year in year out with Bama and Georgia driving that.
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Can’t like this comment enough.
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Kirby fired three and made the other one fire-proof before the best of the beatdowns. He probably spent just south of a hundred million dollars of rival money. His agent should give him his choice of a cut on them or no commission on himself.
But Auburn II was his ultimate masterpiece. Gus’ nearly flameproof ass super-glued to the hot seat in a kind of Mexican stand-off hell for the mutually deserving.
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Lots of Techies will clamor for Army coach Jeff Monken, another triple option guy but a much better overall coach than FishFry and salesman in recruiting.
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He’s recruiting the same quality players Fish Fry was (maybe even less). Either service academy coach wouldn’t scare me a bit.
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Hell no. The triple option scares away anyone decent all on its own. It’s an admission that you can’t/won’t recruit, spend money, try to win titles, etc.
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Correct. That offense is what you run ’cause you can’t do anything else with the people yjay you have.
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I was just coming here to post the news. We won’t have the Johnson to kick around anymore.
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Beat me to it Dolly, ‘cept I was gonna say ‘Paul the Johnson’.
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Damn, there goes our in state recruiting monopoly.
Tech would be silly to bring another triple option guy in.
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Maybe, but the transition will be brutal. Like 2-10 brutal.
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Would they bring in Brian Bohannon?
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If I’m them I stick with the triple just because they’d where the roster is and they’ve had pretty good success with it.
I wouldn’t want to try to play straight up with Georgia or Clemson. Seems a losing battle to me.
If they can scheme it as well as CPJ and maybe recruit a bit better they’d be in a better place than hiring some pro style coach everyone will hate after 2 years of trying to change things.
Patience isn’t a strong suit among college football fans or recruits.
But screw it. Hire Mike Leach. That would be a lot of fun.
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I was wanting to keep leach in place until the Auburn job opens up.
The pregame presser would be awesome Saban ranting about rat poison and the Pirate carrying on about how clever rats are.
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Raise the Roof- Ted Roof!!
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Why not? They’ve officially lowered their Johnson.
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I wanted Johnson to be coaching when UGA reset the largest margin of victory and I wanted 9 in a row against him.
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Well they won’t have to worry about getting an interim coach in to hold together a top rated recruiting class…….
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LOL. Win.
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Post of the day!
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Kiffen might come cheao
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Your “o” could have been a P or T and work either way.
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Surely Jeff Monken is interested. LOL. What about Charlie Weis?
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(as recruiting is optional and all)
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gtu is thinking more along the lines of the HC of Atlanta United.
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He has no joy so it is the right time to retire.
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Here lieth Fish Fry
“I was 3-3 in Athens.”
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Is there a petition we can sign to beg him to stay?
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I’ve got to stop reading this blog while I eat lunch. That clown shoes crack made soup come out my nose. Not good.
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I can’t recommend any more strongly that you head to Stingtalk right now. The knuckleheads are clamoring for Kiffin, Freeze or Art Briles.
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Let them have Gus
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I guess Briles is a safe hire since there aren’t any women on the Tech campus. Too soon?
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Good one … given how some of the posters on NerdTalk write about women, they would probably love him.
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Art Briles scares me. He would take the job (he doesn’t really have any other prospects) and he is a first rate recruiter and Xs and Os guy. He’s been a winning HC everywhere he’s been and turned around doormat programs. The fact that he would even consider Tech shows how far he has fallen. Likewise, the fact that Tech would consider hiring him shows how far Tech has fallen, too. But money talks and there are enough Techsters with money who don’t care about anything else except winning to finance a deal that could bring him to Atlanta.
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I think that he is too toxic for Tech. Tech is a much better job than Baylor is now and this is even more true of when he became the coach at Baylor.
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Lord help us if the nerds do something both rash and rational and pry the Dread Pirate Leach away from Wazzu.
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Bad fit. Can’t think of a more humorless place than Georgia Tech.
Been that way since Pepper left.
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Kirby has “retired more men than social security.”
-Apollo Creed
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Whisenhunt may be a real possibility – I hope not. He seems like a real coach.
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Can he recruit? He’s been in the NFL for so long … wouldn’t it be Herm Edwards redux?
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I posted last year Mel would be the next coach at teck. Hopefully Dell is not his oc.
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I don’t think Mel takes that job. He knows what the roster issues are going to be, and he knows he can’t outrecruit Kirby with Dell or not.
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Mel wants the job… any job. It’s Kirby’s defense. Pretty clear by watching the games and the sideline views.
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I just can’t see him being successful there. I’m sure he wants a head coaching job. I’m also not sure Fech would hire someone immediately in from the current Georgia staff. Of course, YMMV.
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Wrong
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I’d love for Whisenhunt to end up as CPJ’s replacement. I’m sure there are some exceptions, but NFL coordinators typically flop at the college level—I’m thinking Paul Hackett, Bill Callahan, good ol’ Brian Schottenheimer…
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Malzan to tech. the RPO and the option from one high offense to another
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Per ESPN: “Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who played at Georgia Tech, is a top candidate to replace Johnson. Clemson co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott also could be in the mix.”
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Speculation.
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Brent Key Bama OL Coach GT graduate. He will bring Hurts with him.
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This is just a glorious time.
RE: any of you worried about who they might hire – don’t. Georgia Tech will never, repeat, NEVER recruit at a level high enough to challenge us no matter what kind of offense they run. I look forward to them switching to the RPO so we can use them as practice for the SECCG.
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I like the way you think. Beatdown city, baby. Now I REALLY wish we’d have shut out the genius’s offense in our last opportunity to do so.
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Their AD is Canadian I believe, maybe we should see who is coaching the Calgary Dinos.
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June Jones …. Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Mike Sherman … Montreal Alouettes
Mike Archer … DC Toronto Argonauts
These names could form a formidable list of candidates for Tech!
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Jerry Glanville … Hamilton Tiger-Cats
2 Legit 2 Quit
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From Saturday Down South
“If the Yellow Jackets do end up hiring Whisenhunt, that means the team would almost certainly depart from Johnson’s triple option offense that has frustrated Georgia and many others over the past decade”
Maybe I’m getting old and forgetful, but I don’t recall Georgia being too frustrated with that offense. When we did lose to them it was because of self inflicted wounds. I was looking forward to being “frustrated” for years to come just like this past weekend.
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Frustrated in it’s a pain in the ass to practice for, and their chop blocks leave us vulnerable to injuries a week before the SEC championship.
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Someone pointed out the other day that the only times CPJ’s offense beat us were when our DC had never seen it before. 2008 was Willie Martinez’s first time with Tech’s triple option, and Pruitt and Tucker were in their first years as DC in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
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Right, GT only scored better than 30 four times, and only won two of those affairs.
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The last 2 Tech wins were because of in-game coaching errors anyway. Without brain cramps those 2 don’t happen.
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Why in the world would Leach come to Tech? There isn’t enough money and Wazzu would cover it if there was.
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Closer to Key West?
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Could you imagine spending your retirement with this guy? I’d have to go get a job as a Wal Mart greeter within a week.
Thanks for the memories Pawl. We sure did enjoy kicking the crap out of your teams.
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True. Mark Bradley must be inconsolable right now.
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He is in denial, didn’t click on it but the headline was “It was time for Johnson to go”
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If they’re smart they will hire a guy like Derek Mason.
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Charlie Strong??
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That’s another smart hire. They won’t hire either guy though.
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Man, since 2015, our beloved university has some impressive pelts hanging on our wall.
2015 – We retired Spurrier after hanging half-a-hun’red on’im with the worst offense of the Richt Era
2017 – We fired Booch and Shark Humper Yella Teeth
2018 – Fish Fries No More
Who’s next? Looking at you, Gus Bus!
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Nah, Boom is on the clock…
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If Sakerlina fires Boom, they really are the dumbest program in all of CFB. He’s about as best as they can do. A constant 7-9 win program for the next ten years would have him surpass Spurrier as their greatest coach ever.
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Spurrier was the best they could do. Muschamp isn’t any better than any other random asshole they might hire, so why not fire him?
I can’t understand why it is people still think he’s an above average coach.
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I only want 1 more and he is up this week……
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Hah! As much as I wish it, Saban isn’t the type to “Pull a Corch” when someone beats him and he sees the tide may be turning (pardon the pun). He won’t fake health problems and run away.
No, St. Nick goes out extra hard to beat that team and coach senseless in the next go-round. If we beat Bama on Saturday, I believe we’ll beat ND in the playoff only to find a Bama team we cannot beat in the Championship Game.
If we beat Bama on Saturday, we have to beat them by three scores, 17-plus, to ensure OU gets that 4th spot. Everyone says Bama’s in no matter what, but OU has played a good schedule of teams and would’ve beaten a good Texas team that beat them. They’re basically us from last year.
But to ensure we don’t have to beat Bama twice, we have to blow them out, and I don’t trust Chaney to come up with an offensive gameplan nor adjustments that allows us to do any of those things, because I don’t believe we can win a national title with him as our OC. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I don’t see it.
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It wouldn’t be the 1st time a former UGA player went on to coach for a Bama legend and then retired him as a head coach.
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Don’t forget McElwain
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Never mind – didn’t see the comment about Shark Humper
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That’s Shark Humper Yella Teeth, to you.
Seriously, when you’re a CFB head coach making millions of dollars a year, there is no excuse under heaven for you to have messed-up, gross teeth. None at all.
Mark Richt had those little baby teeth, and he got veneers after the 2002 season. Saban has veneers. Jimbo has’em. Most of the old guys who went without braces as kids have their teeth bonded or capped. Guys like Kiffin and Kirby had braces as kids so don’t have to worry as much.
But still… how you can go into a recruit’s house with a messed up grill is beyond me.
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I used to think the same about John Elway. All that money and all those yellow teeth!!
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I like it that Condoleezza Rice has 10% of the vote. . .
https://stingtalk.com/board/threads/urgent-stansbury-wants-us-to-pick-the-next-hc.99184/
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This is going to be fun to watch.
It’s going to take at least 3 years to retool the roster away from the TO.
They have big problems related to S&C.
They have money and facilities issues.
Not sure even Junior would want to deal with this.
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Agreed Brian Bohannon would be an interesting hire. He wouldn’t need a complete retool of the roster and he has KSU rolling.
I’d like to see them move away from the option as it would free up time for UGA to practice other things. The TO takes more time than just the week before the game.
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Bohannon needs to stay right where he is. There’s a reason this offense works at the FCS level with similar talent and typically struggles against superior talent at the FBS level. No one is going to the service academies to study their offense to emulate it.
Fech never outplayed us in our 3 losses. Turnovers lost every one of those games.
I agree about them moving away from the option for our purposes.
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We are in agreement.
I will not rule out that the NATS would unite the boosters by getting CPJ out but not going through the pains of a total retool.
Also agree Bohannon can create a monster where he is, but money talks and he just might take it.
It would be another victory for the Goff Illuminati to bring chaos to our rivals.
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Brian Bohannon is a good fit for Tech and it would be a huge salary increase for him. Plus, he wouldn’t even have to move. I guarantee you he wants the job and FishFry will endorse him to the Tech AD and AB.
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Seriously though, if Tech actually wants to be competitive in the ACC and against us every year, they hire Mike Leach and it’s not close. He is the worst hire they could make if you’re a Dawgs fan. He can take the 2 & 3-star recruits from the south Tech can get, now bolstered with 3 the every-so-often 4-star QB and WRs, and have the greatest offenses he’s ever had.
Mike Leach at Tech would not be good for UGA, Clemson, FSU, and Miami.
That the are considering hiring a pro-style coach like Ken Whisenhunt is hilarious and plays right in Kirby and Dabo’s hands.
YOU CANNOT WIN IN CFB RUNNING A PRO-STYLE OFFENSE WITH ONLY 2 & 3-STAR RECRUITS.
Chan already tried that and failed. Mike Bobo is trying out in Colorado and should be fired by mid next year. If you’re gonna run the pro-style offense in CFB, you need 4 & 5-star recruits everywhere. Really, Bama, UGA, and a USC that gets back to recruiting are the only three teams that can get away with running it. We see how much Michigan struggled vs. OSU running pro-style with 3 & 4-star recruits. LSU should also stop running the pro-style, and would have, had they hired anyone by O.
Mike Leach at Tech is my worst nightmare. He knows the area having coached at Valdosta where he invented the Air Raid. With how great Air Raid QBs like Mahomes and Mayfield are doing in the NFL, he’ll attract good QBs and WRs to Tech. Tech having that Adidas cash now means they can hire someone like Leach.
Let’s hope they’re too stupid to be that smart and hire Whisenhunt instead.
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Leach may be a great candidate, but I don’t see him wanting to deal with Kirby and Dabo every year. I would see him back in the Big XII-II before coming to the ACC.
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Yeah, he’d have to deal with Clemson because they’re cross division rivals, but that’s only until 2024. Apparently, it’s up for change at that point.
However, winning that division is infinitely easier than playing U-Dub, Stanford, and Oregon every year. All he would have to beat is Mark Richt’s corpse.
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Very good point about winning the Coastal vs. the Pac 12 North … it’s going to be interesting to watch.
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Richt will be out in a few years.
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A VERY few years.
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Nah, Leach has yet to beat UW so I’m not worried about him competing with UGA at Tech. Lane Kiffin on the other hand, might be a concern if he is given time there.
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He was at US-FREAKIN-C and got fired off the plane…..not worried about that guy.
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Lol, good point
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Agree on Leach. Another one on the west coast that they should consider is Jeff Tedford at Fresno State. He managed to win at Cal with their academic requirements (although he did have problems with the NCAA) and has taken Fresno State from Siberia to Group of 5 contender in about 2 years. Hopefully they will think that he is too old and not bother.
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Just heard they are interviewing Neil deGrasse Tyson for the top job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson
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Question, is the trade school hc retiring on his own or is he being shown the door…..quietly. HC’s that can’t beat their rivals will get shown the door …..some sooner, some later.
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I heard the administration gave him 3 options
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Very well played.
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….and he took the dive play.
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’cause if he tried to pass he’ be sacked.
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Looks like I’m the only one disappointed to hear the news.
But looking forward to the CPJ’s Greatest Hits post in the near future…
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Gonna honk my own horn here…I told y’all this last week.
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How did it feel?
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LOL!
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They should hire mark richt…. He’s never lost at bobby dodd
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Didn’t he this year?
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damn you’re right.. where have i been
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I believe he lost this year.
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Somewhere at the AJC, a sports reporter weeps.
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This would have been a good youtube link to add:
(Louis Jordan – Saturday Night Fish Fry)
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I’m sure that Bradley and all the little Stingtalkers are singing “Fry Me a River.”
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The only blog in town where I’ll meet another Louis Jordan disciple. Hat tipped, glass raised.
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Kirby speaks it, and so it is so. Out here taking scalps.
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I think Kirby must have warned him after the game
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I was gonna head over to StingTalk and remind them Corch’s daughter plays volleyball for them and may be in play. I think I got site blocked for not being a virgin
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Gotta be Satterfield App State….if he won’t leave Boone they likely will look at Memphis, Troy or UAB coaches. Monken could work since he throws the ball.
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I wonder if they’d come after Derek Mason. I wonder if he’d go.
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Stingtalk posters have been talking about Art Briles for months. That is how desperate things are over there.
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Their longing for Briles is particularly ironic. They consistently claim the moral high ground and bash us for imagined corruption, yet they long for one of the sleaziest coaches in recent memory. Ah, delusion, thy name is StingTalk.
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Reading the comments on the Fech job story at The Athletic put a smile on my face. They are still talking about the academic requirements and saying how they’ll never compete. We have completely demoralized their fan base.
Joe Hamilton and Reggie Ball aren’t working at NASA the last time I checked.
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Dang, ee. I should read first instead of posting just below you. They really are delusional.
I also love how they can’t afford a top athletic program, yet they always tell us how they are all gazillionaires.
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The nerds are so funny. I won’t crap on The Athletic comments but they’re all talking about how they can’t get players because they all take calculus. When I pointed out (with a link to their undergraduate degrees) Liberal Arts, Music, and other non-technical programs, they just denied it. I even pointed out their player that was majoring in Literature and Communications. I’m sure he took calculus. LOL! This is ignoring the Reggie Balls, Reuben Houstons (?), and John DUI-berrys, plus the guys that flunked out of UGA and wound up there.
Man, I love torturing the nerds. We need to keep playing them forever.
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Those comments read like NerdTalk posts except without the goofy looking avatars and the use of the word butthurt. 😉
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You pay to read Schultz?
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I pay to read Seth and others. It’s good writing, sort of like you used to see in SI back when it was a magazine.
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I hope Tech hires another Triple Option Coach so Kirby can hire Fish Fry as an analyst every year. The ultimate Sting.
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Why does Kirby need an analyst for the TO? It appears he has it well under control. “Nah PJ, I got this.”
Even better sting……
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Brohm spurned Louisville, so they would beat out tech for a lot of the names being thrown about here. Good place for Freeze to ease back in the water or for Kiffen to start inching back up. I think it would also be a good place for Mason. The number two spot in the ACC has been up for grabs and just waiting for someone to take it. Recently it’s been Clemson and a bunch of also-rans.
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Senator, one thing I’ve always appreciated about you is that you really, truly hate Ga. Tech. The “clown shoes” line is gold.
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This is the best damn comment section on GTP ever.
And Tech blows sheep.
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