You’d think it would be pretty hard to do, but Bill Connelly’s managed to fashion three paragraphs ($$) in which it seems like each sentence is sadder than the previous one.
Will Geoff Collins’ Hail Mary work? Hired to replace option-dependent Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech in 2019, Collins was always going to need some time to craft a more modern program. But three years in, he has a 9-25 record, and after jumping from 111th to 75th in his second season, his Jackets stumbled back to 96th in 2021 and lost a majority of their most talented players to either graduation or the transfer portal. His fourth Tech team currently ranks 118th in my returning production rankings; only five returnees took more than 400 snaps in a Tech uniform last year — three on offense and two on defense.
There’s just as much turnover on staff, where Collins brought in six new assistants, including former Notre Dame and Tulane offensive coordinator Chip Long. Collins also dipped heavily into the portal, focusing on the secondary (five newcomers), offensive line (four) and skill corps (four) and bringing in a pair of quarterbacks — Akron’s Zach Gibson and Clemson’s Taisun Phommachanh — to battle Jeff Sims for the starting job. By far the most proven transfer is one from last year: defensive end Keion White, who recorded 19 tackles for loss in 2019 but missed 2021 because of an ankle injury.
This is a whole lot of change. Collins had almost no choice but to give it a shot after three seasons of failing to build depth or a culture of success. A Hail Mary almost never works, and Georgia Tech’s schedule is brutal: It features five projected top-20 teams (three in the first five games) and ranks as the seventh-hardest overall at the moment. Odds certainly favor Tech bringing in a new coach for 2023, but huge chemistry experiments work just often enough that the Yellow Jackets could be interesting to follow this season. For a while, at least.
With this schedule, it’s likely to be a very short while.
Get The Picture 
I hope Kirby has us ready to paint his beatdown masterpiece in November. It’s time to drop half a hundred plus to 0 on them.
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Not scoring against your most hated rival since 2019? AT GEORGIA TECH, YOU CAN DO THAT!
FTMF😉
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45-0 ain’t enough?
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48 is the largest margin of victory in the series (1943 when our 1942 national champions were off fighting the Germans and Japanese). They have that and the Drought at this point.
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—no reason whatsoever that Georgia shouldn’t own both those records. I was actually kind of pissed Kirby didn’t tack on one more TD toward the end of last year’s game.
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Definitely agree, Doug. If we had taken care of business in 2008 and finished the job, the Drought already would be long forgotten. Kirby almost seemed to take the foot off the pedal last year when Jeoff decided to roll over and play dead. We’re also a fumbled punt in 2019 from having the scoring margin record wiped away as well.
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To borrow a phrase from the man who helped us destroy Georgia Tech’s football program, Kirby knew that we had much bigger fish to fry in the following weeks.
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I think that Johnson will be remembered there as the glory days as soon as 2024-2025. Johnson represents 3 of the 11 wins that they have had against Georgia since I was born and they won the ACC one time and won their division (or tied) for it four times. I don’t see the next 8 years as being that successful.
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Paradoxically, Johnson was the guy who both made Tech (somewhat) relevant and the guy who set them on a path to ruin by forcing the next guy to completely revamp the offense. He’s kind of like the IT guy at your company who sets up this phenomenally efficient computer system, but it’s also so complicated that when he leaves, nobody can figure out how to manage it.
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Good point. But a lot of Collin’s crying about what was left behind may be just that crying. Geoff has had the benefit of the portal to revamp everything and has thus far failed.
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Kinda? Like where was the GA telling him we needed one more score?
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GT ain’t got shit on UGA…not sure why you let these things fester.
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You wouldn’t want to take those records away from Fech? It’s the only thing their fans can hold on to … especially the Drought. Do you remember we retired the number of the Drought Breaker, Theron Sapp?
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NOPE
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Dumping Collins during or after this season assumes there’s someone else who will, 1. Take the job, and 2. Do a better job.
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Number one is certain, they’re a power five job. Number two would seem doubtful at first blush until you realize they’re currently a three wins per season program and they could at least find someone who doesn’t wear a vest and hat that are both a size too small and who doesn’t say stupid shit that embarrasses them as often.
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Shorter GA Tech fan (if you can find one these days) “So you’re tellin’ me THERE’S A CHANCE?”
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Tuck Fech…glad we renamed that sinkhole off North Ave. Mark Richt field
I actually want Fech to improve…there’s nothing like dashing their hopes and dreams near the end of a season…at Nerdville, you can do that!
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Georgia Tech fans didn’t even chirp pregame last season. They barely showed up at all. But walking around on their campus, I didn’t even hear anyone yell the good word or mock the quality of my degree. It was sad. They were more resigned to defeat than Geoff’s gameplan.
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Exactly, what’s the sport in kicking the shit out of a cadaver? If for nostalgia or state pride, I’d like to see them improve…if for no other reason than to be able to use them as a put down like “your team sucks so badly, hell I bet the Nerds from North Ave could beat them”…but today, there’s few Div 1 teams you could say that about right now. Tech is FUBAR
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Jeoff to the NATS nerd faithful:
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The guys I know who follow them are done with Collins. One a pretty good former player.
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ee:
(Also Collins): “Well, Sir…we’re hoping that our midterm grades will really help our average!!”.
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Kirby lays the wood:
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I see 4 top 20 teams, and I’m counting Pitt, who may be marginally there. GT just sucks and Collins is making them worse, good times.
I wish our win against them carried some kind of weight, alas, it doesn’t.
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Oh, it carries weight. Damn what outsiders think, we cannot beat tech enough and it never never never never never gets old.
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Yep, until we win 9+ in a row with one of them at least 50-0, the beatings will continue.
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^^^ gets it
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I just can’t get worked up at all about beating GT..it’s assumed.
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^^^ gets it
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Their current trajectory is toward the scene of the rapidly approaching crash site. I always enjoy a tech crash and burn season.
As my good friend and tailgate DD buddy always says any day tech loses is a great day for America.
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Sounds like someone is soon to be scattered and smothered…
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Hey, they are playing Western Carolina on 5 days rest after Clemson, they have a good chance of dropping that one too (the closest to a gimme that they have on the schedule).
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“Just look for the smoking hole in the ground” was what we were told when trying to locate a downed bird – works for GT too.
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But, but, but….now that Collins has everything in place, THIS is the season he turns his focus to winning games! So everybody better look out!! or something like that….BWAHAHAHA Uh, isn’t EVERY season supposed to be the season that a coach focuses on winning games?
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I see them starting 2 and 4. After and a huge win against Duke at home, they finish 0 for the last 6. So, where to I enter the pool on when they fire Collins?
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Makes you want to almost go and buy season tickets to watch all the misery.
I swear: tech losing like this is almost as fun as watching Georgia crush everyone.
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Man. That schedule is pretty ugly if you’re a shitty team – it might not be a lot of fun if you were even a decent ACC team. As I look at that slate I wonder if Geoff Collins is going to get the opportunity to make his first trip to Athens at all – he might be watching that game on TV.
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Naw, 1701,
Not time for a change,
Time for a contract EXTENSION!!
I like what’s going on over there at the cesspool on north ave.
Keep it going Jeoff!!
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If he coaches in Athens, I fully expect that he is no longer the head coach within twenty-four hours of the finish of the game on Saturday. But I won’t be surprised if he is relieved of his job before that in the name of getting another coach at least teed up to start work on November 27th due to the looming early signing date a little over three weeks after that.
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Probably get abused for this, but I think Collins is a better coach than most. The problem was, he couldn’t read the room and thought he had to be more of a marketing guru than a coach. HS kids didn’t buy the crap he was shoveling and he dug himself a hole he can never get out of. In addition, he turned a lot of his supporters against him, because they saw him as a clown.
He had a grace period when he came in. Had he just coached football and built it that way, his seat may not be quite as hot.
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He’s in the worse place in the world to try to recruit talent, even though Georgia is a hotbed for recruits. UGA on one side, Bama on the other. Their ACC juggernaut Clemson is right down the road and once the super-powers have picked through the litter, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee come in and get the good scraps. That’s just no way for them to come up with the talent now to even be competitive.
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Plus all the Big 10 teams (like MSU, OSU, Minnesota) who get great players out of the state or city. Collins was correct in trying to stand out he just should have been more low key and not so tone deaf.
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I’ll give him credit for knowing that recruiting is the most important part of his job. His failure is being an awkward clown and going for dumb gimmicks that the kids can see right through.
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We have business to finish with tech, then our business will be finished with them.
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Gee-off, we hardly knew ye.
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Tech sux
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Is tech more likely to win a NY6 Bowl game or become the 1st team since 2007 to lose 20 consecutive games?
They are currently on a 6 game losing streak.
If they lose to WCU then the next 3 are likely loses Miss, UCF, and Pitt. That gets them to double digits.
Need some help, but the dream is alive.
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no-neck, whacked out pseudo dentists are hard to find. long live geoff!
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Every coach under pressure relishes opening and closing their season getting pounded by perennial championship contenders.
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