Kevin Sherrer has been elevated to defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech, coach Brent Key announced Sunday. Andrew Thacker, the team’s defensive coordinator for the past four-plus seasons, has been reassigned to safeties coach for the Yellow Jackets.

“Our performance on defense this season hasn’t met the standard that we expect at Georgia Tech. While the responsibility for that does not fall on any one individual – in fact, as the head coach, that responsibility begins with me – I do feel that a new voice and perspective from the coordinator role is necessary for us to improve,” Key said in a release. “Coach Sherrer is a veteran coach that has had great success in all aspects of coaching defense and at the highest levels of football. I’m confident in his ability to lead our defense and achieve the improvement that we expect and demand.”

https://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-tech/...IICWROF7U/

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They definitely needed a change somewhere. Maybe this will be the spark they need. I was very optimistic after that hard fought loss with Louisville. Now they seem to be regressing back to the Geoff Collins days. TBH I couldn't watch them get blown out by freakin Bowling Green.

Recruiting is the key to Tech's success going forward. That's gonna require better funding. Then players like Jahmyr Gibbs may stay put, if they can see the possibility of success with GT. Can't stay at the bottom of the pack in this ever-changing world of realignment. Funding is Georgia Tech's first and last problem for Football and Basketball currently.

(10-02-2023 12:13 AM)AvgSportsFan Wrote:  They definitely needed a change somewhere. Maybe this will be the spark they need. I was very optimistic after that hard fought loss with Louisville. Now they seem to be regressing back to the Geoff Collins days. TBH I couldn't watch them get blown out by freakin Bowling Green.

Recruiting is the key to Tech's success going forward. That's gonna require better funding. Then players like Jahmyr Gibbs may stay put, if they can see the possibility of success with GT. Can't stay at the bottom of the pack in this ever-changing world of realignment. Funding is Georgia Tech's first and last problem for Football and Basketball currently.

Andrew Thacker was one of the most disliked for results on the field under Collins. Last year they finally were a respectable defense, so Thacker wasn't axed. They reverted right back to form this year. There's no universe where Thacker wasn't already on a very short leash.

GT actually has the 3rd largest recruiting budget in the ACC and one of only 3 in the conference with a more than $1m/yr recruiting budget. Recruiting improved in Key's first year but needs to keep doing so. Jahmyr Gibbs didn't stay put because the OC Geoff Collins brought in was hot garbage. The former letter winner and star RB coach and recruiter who signed Gibbs, Tashard Choice, was given 7 figures to be an assistant on the staff at Texas. So Gibbs' favorite coach left. The guy who recruited him left. And the OC was trash, and he didn't even make it a season at Old Dominion after being fired at GT. That's why he left.

Funding is only a problem in-so-far as Mickey Mouse deposits $40,000,000+ a year more in Athens, Knoxville, Auburn, Gainesville, Nashville, Columbia, and Lexington than Mickey Mouse deposits in Atlanta. And I don't care how big your fan base is or how deep their pockets are ... you don't make up a $40m/yr TV money disparity year after year after year. It's simply not possible.

The issue is not simply Thacker. Tech hired the wrong coach. They responded the blowback to the leak of the preferred candidate out of the search process, Tulane's Willie Fritz. Instead of staying true to the well thought out evaluation of coaching candidates, they bowed to the pressure and hired the interim.

Key was the wrong choice. The only benefit was that he was cheap. The fact that Thacker was retained only shows the ineptitude at the top. Now they are shuffling the coaching staff to save money on yet more buyouts.
I fear this is simply GC 2.0. Another HC with no previous HC experience who is over his skis. We will lose this year. Promise staff changes in the off season, and lose again next year. Key will be fired with another buyout, and then maybe he hire a professional.[/u]

(10-02-2023 08:25 AM)LeeNobody Wrote:  The issue is not simply Thacker. Tech hired the wrong coach. They responded the blowback to the leak of the preferred candidate out of the search process, Tulane's Willie Fritz. Instead of staying true to the well thought out evaluation of coaching candidates, they bowed to the pressure and hired the interim.

Key was the wrong choice. The only benefit was that he was cheap. The fact that Thacker was retained only shows the ineptitude at the top. Now they are shuffling the coaching staff to save money on yet more buyouts.
I fear this is simply GC 2.0. Another HC with no previous HC experience who is over his skis. We will lose this year. Promise staff changes in the off season, and lose again next year. Key will be fired with another buyout, and then maybe he hire a professional.[/u]

Willie Fritz isn't the guy. Brent Key is better. Deion was the correct choice, ASSUMING HE COULD GET PAST THE HILL.

(10-02-2023 08:25 AM)LeeNobody Wrote:  The issue is not simply Thacker. Tech hired the wrong coach. They responded the blowback to the leak of the preferred candidate out of the search process, Tulane's Willie Fritz. Instead of staying true to the well thought out evaluation of coaching candidates, they bowed to the pressure and hired the interim.

Key was the wrong choice. The only benefit was that he was cheap. The fact that Thacker was retained only shows the ineptitude at the top. Now they are shuffling the coaching staff to save money on yet more buyouts.
I fear this is simply GC 2.0. Another HC with no previous HC experience who is over his skis. We will lose this year. Promise staff changes in the off season, and lose again next year. Key will be fired with another buyout, and then maybe he hire a professional.[/u]

Yeah, how does an interim going 4-4 with the 4 wins being by a combined 13 points and 3 of the 4 losses being by 3+ TDs get the permanent HC job?

If all 4 wins are by a combined 13 points and the losses are blowouts, that isn't sustainable.

(10-02-2023 07:13 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  And I don't care how big your fan base is or how deep their pockets are ... you don't make up a $40m/yr TV money disparity year after year after year. It's simply not possible.

(10-02-2023 07:13 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(10-02-2023 12:13 AM)AvgSportsFan Wrote:  They definitely needed a change somewhere. Maybe this will be the spark they need. I was very optimistic after that hard fought loss with Louisville. Now they seem to be regressing back to the Geoff Collins days. TBH I couldn't watch them get blown out by freakin Bowling Green.

Recruiting is the key to Tech's success going forward. That's gonna require better funding. Then players like Jahmyr Gibbs may stay put, if they can see the possibility of success with GT. Can't stay at the bottom of the pack in this ever-changing world of realignment. Funding is Georgia Tech's first and last problem for Football and Basketball currently.

Andrew Thacker was one of the most disliked for results on the field under Collins. Last year they finally were a respectable defense, so Thacker wasn't axed. They reverted right back to form this year. There's no universe where Thacker wasn't already on a very short leash.

GT actually has the 3rd largest recruiting budget in the ACC and one of only 3 in the conference with a more than $1m/yr recruiting budget. Recruiting improved in Key's first year but needs to keep doing so. Jahmyr Gibbs didn't stay put because the OC Geoff Collins brought in was hot garbage. The former letter winner and star RB coach and recruiter who signed Gibbs, Tashard Choice, was given 7 figures to be an assistant on the staff at Texas. So Gibbs' favorite coach left. The guy who recruited him left. And the OC was trash, and he didn't even make it a season at Old Dominion after being fired at GT. That's why he left.

Funding is only a problem in-so-far as Mickey Mouse deposits $40,000,000+ a year more in Athens, Knoxville, Auburn, Gainesville, Nashville, Columbia, and Lexington than Mickey Mouse deposits in Atlanta. And I don't care how big your fan base is or how deep their pockets are ... you don't make up a $40m/yr TV money disparity year after year after year. It's simply not possible.

I have some bad news for you...our new deal hasn't even kicked in yet. The total difference between ACC and SEC conference distributions last year was about $10m. There are a bunch of issues with funding everywhere, but that $10m is a small part of the more than $100m difference between GT and UGA last year ($106m for GT, $210m for UGA). I would be more concerned about the $16m deficit to UNC, or the $40-50m deficits to UVA, FSU and Clemson, as those are GT's current peers.

(10-02-2023 12:13 AM)AvgSportsFan Wrote:  They definitely needed a change somewhere. Maybe this will be the spark they need. I was very optimistic after that hard fought loss with Louisville. Now they seem to be regressing back to the Geoff Collins days. TBH I couldn't watch them get blown out by freakin Bowling Green.

Some of us prefer "Bowling freakin Green." That's how the late Bryan Burwell put it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 21 years ago after Missouri's visit:

Sorry, Mizzou fans; loss to imaginative Falcons is no upset

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - If the dateline had been different, maybe it would be easier to digest this, but the setting was all out of whack. If the dateline said Norman, Okla., or Lincoln, Neb., or even Austin, Texas, it all would have made so much more sense. But none of this made even a little sense, because what was happening to Mizzou was not being perpetrated in some hallowed college football temple like Oklahoma's Owen Field, or Nebraska's Memorial Stadium. On this breezy, steamy Saturday night, in this most unlikely place called Doyt L. Perry Stadium, the Tigers were routed not by Nebraska, but by Bowling, freaking Green.

"My heart's in my stomach right now," said Missouri kick returner Tyrone Roberson. "I'm hurting, I'm really hurting."

Roberson and the rest of the Tigers are hurting with just cause after a 51-28 spanking, not simply because of the final outcome, but because of the painful and obvious fact that this was no upset.

(In fairness: Urban Meyer was our coach back then, and he turned out to be pretty good at football.)

Good luck the rest of the way. The better you look, the better we look. If it helps, I think we may have a bowl game in us this season.

(10-02-2023 10:45 AM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  

(10-02-2023 12:13 AM)AvgSportsFan Wrote:  They definitely needed a change somewhere. Maybe this will be the spark they need. I was very optimistic after that hard fought loss with Louisville. Now they seem to be regressing back to the Geoff Collins days. TBH I couldn't watch them get blown out by freakin Bowling Green.

Some of us prefer "Bowling freakin Green." That's how the late Bryan Burwell put it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 22 years ago after Missouri's visit:

Sorry, Mizzou fans; loss to imaginative Falcons is no upset

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - If the dateline had been different, maybe it would be easier to digest this, but the setting was all out of whack. If the dateline said Norman, Okla., or Lincoln, Neb., or even Austin, Texas, it all would have made so much more sense. But none of this made even a little sense, because what was happening to Mizzou was not being perpetrated in some hallowed college football temple like Oklahoma's Owen Field, or Nebraska's Memorial Stadium. On this breezy, steamy Saturday night, in this most unlikely place called Doyt L. Perry Stadium, the Tigers were routed not by Nebraska, but by Bowling, freaking Green.

"My heart's in my stomach right now," said Missouri kick returner Tyrone Roberson. "I'm hurting, I'm really hurting."

Roberson and the rest of the Tigers are hurting with just cause after a 51-28 spanking, not simply because of the final outcome, but because of the painful and obvious fact that this was no upset.

(In fairness: Urban Meyer was our coach back then, and he turned out to be pretty good at football.)

Good luck the rest of the way. The better you look, the better we look. If it helps, I think we may have a bowl game in us this season.

You could make a case that Urban Meyer was as good of a Coach as Saban. Meyer's problem is that he never took very good care of himself and he couldn't handle the success, so it was always short-lived. Despite my loathing for Saban, I have to admit that he has handled success better than just about anybody I've ever seen. He won a Title at age 50, and he's been at or near the top of the football pyramid for the past 20 years, but he's still the same guy today as he was back then. That's VERY rare.

Feel like it’s generally uncommon for a coordinator to be demoted partially through the season instead of fired outright (like IU just did with their OC), but it is a bit of a unique situation with GT having a coach who went from interim to head during last offseason. Regardless, doesn’t look good in Atlanta. They should stop scheduling MAC teams lol.