FanPost

Should GA Tech be better?




My apologies as this is only tangentially related to FSU, but I wanted to get opinions on this. I had a disagreement with a fellow Nole fan when discussing the "state of the ACC." The disagreement started when he said Paul Johnson is a horrible coach and I disagreed. His retort was that Tech was totally irrelevant, which was Johnson's fault, and the ACC can't afford to have a team in a talent-rich state such as Georgia be mediocre.

I get his argument, but my rebuttal was that Tech has been mediocre for decades (minus a year here and there). For example, O'Leary was probably Tech's most successful coach since FSU joined the league in 1992. His record was 48-30, Johnson's is 47-32. O'Leary won 10 games once, Johnson won 11 games in 2009. Beyond that, Tech has never been able to recruit the top talent in the state, no matter the coach or offensive system (since most people seem to focus on Johnson's option game I assume that is where most consternation is directed. HE'S LOSING RECRUITS WITH THAT OFFENSE, they claim). The Bulldogs are vastly more popular and outrecruit Tech (and always will), but lots of Georgia kids go to other SEC and ACC schools. Finally, and this is one that perhaps could be reversed, I don't get the sense that Tech is financially committed to improving the program that much. They aren't throwing oodles of money at athletics like other Southern schools do.

Sure, it would be great if Tech was better (or anyone in their division for that matter), but I think their ceiling is probably 7-9 wins per year so I think my fellow FSU fan who thinks Johnson is keeping Tech down is critiquing Johnson based off of unrealistic expectations of the Tech program. What say you?

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