Honestly, hiring coaches who still thought the concepts and schemes of the late 90’s/early 2000s would still work. Randy was a life long defensive coach, but he was always on staff’s that prioritized a pro style offense. He wasn’t exposed to the spread, ever. Golden was a coach from the Paterno/Al Groh coaching tree. Both coaches were pro style guys. Golden also never had the guts to change his staff, ever.
Not to make light of the topic but I think the whole problem boils down to one word...LAZINESS! We had one, that right, only one AD who knew anything about hiring good people (Sam). Once he was gone the store ws placed in the hands of people who always took the lazy way. Nobody did ANY due diligence. Nobody did the research necessary to make the right hire and NOBODY was willing to PAY to get a proven coach......only retreads for a long, long time.
A lot of that is right, but I wouldn't say nobody tried. They chose poorly again and again, but there was a logic to each of the choices. Richt is self-explanitory, Golden briefly looked like the next up and coming guy, Randy was a home-town hero who would bring back the spark of our winning teams, and Larry was new the team and wouldn't steer us wrong. Point is, it wasn't lazy, it was a lack of understanding of what a team needs in a HC. Well, that and some guys who couldn't accept the fact they'd made a mistake, and so wouldn't change what clearly needed changing.
There’s kinda a cruel irony with the Coker hire and era. The 2000 team wanted him for the job, because they ran him rather than the other way around. From 01-04 things looked good. But long term that decision destroyed the program.
That's still a tough one. I've always said that had we hired somebody from outside they may have ruined the 01-02 teams by trying to install another system or something. So was it worth it? I don't know, but I'm leaning toward the greatness of the 00-02 run being worth the rest of Larry's slide to mediocrity. I would point more to Randy as the first bad hire. I think Coker, overall, carried his weight.
Yeah, Whipple wasn't bad on paper, he just couldn't adjust to his actual QB when that guy couldn't do what he wanted.
That’s a good point. I was excited for Randy from 2007-2009. Team looked like it was really on the rise. Always felt like he should’ve gotten at least one more year after 2010. Shame we didn’t give him the chance, but gave Golden 2 more years than needed. Once Golden got blown out by Louisville in that bowl game, I knew he was done.
And a bit of arrogance. Pro Style brought us 5 championships. How dare anyone suggest we do something different?
Because the people responsible for the program are clueless on football and have other priorities.
QFT!!! Many will try to cover their face and skip this question, for YEARSSSSSSS they said spread was soft, you wont win anything, those offenses are gimmicky, we get NFL players, this is NFLU, Maurice hagens in the flats, recruits bro, QB system, QBU, bro style.. I wonder who will answer this question, who will repent
