Technical Tidbits 5/13

With every passing day and in light of all the transfers and departed coaches of late, Paul Johnson has taken more and more heat from people who call him a bad coach, but how good or bad is Paul Johnson in comparison to past Georgia Tech coaches? According to GTNavyNuke, he is worse than only two coaches out of Tech’s last ten based on win percentage, average finish, SOS and a few other factors: Bobby Dodd and George O’Leary. This is something that many people fail to take into account. For every good coach out there (and Paul Johnson is a good coach) there are at least two or three total busts. The odds that we fire Paul Johnson and immediately hire a new coach who is going to win even seven games every season is very low. It is totally unreasonable to even think that with the talent Tech brings in that we could win nine games consistently no matter who the coach is, and not everyone who we could bring in would even be able to muster a bowl berth every year like CPJ does. There are a TON of D1 schools that would LOVE to have Paul Johnson and win seven games per year. Let’s be reasonable.

Mini-link: I usually try to avoid linking to articles that need a subscription, but this one by the AJC regarding Jabari Hunt-Days and his eligibility is very interesting. His academic performance appears to be lacking, and mom and dad are none too pleased about it.

Former Georgia Tech OLB/DE Anthony Williams will transfer and play out his final season of eligibility with the Troy Trojans. Williams didn't ever get to see much of the field in his time at Tech, but he did help out the Jackets with their good special teams play over the last few years. His brother, four-star DE Andrew Williams, made his decision to commit to Auburn in large part because of the religious beliefs of Gus Malzahn (in case you were thirsty for more of this sort of debate) and gives a nice commentary on his view of Georgia Tech at the bottom of this article.

The gem of Georgia Tech's upcoming recruiting class, Myles Autry, was ready to commit to Florida State until the day he announced his decision. It is crazy to think how that quick decision on signing day had such a profound impact on Tech's class-- Autry is expected to be a key contributor for the Jackets for years to come. The bottom of the article features a really interesting interview with Myles Autry, who touches on negative recruiting (and how much of it u(sic)ga did) as well as his decision making process leading up to his signing with the Jackets. It is worth noting how severely underrated Myles Autry is-- you don't get 32 scholarship offers from top-notch football programs like he did as an average recruit. We should all be thrilled to have him; he is an impact player waiting to happen. We also need to thank his mother for dissuading him from committing to uga. THANK YOU MRS. AUTRY!

Whether or not to reformat the ACC’s divisions and championship game has come into focus for a lot of fans around the conference lately. Should the ACC dissolve the divisions and just take the two teams with the best record from all of the conference? Should the formatting stay the same? It is a debate which will likely go on for quite some time, but both sides certainly have their ups and downs. For the ACC to dissolve the divisions would likely mean that Georgia Tech would get less of an opportunity to play in the championship, or at least in the immediate future. The Jackets would have to finish either first or second in the ACC standings if they wanted to make it to Charlotte, meaning that (if we were talking about this coming season) a better ACC record than either Clemson or Florida State, both of which would be difficult to pass. I personally prefer the current configuration because you never know what is going to happen in either division; in the Coastal it is a 100% toss-up every season (who expected Duke to win the division?) and while the Atlantic is usually a two-horse race, the addition of Louisville and the continued development of some other programs should make it much more competitive very soon. Even if it remains between FSU and Clemson for a few years, who’s complaining? The Clemson vs. FSU game this year was one of the premier games of the season across all of college football—people who don’t watch the ACC or just watch one team went out of their ways to tune in.

Note: Right after I wrote this, the ACC came out with a statement that they will take the same route the SEC took, requiring teams to schedule a "power conference" team starting in 2017.

Daily Debate: How should the ACC handle their divisions?

Have a great Tuesday.