In the Grand Scheme..
A recent article from ESPN detailed a series of polls over the years regarding the “All-Time Top Ten” of college football, decade by decade. On that list, Georgia Tech finished 6th in the poll covering the years 1940-49. Tech came in 11th in the poll covering 1950-59. And the Yellow Jackets finished 21st as recently as the poll covering the 1990-99 decade. Those are impressive results in many ways. And somewhat sobering in other ways, given recent results on the Flats.
For that matter, Tech was 8th ranked in the final AP poll as recently as 2014 under Paul Johnson. That seems more than eight years ago.
In each of the first three years under head coach Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech has won only three games. The Yellow Jackets’ overall record over that span is 9-25, a winning percentage of 27%. That record is the 2nd-leanest win total for the first three years of any new coach at Tech going all the way back to 1904. Bill Curry went 8-25-1 in his first 3 years at Tech, a 24% win rate. Of note, though, is that in Curry’s third year he went 6-5, which gave fans some hope and gave Curry some leverage to stay on at his alma mater.
And before that, you ask? The records go way back. The fact is that Georgia Tech has been playing intercollegiate football since 1893. Over those first 11 years, no coach stayed on the job for more than one year, and in four of those seasons, there was no official head coach at all. The seasons were short, usually 3-5 games per year and largely unsuccessful..10-32 was the overall record for those 11 years (a winning percentage of 24%, which is not much different than the past 3 years in aggregate).
The seriousness and the success of Tech football took positive turns in 1904 when John Heisman started his coaching tenure. He stayed through the 1919 campaign. Heisman’s overall record was 102-31-6. His 1917 team won the national championship.
William Alexander took over in 1920 and stayed on through the 1944 season. His 1928 team won the national title. Alexander compiled an overall record of 141-96-15. In 1945 Bobby Dodd took the reins. Dodd coached through the 1966 season, winning a national title in 1952 team with a 12-0 record. His overall record was 166-58-8. By then, Georgia Tech was well- known for high quality football under the direction of successful long-tenured coaches– Heisman, Alexander and Dodd in aggregate covered the job from 1904 thru 1966.
Post-Dodd, Georgia Tech experienced some long stretches of mainly mediocre results. Bud Carson, Bill Fulcher, Pepper Rodgers and Bill Curry each had moments of moderate success. Curry had one 9-win season. But none had the staying power or the success that Tech fans had grown accustomed to enjoying in prior decades.
After Curry’s departure, Bobby Ross survived a slow start over his first two years before posting a winning season in year three. He then led the Jackets to an undefeated season in 1990 when they finished with an 11-0-1 record and a share of the national championship (UPI Coaches poll). Following Ross’ departure to the NFL, Bill Lewis did not make it through his 3rd year at Tech, giving way to George O’Leary who led Tech to several strong seasons before leaving the Flats to go to Notre Dame. In O’Leary’s wake, Chan Gailey was consistent with barely above .500 results annually.
Then came Paul Johnson who brought some strong seasons back to Tech, including three wins over rival Georgia. Johnson stepped down in late 2018 after 11 years, giving way to the Geoff Collins era.
Collins came to Tech with a reputation for being a stellar recruiter and for having a knack for coaching good defenses. So far he has not been able to translate those qualities into plentiful wins, and many analysts believe Tech is headed for yet another 3-win season in 2022. Since the end of last season, Collins has lost several of his better players to the transfer portal. He has also made significant changes to his coaching staff, most notably bringing in Chip Long as OC and Chris Weinke as QB coach. Only time will tell on the results, given another tough schedule for Tech. Only two games are considered likely wins– Western Carolina and Duke.
If the Jackets can surprise a few opponents and get the win total up to 5 or 6, it will raise the spirits of the Tech faithful and buy Collins more time to try to build the program he envisioned going forward. With another 3 win total, though, it’s difficult to see Georgia Tech in ’23 without a new coach at the top.
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports.com