Monday, November 16, 2009

Dealing with success....


Our therapist(s) have repeatedly asked us to 1) shower, 2) stop drinking so damn much, & 3) let our feelings out, i.e. don't internalize, "set your inner self free", and other such nonsense. So there are a couple things that have been bothering us we need to address...

Tech Fans: Stop this Nonsense.....

First & foremost: Paul Johnson is not leaving Georgia Tech!!!! Stop being such a chicken-shit group of wusses. Please, this shit is driving us crazy. Let's count the reasons why:
  • $2.3 million (possibly $2.6 with incentives this season) making him the 18th highest paid football coach in the country. There will be more $ if we continue to win. I have it from a very reliable source (we were right about the U(sic)GA game time, weren't we?) that Auburn offered CPJ upwards of $4 million per year to jump ship after last season. He's still here. He's paid well & not motivated solely by money. Relax...
  • He promised his daughter, a sophomore in high school, that she would finish school here. Does he seem like the kind of guy to break a promise to his daughter?
  • He & his family like Atlanta. They like the weather. They like Tech. CPJ likes the golf. It's convenient to North Carolina where he grew up. They just got here....
  • He said last week on the radio show the last place he wants to coach is Notre Dame...
  • Tech is a VERY, VERY good job. How many jobs in the country are better? 10? 20? How many suit CPJ better? None. How many have openings? He's paid well, our facilities are good, Georgia is a great place to recruit (& he has tons of connections with High School coaches from his time at Georgia Southern) &, (collective gasp from the audience...) he likes it here!
  • It doesn't fit the pattern. CPJ is a driven individual. He's a winner. As long as there are challenges to be met at Tech he will be here. What has he accomplished so far? A lot, but there's so much left to be done. He's the first to admit that. CPJ left GSU because after 2 national championships & a yearly berth in the then Division 1-AA playoffs he had little left to prove. Time for a new challenge. On to the United States Naval Academy & a new challenge. Seven Commander-in-Chief trophies. Two ten win seasons. Several top 25 rankings. A victory over Notre Dame. What was left to accomplish? Let's be real, CPJ had reached the ceiling at Navy. Will his "gimmick" offense work against the "big boys" of college football? Off to The Flats to find out.....We haven't won anything yet, why leave now?
So relax. The best analogy I've heard to this is that Tech fans are the same guys who, when out on a date with a really hot girl, turn to her at dinner & say,"you're so hot, I really can't believe you're going out with me". Grow a set.....

Relax, he'll be here a while....stop with the "self-fulfilling prophecy" B.S. ...

A corollary to the above: you need good players if you want to have a good football team. Brilliant deduction on our part. We just figured it out yesterday. And guess what? Good players are highly sought after to play the game of football for.....MONEY. Shocking, we know, the NFL luring our stars with the Siren's song of cash, cars, women, & fame. Get real, people. As a good football team our best players will leave Tech early. And we say: GOOD FOR THEM!
You gotta be a f%^&$ing moron to turn down $15 million dollars guaranteed at that age. Come back later & get your degree. We highly encourage that. But a professional football career is a fickle & temporal thing (kinda like our wives attitudes towards us....). And $10-15 million bucks buys a lot of bourbon & lap dances. Hell, we'll be lucky to make a fraction of that in our lifetime...Strike while you can. Why risk a potential career ending injury or having your draft stock plummet with a poor season (see Bradford, Sam. QB. Oklahoma Sooners)? Our Tech players give us everything they have year around. I'm confident in that. They owe us nothing. So be prepared & revel in these last two opportunities to see Derrick Morgan, Jon Dwyer, BayBay Thomas, & Morgan Burnett play. We know positively that Morgan is leaving for the NFL. And we're very confident that Dwyer is headed to "the Show". Jury is still out on BayBay & Burnett, but we're sure they'll have their draft status evaluated. If they go, good for them & thanks for the memories. If they stay, GREAT for us, their teammates & our prospects for next season. We should support them in whatever they do....

Go on, take the money & run....it's ok with us....

So we have to confront success. It's a bitch, but better than the alternative. Our success will bring about new challenges. People will try to lure our coach away. Players will leave early for the NFL. I'll go out on a limb & guess we'll see an increase in season ticket prices next year. Welcome to the big time. We asked for it, now deal with it.....and don't whine like a bitch.....Thank you, purge/rant ended...

2 comments:

  1. Agree about the Juniors possibly leaving early - they've given their best at GT and have brilliant futures ahead. Kudos! CPJ said as much at the ATL TD Club on Monday. BUT, he also added somrthing very interesting after that: how much could a player improve their draft status (and NFL paycheck) by playing another year in college ? That is the question to evaluate. $10 million signing bonus is a lot, but very little salary beyond that is Guaranteed in NFL contracts. His example was that Matt Ryan coming back for his final year at BC effectively earned him $29 million over what he would have made coming out early...

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  2. A great point. This year presents a very interesting dynamic with the NFL labor situation. A new NFL collective bargaining agreement will most likely include a rookie wage scale- greatly limiting how much a player can earn his first three years in the league. This may induce some players with marginal draft grades to leap early. I agree with the idea that some players may improve their draft status but think it's rare. If you're a top pick, you need to go & get paid. Let's look at our kids. Derrick Morgan is the top-rated DE on most draft analysts "boards" & is a consensus 1st round pick-with the injury risk it makes sense to leave. Dwyer has been projected anywhere between the 1st -3rd round. My feeling is he's a late 1st rounder. It makes sense for him to leave because 1) he doesn't have much room to improve, & 2) the position he plays greatly increases his risk of injury. In our system Dwyer takes a pounding. Might be too risky to stick around. Burnett & BayBay are up in the air. I expect they'll submit their names for evaluation by the NFL. That's a smart & logical thing to do. After that, who knows? I would LOVE to see all our guys return for a MNC run next year. If so, great. If they leave I wish them nothing but the best...
    -Hash

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