By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 27, 2022 | Finally, finally Georgia Tech has booted Football Coach Geoff Collins. And he took down Athletic Director Todd Stansbury with him!
Though he had always talked of seeing continual improvement, the record did not show that. After four weeks of the 2022 football season, the team was 1-3. It was the start of another dismal season under Collins. It’s obvious the Collins’ team had no chance of beating arch-rival Georgia.
Alumni of Georgia Tech had long wondered when this would happen. For all Collins years, The Yellow Jackets seemed dumbfounded when on the field. Meanwhile, the record was taking the toll at the gate, as fans with little hope started staying away in droves.
One problem was his $3 million salary. (We suspect it would have taken far less to sign him in the first place.) The Tech Athletic Association will be hit hard in paying him off with his three years left on a seven year contract.
Collins’ overall coaching record is spotty. Through last weekend’s loss, he was 10-28 at Tech, 25-38 overall in his head coaching career. Collins, 51, is a native of Decatur, and was raised in Conyers. He played football at Western Carolina, and has had defensive assistant coaching experience at nine colleges. He came to Ga. Tech from Temple University, where he won 15 games in two years. He was the 20th football coach at Ga. Tech.
One of his problems at Georgia Tech was installing a pro-style spread offensive attack, after Tech played 11 years under Paul Johnson’s spread-flexbone (some call it “Triple Option”) formation. Collins’ offense fizzled, but so did his defense.
Georgia Tech was competitive while Paul Johnson was the head coach. He was 82-60 at Tech in 11 seasons. He came to Tech after leading Georgia Southern and Navy, both using his distinctive offensive formation. Johnson’s record is 189-99 overall as a head coach in 22 seasons.
Say one thing about Johnson’s offense: it was explosive! His teams were always a major leader in the nation in rushing year in and year out. If one opponent missed a block, suddenly there a Yellow Jacket went with a long touchdown. Johnson’s teams put lots of points on the scoreboard! His quarterbacks had to be superb, able to read the defense and determine whether to run, pitch, and sometimes pass. It was fun to watch.
Bohannon
The Naval Academy and Army run this offense today….and one other key team does. That would be the Owls at Kennesaw State College. Its head coach, Brian Bohannon, has a 63-19 won-loss record. He learned his offensive formation from working as an assistant coach under Paul Johnson at both Georgia Southern and Navy.
Bohannon played football as a standout wide receiver at….of all places…the University of Georgia! Don’t you know he would like to return to Between the Hedges with a competitive team and take on the Bulldogs!
One thing about the Paul Johnson and Brian Bohannon offenses: each of their opponents had seldom seen that offensive formation on their schedule, having to work extra hard in practice in preparation for that offense. That made it doubly difficult to play against, and gave the edge to this innovative offense.
Now that Georgia Tech has fired Collins, what’s wrong with installing Bohannon and bringing back this distinctive offense, enjoying the explosiveness of this offensive formation, and probably winning a lot more football games? Brian Bohannon makes $390,550 in salary at Kennesaw. Hiring him for $2 million could be a big bargain! (Bet he would soon get a raise!)
Georgia Tech fans have suffered enough under Geoff Collins.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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