A former player was appointed coach and L.D.

Cabrera expressed his gratitude to Collins for his hard work and commitment to his players.

“Unfortunately, the results of our football program have fallen short of what our loyal community, fans and athletes expect and deserve,” he said. “We are committed to rebuilding the program and changing the training is a necessary first step in this process.”

He said Stansbury will always be respected and admired in the tech community and that his dedication and love for technology and athletes are impressive.

“The challenges the sports program has faced in recent years have grown to the point where we need to try a new approach, and that requires new leadership,” said Cabrera, who was not available for an interview.

Frank Neville, Cabrera’s Chief of Staff and First Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, AD has been appointed provisionally. Neville is Cabrera’s right-hand man and he came with Cabrera from George Mason in 2019. The fact that Cabrera has temporarily ridden from outside the athletic department and not one of his Stansbury subordinates is an indication that more changes may be coming.

Offensive line coach Brent Key, a technology graduate, has been selected as interim coach. Key, an All-ACC performer playing for coach George O’Leary 1997-2000, was one of Collins’ firsts. The final eight games of the regular season, starting with Saturday’s Yellow Jackets game at Pete, may be an opportunity for you to make a case for earning the full-time spot.

The staff of the sports department has been notified Stansbury and Collins firings At a late-morning Monday meeting in the football team’s conference room. Cabrera and Neville addressed the staff at the brief conference. Neville is not believed to be a candidate for a full-time position.

Of Tech’s 13 full-time coaches, Collins became the fifth to be fired and the second (after Bill Lewis in 1994) to lose his job before the end of the season.

In one text, a technical employee described Monday as “a surreal day, but we have to move on. Our interest, as it should always be, is the amazing and resilient student-athletes.”

Another staff member: “Todd treats coaches, staff and student-athletes with respect, dignity and integrity. led with integrity. He loves Georgia Tech and he has shown that.”

Of the nine full-time ads for Tech, Stansbury became the first to be fired. It may be no one more than Stansbury, a tech graduate (1984) and former football player. He was hired in 2016 from Oregon and aspired to sit in the same position par excellence as Homer Rice, when Stansbury was in school and his eventual mentor.

“He’s like a member of the family, because I’ve always felt that way about our players, and he was one of our players,” Bill Carey, a tech expert at Stansbury, said in an interview with AJC. “I’m just so sorry to everyone involved.”

Parker Executive Search has been hired to lead the search for new, trained advertising. Normally, the ad would have to be in place for a coach to be hired – a coach is unlikely to take the job without knowing who the AD would be – and time is crucial. When Stansbury’s predecessor, Mike Bobinski, left Tech for Purdue in August 2016, Stansbury was appointed six weeks later and did not take over until after late November.

Tech has the advantage to start looking for internships in September, but this head start probably wouldn’t be helpful without announcing it’s running.

Collins, appointed in December 2018, looked to raise the Yellow Vests to the elite of college football.

His plan began with branding and culture, the first to attract recruits to Tech and the second to prevent players from relocating. Collins has marketed the team as energetic, positive, and active on social media, and has impressed players and fans. When he landed four-star successor Jamius Griffin of Roma High in February 2019, he was seen as evidence of how he won the main recruits within Georgia State.

The 2020 class, its first full class, was even more successful, ranking 27th nationally (247Sports Composite). It was the highest rated tech since its historic 2007 class that included future NFL Draftman Derek Morgan, Morgan Burnett and Jonathan Dwyer, which Collins helped bring in as player personnel manager. The centerpiece of the run was the four-star jogger Jammer Gibbs of Dalton High, one of only four other four-star athletes. Collins often suggested that higher-ranking chapters were on the way, sparking enthusiasm for the technology’s fan base.

However, Tech had trouble competing from the start as it moved its attack from former coach Paul Johnson’s successful option scheme. Perhaps in an effort to set expectations, Collins wasn’t shy about selling the shift range as historic. But while the technological offensive faced challenges, so was the defense.

Tech was 3-9 in 2019 in Collins’ first season, with a pre-season loss to The Citadel (and option to attack) the most troubling result. The pandemic created more problems in 2020, as recruitment and development were hampered. The Jackets finished the season 3-7, including a 73-7 home loss for a number in the time. 1 Clemson. It was the most decisive loss to technology since 1894.

Meanwhile, the 2021 signature class, Tech’s efforts hampered by the pandemic, and likely the Jackets’ mediocre performance on the field, ranked 47th. The 2022 class ranked 55th.

Collins set expectations higher ahead of the 2021 season, sealing them with the “WIN21” tagline. The Tech duo had rising star Gibbs and quarterback Jeff Sims, major additions from the transfer gate and the feeling that after two years of taking the blocks, the Jackets were on the cusp of a turn.

“We have some really good players. We have some really good coaches,” Collins said before the season. “We just have to put it all together and focus every day on being really good, and we have a chance to be.”

He started the season with a hit, a 22-21 home defeat to Northern Illinois, which failed to win a game in 2020 (although the Huskies will go on to win the MAC title). Ulster’s mistakes and questionable coaching decisions in that match set the stage for a season in which he will again end with three wins. One was a milestone in his period, with a 45-22 victory over a North Carolina-ranked team at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

After the season, Collins fired offensive coordinator Dave Patenaud and two secondary coaches, and that was the start of a massive turnover. Notably, Gibbs, who has his all-American back, left the transfer window, and is one of 13 players who left after the end of the season. He also left four assistant coaches and general manager Patrick Souds voluntarily for other jobs.

Collins hired acclaimed offensive coordinator Chip Long and made a shift to devote more of his time to assisting defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker. Before the season, talk about the team that has an advantage and a strong focus.

But the same problems that plagued Tech in the first three seasons – mental errors and lack of discipline – were combined with a squad that relied heavily on inexperienced players. Fan spirits turned hard against Collins after a 42-0 home loss to the Top 25 Ole Miss on September 17, and Saturday’s loss to the UCF appears to have pushed Collins over the edge.

Collins’ latest ledger allocates four losses in the run, including his first home tech loss since 1957. In his 38-game stint, Jacket lost six games by 40 points or more. The six before that happened over 42 seasons.

In his tenure, which was only shy of six years, Stansbury oversaw a number of successes. Notably, he led a $125 million capital campaign that completed during the pandemic and continues to exceed the target by $50 million. The foundation stone for the campaign, a $75 million renovation of the Edge Center, the administration’s headquarters, is expected to be laid after the end of the football season.

Most non-profit Tech teams, especially volleyball, are becoming more competitive nationally and within the ACC. In the 2020-21 school year, eight teams made it to their NCAA athletics tournaments, equaling the school record set in the year 2009-10. Last year, every women’s program—basketball, softball, swimming, diving, tennis, track and field, and volleyball—sent teams or individuals to the NCAA postseason competition, a first for the school.

However, his tenure was not without flaws. He was sued in December 2019 by the state of Oregon, his former employer, after not paying all the $2.1 million he owed the school for breaking his contract with the school to take the job at Tech. The lawsuit was filed three months after Cabrera took office, and it didn’t exactly start off on the right foot.

Oregon sued despite the fact that the institute took out a $1.1 million loan to Stansbury, which will be forgiven if he honors his five-year contract, and also earned a $900,000 salary that was $200,000 more than his predecessor (Bubinski). .

After the lawsuit was filed, Stansbury was bailed out with another loan from the institute in January 2020, this time in the amount of $1.6 million, to cover outstanding debts, and he also reduced his salary by nearly $300,000 to $650,000. It was also to be forgiven if Stansbury remained until 2025. (According to the terms of the contract, the remainder of the loan is now forgiven due to unreasonable termination.) But, perhaps specifically, the contract did not have a term and was entitled to six months’ salary in case Termination of service. Receiving $325,000 for his expulsion would be cause for celebration in most circles, but for a power conference school athletic director, it was an indication that he was walking on thin ice with a president who took office months before the lawsuit.

Furthermore, while partially out of his control, the division’s revenue took a huge hit as ticket sales were delayed by the football team’s performance. Moving from Johnson to Collins has also been costly, as has the impact of COVID-19. The management fund’s balance in June 2016, months before Stansbury took office, was $6.6 million. In June 2022, the shortfall was $12.1 million.

While it fits in with a larger cultural trend, the department has also experienced significant turnover in recent years and has struggled to fill vacant positions.

But politically, none of these shortcomings compare to Stansbury’s support for Collins, whom he hired in December 2018 to succeed Johnson in a research he conducted himself. He raised eyebrows with a seven-year contract and a starting salary of $3 million, roughly the amount that would have made Johnson the most accomplished of 2019.

Stansbury also gave Collins a larger salary package for his assistant coaches and authorized the hiring of more untrained staff.

But the results did not appear on the ground. Fatefully, Collins was considered “my man” on Collins’ weekly radio show in late 2021, days before the tech was stifled by a Georgia final national champion in front of a sea of ​​red-clad Bulldogs fans at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Stansbury’s loyalty to Collins alarmed donors, as did his decision not to pressure Collins to change defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker, whose unit ranked 117th on the FBS in full defense. Even when budgets were tight, he authorized the hiring of attack coordinator Long for twice the salary ($800,000) of his predecessor, Patenaud (although he brought Tech in line with the salaries of other ACC coordinators, such as Patenaude and Thacker who were, were at or near the bottom at the conference between Pay Coordinators).

In doing so, he tied his fate to Collins.

And when Collins failed to show the progress Stansbury identified as a mandate — a 42-0 home loss to the Top 25 Ole Miss was particularly costly — the writing was on the wall for both men.