Athletic director Todd Stansbury and football coach Geoff Collins have both been dismissed from their positions at Georgia Tech, effective immediately.
“I am grateful to Coach Collins for his hard work and commitment to our student athletes,” Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera said in a release. “Unfortunately, the results of our football program have fallen short of what our loyal community, fans and athletes expect and deserve. We are committed to rebuilding the program and a coaching change is a necessary first step in that process.”
Cabrera has installed senior Frank Neville, the institute’s senior vice president for strategic initiatives and chief of staff, as the interim athletic director. Brent Key, a former Georgia Tech player and assistant coach under Collins, has been named the interim head coach.
“Todd is and will always be an admired and respected member of our community. His dedication to the success of our student athletes and his love for Georgia Tech are admirable,” Cabrera said in the release. “The challenges the athletic program has faced in recent years have grown to a point where we need to try a new approach, and that requires new leadership.”
Prior to his being informed of his dismissal by Cabrera, Collins was at the team’s offices Monday morning leading preparation for the Jackets’ Saturday game at No. 24 Pittsburgh. Players were in attendance for meetings and a weightlifting session.
Collins’ final record at Tech is 10-28, the lowest winning percentage (.263) of the team’s 13 full-time coaches. Stansbury’s tenure as the department’s ninth athletic director is complete after six years.
The head football coach and the athletic director being relieved of their duties on the same day with more than half the season remaining is a highly unusual scenario for Tech, whose supporters pride themselves on taking a more measured approach to football and athletics than some of its more moneyed and frenzied neighbors. It is perhaps a reflection on changes in the college sports industry, where midseason firings have become more common, and also the frustration that Collins’ shortcomings had created. In his 38-game tenure, the Jackets lost six games by 40 points or more. The previous six had taken place over a period of 42 seasons
Of the four full-time head coaches to be dismissed, only one firing took place in season (Bill Lewis, 1994), and that was with three games left in the season. While some of his predecessors had undoubtedly felt pressure, Stansbury becomes the first Tech AD to leave the post not of his own accord. Perhaps none of the previous eight had cherished the job as much as Stansbury, a Tech grad and former football player and protege of longtime AD Homer Rice who professed his intention to be at his alma mater until the end of his career. His term ends just shy of six years.
After three consecutive three-win seasons, Stansbury had set a mandate for Collins to demonstrate progress and earn more wins in his fourth season. A 42-0 loss Sept. 17 at home to Ole Miss, which outgained the Jackets 547-214, made the case for progress exceedingly difficult to make. Saturday’s 27-10 loss at Central Florida proved the final blow.
The Jackets continued to make mental errors and failed to execute, a challenge that they had often failed to meet in Collins’ first three seasons. Almost unbelievably, Tech allowed four blocked punts in the first four games, all of which led to touchdowns. Ruinously for Collins, he oversaw the punt unit and was not able to fix the issue.
For Stansbury, hired in 2016 from Oregon State to run his alma mater’s athletic department, it was his aligning himself with Collins, whom he hired in December 2018 from Temple to succeed Paul Johnson, that put his job in peril.
Collins pitched to Stansbury a plan to lead the Yellow Jackets into college football’s elite with a priority on branding and culture, the former to attract top recruits to Tech and the latter to keep them there. The vision, as well as Collins’ professed love for Tech, having been born and raised in metro Atlanta and worked for former coaches George O’Leary and Chan Gailey, won Stansbury over. Stansbury gave him a seven-year contract, a deal of unusual length that he said was necessary to attract a coach given the transformation that would be necessary in succeeding Johnson and his option offense. On top of that, the contract had terms favorable for Collins in the event of a firing. Collins is contractually due the full amount remaining on his final three years, $10.5 million. Both the length of the deal and the buyout also raised questions among supporters, particularly as the Jackets’ losses mounted.
The two remained allied even as the Jackets struggled through three consecutive three-win seasons. Near the end of the 2021 season, with calls for Collins’ job growing louder, Stansbury made the questioned move of standing by Collins, not only confirming that he would return for the 2022 season but taking the extra step of calling him “my guy.”
Stansbury’s decision to ride with Collins and make further investments in the team at a time when the athletic department’s finances were (and continue to be) tight convinced major donors that should Collins not break through in his fourth year, Stansbury should not be granted the privilege of hiring Collins’ replacement, a message that undoubtedly reached Cabrera’s ears.
Significant change is ahead for Tech. A new head coach likely means new assistant coaches, new support staff and a new direction for the team. A new AD will have to attract a new coach at a time when resources are thin and the team might be the weakest in the ACC. Tech ended the 2021 fiscal year with its reserve fund $12.1 million in the red. On top of Collins’ buyout, the department will have to cover costs for Collins assistant coaches, such as offensive coordinator Chip Long and offensive line coach Brent Key, whose contracts are guaranteed past this season.
