DEL.ICIO.USChan Gailey returns to Atlanta with Chiefs
Former Georgia Tech coach, assistants take different paths
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Chan Gailey could practically have a reunion of his last coaching staff at Georgia Tech this weekend.
Tech’s former head coach will be in town as offensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs, who play the Falcons on Sunday. Seven of his nine assistants also will be in town. But what they are doing speaks to the itinerant nature of the profession.
AP
Former Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey is now the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Two moved to Kansas City with him. Three were retained by Georgia Tech. One looked for a job for six months before getting hired at Georgia State, which will begin Division I-AA play in 2010. And the last is still looking for a job.
“The whole dynamic of old staff being let out and the new staff in, that’s a story,” said John Bond, Tech’s former offensive coordinator who now has the same job with Georgia State.
Reunions, though, aren’t on Gailey’s agenda this weekend, other than with his family. He scarcely has had time to keep tabs on his old team. Trying to improve a young offense that ranks 27th in the NFL in yards per game is a more immediate task.
“I think they’re 2-1, aren’t they?” Gailey asked Wednesday about his former team. “I watched a few snaps of them the other day. That’s about it.”
That said, Gailey, with typical grace, spoke well of his former employer, which fired him in November. At Tech he was 44-32, but 0-6 against rival Georgia.
“There’s a lot of great people there,” he said. “It’s basically what you make out of it. There’s a lot of great things at Tech and so, a lot of great memories.”
His regret, he said wryly, is that “obviously, you wish we’d have won more.”
They did not, and as such, Gailey is in Kansas City, with offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris and running backs coach Curtis Modkins assisting him.
The three Tech assistants retained by Paul Johnson are linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary, defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Giff Smith and then-special teams (now cornerbacks) coach Charles Kelly.
Defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta was hired as the assistant head coach at Notre Dame. Assistant head coach/receivers coach Wayne “Buddy” Geis has not found a job and is in Florida, Gailey said. Tight ends coach Johnson “Jeep” Hunter has also not found a job and is living with his wife and two children in Woodstock. He hopes to find a job in the next round of coaching changes after this season.
Bond, who coached one season at Tech, had jobs fall through at Northwestern and Florida International, but he was hired in July by Georgia State coach Bill Curry to help start the GSU program.
“We just got a table to meet on a couple weeks ago,” Bond said. “We just got grease boards Saturday morning. So everything literally is from scratch.”
Like most assistant coaches, Hunter’s contract was renewed on an annual basis. His family is living largely off of accumulated savings.
“It gets to be rough,” said Hunter of not having a job. “You just have to pray about it and keep looking forward and keep moving forward.”
Even with the breakneck pace of coaching, some coaches, particularly those at Tech and Kansas City, have stayed in touch, mostly through text messages.
Said Jean-Mary, “You have friends that you feel like you have for life, no matter how it ended here or where they’ve landed.”
That, along with the time he can spend with his two young children, is one of the blessings of not having a job for Hunter. Among his former fellow Tech coaches, D’Alessandris, Modkins and Bond have particularly kept in touch with him, he said.
Said Hunter, “You really find out who your friends are in this business.”
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