For Georgia Tech supporters, ‘we have to win’ against Kennesaw State

September 4, 2021 Atlanta - Georgia Tech's running back Jahmyr Gibbs (1) runs with a ball during the second half of an NCAA college football game at Georgia Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, September 4, 2021. Northern Illinois won 22-21 over Georgia Tech(Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

September 4, 2021 Atlanta - Georgia Tech's running back Jahmyr Gibbs (1) runs with a ball during the second half of an NCAA college football game at Georgia Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, September 4, 2021. Northern Illinois won 22-21 over Georgia Tech(Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Pat Swilling had the fortune to hear from quite a few of his Georgia Tech teammates and friends this week, although the reasons they were reaching out to the College Football Hall of Famer weren’t ideal for any of them.

They wanted to know what was going on with their football team, the one that lost to Northern Illinois on Saturday as an 18-point favorite in a game fraught with mistakes and missed chances. With two sons on the team, Swilling was the logical place to go for answers.

“I’ve talked to numerous people,” Swilling told the AJC. “They’re concerned, past concerned. We’re upset. It was a bitter loss, but it happens, unfortunately. You don’t want it to happen, but we just have to find a way to get a win this week and get back on a winning track.”

In many ways, it will be critical for coach Geoff Collins to lead the Yellow Jackets to a win Saturday against Kennesaw State at Bobby Dodd Stadium, in a game that begins at noon. Swilling is in Collins’ corner – “he’s going to get it done,” he said – but recognizes the growing impatience among supporters. The widespread expectation has been that 2021 will be a turnaround season after back-to-back three-win seasons, based in no small part of Collins’ own declarations for his third season. But losing to a team from a lower-tier conference that was 0-6 last season eroded fans’ confidence in Collins’ ability to fulfill those expectations. As Swilling put it, “people are tired of the rhetoric” and want to see the Jackets win.

“We need to get some skins on the wall and win some football games,” he said.

Into this fray comes Kennesaw State, an FCS opponent powered by the same spread-option offense that former Tech coach Paul Johnson used to slay giants and win 83 games in 11 seasons. Beyond the obvious advantages Tech holds in talent, size and resources, the Owls of coach Brian Bohannon (a longtime Johnson assistant, including five years at Tech) also have been pummeled by injuries, rendering his lineup precariously thin.

As a former player, Swilling holds the mindset that all games are important, and that the Kennesaw State game is important simply because it’s the next one. But he also recognizes the particular necessity for Tech to secure a win Saturday and level the record at 1-1 before heading to mighty Clemson next week.

“Do we need to beat Kennesaw State?” Swilling asked. “Oh, hell, yeah, we have to win (Saturday). Is it do or die? No. But do we need to win? Yes. Our boys and coach Collins need a win (Saturday).”

Among the reasons that a win would be critical for Tech would be to soothe (at least to some degree) the discontented fan base. While generally not a venue for reasoned discourse, social media roiled with the grievances of Tech fans following the 22-21 loss to the Huskies, much of it centered on Collins. The despair was hardly limited to virtual settings.

Paul Lee has been a season-ticket holder since 1984, part of a group that has tailgated and attended games together for literally decades. He has relinquished hope that Collins will lead the Jackets into the realm of the elite, the vision that Collins has sold.

“The younger crowd thinks he’s cool and with it and everything,” said Lee, 63. “But talking about winning games and actually winning games are two different things.”

Losing to Kennesaw State would only drive more fans to Lee’s way of thinking. Collins already owns one loss at Tech to an FCS opponent, The Citadel, which utilized the same spread-option scheme to upset the Jackets in 2019, Collins’ debut season. A second – this one to a former Tech assistant and a school 22 miles up I-75 – might be too much for a portion of the fan base. Lee went so far as to invoke the name of Bill Lewis, whose three-year tenure (1992-94) produced an 11-19 record and is a topic patently avoided by Tech fans.

Said Lee of Collins’ stewardship, “I think it’s going to end badly.”

Lee was hardly the only one holding a dim outlook. Joey Weaver, a 30-year old Tech grad, wrote a column for the Tech blog From the Rumble Seat stating, “I believe that what we’re watching is, at this point, the beginning of the end of the Geoff Collins era at Georgia Tech.”

“I just don’t believe him anymore,” a season-ticket holder, Todd Hansen, wrote in an e-mail. “I am not believing this is better than the Paul Johnson era.”

On his weekly radio appearance, athletic director Todd Stansbury acknowledged the frustration.

“Obviously, going from the Paul Johnson system to any other system, we knew was going to take time,” Stansbury said. “But I get it. I understand why people are frustrated.”

Former running back Synjyn Days said that, among players he keeps in touch with, none have written off Collins.

“I just hope we see improvement week in and week out,” he said. “I know it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Days encouraged fans to stay positive – he invited them to join him when players make the walk to the stadium down Yellow Jacket Alley – and refrain from venting on social media.

“You might want to say something,” he said. “Don’t put it out there on social media because it’s going to get back the players at the end of the day. That’s very, very discouraging.”

He is, though, wary of Kennesaw State, which made the FCS playoffs from 2017-19 and is in the FCS Top 25. He figures that Bohannon, who as a Tech coach sent Days his first-ever recruiting letter when he was playing at Hillgrove High in Cobb County, has had the game circled on his calendar ever since it was arranged in 2014.

“I’m sure a lot of those guys that are from Georgia might feel slighted that they didn’t go to Georgia Tech,” he said. “This is a national championship for them. You have to know that, going in as a player, they’re going to come with everything.”

After the loss to Northern Illinois, Tech great Bill Curry reached out to Collins to offer his encouragement, a communication that Collins highlighted in his weekly news conference. Not being familiar with schemes, talent and injuries, among other things, Curry refrained from assessments of Collins or his team, but offered his support.

“The bottom line for all this stuff that comes up at times like this – when it comes to me, and I can only speak for me – while I breathe, I am a Georgia Tech fan and I will back my guys to the hilt, no matter what,” he said.

Swilling asked for patience, reiterating his faith in Collins.

“I really believe this,” he said. “I wouldn’t (deceive) you. I think we can get it done.”

He said that, for the schemes that Collins is using, “the cupboard was bare” when Collins replaced Johnson. (It bears mention more than half of Tech’s starting lineup against Northern Illinois were players whom Collins inherited.)

“We now look like an ACC college football team,” Swilling said. “We just have to start playing like an ACC college football team.”

On that, Tech supporters everywhere would agree.