Best offense in the country, #100 defense, #22 overall

ilovetheoption

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DTGT

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(then again, they think you would blow out UNC, too, so take it witha grain of salt).
To be fair to their model, the UNC we played may have had the same name, but they were a different team than the 2-4 UNC team the week before. I imagine it is hard to correctly model player growth and lineup changes.
 

GTNavyNuke

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And the #17 ST http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/feist We dropped a bit, maybe because of the failed on-sides kicks dropping the KO average (I think they were the right calls in both games).

UNC was the best offense we have seen this year. I predicted UNC would win because they looked so good against ND the week before. They have probably caught fire like last year and I'd expect the winner of the Miami / UNC game to go to Coastal. And the UNC D did just enough to stop us a few times. (Edit: Duke is Duke.)

We have to win shoot outs with this great O and lousy D. UNC shot last in the last game. I agree we win our next three and then lose the last two based on sheer power and depth of Clemson (with Deshawn) and UGAg.

And keeping with the theme of how have you played lately, Pitt has only averaged less than 20 points a game for the last 4 and lost 3 of them. But the teams they have faced have had good D's: Iowa L (17), Akron L (64), UVa L (13), VT W (1),

Finally, Football Outsiders has a new stat for DL. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaadl Yup, our DL sucks (101st), but is a bit less bad in stopping the power run (77th in Power Success Run). Of course we are about the worst in allowing 3rd down conversions. And our sack rate on 3rd down is awful (110th). But we all knew we were bad on D. This just defines the ugly which I don't like to watch........

Just need to get more ints ....... we have 9 this year and are tied for 22nd. Anything that stops a drive is fine by me.
 

gtwin

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I think it was b/c they stopped platooning QBs against us and stuck with Williams. He has been their best QB all season .
 

GTonTop88

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The offense would get better if our defense could get us back on the field. Our defensive philosophy seems to make the other team take as many plays as possible to score, hoping they screw up before they get to the endzone. Not us try to force them to make a mistake. Good offense will not screw up against a vanilla defense much. So it puts a ton of pressure on our offense to score every drive. I wish that we could see what we could do if we had a defense. We had okay defense's in 08 & 09, but what if we had our old Tenuta defense. We could really have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs
 
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So... we have the #1 offense in the country and threads full of suggestions on how Paul can improve the offense to get better offensive recruits... Meanwhile, there are only 7 teams with worse defenses. Sounds about right...
This does nothing but put some heat on Ted Roof and the defensive staff members.
 

DTGT

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This does nothing but put some heat on Ted Roof and the defensive staff members.
It is more a comment on the derpity of some of posters that keep trying to "fix" the O.

The D lost a 2 deep during the off-season. If you can hold the D staff personally responsible for the actions of teenagers, then you may be right. I'm willing to ride this out another few years...
 

RyanS12

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Living in Michigan I can tell you this is what got Rich Rod fired. I know CPJ has gotten way more time than Rich Rod but the horrific D was his undoing there. I'm actually a huge fan of PJ. I think it's taken longer than expected but we finally have a true option QB and it's paying off but if Roof doesn't get a scheme figured out this could get out of hand really quick.
 

AE 87

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Living in Michigan I can tell you this is what got Rich Rod fired. I know CPJ has gotten way more time than Rich Rod but the horrific D was his undoing there. I'm actually a huge fan of PJ. I think it's taken longer than expected but we finally have a true option QB and it's paying off but if Roof doesn't get a scheme figured out this could get out of hand really quick.

He was also 3-9, 5-7, 7-6
In the years previous, Mich was 9-3, 7-5, 11-2, 9-4. Lloyd Carr was 122-40 and Michigan, winning the Big Ten 5 times, and the AP NatCham in 1997. The fanbase was getting tired of Carr with those four years before he retired. They struggled defending against the "new" spread offenses, iirc.

RichRod's 2008 team ended UM's bowl streak of over 20 years, iirc. They limped back to a bowl game in 2010 after starting the season 5-0, and he never beat tOSU or MSU.
 
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It is more a comment on the derpity of some of posters that keep trying to "fix" the O.

The D lost a 2 deep during the off-season. If you can hold the D staff personally responsible for the actions of teenagers, then you may be right. I'm willing to ride this out another few years...
Derpity? Help me out.
 

ATL1

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Lets see what those rankings look like when we do face strong defenses. Its a funky offense that is rarely faced so yeah it puts up points. So does UGA. So does Alabama. So does Rich Rod. So does Malzahn.

Anyway CPJ IS THE HEAD COACH not just the offensive coordinator. The defense is on him as well. How many times "if we just fix the defense" you feel like saying? You many times you watch "Groundhogs Day" before the ending changes?

I predicted 8-4 we still on track anything less can we please move on.
 

dressedcheeseside

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The offense would get better if our defense could get us back on the field. Our defensive philosophy seems to make the other team take as many plays as possible to score, hoping they screw up before they get to the endzone. Not us try to force them to make a mistake. Good offense will not screw up against a vanilla defense much. So it puts a ton of pressure on our offense to score every drive. I wish that we could see what we could do if we had a defense. We had okay defense's in 08 & 09, but what if we had our old Tenuta defense. We could really have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs
We can't even do that as we gave up big plays right and left.
 

dressedcheeseside

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Anyway CPJ IS THE HEAD COACH not just the offensive coordinator. The defense is on him as well.
That's nothing earth shattering to anybody here, we already know that and agree with it. The defense sucks because of all the offseason attrition that had nothing to do with CPJ or his coodinators. Add JHD, Commissiong and Whitehead to the mix, guys we all expected to be playing right now at the beginning of the offseason, and we'd most likely be undefeated with most of our wins with comfortable margins. Because we don't oversign and because high academic standards limit our pool of prospects, especially defensive ones, we have the slimmest of margins in dealing unforseeable attrition. What a Bammer can absorb is catastrophic to us.
 

ilovetheoption

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Lets see what those rankings look like when we do face strong defenses. Its a funky offense that is rarely faced so yeah it puts up points. So does UGA. So does Alabama. So does Rich Rod. So does Malzahn.

Anyway CPJ IS THE HEAD COACH not just the offensive coordinator. The defense is on him as well. How many times "if we just fix the defense" you feel like saying? You many times you watch "Groundhogs Day" before the ending changes?

I predicted 8-4 we still on track anything less can we please move on.
I actually agree with much of this.

The only pushback I have is that it's adjusted for strength of schedule already.
 

AE 87

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Lets see what those rankings look like when we do face strong defenses. Its a funky offense that is rarely faced so yeah it puts up points. So does UGA. So does Alabama. So does Rich Rod. So does Malzahn.

Anyway CPJ IS THE HEAD COACH not just the offensive coordinator. The defense is on him as well. How many times "if we just fix the defense" you feel like saying? You many times you watch "Groundhogs Day" before the ending changes?

I predicted 8-4 we still on track anything less can we please move on.

Let me reiterate and emphasize what @ilovetheoption said. The #1 ranking after 8 weeks already accounts for strength of schedule and does not count garbage time (when the outcome is no longer in question) plays, drives.

So, yes, we played a crap defense in UNC, but scored at a clip of 4.5 pts/drive, 7 scores in 10 drives. That's really good against anybody. However, we've also played VPI who footballoutsiders ranks as #1 D in the country and Duke is #14.

As far as the coaching decision is concerned, I think we need to look at more than just decontextualized W-L records. Similarly, imo, it's not enough to simply ask how many times we can say, "If we just fix the defense," without looking reasonably at the steps that have been taken in the past.

First, we have a head coach that has developed a top 5 offense twice in 7 years, top 25 5 times in seven years without top 5, top 25 type talent. That's significant value added.

Then you look at the standards he's set on the defense expected and the steps taken to improve the defense. You have to look at whether the hiring of Al Groh was CPJ's decision alone or was there strong pressure from the AD for budgetary reasons. So, for example, if it's true that we had a reasonable shot at E. Johnson but weren't able to hire him because the AD wanted to purchase from the cut-out bin, you can't put that entirely on the HC.

You have to look at the realities of the unexpected attrition and how much of that could have or should have been expected or avoided from the HC office. You have to look at the likelihood of the defense improving with the current staff.

I'm a fan of CPJ so, of course, I'm motivated for him to continue as our coach, but I think that you'd have to be pretty sure that the evidence points to the HC as responsible for the lack of D development before you fire him for that reason. I don't think a superficial look at the final W-L records is sufficient evidence.
 

yellojello

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I'm a fan of CPJ so, of course, I'm motivated for him to continue as our coach, but I think that you'd have to be pretty sure that the evidence points to the HC as responsible for the lack of D development before you fire him for that reason. I don't think a superficial look at the final W-L records is sufficient evidence.

Agreed. I'm not for superficial analysis either. But let me ask you a different question.

What period of time, if any, is considered reasonable before you judge the track record of the HC and consider that as a trend?
 

AE 87

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Agreed. I'm not for superficial analysis either. But let me ask you a different question.

What period of time, if any, is considered reasonable before you judge the track record of the HC and consider that as a trend?

Yeah, I must not have been clear or I don't understand what you're asking. I see this as the same question. I consider looking for a trend in a decontextualized W-L record as superficial, if you mean by "trend" a basis in itself for making hiring/firing decisions.

Now, if you mean by "trend" a basis for asking contextualizing questions, then it doesn't take many seasons. So, I think we have already had enough time and enough seasons to raise questions about a possible relationship between his head-coaching and the performance of our team on D. That's why I think an AD could pursue the kind of questions I raised in my previous post.
 
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