2014 Schedule

[techman78]

I am not worried that we don't have the athletes. I believe we have good athletes on the team and good speed. I am more worried about the ability of our coaches to adapt to the situations or teams we meet and that the team be in harmony with each other and the coaches.

The QB position should be in better shape because the starter will probably fit the system better. We should not have as many mistakes on offense. Since, I believe the coaches tenure is on the line, I expect both the offense and the defense to correct the problems of last year. If the team is in unity with each other and the coaches, then these two things will have to happen for a better year;

On offense, the plays will have to be more varied than last year. The opposition's defenses are well aware of the probability of each play we now call during the game; there must be additional plays and subsystems that we did not use last year. On defense, the DB's and linebackers must play alongside or inside the receivers on the 3rd and long plays. If not the other team will first down us to death and control the clock and the game.

If these weaknesses are addressed, then we have a chance with a weak schedule to have a good season. Since we do not know the full schedule or schedule changes, then I will predict next season on the teams that CuseJacket used.

Home Games
Wofford (W)
GSU (W)
UVA ((W)
Duke (W)
Miami (W)
Clemson (L)

AWAY
Tulane (W)
NCSU (W)
UNC (L)
Pitt (L)
VT (W)
UGA (L)

8-3 with the above stated games. I believe Wofford, GSU, and UVA will be no-contest at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Duke could beat us, but this is one team where we seem to have tradition in our favor. I believe we beat Miami at home, because they are not consistent, and it is our time to win. Clemson has an new quarteback from Gainesville, Georgia, but he appears to be a good one. We have problems with good passers who can also run with the ball.

Tulane appears to be coming back, but need a couple more years to beat us in Bobby Dodd Stadium. This is another team we have always been the winner by tradition, althouth it was back in the past. The new coach at NCSU did not fare that well last year, and may have a hard time with the TO (he is not that well acquainted with our TO). Pitt has a good quarterback coming back and he gave us problems last year in our house. We have big problems against the passers. Virginia Tech, for some reason, appears to be on the way downhill. It may be because they had recruited an abundance of extremely talented players, but have not done as well lately with their recruits, or the age factor is catching up with the coach.

The odds are that we will lose in Athens.

Out of those games in my opinion I would give us an L against Miami at home. For whatever reason they have owned us as of late like we have owned UNC. I think we beat Clemson at home. Deshaun Watson will not see the field this season because he needs to add some weight and learn the system. He will be a good one in the future though, he is the real deal. Also Clemson loses Watkins, Bryant, Zac Brooks, Spenser Shuey (stud LB) and I believe that Breiland the DB left early as well. They will be good but it will be a step back from their last 2 teams. Im not worried about UNC, for some reason they just never put a complete game together against us not to mention they lose possibly their best player Ebron. Not worried about Pitt either. Their QB is not returning (Savage) he was a senior and we shut him down. Sacked him 6 or 7 times. They have a good young RB but if their line doesnt improve it wont matter. Not to mention that theinsane DT Aaron Donald is gone too. Just my opinion though. If (big if) we correct the nagging problems from last season and stay healthy I think we lose to Miami because they have our number, UGA because even with the loss of Murray they still have Gurley and Marshall (which would be the starter on any team that didnt have a kid named Gurley) plus a complete young D with a year of exp under their belt. Then I can see us lose to VT just because they have had our number as well or someone like NCSU just because of overlooking (UVA 2011 ). All in all we should have a better season....Hopefully!

 

[Rodney Kent]

techman78: Yes, it is all a crap-shoot, but we can have our fun guessing.

 

[Mack]

I can't believe that our offense won't be fine. It was excellent in 2009 (top 6). It was very good in 2011 (top 15) and good (top 31) every other year but 2010. Our defense as a has been bad 57 and 58 the last two years, 68 and 70 in 2011 and 2010, 53 in 2009 and 43 in 2008. Our O during the 2010 chemistry-issue melt-down year was 49th, still better than every D but 2008. These rankings are based on footballoutsiders F/+ stat which is opponent adjusted and doesn't count games against FCS or garbage and non-competitive possessions.

This past year, we scored 31 on Clemson. By comparison, U[sic]Ga and Ohio St scored 35 and SCar scored 31. The difference? They scored 55. By comparison, CU scored 52 against SCar St, 56 against WF, and 52 against the Citadel. We scored 30 against Miami. Teams that scored more than 30 against them were FSU 41, vpi 42, Duke 48, Pitt 31, and Lvill 36. But we gave up 45 pts to them. By comparison, they scored 49 against SFlor, 45 ag UVA and 41 against Pitt.

This was not a great year for us on offense, but it's still our D that needs to really improve.

Yeah if we are going to win we need to stop folks.We do well vs little guys but when the big uns come to town we have to stop them so we can generate offense.So far only ones who seem to make us work for our supper are the big uns.We play good defense and we win extra ballgame this year.

 

[CuseJacket]

I didn't intend to upset you. I just have a different opinion. We have been getting steadily worse for four years. There was no one on the team this year, not even Zach Laskey, that could get Sims off the field. I agree with you Sims was not a playmaker, but he was the best we had, and he's gone without a viable replacement. You are mouthing the words Custis at your screen, but he has taken exactly the same number of division one snaps as I have. We lost a great deal of talent off of a 7-6 team that was only 7-6 because we played two FCS teams. I want Tech to win every game, but they aren't going to. Pencil in ten or 11 wins, we just aren't that talented.

I think some of your points in this post are valid, but if your W/L argument is predicated on the individual players then it ignores the other 50% of the equation. How do you think the talent we lost compares to the talent next year's opponents lost?

 

[Mack]

I think some of your points in this post are valid, but if your W/L argument is predicated on the individual players then it ignores the other 50% of the equation. How do you think the talent we lost compares to the talent next year's opponents lost?

Just to throw in some things but Ga will be good ..new qb has had two games in a row to get it on plus a spring practice...VT will be at least as good as they were this year since they recruit well and surley they have some backs to make up for the hoss that left,Miami is well......Miami.They have tons of talent and seem to be ready to play and UNC is a question mark.Lots of talent every year but we own them.I think we do well with JT running the show if he stays healthy and of course defense must step it up......see at least eight wins due to who we play.

 

[Rodney Kent]

I saw some basically inflated figures regarding our points scored per game, and our points given per game. Two of the games were meaningless and need to be left out of the averages. Deleting the Elon and Alabama A&M games, we scored 29 points per game and gave up 26 points per game; not very good for winning.

 

[AE 87]

I saw some basically inflated figures regarding our points scored per game, and our points given per game. Two of the games were meaningless and need to be left out of the averages. Deleting the Elon and Alabama A&M games, we scored 29 points per game and gave up 26 points per game; not very good for winning.

No post in this thread has included stats which include the Elon and Alabama AnM games.

 

[Animal02]

No post in this thread has included stats which include the Elon and Alabama AnM games.

The fact is that minus the A&M game, we would have had a lower level FBS team to run up the stats just like most other upper level FBS teams.......the ACC is to blame or that screw up.

 

[augustabuzz]

I saw some basically inflated figures regarding our points scored per game, and our points given per game. Two of the games were meaningless and need to be left out of the averages. Deleting the Elon and Alabama A&M games, we scored 29 points per game and gave up 26 points per game; not very good for winning.

If you're interested in stats for conference only games instead of hyperbole, check here: http://www.theacc.com/#!/stats?sport=m-footbl

 

[Mack]

Stats are fine and innteresting but biggest stat is won loss....seven and six ....loss to Georgie and poor performance in a bowl is what Iamb looking for....good job on stats but I am not keen on them.

 

[collegeballfan]

I would think that next season depends more on how the OL and DL play than on how the assorted "skill" players play. In the Johnson years GT usually wins the games where the GT OL has been able to block the defense. 2014 brings us a new OL. That new OL should have 2 or 3 new starters.

On defense, again the front 7 there will be critical. The achilles heel for GT football in the Johnson years has been the defense. Improvement there is where we need to look in 2014.

Looking forward to Spring Training!

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

I saw some basically inflated figures regarding our points scored per game, and our points given per game. Two of the games were meaningless and need to be left out of the averages. Deleting the Elon and Alabama A&M games, we scored 29 points per game and gave up 26 points per game; not very good for winning.

Even tho Syracuse was a bona fide FBS opponent, if you treated that 56-0 score as an outlier, we'd be scoring 26 points per game and giving up 28.8 per game. Could be considered cherry picking the stats. We are an arrogant bunch for a team that has averaged exactly 7 wins per year for four seasons in this conference with a handful of FCS patsies sprinkled in.

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

Just to throw in some things but Ga will be good ..new qb has had two games in a row to get it on plus a spring practice...VT will be at least as good as they were this year since they recruit well and surley they have some backs to make up for the hoss that left,Miami is well......Miami.They have tons of talent and seem to be ready to play and UNC is a question mark.Lots of talent every year but we own them.I think we do well with JT running the show if he stays healthy and of course defense must step it up......see at least eight wins due to who we play.

I wish I could share your optimism on Justin Thomas. He did show some flashes in mop up duty, but there is a reason he wasn't starting coming out of fall camp. Vad was better than he was. And now we have seen a full season of Vad and understand he was less than expected. I guess you could say JT didn't get the reps in practice, and was running primarily with the 2's, but I thought that in August Coach Johnson was giving them both an equal chance to win the job. Was I mistaken? Many will say that now JT is "the man", he will get all the reps, the team is his to lead, and he will come through. I hope those people are right.

 

[Mack]

I would think that next season depends more on how the OL and DL play than on how the assorted "skill" players play. In the Johnson years GT usually wins the games where the GT OL has been able to block the defense. 2014 brings us a new OL. That new OL should have 2 or 3 new starters.

On defense, again the front 7 there will be critical. The achilles heel for GT football in the Johnson years has been the defense. Improvement there is where we need to look in 2014.

Looking forward to Spring Training!

Agree with you with exception of the big uns we will have great stats for the first three games and then its time to play.If our defense improves I think we win eight at least.....if not then we still win eight.I know now that college football teams are not as defense heavy as they were years ago but it seems the good defenses at the proper time rises up and makes a play.This is what we need to happen next year at Tech.

 

[Mack]

I wish I could share your optimism on Justin Thomas. He did show some flashes in mop up duty, but there is a reason he wasn't starting coming out of fall camp. Vad was better than he was. And now we have seen a full season of Vad and understand he was less than expected. I guess you could say JT didn't get the reps in practice, and was running primarily with the 2's, but I thought that in August Coach Johnson was giving them both an equal chance to win the job. Was I mistaken? Many will say that now JT is "the man", he will get all the reps, the team is his to lead, and he will come through. I hope those people are right.[/quoteI I agree with you....from what I saw in limited action JT can run the option better than Vad.Not so sure on passing since I didnt see much of it but my point is if,and its a big untested if,JT can step it up we can play on offense with perimeter plays.I will agree also that his size does worry me since he will be taking hits.I remember Jabo getting stuck regularly and TW and JN took some big hits and they were bigger than JT ..I confess I dont know what happens in practice since I am sidewalk fan for over sixty years but if JT didnt get a lot of playing time either he was behind Vad or something was wrong with his practice.If he starts he must be the man next year.

 

[AE 87]

Stats are fine and innteresting but biggest stat is won loss....seven and six ....loss to Georgie and poor performance in a bowl is what Iamb looking for....good job on stats but I am not keen on them.

I don't think most coaches approach the issue of improving W-L with simply a "We just have to do better attitude." I think that they typically look at strengths and weaknesses and focus on improving especially in area of weaknesses. Stats help identify areas of weakness.

I get the feeling that some people who don't like the coach just like to make things up to make him look bad and get upset or feel uncomfortable when the actual statistics don't support their emotional reaction.

 

[UgaBlows]

I really believe that if our guys could beat the first big conf. opponent, whether it be VT or Miami then it would be a huge confidence boost and could lead to a great season

 

[Mack]

I don't think most coaches approach the issue of improving W-L with simply a "We just have to do better attitude." I think that they typically look at strengths and weaknesses and focus on improving especially in area of weaknesses. Stats help identify areas of weakness.

I get the feeling that some people who don't like the coach just like to make things up to make him look bad and get upset or feel uncomfortable when the actual statistics don't support their emotional reaction.

No stats for me we know by end of the year where we were on offense and defense.It is coaches job to get better since they get paid to do so and okay if you want stats to do this fine but after getting beat by two or three touchdowns most coaches generally know where the problems are.If you use stats they can be misleading and they can make you a better football team.My deal is if we are number 6 rushing .....how do we lose? If it is a blame game do we blame the offense for not scoring in the red zone or do we harp on the problems of our defense.I agree when those questions are answered stats will be the tool to define our sucess or failure.Good example......Ron Smith for the Falcons went to the PRO Bowl in 65 mainly due to the fact that he ran more kickoffs back than any NFL returner.......problem was that the Falcons were so sorry and gave up so many points that he got more chances than anybody else.Or some say well we gave up lower pass yds than anybody in the league.........of course they didnt tell you that the rush defense was so bad nobody had to throw.Naw not just PJ on this one since stats on offense are on is side but wonder who folks will blame if the blame game continues...We had good enough stats to win bunch of games and we didnt that is my stat and its time to fix the problems. dictated by stats.

 

[daBuzz]

The fact is that minus the A&M game, we would have had a lower level FBS team to run up the stats just like most other upper level FBS teams.......the ACC is to blame or that screw up.

Alabama A&M came on the schedule because we backed out of the Alabama game. I'm not proud of it, but that's what happened. It isn't the ACC's fault.

http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-sports/2010/05/04/why-tech-and-alabama-postponed/

Radakovich said he contacted Alabama athletics director Mal Moore in December to discuss postponing the series because at the time he was considering some attractive alternatives that would help Tech’s recruiting efforts, as well as balance their schedule. He declined to say what those alternatives were.

That "attractive alternative" ended up being Alabama A&M.

And I'll say it again.....8-4 will not keep Paul Johnson his job if GT doesn't win the Coastal division next year. It's CD champs or vamoose. I've had a lot of people who should know tell me that this is the case.

 

[techman78]

Alabama A&M came on the schedule because we backed out of the Alabama game. I'm not proud of it, but that's what happened. It isn't the ACC's fault.

If memory serves me correctly we didnt back out of the Bama game, it was actually Bama that backed out. Call me crazy but im pretty sure that was the case.