2023 Fall Practice Notes

roadkill

roadkill

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slugboy said:
Here’s another place you can look for advanced stats https://www.cfb-graphs.com/. The defense wasn’t top 25, but it was respectable.
If you look at defensive EPA/play, here’s the ACC ranking. We were ahead of schools like Texas and LSU.
  1. Pitt
  2. Clemson
  3. Louisville
  4. Virginia
  5. Georgia Tech (31st overall)
  6. Florida State
  7. NC State
  8. Notre Dame
  9. Syracuse
  10. Va Tech
  11. Duke
  12. Miami
  13. Boston College
  14. Wake Forest
  15. North Carolina

  1. View attachment 14573


There were a lot of bad games, for different reasons. Our first game against Clemson was not good—especially since their QB was playing a terrible game.
Against Ole Miss, they ran the ball, we knew they were running the ball, and we couldn’t stop it. I think Charlie Thomas went out with a targeting call in that game, which did not help.
Against UCF, they were beatable, and we lost 27-10. Offense could do nothing that game.
Against Pitt and Duke, the defense played well.
Against UVA, we lost 16-9. UVA had a solid defense, and we could do nothing on offense. Even so, 9 is terrible.
Against FSU, we had some positives—two fumbles, one recovered. We got burned in pass pro. We had a roughing the passer that really hurt us. The game was really never in doubt.
VT was a terrible team, and we barely won.
Miami abused us on both sides. Offense especially hurt.
UNC was a wonderful game on defense.
UGA beat us by two more points than Miami, but they were a much better team than Miami.

There were several bad games, Ole Miss was especially bad because Kiffin didn’t need to be creative. He could just run repeatedly and we couldn’t stop it. Miami and FSU were also bad on defense. I don’t think VT was a great showing, either.
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Noteworthy is the fact that our defense outscored our offense in that game.

All 3 phases of the game interact to a degree. I don’t believe defensive stats compensate for the total impact of our poor offense and, in the first 4 games, abysmal special teams performance. As has been noted, our defense was on the field for too many plays in many games last season. If you consider the situations our defense was put in, I think they did a commendable job in most games. Ironically, we used to say “If we just had an average defense…”.

I don’t expect us to be above average in all 3 phases this year. In fact, I would not be surprised to see our D regress a bit. But if we can move the ball better and continue our improvements in special teams, we stand a chance of continuing to be about average on defense and winning enough to be bowl eligible. I believe Key is focusing on addressing our weaknesses and playing to our strengths.
 
Jerry the Jacket

Jerry the Jacket

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Our defense still has a long way to go. In my opinion, we are below average and it will take significant improvement to get to average. I would set that as a goal for 2023 with a stretch goal of being good. You have to develop an aggressive, attacking, disruptive defense. I hope this coaching staff and players can begin to move us in that direction this season.
 

billga99

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This is the time of year for speculating. We have some feel of our talent level versus other teams we are playing (if you believe the recruiting boards). But the huge unknown is we turned over the majority of our coaching staff and Key will have had time in the off season to put his full stamp on the program. We spend the last 4 years talking about schemes on both sides of the ball. My suspicion is the offense scheme will be very different than last year and hopefully improve. I am not as sure on any significant differences of schemes for our defense. If better schemes make a difference, I do think getting to a bowl game is realistic. I think open practices before our first game will not reveal much of our game plan for Louisville.
 

57jacket

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DL Coach Cole man
Coleman could have himself a solid unit should it raise its production as a whole and remain healthy.


Even with star Keion White gone to the NFL, Tech still returns Kyle Kennard, Kevin Harris, Noah Collins, Sylvain Yondjouen, D’Quan Douse, Zeek Biggers, Makius Scott, Josh Robinson and Jason Moore up front. Those are all veterans of the program who have contributed to various roles during their respective time in Atlanta.



Tech also went out in the offseason and added Clemson transfer Etinosa Reuben and South Florida transfer Eddie Kelly.

“We’re still competing, we’re still in training camp. Everybody is getting their fair share, 1s, 2s and 3s. No one has solidified themselves,” Coleman said. “They’re all really good players, long, athletic, all have playing experience. It’s just continuous work. They’re all going to probably play. It’s just going to probably be week-to-week on who may be the guy that runs first.”
 

Root4GT

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TechPhi97 said:
I was using FEI, not the NCAA stats. FEI adjusts for competition and looks at stats relative to average performance given the drive situations. Also, they get rid of garbage stats.
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And they include all Division 1 schools. Compare us to P5 schools and things don't looks so good! Past the statistics it was clear the better teams we played had no trouble running on us. Last year's defense clearly looked better than the prior several years, however, it still didn't look like a good unit against good offenses.

I am very concerned with the DL. How they play will drive how well the overall D plays. We had 28 sacks last year near the lowest number in the ACC. We lost our best pass rusher in White (7 1/2 sacks).
 
slugboy

slugboy

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Root4GT said:
And they include all Division 1 schools. Compare us to P5 schools and things don't looks so good! Past the statistics it was clear the better teams we played had no trouble running on us. Last year's defense clearly looked better than the prior several years, however, it still didn't look like a good unit against good offenses.

I am very concerned with the DL. How they play will drive how well the overall D plays. We had 28 sacks last year near the lowest number in the ACC. We lost our best pass rusher in White (7 1/2 sacks).
Click to expand...
We were above average in the ACC, even with Notre Dame in the mix. We were ahead of factories like LSU and Texas. We compared well against P5 schools. (I ordered based on EPA/play. We were 41st in FEI)

We were in the middle in the P5 in FEI.

A number of the better defensive teams in FBS were G5 teams. Limiting comparisons to P5 doesn’t make as much difference as people might guess

In others, like SP+, we were below average, but still better than most any defense we fielded in about a decade.

We had weak areas and bad games, but if we have about the same defensive stats and improve to even below average in offense and special teams, we’ll be fine—possibly bowling.

Weak areas were sacks and success rate. We’re practicing different now—and you’d think our coaches are working on those areas.

I wouldn’t use raw scoring defense and total defense to judge a team that had, in virtually every advanced statistical model, one of the worst offenses in FBS. Stats are going to get biased when your defense is in the field more often than 3/4ths of other teams and is is worse field position.

I’m not saying they were the 1986 Bears defense or the Steel Curtain, but they were good and played their hearts out.

They could use an Aaron Donald and a Brian Urlacher, but so could almost any team in FBS.
 
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Root4GT

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slugboy said:
We were above average in the ACC, even with Notre Dame in the mix. We were ahead of factories like LSU and Texas. We compared well against P5 schools. (I ordered based on EPA/play. We were 41st in FEI)

We were in the middle in the P5 in FEI.

A number of the better defensive teams in FBS were G5 teams. Limiting comparisons to P5 doesn’t make as much difference as people might guess

In others, like SP+, we were below average, but still better than most any defense we fielded in about a decade.

We had weak areas and bad games, but if we have about the same defensive stats and improve to even below average in offense and special teams, we’ll be fine—possibly bowling.

Weak areas were sacks and success rate. We’re practicing different now—and you’d think our coaches are working on those areas.

I wouldn’t use raw scoring defense and total defense to judge a team that had, in virtually every advanced statistical model, one of the worst offenses in FBS. Stats are going to get biased when your defense is in the field more often than 3/4ths of other teams and is is worse field position.

I’m not saying they were the 1986 Bears defense or the Steel Curtain, but they were good and played their hearts out.

They could use an Aaron Donald and a Brian Urlacher, but so could almost any team in FBS.
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They did play hard. The loss of White, Thomas and Ace is non trivial. Walton was also a good player.

If the DL can get pressure on pass plays and keep the opposing OL off the LBs the D should be fine. That’s a big unknown. Coaching matters. So does talent level. We will know in September for sure. Louisville and Ole Miss will test tge defense.
 
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