5 Games in: Observations

[LibertyTurns]

True, however you are missing the point. We don’t have the horses to run with these guys. What else can the coaches do? Surely you guys can see the size difference on the lines. We are playing with PWO’s.

P’nut gets paid a lot of money to come up with the best scheme we can run with the guys we have. Also, if we just focus on OL which is widely understood to be hugely important to the success of football teams by anyone with half a brain, there were OL recruits/players we either ran off, dissuaded from attending, or didn’t effectively convince them to stay on. Perhaps having a few of those guys may have been just what we needed. We took a different path & now there’s a bunch of crying about having a decimated line and the ripple down impact. OK, then you use your QB’s mobility to offset the lack of a reliable pocket. You design more plays that don’t require the full 3 secs to get the ball off. Maybe you put 2 RBs in the backfield to block. Lord knows our ABs/BBs were good blockers so that could have been an easier transition. There’s a lot of different options, but crying about “We don’t have all the pieces I require” sounds like every other failure I’ve run into spouting excuses every step of the way to avoid personal accountability. Yeah it sucks being in charge sometimes because you own the problem, but if you don’t like the heat get out of the kitchen.

 

[DaltonJacket]

So the AD was asleep at the wheel?

One of em was for sure! I think we were trying to do something different than everyone else though. Now we are not.....it may take a while.

 

[Lotta Booze]

Also, if we just focus on OL which is widely understood to be hugely important to the success of football teams by anyone with half a brain, there were OL recruits/players we either ran off, dissuaded from attending, or didn’t effectively convince them to stay on. Perhaps having a few of those guys may have been just what we needed. We took a different path & now there’s a bunch of crying about having a decimated line and the ripple down impact.

Well that's a new accusation being laid at Collins's feet I haven't heard before. Has he run off OL recruits?

 

[TheTechGuy]

Well that's a new accusation being laid at Collins's feet I haven't heard before. Has he run off OL recruits?

Joshua Black, OL that ended up at Louisville. He publicly stated that he decommitted from Tech because Collins and staff never contacted him after his OV. There may have been another that ended up at App State, IIRC.

 

[TheFlyest]

So I asked this question in another thread, but this may be a better place for it.
Based on listening to the coaches and our knowledgeable posters on this board, it seems we are going to need a complete overhaul of both our offensive and defensive lines in order to be competitive. That is, in part, why we are bringing in 5-6 OL this recruiting class.
We all know that OL and DL take a couple of years to mature and gain enough strength in order to compete effectively in college. So that seems to imply that we are going to have 3 extremely sub-par years. As a fanbase, are we willing to accept 3 straight losing seasons before we can field a competitive team again?

Depends. Some freshman may be just that good and start Day 1. CGC could go get a couple of transfers that start right away. That’s on top of player development and guys that come back from injury. Just using an example Shaq Mason was a day1 starter so whose to say that a Wiggles or Little wouldn’t come in and blow doors. Lastly I think as long as fans see the improvement on the field and as well as record wise then patience should be awarded.

 

[TheFlyest]

Well that's a new accusation being laid at Collins's feet I haven't heard before. Has he run off OL recruits?

They could have signed their letters in December but didn’t. So.

 

[iceeater1969]

So I asked this question in another thread, but this may be a better place for it.
Based on listening to the coaches and our knowledgeable posters on this board, it seems we are going to need a complete overhaul of both our offensive and defensive lines in order to be competitive. That is, in part, why we are bringing in 5-6 OL this recruiting class.
We all know that OL and DL take a couple of years to mature and gain enough strength in order to compete effectively in college. So that seems to imply that we are going to have 3 extremely sub-par years. As a fanbase, are we willing to accept 3 straight losing seasons before we can field a competitive team again?

While unc is not a power - their ol had 3 r soph, 1 fr, 1 sr. They recruited a rivals top 100 5.9 rated qb . Rs soph are done w 2 years and starting into their 3 rd year.

 

[Dustman]

The glaring physical mismatch in the UNC game was their O Line vs our D Line. Yes we have issues with our O line too, but we did protect Graham at times. Boomer, you are spot on as usual. This is not the week to claim that our secondary got exposed.

 

[Jim Prather]

While unc is not a power - their ol had 3 r soph, 1 fr, 1 sr. They recruited a rivals top 100 5.9 rated qb . Rs soph are done w 2 years and starting into their 3 rd year.

Yeah, that is what I am assuming. I am counting this year as a write off already, and then assuming it only takes 2 years to develop the incoming class of linemen... That will be a potential of 3 consecutive losing seasons before we have the right "type" of body that our coaches want/need...
As a fan base, do we just suck it up and give the coaching staff a pass for 3 years?

 

[TheTechGuy]

They could have signed their letters in December but didn’t. So.

Would you sign a letter to commit to play for a coach that was not contacting you? Would you advise your son to sign that letter?

 

[THWG]

Would you sign a letter to commit to play for a coach that was not contacting you? Would you advise your son to sign that letter?

They took their official visits the weekend before early signing day. They didn't sign, so we stopped contacting them.

 

[smokey_wasp]

Would you sign a letter to commit to play for a coach that was not contacting you? Would you advise your son to sign that letter?

CGC went to Black's house after he was hired and there are pictures of that visit. Dowdy was invited to campus when the rest of the commits came, but decided to play in a shrine game instead. CGC only quit contacting them after December. They weren't a fit anyway. Would have sat then transferred most likely.

 

[TheTechGuy]

They took their official visits the weekend before early signing day. They didn't sign, so we stopped contacting them.

CGC went to Black's house after he was hired and there are pictures of that visit. Dowdy was invited to campus when the rest of the commits came, but decided to play in a shrine game instead. CGC only quit contacting them after December. They weren't a fit anyway. Would have sat then transferred anyway.

Black made it clear that he was signing in February when he committed in July 2018. Y'all know that the recruiting threads with all this information are still on this site, right? After Black's OV, he never heard from Collins or the staff, so he went elsewhere. Based on the negative comments about our OL play that are all over this board, I have to believe that Black would have seen playing time this year.

 

[4shotB]

Sorry Dude, but you think staffs running companies don’t need to be developed?

I get that you think that this is as simple as what we do in the business world. But in my career (manufacturing) the process was easy...I could teach a guy the process and if he couldn't or wouldn't do it, I would replace him (terminate/demote/transfer/etc.) the cycle time was much, much quicker than it is for a college athlete and the average Tom, **** or Harry could learn to do it at an acceptable level. If he wre good at his job, he wasn't going head to head with somebody better at the task than him (although we strived for constant improvement). It helped I was paying the highest wages in the surrounding area so usually the funnel of prospects was full.

I am reasonably certain that if you or I had been recruited two years ago and were on the roster that no staff ever assembled at Tech (or anywhere else) could teach us to be effective. Develop us? Sure, that is easy. But turn us into ACC caliber athletes? No.

I've been there and done that in the manufacturing world and to compare these two things are apples and oranges. I am good at math and fishing and have experience managing fairly large manufacturing operations. But i don't think that the transitive property applies in this case...just because I am good at X doesn't automatically make me good at Y. To think otherwise may be a bit presumptuous imo.

One other thing that I could do was get more/better resources by doing the justification. If the payout was there, I could pretty much get what I needed. This included extremely large amounts of capital. i don't think these guys can do that. I know Paul tried and was unsuccesful. Maybe the return on his requests weren't sufficient enough? But that is speculation.

 

[jacket_fan]

Personally, I expect collins and his staff to be our best shot at recruiting.

Returning to the original post. After game 5, the most impressive improvement to me is tackling. Top to bottom, I believe this staff has improved tackling skills. More open field tackles (although there have been a few wiffs). More wrapping up, or at least grabbing something.

Least impressive is inability to get QB pressure even while blitzing. Thacker brought pressure often with minimal success. That has to be frustrating to the players and coaches.

And a down lineman got an interception. How great is that! He will remember that forever.

 

[TheTechGuy]

CGC went to Black's house after he was hired and there are pictures of that visit. Dowdy was invited to campus when the rest of the commits came, but decided to play in a shrine game instead. CGC only quit contacting them after December. They weren't a fit anyway. Would have sat then transferred most likely.

This is a quote from you in the Joshua Black thread made in response to Black committing to Louisville, "Good landing spot for him, should have a chance to compete as they are rebuilding and need guys." You have to admit, pretty ironic considering the current state of our OL and numerous posters on this site stating that we are undergoing a "rebuild."

 

[smokey_wasp]

This is a quote from you in the Joshua Black thread made in response to Black committing to Louisville, "Good landing spot for him, should have a chance to compete as they are rebuilding and need guys." You have to admit, pretty ironic considering the current state of our OL and numerous posters on this site stating that we are undergoing a "rebuild."

Well you got me, but you can also see in that thread that I very much expected him to play DT at Louisville. Dont think he is a P5 OL.

But yes, I was happy for him that he landed at a P5.

 

[4shotB]

Least impressive is inability to get QB pressure even while blitzing. Thacker brought pressure often with minimal success. That has to be frustrating to the players and coaches.

That has been an ongoing trend. I don't think it gets better until you get at least one guy on the DL who requires double teaming. Our blitzes in the last several years have looked like Pickett's charge at Gettysburg but with reverse numbers of bodies. Just bodies hurling themselves into the scrum at the LOS never to emerge until after the pass has been completed downfield.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Well you got me, but you can also see in that thread that I very much expected him to play DT at Louisville. Dont think he is a P5 OL.

But yes, I was happy for him that he landed at a P5.

Well seeing as how we’re stacked at DT, it’s better he went where he’d get a chance to play.

 

[smokey_wasp]

Well seeing as how we’re stacked at DT, it’s better he went where he’d get a chance to play.

I get it, but when you're the lowest rated prospect in the class, maybe sign when you get the chance. Actually, early signing is always the smart move unless you actually want to flip. Kid didnt want to be here, anyway.