8/9 Georgia Tech Scrimmage

GTNavyNuke

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Synjyn is the C-back of the team.

C as in Crushing? Inside the three, we won't pass. But with SD, Laskey and two fast ABs, we should be able to score with ease.

SD has fumbled a lot. Think he and the coaches don't know it? I would think he has worked on some things and the coaches have confidence in him or they would be wasting valuable snaps on him.

One of his fumble last year he go hit so hard I was surprised his shoes didn't come off. Part of the "problem" is that he doesn't shy away from contact and gets big hits. But he also gives a lot of pain too.
 

GaTech4ever

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My observations, for what it's worth:
- Isiah Willis made some great plays. Looks like he is quick and has good hands.
I wouldn't be surprised to see him get on the field a decent amount next year, I've only heard good things about him. Really strong and athletic
 

Boomergump

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On the defensive side of the ball, there was good and bad. On many plays I just decided to watch certain players to see how they may have improved, so I may have lost sight of the action. Such is the case while watching live. I decided to follow Kallon on a lot of plays and Gamble too. I guess it is because I am worried about this position group. I will say this for Kallon: he is learning to get leverage. In fact, on the majority of plays he did a good job of holding point and clogging up the LOS some. He HAS improved, by my eye. But the funny thing is, I believe he has a lot more room for growth that he has yet to realize. In particular, he needs to improve his use of hands. He IS lower and he gets a decent push, but he doesn't control the guy in front of him very well. There is little doubt, he is too soft with his hands and he needs to use his eyes better when engaged in contact in an effort to affect he play. With that said, he is ready to play in the rotation if you ask me. It is obvious the staff is trying to get him some experience. I feel quite sure he got more snaps than any other DL today, both first team D and second.

Gamble is BIGGER than he has been. He no longer looks like a tweener to me: too lean for DT, not athletic enough for DE. He is physical enough to contribute on the inside. So, if we can avoid injuries, we may survive on the DL.

On a whole , the defense mixed things up quite well. There were LBs crashing the LOS and timing up the snap count, just as we have seen in recent seasons. There were CBs up in press and falling off. Roof was not holding much back in terms of different looks.

Noble brought his hitting pads today, no doubt.

I watched Whitehead some out of curiosity, even though he won't play. Not much to report really. Athletic in nature but too thin. He reminds me of Robertson(?) in his early years. LB play was good and physical, even though I don't remember seeing Marcordes at all.

I don't have much to say about the secondary. Sorry. There was just too much going on and I was focused other places.

IMHO the tempo of the scrimmage was excellent and the attitudes of the kids was outstanding throughout. It appears there is chemistry on both sides of the ball. I think that bodes well. The only bad body language I saw all day was from Summers. I have no idea what was going on in his head. It wasn't a huge deal. He was walking off the field after a certain series looking like he was moping. I don't like that crap. It will be interesting to see how the rest of camp plays out. I am optimistic at this point that execution will be markedly better this year, although it still remains a little unclear who the difference makers are going to turn out to be.
 

John

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Very interesting to see the different perspectives/angles from everyone's recaps. Thanks for posting those! I'll try to consolidate them into this post so that everyone can easily find them.
 

John

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I think this is the last pic I have to post. Walking out I noticed Tre Jackson with family/friends and happened to
get a good picture of him/them. So I am posting here for his granddad.
View attachment 321
Haha nice! Wanted to tag @DaddyBill

Also, it looks like you've caught a shot of Danny Karnik in the background, GTAA's staff photographer. Very cool guy, has a lot of interesting stories!
 

awbuzz

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As noted Jordan ran fairly well, but hopefully can redshirt. His passing tended to be overthrown in general. Heck one pass to Waller (with his height that's not easy), by I bet the ball was eight feet over Walker's head. The ball took one bounce and was in the stands.
 

awbuzz

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All in all, it was a nice morning to be in the stands and watch the scrimmage.

Most importantly, it appeared that no one got seriously hurt during the scrimmage.
 

Ash

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I watched Whitehead some out of curiosity, even though he won't play. Not much to report really. Athletic in nature but too thin.

My buddy and I were sitting there, watching the plays. He would call out a number when someone made a play, and I would look it up on the roster. At some point he said " Who's the skinny guy playing DE?" It was Whitehead. Just like you said...athletic, but does not have the size. I don't know if he would have made that much of a difference this year other than building depth.
 

Ash

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- The most vocal player on the field was Jabari. He's really going to be missed on the field this year.
I noticed that too. He's going to be missed on Saturdays, but seeing him fired up on the sidelines like that makes me feel good about him getting back on track with both school and football.
 

takethepoints

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Is Martenson the walk on that ran 3O in high school?
Yes. He was the QB at Marist last year. A friend of mine has a daughter in the band and goes to all their games. He says we got a huge steal with Martenson. He's a magician with the option and has a great nose for the gaps in Ds.

On Whitehead: recall that Fred Dryer was an all-NFL DE at 225. I understand he used to line up on OTs, say, "Here I come!", and start making engine revving-up noises. Maybe we could teach that to Whitehead.
 

Nook Su Kow

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Yes. He was the QB at Marist last year. A friend of mine has a daughter in the band and goes to all their games. He says we got a huge steal with Martenson. He's a magician with the option and has a great nose for the gaps in Ds.

On Whitehead: recall that Fred Dryer was an all-NFL DE at 225. I understand he used to line up on OTs, say, "Here I come!", and start making engine revving-up noises. Maybe we could teach that to Whitehead.
Thanks. I thought he was the one who's film had people on this board money shooting their drawers
 

forensicbuzz

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okay, I've not really read through all the posts because I just got home from a wedding (the reason I was in ATL from Chicago in the first place). I was at the game with two of my boys thanks to @GTNavyNuke, thanks. I was mostly watching as a fan, not critically, so these are things that stuck out to me or made an impression.

Offense

Here are my observations on offense. I was a little late arriving, so I don't know if Justin or Zach played at all. I didn't see either of them run a play. Justin was on the sideline without a red jersey, so I don't know. Saw a ton of Byerly and Jordan.

1. Synjyn played AB, BB and QB today. He looked really good at AB. When he was at BBack, they were mostly sweep plays where he was one of the lead blockers around the end with the lead AB. They were moderately successful some of the time. He played QB down by the goal line.

2. Tony Zenon looked really good running and catching. Deon Hill looked very good running the ball. BJ Bostic and Broderick Snoddy did not look good running the ball. Snoddy was in most of the time with Jordan's group, so maybe the O-Line play wasn't as good, but BS didn't make the edge, wasn't able to get north/south and generally lost yardage on most plays I noticed. I was very disappointed in what I saw of BS today. I thought he'd fare better. Maybe with the 1's he would be able to utilize his speed, but I wouldn't count on seeing him much on the field this year. BJ had a nice reception later in the scrimmage.

3. There appeared to be a big step down in O-Line play when the 2's/3's came in. Some of the guys had to resort to holding to give the play a chance. Not a lot of that called by the refs. Saw some blatant jersey grabs the went unchecked. I thought Jordan ran well when given the opportunity. I saw many times when the mesh was disrupted or rushed when Jordan was in. It's going to take time.

4. Jordan needs a lot of work in the passing game. Not only were most of his throws high, but they weren't on time either. There were several throws that were way too late and off target. One of his throws didn't leave his hand until Waller had come out of his break and was standing there waiting on the ball. This gave the DB enough time to recover and defend the pass. I watched Jordan the whole time and he never looked off Waller. He was his primary receiver from the beginning, the throw was just super late. That's something reps and coaching will fix. Going to take time. I don't think there's any doubt in my mind, Jordan RS's this year.

5. Law Austin was running #20 on the defense. There was a #20 on offense for a couple of series. There's no one listed on offense as an alt #20, so I'm not sure whether it was a preferred walk-on who just wasn't in the roster list handed out or if Law Austin took some snaps at AB. One of the guys with contacts may be able to resolve this.

6. Anthony Messick, Ricky Jeune, Darren Waller and DeAndre Smelter look massive. Michael Summers and Qua Searcy look slight, but Summers looked good running routes and blocking.

7. Tim looked good running and throwing. Most of his throws were on time and on target (which made Jordan's throws look even worse). He ran hard and strong.
 

Boomergump

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okay, I've not really read through all the posts because I just got home from a wedding (the reason I was in ATL from Chicago in the first place). I was at the game with two of my boys thanks to @GTNavyNuke, thanks. I was mostly watching as a fan, not critically, so these are things that stuck out to me or made an impression.

Offense

Here are my observations on offense. I was a little late arriving, so I don't know if Justin or Zach played at all. I didn't see either of them run a play. Justin was on the sideline without a red jersey, so I don't know. Saw a ton of Byerly and Jordan.

1. Synjyn played AB, BB and QB today. He looked really good at AB. When he was at BBack, they were mostly sweep plays where he was one of the lead blockers around the end with the lead AB. They were moderately successful some of the time. He played QB down by the goal line.

2. Tony Zenon looked really good running and catching. Deon Hill looked very good running the ball. BJ Bostic and Broderick Snoddy did not look good running the ball. Snoddy was in most of the time with Jordan's group, so maybe the O-Line play wasn't as good, but BS didn't make the edge, wasn't able to get north/south and generally lost yardage on most plays I noticed. I was very disappointed in what I saw of BS today. I thought he'd fare better. Maybe with the 1's he would be able to utilize his speed, but I wouldn't count on seeing him much on the field this year. BJ had a nice reception later in the scrimmage.

3. There appeared to be a big step down in O-Line play when the 2's/3's came in. Some of the guys had to resort to holding to give the play a chance. Not a lot of that called by the refs. Saw some blatant jersey grabs the went unchecked. I thought Jordan ran well when given the opportunity. I saw many times when the mesh was disrupted or rushed when Jordan was in. It's going to take time.

4. Jordan needs a lot of work in the passing game. Not only were most of his throws high, but they weren't on time either. There were several throws that were way too late and off target. One of his throws didn't leave his hand until Waller had come out of his break and was standing there waiting on the ball. This gave the DB enough time to recover and defend the pass. I watched Jordan the whole time and he never looked off Waller. He was his primary receiver from the beginning, the throw was just super late. That's something reps and coaching will fix. Going to take time. I don't think there's any doubt in my mind, Jordan RS's this year.

5. Law Austin was running #20 on the defense. There was a #20 on offense for a couple of series. There's no one listed on offense as an alt #20, so I'm not sure whether it was a preferred walk-on who just wasn't in the roster list handed out or if Law Austin took some snaps at AB. One of the guys with contacts may be able to resolve this.

6. Anthony Messick, Ricky Jeune, Darren Waller and DeAndre Smelter look massive. Michael Summers and Qua Searcy look slight, but Summers looked good running routes and blocking.

7. Tim looked good running and throwing. Most of his throws were on time and on target (which made Jordan's throws look even worse). He ran hard and strong.

Forensic, I think your characterization of Jordan's QB play was spot on. The inaccuracy of his throws was not really about his inability to throw as much as his inability to process the picture unfolding in front of him in his brain. In other words, he made decisions way too late and then tried to throw it way too quickly to make up for it. Consequently he was rarely in any kind of good form to deliver a ball. The timing of the plays was all messed up. During warm ups he threw the prettiest balls that led receivers perfectly. Things are just happening way too fast for him right now during live action and that includes in the running game. He is a good athlete. That was easy to see. He can throw. He just needs time and reps and some good coaching along the way. I am not surprised at all about where he is at the moment, nor am I disappointed in the least bit.
 

Bule

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I was surprised at how good Matthews arm is and what a good athlete he is actually. I know we expected him to pretty good but to me he is even better than advertised at this stage of his career. I wonder why he wasn't more highly recruited as a traditional qb by a factory school?
 

Whiskey_Clear

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I was surprised at how good Matthews arm is and what a good athlete he is actually. I know we expected him to pretty good but to me he is even better than advertised at this stage of his career. I wonder why he wasn't more highly recruited as a traditional qb by a factory school?

Quality players are overlooked every single year. Time will tell if Mathews is another example. Every winner of the Walter Peyton award is one. Not to mention all of the D2 players in the NFL. I was really glad we landed him in the end.
 

Techster

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For those interested in Martenson:



Pretty good reason why he looked good running our offense yesterday. Could turn out to be another Byerly in terms of a good backup that will be solid contributor at some point in the future.

EDIT:

A better video:

 
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Oldgoldandwhite

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Quality players are overlooked every single year. Time will tell if Mathews is another example. Every winner of the Walter Peyton award is one. Not to mention all of the D2 players in the NFL. I was really glad we landed him in the end.
Just look at the Longhorns; they over looked Manziel and Jamis Winston. Terry Bradshaw was overlooked out of high school as well as Johnny Unitas. We could go on and on.
 
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