A few notes from last night's show

[dressedcheeseside]

You know you bring up good points, but I currently live in the Atlanta area. The number of cars I see with GT stickers and license plates may be equal or even out number those of uga or other schools on a daily basis. I know that is not scientific data by any means, but the point is that in a town with more than 6 million people, more can be done to fill 55k seats, or a little bit less than 1% of the metro population. This is definitely not something that can be fixed overnight, and I also do believe winning mitigates a lot of the troubles in filling the seats, but I think if you asked CPJ he would agree in the assessment that we need more fan involvement in regards for support of the program.

I agree, a lot more can be done to attract sidewalk fans in Atlanta. The question is does the GTAA have any inclination to do so. I hope the new AD sees the opportunities. Maybe it's always been written off as not cost effective/major cost for little gain. Who knows?

 

[Yaller Jacket]

Is that a quote from PJ or an editorial comment from you? I'm curious if the coach feels that way and perhaps will do something about it.

Longfor, that is not an exact quote. I can't remember exactly how he expressed it. But that was the gist of what he said. He clearly expressed that he doesn't approve. When he said just before "we have to challenge the receivers," that was close to an exact quote.

Like 33 and others, I don't quite understand why he doesn't make it clear to the defensive coaches that he wants that changed.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Longfor, that is not an exact quote. I can't remember exactly how he expressed it. But that was the gist of what he said. He clearly expressed that he doesn't approve. When he said just before "we have to challenge the receivers," that was close to an exact quote.

Like 33 and others, I don't quite understand why he doesn't make it clear to the defensive coaches that he wants that changed.

He likely has. I highly, highly doubt he has ideas in his head that he won't share with his coaches. That is not his personality at all.

 

[MWBATL]

You know you bring up good points, but I currently live in the Atlanta area. The number of cars I see with GT stickers and license plates may be equal or even out number those of uga or other schools on a daily basis. I know that is not scientific data by any means, but the point is that in a town with more than 6 million people, more can be done to fill 55k seats, or a little bit less than 1% of the metro population. This is definitely not something that can be fixed overnight, and I also do believe winning mitigates a lot of the troubles in filling the seats, but I think if you asked CPJ he would agree in the assessment that we need more fan involvement in regards for support of the program.

Just FYI, GT has 61,000 living alumni IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF GEORGIA. Uga has some 90,000 in the Atlanta metro area alone.

Football attendance is generally correlated strongly with alumni base. For all the talk about sidewalk fans etc, donations levels and attendance at games is almost always related very closely to the size of the alumni base. Winning, even at the highest level, for one season does not move the needle on either front. We proved that in 1991 and again in 2015, when strong winning seasons the previous year did little for attendance the following year. Winning at a high level for a decade (Miami in the 1980's-90's) can bring in a legion of sidewalk fans, but fickle fans they are usually.

Georgia has about 3 times the renumber of living alumni in the state than we do. They ought to be filling up a 150,000 seat stadium if their alumni attended at the same rate as ours did. THAT is where our disadvantage lies. They don't call us the North Avenue Trade School for nothing. UGa also has over $100M in athletic revenues compared to about $60M for GT.

 

[MWBATL]

My goodness. How long have we talked about that? It's not the first time CPJ has mentioned it either.

At some point you have to look at the coaches if our DBs are so fundamentally unsound.

This drives me nuts, but I strongly suspect that we simply don't have the athletes to play press coverage. I think (especially against Miami & Clemson) that the thinking was that they have great speed at receiver (which they do) and much better than our speed in the secondary. Remember on their last TD is was a simple throw over the middle and their WR simply outran our secondary to the house? That was Roof's fear. So he played soft trying to prevent the big plays.

Personally, I would prefer an aggressive B88ls-to-the-wall aggressive blitzing defense. But that's just me. I also readily concede that it will definitely give up more big plays against than Roof's defense is currently yielding. I just think that it wold also occasionally yield a turnover or two to offset that. It is all just my opinion and preference, but I do think it is a lack of speed that causes this.

We might see more press coverage against Pitt, who has far less speed. Actually, I will be curious to watch for this.

 

[Skeptic]

I thought the no-huddle was why the offense produced more last week. Since Johnson said that was not the case, then that leaves me wondering why the offense did (or certainly seemed to) produce better. He said there were still missed assignments, and it was obvious that play on the edge wasn't yet what it once was. But was Miami's defense bad enough for us to look good, or have we finally turned the corner towards getting back the offense of past years? I don't care what the reason is, but I sure hope the end product is what we've become used to.

Maybe the elephant in the room is his rationale for it: to give Thomas fewer checks at the line. It could mean several things but one of them almost certainly is that the defenses have been confusing and flustering him with their own adjustments. It might help explain why our B backs end the game six inches shorter than when it started and three straight "dives" really were supposed to be options. While I know blocking schemes change with every play, our offense of late has been an awful lot of speed sweeps with B and A backs. I just don't like the no-huddle unless you go high speed -- Clemson, Oregon, Louisville etc. And when we are two scores down and taking forever to run a play while the old clock on the wall -- play and game -- runs down it just doesn't seem sound. But, next game up is the only game that counts.

 

[Skeptic]

Just FYI, GT has 61,000 living alumni IN THE ENTIRE STATE OF GEORGIA. Uga has some 90,000 in the Atlanta metro area alone...."

.

Now see? What more proof do you need that Tech graduates are smarter than UGA grads?

 

[BigDaddyBuzz]

The worst decision we made was listen to O'leary and build the "Guest House" in the north end zone. We can have an electric atmosphere with a full stadium but we need about a 45K seat stadium. Similar to Baylor's new stadium or others. Hopefully Stansbury can get creative.

 

[Yaller Jacket]

I wonder sometimes how Coach Johnson deals with the frustration of his offense messing things up. A caller asked for some examples of "missed assignments," since Johnson is always talking about them. Coach says okay, here's one. We are playing a freshman at guard who hasn't had much playing time. Ordinarily he blocks a certain way, but in this case someone lines up right across from him. At the snap, he goes after the guy he usually takes leaving the defender across from him a clear lane. The defender runs in and gets to Justin before he can do anything. The guard had to know that when someone lines up right in front of you, he becomes your responsibility. Meanwhile, we have a guy running totally uncovered, 15 yards behind the defense. If we can get him the ball, it's a touchdown.

He tells this in his usual laconic, matter of fact way. But imagine that he has carefully set this play up. From what he has seen of the defense, he's pretty sure if he calls this play now no one will pick up the A back or whoever it was. He sees his call is perfect, but then he sees the missed assignment. It is a wonder he doesn't have Bobby Knight breakdowns in games and start throwing chairs.

 

[OldJacketFan]

I wonder sometimes how Coach Johnson deals with the frustration of his offense messing things up. A caller asked for some examples of "missed assignments," since Johnson is always talking about them. Coach says okay, here's one. We are playing a freshman at guard who hasn't had much playing time. Ordinarily he blocks a certain way, but in this case someone lines up right across from him. At the snap, he goes after the guy he usually takes leaving the defender across from him a clear lane. The defender runs in and gets to Justin before he can do anything. The guard had to know that when someone lines up right in front of you, he becomes your responsibility. Meanwhile, we have a guy running totally uncovered, 15 yards behind the defense. If we can get him the ball, it's a touchdown.

He tells this in his usual laconic, matter of fact way. But imagine that he has carefully set this play up. From what he has seen of the defense, he's pretty sure if he calls this play now no one will pick up the A back or whoever it was. He sees his call is perfect, but then he sees the missed assignment. It is a wonder he doesn't have Bobby Knight breakdowns in games and start throwing chairs.

Oh so true! The man has patience beyond what I could do! You can only put the players in place, call the right play but it all depends on execution. Some have griped in the past about PJ getting on a player on the sidelines, I don't have an issue with that at all but in this day and time of coddling players so folks are aghast at it!

 

[RamblinWreck92]

Oh so true! The man has patience beyond what I could do! You can only put the players in place, call the right play but it all depends on execution. Some have griped in the past about PJ getting on a player on the sidelines, I don't have an issue with that at all but in this day and time of coddling players so folks are aghast at it!

I don't have an issue with it either. Unfortunately, those coddled players in HS watching such behavior might have an issue.

 

[Captain killem]

GT could attract more sidewalk fans such as myself if the arrogance and superiority complex attitudes changed. The reason Clemson and North Carolina and others attract sidewalk fans is the WORKING man can relate to them. I think GT is one of the finest schools in the nation, but the alumni are so elitist it is a turn off to many working class people. Just my .02 I've been a fan for 30 years and will continue but don't associate much with the elitist.

 

[jeffgt14]

I don't have an issue with it either. Unfortunately, those coddled players in HS watching such behavior might have an issue.

Those coddled HS players won't make good football players anyways so it's a good way to weed them out.

 

[jeffgt14]

GT could attract more sidewalk fans such as myself if the arrogance and superiority complex attitudes changed. The reason Clemson and North Carolina and others attract sidewalk fans is the WORKING man can relate to them. I think GT is one of the finest schools in the nation, but the alumni are so elitist it is a turn off to many working class people. Just my .02 I've been a fan for 30 years and will continue but don't associate much with the elitist.

Agree. I know several people that have the same perception of their entire engineering program.

 

[FrostedOrange]

It is called "stealing signs" for a reason

 

[Techster]

It is called "stealing signs" for a reason

Technically, they're not stealing anything. We're motioning signs in plain view. If you're not smart enough to make the signs harder to decipher, or confusing them with multiple people sending in the calls...well, that's on you.

 

[Skeptic]

I wonder sometimes how Coach Johnson deals with the frustration of his offense messing things up. A caller asked for some examples of "missed assignments," since Johnson is always talking about them. Coach says okay, here's one. We are playing a freshman at guard who hasn't had much playing time. Ordinarily he blocks a certain way, but in this case someone lines up right across from him. At the snap, he goes after the guy he usually takes leaving the defender across from him a clear lane. The defender runs in and gets to Justin before he can do anything. The guard had to know that when someone lines up right in front of you, he becomes your responsibility. Meanwhile, we have a guy running totally uncovered, 15 yards behind the defense. If we can get him the ball, it's a touchdown.

He tells this in his usual laconic, matter of fact way. But imagine that he has carefully set this play up. From what he has seen of the defense, he's pretty sure if he calls this play now no one will pick up the A back or whoever it was. He sees his call is perfect, but then he sees the missed assignment. It is a wonder he doesn't have Bobby Knight breakdowns in games and start throwing chairs.

Do you mean nobody in the world knows more about it than he does, and only he can fix it?

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

GT could attract more sidewalk fans such as myself if the arrogance and superiority complex attitudes changed. The reason Clemson and North Carolina and others attract sidewalk fans is the WORKING man can relate to them. I think GT is one of the finest schools in the nation, but the alumni are so elitist it is a turn off to many working class people. Just my .02 I've been a fan for 30 years and will continue but don't associate much with the elitist.

There is absolutely no doubt about this.

LOTS of GT fans on here talk about attendance and then disparage sidewalk fans, and do the same remarks toward other schools that have so many sidewalk fans.

 

[jwsavhGT]

I'm sorry but I don't ever recall anyone on this blog being elitist or disparaging to sidewalk fans. All the GT fans in my family are sidewalk fans and the only grief they get are from the UGAG fans in my family. I'm very proud to have graduated from Tech but would never put myself above anyone on the blog who did not.

 

[GTRanj]

I'm sorry but I don't ever recall anyone on this blog being elitist or disparaging to sidewalk fans. All the GT fans in my family are sidewalk fans and the only grief they get are from the UGAG fans in my family. I'm very proud to have graduated from Tech but would never put myself above anyone on the blog who did not.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about your this forum, but outside of this blog, some of our fellow alumni can be a bit elitist.