Are Georgia Tech Players Too Smart

Coloradojacket

Coloradojacket

Banned
Messages
2,034
Ok, so hear me out on this. While unpacking from my Hunting Trip today I got to thinking about what hurts our team. Sure we can say recruiting and such but I had another thought. Back in the 70's when I played football I was always an Offensive Tackle and a Nose Guard. I Started at both. We played the Veer and the Wishbone. For blocking we were always taught to fire off and based on the play lead with a foot and get your arms in. As a Tackle the hole to my left was the 4 hole and the hole to my right was the 6. If the play was a 34 that meant the halfback would run to my left, thus when I fired off I started with my left foot and drove the DT to the right. Seems simple. As a Nose Guard it was all about just fire off and push the center back into the play.

Now I will get to the point. Football is instinctive and is learned through repetition. Your really cease thinking and you just react. Practice of a play over and over is supposed to make you do your job. Sure you can miss a block but at least you know who you are supposed to block.

From the 10/20 CPJ post practice interview he said something about that all his players had the smarts. He has also made comments that his players make bad calls because they are thinking too much. He also makes comments about telling his guys to just go out there and play. Is this the problem with our team? Bama, Georgia, Auburn etc, we aren't talking about top of the class guys, maybe they take instruction better. And yes Army and Navy aren't stupid, but they are trained as soldiers which is something totally different.

You would think that being smarter would give you and advantage but I believe when it come to this sport you need to turn off your thinking mind and react.
 
4shotB

4shotB

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
5,143
I've come to believe that guys who go to Bama or OSU and the like are "all in" on making it to the league.Other guys use football to get an education. Perhaps they would like to go pro if "things work out'. I think these are two completely different mindsets and lead to two different outcomes on the playing field. One group is smarter than the other when thinking about probability and statistics. And it is not the guys going all in on the NFL.

OTOH, I respect the guys who go all in on chasing their dreams. Even if they don't get to cash in, it's not like they are any different from the guys and gals who are struggling trying to make a living as artists, musicians, actors, mimes or novelists in this regard.
 
stech81

stech81

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,962
Location
Woodstock Georgia
Coloradojacket said:
Ok, so hear me out on this. While unpacking from my Hunting Trip today I got to thinking about what hurts our team. Sure we can say recruiting and such but I had another thought. Back in the 70's when I played football I was always an Offensive Tackle and a Nose Guard. I Started at both. We played the Veer and the Wishbone. For blocking we were always taught to fire off and based on the play lead with a foot and get your arms in. As a Tackle the hole to my left was the 4 hole and the hole to my right was the 6. If the play was a 34 that meant the halfback would run to my left, thus when I fired off I started with my left foot and drove the DT to the right. Seems simple. As a Nose Guard it was all about just fire off and push the center back into the play.

Now I will get to the point. Football is instinctive and is learned through repetition. Your really cease thinking and you just react. Practice of a play over and over is supposed to make you do your job. Sure you can miss a block but at least you know who you are supposed to block.

From the 10/20 CPJ post practice interview he said something about that all his players had the smarts. He has also made comments that his players make bad calls because they are thinking too much. He also makes comments about telling his guys to just go out there and play. Is this the problem with our team? Bama, Georgia, Auburn etc, we aren't talking about top of the class guys, maybe they take instruction better. And yes Army and Navy aren't stupid, but they are trained as soldiers which is something totally different.

You would think that being smarter would give you and advantage but I believe when it come to this sport you need to turn off your thinking mind and react.
Click to expand...
First I have to think you are talking about High School which I also played in the late 60'as and early 70's. We also run the veer and numbered the backs and holes . But remember this was almost 40 years ago and we were taught to block like you said. But today defenses are better offenses are harder. If you played a defense you knew how they would line up and stay not the case today. I have no idea if you run the 3O like us but most teams we played run a 5 man line NG 2 DT and 2 DE the center blocked the NG the OG blocked The LB and the OT blocked the DT. esay to understand and the reads for the QB were easy first read the OG block if he kept it option off the DE. I have no idea but there is no telling the number of rules the OL has on one play just 10X's harder to play OL now than in the early 70's More defenses moving around. Just not the same.
 
4shotB

4shotB

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
5,143
MikeJackets1967 said:
The thing is swagger comes with confidence and confidence comes pretty much all the time from winning:cigar:
Click to expand...

So if I understand, the reason we lack confidence is that we are losing? And this awful condition can be fixed by winning? By all means, I hate that we lack confidence as a team so let's fix this by winning. And with our newly acquired confidence, then there will be no way we can lose right? Let's type this up and email Paul and Todd pronto. We may have found the secret elixir to our problems.;)
 

Heisman's Ghost

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,954
Location
Albany Georgia
Coloradojacket said:
Ok, so hear me out on this. While unpacking from my Hunting Trip today I got to thinking about what hurts our team. Sure we can say recruiting and such but I had another thought. Back in the 70's when I played football I was always an Offensive Tackle and a Nose Guard. I Started at both. We played the Veer and the Wishbone. For blocking we were always taught to fire off and based on the play lead with a foot and get your arms in. As a Tackle the hole to my left was the 4 hole and the hole to my right was the 6. If the play was a 34 that meant the halfback would run to my left, thus when I fired off I started with my left foot and drove the DT to the right. Seems simple. As a Nose Guard it was all about just fire off and push the center back into the play.

Now I will get to the point. Football is instinctive and is learned through repetition. Your really cease thinking and you just react. Practice of a play over and over is supposed to make you do your job. Sure you can miss a block but at least you know who you are supposed to block.

From the 10/20 CPJ post practice interview he said something about that all his players had the smarts. He has also made comments that his players make bad calls because they are thinking too much. He also makes comments about telling his guys to just go out there and play. Is this the problem with our team? Bama, Georgia, Auburn etc, we aren't talking about top of the class guys, maybe they take instruction better. And yes Army and Navy aren't stupid, but they are trained as soldiers which is something totally different.

You would think that being smarter would give you and advantage but I believe when it come to this sport you need to turn off your thinking mind and react.
Click to expand...

Interesting observations. I was on Jackets Online and they had this PFF Midseason Report Cards of the players. This is some kind of measuring stick and grading done by a couple of ex coaches on each player for each game. It was illuminating to say the least. Offense was rated much lower than defense. Of the thirty plus offensive players rated only a handful received passing grades (color coded in the green no less) Among these gold star winners were Lynch, T. Oliver, Dolphus, Braun, W Bryan and that was about it. Most were in the yellow which is not good. None of them were in the dark green which corresponded to excellent. Lynch was pretty close. Defense had more good graders including J Thomas (the only dark green getter on the whole team) Saint Amour, J Dingle, B Adams, Q Griffin, D Branch and a few others. Guess where the three linebackers who play the most on the inside were? Near the bottom.

Of course, this needs to be taken with a big grain of salt but it pretty much reflects what we see on the field namely way too many blown assignments (which is, as I understand it, the primary basis on which the grading is done) Didn't see anything about special teams. Just as well it would have been mostly red or orange. Don't ask me about specifics. You can get a subscription and peruse all the details at leisure. Complicated and tedious business at best.

All I know is that our team is not playing up to its admittedly somewhat limited potential. Well, this is what off weeks should be about, healing the lame and getting better. We will see if this team can right the ship and play better. It is all, we as fans can ask them to do. The home stretch starts next week. We will see what this team is made of with Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Miami staring them in the face.
 
iceeater1969

iceeater1969

Helluva Engineer
Messages
9,796
  1. Our recruits are taking a p classes in high school.
They come in early and get a few class credits.
Red shirt year one.
Then with tutors the sharp ones take a regular load.
Summer comes and they stay and take a couple of classes, work out.
Year 2 they are r fr but headed to junior year classes.
year 3 they are r soph and headed into senior year.
NOW - does he bust axx at football or in class if he thinks he's not going to play any as a r jr .
A gt job is $$

I think this is not a good vibe for the team. Hey where is X he is late for lifting, not lifting more like he used to.....

With our level of recruits ( who require development) and with departing r jr we are forever thin at starting and young in backups.

Position coaches need to figure a way to get these r jr to not leave and be assured SHARE playing as r j.

We either get very good recruits (not likely) and play them or we get our normal recruits and train them as underclass men and play them as upper class men.
Upper class men have tougher attitudes
 

TheSilasSonRising

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,729
Coloradojacket said:
Ok, so hear me out on this. While unpacking from my Hunting Trip today I got to thinking about what hurts our team. Sure we can say recruiting and such but I had another thought. Back in the 70's when I played football I was always an Offensive Tackle and a Nose Guard. I Started at both. We played the Veer and the Wishbone. For blocking we were always taught to fire off and based on the play lead with a foot and get your arms in. As a Tackle the hole to my left was the 4 hole and the hole to my right was the 6. If the play was a 34 that meant the halfback would run to my left, thus when I fired off I started with my left foot and drove the DT to the right. Seems simple. As a Nose Guard it was all about just fire off and push the center back into the play.

Now I will get to the point. Football is instinctive and is learned through repetition. Your really cease thinking and you just react. Practice of a play over and over is supposed to make you do your job. Sure you can miss a block but at least you know who you are supposed to block.

From the 10/20 CPJ post practice interview he said something about that all his players had the smarts. He has also made comments that his players make bad calls because they are thinking too much. He also makes comments about telling his guys to just go out there and play. Is this the problem with our team? Bama, Georgia, Auburn etc, we aren't talking about top of the class guys, maybe they take instruction better. And yes Army and Navy aren't stupid, but they are trained as soldiers which is something totally different.

You would think that being smarter would give you and advantage but I believe when it come to this sport you need to turn off your thinking mind and react.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure I understand what your underlying question is. But I might question it from a different angle.

Football is a Game. Granted, a game where being bigger / faster / stronger helps, but a game still.

There are certain fundamentals that were true in 1918 that are still true today. No different than the fundamentals of Golf. Can you over analyze your golf swing?

Some coaches try to justify their existence or pay by how complicated they make things. But I remember a quote I read from a coach that won 3 national championships in 2 different decades. And he rebuilt the programs at 3 different universities. He said “Simplicity - it is wonderful.”

So I guess it all depends on how systems are deployed, not so much if players are “too smart”.
 
BCJacket

BCJacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
761
Coloradojacket said:
Ok, so hear me out on this. While unpacking from my Hunting Trip today I got to thinking about what hurts our team. Sure we can say recruiting and such but I had another thought. Back in the 70's when I played football I was always an Offensive Tackle and a Nose Guard. I Started at both. We played the Veer and the Wishbone. For blocking we were always taught to fire off and based on the play lead with a foot and get your arms in. As a Tackle the hole to my left was the 4 hole and the hole to my right was the 6. If the play was a 34 that meant the halfback would run to my left, thus when I fired off I started with my left foot and drove the DT to the right. Seems simple. As a Nose Guard it was all about just fire off and push the center back into the play.

Now I will get to the point. Football is instinctive and is learned through repetition. Your really cease thinking and you just react. Practice of a play over and over is supposed to make you do your job. Sure you can miss a block but at least you know who you are supposed to block.

From the 10/20 CPJ post practice interview he said something about that all his players had the smarts. He has also made comments that his players make bad calls because they are thinking too much. He also makes comments about telling his guys to just go out there and play. Is this the problem with our team? Bama, Georgia, Auburn etc, we aren't talking about top of the class guys, maybe they take instruction better. And yes Army and Navy aren't stupid, but they are trained as soldiers which is something totally different.

You would think that being smarter would give you and advantage but I believe when it come to this sport you need to turn off your thinking mind and react.
Click to expand...

I've heard CPJ lament a couple times that when he was at GaSo if he told a player to run through a brick wall he'd run at it full speed, bounce off and try again. Same deal at Navy; "Yes Sir! Happy to run through that wall, Sir!" At Tech (or 'nowadays') the players want to ask "Why can't I just go around the wall?" Specifically, I know he said this on the "Never Played the Game Podcast".

I think maybe that's what you're talking about. Saying our guys are 'too smart' rubs the wrong way. But, yeah, I think it's possible some of our guys think too much to commit 100% to a "run through that wall" offense.
 
stech81

stech81

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,962
Location
Woodstock Georgia
BCJacket said:
I've heard CPJ lament a couple times that when he was at GaSo if he told a player to run through a brick wall he'd run at it full speed, bounce off and try again. Same deal at Navy; "Yes Sir! Happy to run through that wall, Sir!" At Tech (or 'nowadays') the players want to ask "Why can't I just go around the wall?" Specifically, I know he said this on the "Never Played the Game Podcast".

I think maybe that's what you're talking about. Saying our guys are 'too smart' rubs the wrong way. But, yeah, I think it's possible some of our guys think too much to commit 100% to a "run through that wall" offense.
Click to expand...
I have to know what is behind the wall. If I could take the wall down I would want to know what is next. Is there a pretty woman or just another wall
 
Top