Are we where we want to be?

[Skeptic]

....What happened last year was the team developed an attitude that they expected to win every game. This was not the flip side of being cocky, this was the flip side of saying, "The only thing that can lose this game is if I do not give 100% effort from first play to the last play."

...Things happen that are unexpected through the course of a season -injuries, bad calls by refs, inexplicable luck. But, in my opinion, Tech has turned that corner that all big time programs have to turn. ... This year Tech will be in every game, not get down on itself if they lose a game, and create more and more of the kind of good fortune that happens when a team believes in itself.

Forgive the truncating, but this last year was the difference missing for so long, at least since Nesbitt broke his arm but maybe even then, and you're right. If somebody gets Tech down this year they'd better step on the gas hard because they will never be out of the game. I remember Jimbo Fisher still gulping after the game and talking about the onsides kick, "I was hoping we would get the ball." By the end of that thing they needed a compressor to get air into their lungs.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

That's a pretty high bar since not many teams dominate VT's defense. The key to our program turning any mythical "corner" is gonna be about the defense. And that's gonna be about the DL. If we can consistently bring in and develop the right DL players, we've turned a corner. We've had a few here and there but not enough at the same time for any length of time.

I agree with you that it is a "pretty high bar", but I really think, if you asked PJ, he would agree that this is where he sees the offense going, to a level that even CBF will have difficulty slowing it down.

 

[InsideLB]

I think last year is last year and we have a ways to go. It's gotta be earned every year.

Do it several years in a row and you can say you've built a program.

Agree with Redmule coaching stability is huge and particularly at a school like GT where every kid in the state hasn't grown up wanting to play there. We are finally getting some coaching stability and it's paying dividends.

I do think when one looks at depth, recruiting, performance on the field, performance in the classroom and kids staying out of trouble, and team culture it certainly appears we are headed in the right direction. Exciting time to be a yellow jacket!

 

[GTJake]

Heart - Keep the hungar !!! Both Coaching Staff and Players
QB - Keep filling the QB position with JT type talent.
Local Support - Keep rolling-in the local talent.

 

[Boomergump]

Are we where we want to be? Well, we are bigger and stronger than we have been in quite a while. Take that fwiw. If you were at fan day, and opened your eyes walking around, you would have seen a team that has made major gains in the weight room. There have been some times in the past that I felt I could have won some arm wrestling contests. Not so much now. I'm not sure how that translates exactly, but a team that likes to run and pound the ball, while using the option to gain numbers, surely likes some brawn to go with it. My gut tells me, we are not a finesse team anymore. Our scheme has been good for years. Now we have some beef to go with it. You decide.

I agree luck has a role to play in every season, sometimes in a major way. I feel the scales are tipping in our favor a little more. So much so, in fact, that some bad luck can be overcome more readily. As pretty much every year, we have some questions and possibly some holes. I feel the questions are less pressing and the holes a good bit smaller.

 

[Eastman]

Greater ability can help you overcome a certain amount of bad luck. That is why perennial powerhouses often win even when they're not having a good day. We have all watched games where one team fortuitously had the lead but because of the greater skill and depth of the other team you knew it was only a matter of time before they were overtaken. In the recent past it we often had a slim margin for error and it is my hope that this year with a significantly improved defense that even if the ball takes some unlucky bounces that we will emerge victorious.

 

[thwgjacket]

I think we could win as few as 8 games this year and feel like we "turned the corner". As others have mentioned a lot depends on injuries and a little bit of luck. It's how we play that I'm most interested in.

Playing a little bit of devil's advocate now on 2 things. First, what have we seen from the D to date to expect great results this year, other than turnovers last year? Yes, those were huge and often "forced" turnovers, but I still need to see something from that group. I'm optimistic, but I've been blindly optimistic in past years when we ended up with 7 wins. I don't know that we're starting exactly where we want to be on that side of the ball other than recognizing we have some good looking athletes/potential.

Second, here's the thing about luck. I think we've been burned by it in the past and maybe had more than our fair share. Last year we were a missed FG (UGA) from potentially not even making the Orange Bowl. Forget the injustices that occurred against us throughout the rest of the game, but I'm confident in asserting that many would have seen a loss of any kind there as a reason we're nowhere where we need to be. Add to that going to the Champs Sports Bowl rather than the Orange Bowl and who knows what the tenor of the fanbase would have been.

Here's one example of luck in our favor from last year that I hadn't seen mentioned before. Been meaning to post this for a while. Anyone remember the play immediately after 4th and 15? One more ACC loss last year and I don't know that we make the ACC Championship game, let alone Orange Bowl. This one was gift wrapped and we skated by.



Now that all of that is out of my system, I'll say I'm optimistic that we're where we want to be. But that margin for error has me nervous.

Ok? Guess we're forgetting Brewer picking up a fumble and running 20 yards for a TD, or JeT's long TD run getting called back on a questionable call. But sure, it was "gift wrapped." It's sports dude. Anyone who has played a good amount of sports can tell you that a game can pivot on any moment. It doesn't take long before you realize the better team is almost always the "lucky" team because guys are more athletic and in the right place more often.
This whole "luck" debate over last year is getting old. You can point to most games on any good teams schedule and say, well they were "lucky" there. It's not luck, it's guys making plays. A lot of people on this site bring up the DJ White play in the Pitt game as a "turning point" last year, and some have said it was a "lucky" thing. It wasn't a turning point. We were up in that game already and were clearly just the better team. Good teams talk about winning. Bad teams talk about "luck." I don't know if our team has made the turn, but our fans certainly have not.

 

[Skeptic]

Ok? Guess we're forgetting Brewer picking up a fumble and running 20 yards for a TD, or JeT's long TD run getting called back on a questionable call. But sure, it was "gift wrapped." It's sports dude. Anyone who has played a good amount of sports can tell you that a game can pivot on any moment. It doesn't take long before you realize the better team is almost always the "lucky" team because guys are more athletic and in the right place more often.
This whole "luck" debate over last year is getting old. You can point to most games on any good teams schedule and say, well they were "lucky" there. It's not luck, it's guys making plays. A lot of people on this site bring up the DJ White play in the Pitt game as a "turning point" last year, and some have said it was a "lucky" thing. It wasn't a turning point. We were up in that game already and were clearly just the better team. Good teams talk about winning. Bad teams talk about "luck." I don't know if our team has made the turn, but our fans certainly have not.

I think maybe you're missing the "turning point" point. In my view it not only turned the game but the entire season, for me the moment it influenced an entire team into possibilities, that this was not the same old Tech team scrambling around late and hoping for a miracle that wasn't coming. This was one guy, trailing the play and out of it by most measures, who refused to concede and ran down a fine running back, passing one of his teammates on the way. The fumble was a gift. The beauty of the play, to me, was the long sprint to make a tackle nobody expected. And color me pollyanna, but I believe in luck even if I can't define it. Else we wouldn't have the coin toss.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

We need to keep adding top tier talent at at dt. We need recruits there that can contribute day1 & go to nfl after year 3

Ahhhh.....if only it was so simple

 

[CuseJacket]

Ok? Guess we're forgetting Brewer picking up a fumble and running 20 yards for a TD, or JeT's long TD run getting called back on a questionable call. But sure, it was "gift wrapped." It's sports dude. Anyone who has played a good amount of sports can tell you that a game can pivot on any moment. It doesn't take long before you realize the better team is almost always the "lucky" team because guys are more athletic and in the right place more often.
This whole "luck" debate over last year is getting old. You can point to most games on any good teams schedule and say, well they were "lucky" there. It's not luck, it's guys making plays. A lot of people on this site bring up the DJ White play in the Pitt game as a "turning point" last year, and some have said it was a "lucky" thing. It wasn't a turning point. We were up in that game already and were clearly just the better team. Good teams talk about winning. Bad teams talk about "luck." I don't know if our team has made the turn, but our fans certainly have not.

I was talking about one play. With GT down 7 and 2 min remaining a deflected pass hit a VT DB in the hands and he dropped it. That's one play, entirely out of our control, that would have had a strong possibility of influencing the outcome of the game.

Yes, I'm playing the what-if game and VT got lucky also, so I get your point there. I also said I was playing devil's advocate and speaking to how the perception of last year's team might have changed on the balance of a single play. Nowhere did I say we were a bad team. GT earned an 11-3 record last year and we were rolling folks at the end.

 

[Boomergump]

Rare indeed are the seasons where a few plays here or there don't define it.

Regardless of the record, GT WAS a good team last year (as Cuse says). In my estimation, a pass rush away from being the best team in the land. Getting a credible pass rush this year will be easier said than done. However, if we can do it, the sky is the limit.

 

[GTonTop88]

We're going to have to get better every game like last year. A year ago, we were uncertain at QB and argued about who should be our starter. We lost a lot of good lineman the year before and all of our RBs were mostly backups. We lost our offensive play maker in Robbie Godhigh and defensive play makers in Attouchou and Jemea. We do have a lot more stability coming into this year, like I said we just have to get better every game. The ND game is gonna tell a lot about our team, hopefully we're just as resilient but more fundamental. I believe we're going to be just fine.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

All I am asking is "Is it sustainable?"

Historically no; one in three odds of doing better this year. https://gtswarm.com/threads/111-years-of-gt-football.6986/#post-160714 Remember the optimism after the 1990 season? Hind sight is easy. As I've said too many times, the other teams kind of want to win and some have been getting a lot better in the off season.

I can't speak for others in answering the original question, "Are we where we want to be?". I can answer for myself that the answer is yes. We have a football team we can be proud of both on and off the field. They demonstrate integrity and intelligence through their actions (and lack of certain actions) and have clearly worked very hard in the weight room in the off season.

Will we win all our regular season games this year? I sure don't expect it. That is probably less than 3% likely but doesn't matter to me as long as we play hard and get better as the year goes on. Just play the games and enjoy the ride.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

We do have a lot more stability coming into this year,

This is always the key point to me in these discussions. As I have said before, we had at least 7 major areas on the team going into last year that were major question marks. This year we have almost half that number. If we can keep the same mental attitude that we had last year, this year could be historic.