Biggest need for 2016 (offense edition)

[GTL]

Relatively minor in the overall scheme of things, but one thing we really didn't do well all last year was to sell the mesh. Jet would ride the mesh with Days and Laskey for what would seem like several seconds (OK, so I exaggerate) while reading the LBs. It just wasn't anywhere near as deceiving in '15.

 

[slugboy]

One lineman to play like Shaq Mason. Two would be awesome.
A second QB ready to play

 

[RamblinCharger]

I'd like to see Marcus Marshall put on 15 pounds and get 25 carries a game. EVERY. SINGLE. GAME. When he got the ball good things happened. Unfortunately he didn't block like he needed to and he had problems early hanging onto the football. Like Cheese noted, in our offense if we get the BB to consistently pick up yards everything else opens up.

I also think we need to change some OL technique or someone needs to coach the current technique better. We had way too many guys whiffing on blocks and JT spent most of the year running from 4-5 defenders at all times. You have to protect the QB better than we did this year. The WR group will be fine IMO. I think Jeune is our next "the guy" and I think Philpott and others have a lot of talent that we can succeed with. The AB group will hopefully be healthier and our offense will most likely be much improved. The defense probably won't improve though, so we'll need to hang onto the ball offensively.

 

[UgaBlows]

Did it seem to anyone like we gave up on, or weren't truly dedicated to establishing the dive at times this past season?

 

[AE 87]

I'd like to see Marcus Marshall put on 15 pounds and get 25 carries a game. EVERY. SINGLE. GAME. When he got the ball good things happened. Unfortunately he didn't block like he needed to and he had problems early hanging onto the football. Like Cheese noted, in our offense if we get the BB to consistently pick up yards everything else opens up.

I also think we need to change some OL technique or someone needs to coach the current technique better. We had way too many guys whiffing on blocks and JT spent most of the year running from 4-5 defenders at all times. You have to protect the QB better than we did this year. The WR group will be fine IMO. I think Jeune is our next "the guy" and I think Philpott and others have a lot of talent that we can succeed with. The AB group will hopefully be healthier and our offense will most likely be much improved. The defense probably won't improve though, so we'll need to hang onto the ball offensively.

Fwiw, I think our problem was that guys on OL were missing assignments not doing their assignments poorly.

 

[Skeptic]

Boy we have a lot of them so this could get interesting and probably splitting hairs about which is most critical.

I'll say my biggest hope/wish for 2016 is a Bback that can freeze the MLB.

I know we need OL, wr and Aback, but I think the most critical for sustaining drives and keeping the chains moving is a consistent dive play. Not only does that put us at second and medium/short, it opens up the edge by MAKING THE DADGUM MIKE STAY THE FREAK HOME.

Keeping the mike in the middle gives us back our numbers advantage on the edge and makes our wide game work again, even with less than perfect execution.

If I had to pick a second most wanted, I'd go with a wr that could put the corner on his heals. Make the dude play off and backpedal so we could run some comeback routes on the sideline. But I said "biggest need" so I'm getting a little greedy.

I'd also say speed at Aback, but I'm already confident we're getting that so no need to ask.

Improve skill play and OL play will miraculously get better. Watch.

That, and whichever lineman is responsible for blocking him on the option has to get it done. In '15 they whiffed more than Dave Kingman. Just dated myself.

 

[iceeater1969]

Is the solution really as simple as run the damn ball UTM FIRST?

To me seems like the dt are pinching into the cg gap to stop bb and de are pressing the pitch to stop jet. If we are trying to pass they are already on way. Our offense is disrupted from the start.

They really try to get us way behind schedule (3-8) SUCH that we must try a called play . Once we are behind schedule we generally must run the called plays against a defense that is expecting it.

I think we need to know how to run SUCCESSFULLY run plays like rocket to ab, rocket to bb, swing pass to bb, etc AND fakes off of these. We need them to back off the agressive DL play. If we frequently get big yards on these plays , we will have them on thier heels.

Expecting to get ol blocking, bb blocking, and ab blocking, and WR blocking perfectly on every play so the TO works is not practical until we get them in our wheel house.

Early in game and early in down count coach should call more plays that quickly press the edge. Then in late game situation call same plays, but tell jet tom secretly let everybody block that play while he runs the opposite.

Go jackets.

 

[takethepoints]

I'm not sure about this and here's why.

Opposing Ds were doing the exact same thing last year with pretty much the same OL and it did them squat for good. I think the Cheese has it when he says the reason for that was that we had two BBs who got to the mesh fast and with authority. That meant that a slight crease was as good as a hole you could drive a Mack truck through. (And, of course, with Shaq we often had that hole, especially as the game progressed. I'm not saying he didn't count.) Everything else you recommend works off of that.

Of course, having all the speed of the team (except Marshall) off the field didn't help. I think that's the reason we didn't run the rocket toss so much after Snoddy and Searcy went down. Next year, with the ABs we get off the bench and (please, Lord) a consistent BB, those plays will work like clock work.

 

[UgaBlows]

How do we stop our OLinemen from ignoring defenders running right past them as they blndly go try to block somebody else?

 

[GaTech4ever]

I get that we had injuries. But it really is getting exaggerated on this board/in the fan base. OL = healthy. Secondary = healthy. Starting QB = healthy (I realize he missed a game but we were done at that point. He was banged up but healthy enough to play and still be our best player on Offense). WRs = healthy. BBs = healthy - we KNEW Leggett wasn't going to play, that injury happened before we were making our season predictions. LBs = healthy. DL = healthy (Gotsis missed a couple at the end but we were done at that point as well). AB = this is the ONLY position we got decimated with injuries. If we think missing a few ABs who had never played a snap anyway, or missing Skov for two games altered the course of our season then we are delusional.

It really bothers me that people are blindly throwing the injury thing out there without realizing that position groups who were the MOST disappointing were a healthy OL and a healthy DL. Also the senior-laden/healthy DBs never truly made their presence felt.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

That, and whichever lineman is responsible for blocking him on the option has to get it done. In '15 they whiffed more than Dave Kingman. Just dated myself.

yes, yes, yes! But not having a consistent dive makes that task doubly hard. The MLB is not hesitating at the snap, we need him to. He's off to the races chasing the pitch motion, totally leaving the Bback to the DL to tackle.

 

[takethepoints]

I get that we had injuries. But it really is getting exaggerated on this board/in the fan base. OL = healthy. Secondary = healthy. Starting QB = healthy (I realize he missed a game but we were done at that point. He was banged up but healthy enough to play and still be our best player on Offense). WRs = healthy. BBs = healthy - we KNEW Leggett wasn't going to play, that injury happened before we were making our season predictions. LBs = healthy. DL = healthy (Gotsis missed a couple at the end but we were done at that point as well). AB = this is the ONLY position we got decimated with injuries. If we think missing a few ABs who had never played a snap anyway, or missing Skov for two games altered the course of our season then we are delusional.

It really bothers me that people are blindly throwing the injury thing out there without realizing that position groups who were the MOST disappointing were a healthy OL and a healthy DL. Also the senior-laden/healthy DBs never truly made their presence felt.

I think you are really underestimating the role of injuries this year. There was a post in another thread that showed that the main difference between this year and last was the performance of the O; the D was about the same, but on the field a lot longer this year. Why?

You've hit on it yourself. The main difference between this year's team and last year's was the decimation of our skill players on O. I posted on this before, but of the two-deep of skill players we expected to have on the field at the start of fall practice, we had a grand total of two on the field this year - JT and Ike Willis. Even the new kids we were expecting to help - Cotrell and Benson - got hurt in the fall. Then Snoddy and Searcy went down. Iow, we not only lost our experienced skill players before the season, but we had to change the cast of characters during the season as well, moving MLD and Jordan to AB, then moving Jordan back to QB, then shifting the OL because of Shamire's concussion, then … you get the point. The result was there for everyone to see, especially in the games we played in the slop with new kids all over the place.

And, btw, we lost both Leggett and Quaid in the spring. That's why we jumped at Skov and moved Allen. That really hurt, for reasons already pointed out here.

 

[GaTech4ever]

I think you are really underestimating the role of injuries this year. There was a post in another thread that showed that the main difference between this year and last was the performance of the O; the D was about the same, but on the field a lot longer this year. Why?

You've hit on it yourself. The main difference between this year's team and last year's was the decimation of our skill players on O. I posted on this before, but of the two-deep of skill players we expected to have on the field at the start of fall practice, we had a grand total of two on the field this year - JT and Ike Willis. Even the new kids we were expecting to help - Cotrell and Benson - got hurt in the fall. Then Snoddy and Searcy went down. Iow, we not only lost our experienced skill players before the season, but we had to change the cast of characters during the season as well, moving MLD and Jordan to AB, then moving Jordan back to QB, then shifting the OL because of Shamire's concussion, then … you get the point. The result was there for everyone to see, especially in the games we played in the slop with new kids all over the place.

And, btw, we lost both Leggett and Quaid in the spring. That's why we jumped at Skov and moved Allen. That really hurt, for reasons already pointed out here.

After we lost Leggett and Quaide in the spring, did anyone significantly change their outlook on the upcoming season? I know I didn't, and neither did any voters in the polls or fans here. We don't even know what we missed with them, and coming into the season we weren't counting on either of those guys once we had Skov. It's easy to say in retrospect that we missed them, but no one here thought it mattered until we needed to find something to justify our failures on Offense.

What do you mean we only saw two skill players from the two-deep? Jeune and Summers were healthy. I just dont buy it because our offense looked inept at ND before the in-season injuries. Would we have been better had Searcy and Snoddy stayed healthy? Yeah obviously, but the OL shift because of Shamire's concussion didn't make us block worse than we already were. One concussion on a single O Lineman all season is pretty dang healthy if you ask any coach.

If you told PJ the only OL injury all season would be a concussion that sidelined one player a few games he wouldn't have believed it. What experienced skill position players did we lose before the season due to injury?

I'll give you that the Defense was set up to fail with how long they were on the field. But do you think any Defensive players improved other than Gotsis? Maybe Rook-Chungong? No one on D was a playmaker other than Gotsis.

 

[Skeptic]

Is the solution really as simple as run the damn ball UTM FIRST?

To me seems like the dt are pinching into the cg gap to stop bb and de are pressing the pitch to stop jet. If we are trying to pass they are already on way. Our offense is disrupted from the start.

They really try to get us way behind schedule (3-8) SUCH that we must try a called play . Once we are behind schedule we generally must run the called plays against a defense that is expecting it.

I think we need to know how to run SUCCESSFULLY run plays like rocket to ab, rocket to bb, swing pass to bb, etc AND fakes off of these. We need them to back off the agressive DL play. If we frequently get big yards on these plays , we will have them on thier heels.

Expecting to get ol blocking, bb blocking, and ab blocking, and WR blocking perfectly on every play so the TO works is not practical until we get them in our wheel house.

Early in game and early in down count coach should call more plays that quickly press the edge. Then in late game situation call same plays, but tell jet tom secretly let everybody block that play while he runs the opposite.

Go jackets.

As some fictional detective somewhere once said, verrry interesting. Forward to Johnson for analysis.

 

[Buzzmaster]

I still believe that games are won and lost between the trenches. We need some big and strong guards on both sides, left and right to improve on the dive play. Personally I'd like see us get a tightend but that's not going to happen.

 

[takethepoints]

After we lost Leggett and Quaide in the spring, did anyone significantly change their outlook on the upcoming season? I know I didn't, and neither did any voters in the polls or fans here. We don't even know what we missed with them, and coming into the season we weren't counting on either of those guys once we had Skov. It's easy to say in retrospect that we missed them, but no one here thought it mattered until we needed to find something to justify our failures on Offense.

What do you mean we only saw two skill players from the two-deep? Jeune and Summers were healthy. I just dont buy it because our offense looked inept at ND before the in-season injuries. Would we have been better had Searcy and Snoddy stayed healthy? Yeah obviously, but the OL shift because of Shamire's concussion didn't make us block worse than we already were. One concussion on a single O Lineman all season is pretty dang healthy if you ask any coach.

If you told PJ the only OL injury all season would be a concussion that sidelined one player a few games he wouldn't have believed it. What experienced skill position players did we lose before the season due to injury?

I'll give you that the Defense was set up to fail with how long they were on the field. But do you think any Defensive players improved other than Gotsis? Maybe Rook-Chungong? No one on D was a playmaker other than Gotsis.

1. I changed mine. But after the first two games I was deceived into thinking we were alright. No such luck; Coach was right to caution everyone.

2. I should have been more specific. I meant our backfield, of course. And, again, I think you are simply ignoring the elephant in the living room. What was different between the 2014 and 2015 teams? Injuries - and one firing (Andrews) - in the O backfield that deprived us of our experience and speed. I never expected either Jeune or Summers (also hurt during this season, remember) to be big contributors once we lost most of our skill guys from the backfield.

3. Griffin, of course. He was lost at the last of the 2014 season. That's two starters off the OL. Joe did a decent job replacing Griffin, but he was starting for a reason.

4. The D did ok in 2014 because the O did really well. That's been the way it has worked for us since Coach came to Tech.

5. You'll see the difference next season.

 

[dubjacket]

My thoughts are we will be fine at BB next year. We saw what Marshall brings to the table at times but at other times he acted like a true freshman. Dwyer was the same way as a freshman(different system I know). We will see a big leap at bb next year and it will change everything.

My second wish is to not have 10 yrs worth of injuries happen to us in one year!

 

[redmule]

I get that we had injuries. But it really is getting exaggerated on this board/in the fan base. OL = healthy. Secondary = healthy. Starting QB = healthy (I realize he missed a game but we were done at that point. He was banged up but healthy enough to play and still be our best player on Offense). WRs = healthy. BBs = healthy - we KNEW Leggett wasn't going to play, that injury happened before we were making our season predictions. LBs = healthy. DL = healthy (Gotsis missed a couple at the end but we were done at that point as well). AB = this is the ONLY position we got decimated with injuries. If we think missing a few ABs who had never played a snap anyway, or missing Skov for two games altered the course of our season then we are delusional.

It really bothers me that people are blindly throwing the injury thing out there without realizing that position groups who were the MOST disappointing were a healthy OL and a healthy DL. Also the senior-laden/healthy DBs never truly made their presence felt.

The way I look at the injuries (and you forgot Summers at WR missing several games and then leaving) is that by the 4th game, JT was having to play mostly with players at the skill positions he had not seen before July: Skov, Marshall, Marshall, MLD, Stewart, Griffin. Or had seen only beginning in the spring: Allen, Searcy, Lynch. Think about it, after Snoddy went down, Jeune was the skill player that Thomas had the most experience with. I think this season demonstrated that timing and anticipation is much more important in this offense than many of us bleacher coaches expected. Or maybe at least in the Georgia Tech version of it.

What made the season even more painful is that the offense was operating at such a high level late last year. Had this year's version followed something like the 2011 version, it would have looked better by comparison.

 

[Boomergump]

I get that we had injuries. But it really is getting exaggerated on this board/in the fan base. OL = healthy. Secondary = healthy. Starting QB = healthy (I realize he missed a game but we were done at that point. He was banged up but healthy enough to play and still be our best player on Offense). WRs = healthy. BBs = healthy - we KNEW Leggett wasn't going to play, that injury happened before we were making our season predictions. LBs = healthy. DL = healthy (Gotsis missed a couple at the end but we were done at that point as well). AB = this is the ONLY position we got decimated with injuries. If we think missing a few ABs who had never played a snap anyway, or missing Skov for two games altered the course of our season then we are delusional.

It really bothers me that people are blindly throwing the injury thing out there without realizing that position groups who were the MOST disappointing were a healthy OL and a healthy DL. Also the senior-laden/healthy DBs never truly made their presence felt.

There is some merit to this post, however I would like to challenge a few points. First of all, knowing that somebody is out before a season starts, before making our predictions, is kind of irrelevent when quantifying the impact of an injury. For instance, having Quaide and Legett out made a difference, I feel sure. I mean, knowing what we know now, wouldn't you like to have seen them get a chance on the field? We didn't get what we were hoping for out of Skov. Marshall ran well but had some growing pains and Allen couldn't stay on the field. Also, in the same line of reasoning, having Griffin out at OT was a pretty big factor, especially considering Joe was just a shell of himself after gaining all that weight.

Also, saying that we were already done so the injuries that happened late don't really matter, doesn't hold a lot of water with me. Even if the majority of the season was over, there were still some games on the table to win. We were 0'fer with Gotsis off the field and, I believe, 3 and 5 with him. Losses like his still impacted the record. To me, every game matters.

With all this said, I acknowledge your overall point that, for the most part, the OL was healthy and yet still a major disappointment.

 

[Longestday]

Football is truly a game of inches. BBacks need to take the right track every time. A backs need to go the right way every time. OL need to block the right person every time. Given the new people and the injuries, the team did not have the inches to win. I think we have the right players to win. The team needs execution that will come with practice.

The one place I can say there is something missing is pass blocking. There is something wrong here and I am beginning to think it is not player specific. Big gaps? I think it is more... I never see us legally hold.