Clemson 41 - GT 10

[Deleted member 4558]

Jeff Sims should have his own thread. His passing ability is remarkable compared to last year. Months ago I predicted 2 wins in 2022 now I'm thinking 5-6 as long as he stays healthy. Great credit to this young man first, then to the coaching staff.

 

[gdamian]

I was dissapointed by the decision to punt in q3 4th and 2 and gt 42. This was after the td and make it and you have some additional momentum. Punting here, in my opinion, was the same as not making the 1st down.

 

[Ramble1885]

I was probably in the "crowd" of less than a thousand GT fans left in the stands when Clemson last scored. For a "home" game, we must have had a bunch of folks sell their tickets to Clemson fans. Lots of orange in the stadium last night.

I was there and honestly the crowd was probably near 50/50. Our sideline was gold and navy and their sideline was orange. Considering how bad the showing for the uga game was last year I'll take it. On third downs us jacket fans brought the noise too and early on you could see the defense was feeding off of us.

 

[Vespidae]

Agree, I don't think it's quite fair to judge the O-line vs Clemson. Not many teams will look good against Clemson offensively.

There's also first game jitters (which I guess everyone has) that I think affected our line more since most of them haven't played together.

And yet, one of the Top 3 games I have every witnessed in college football involved Tech. Playing at Legion Field in the first game of the season, Tech - behind QB Jim Bob Taylor ... played to a 21-20 victory.

You get the result you plan for.

 

[bobongo]

I was dissapointed by the decision to punt in q3 4th and 2 and gt 42. This was after the td and make it and you have some additional momentum. Punting here, in my opinion, was the same as not making the 1st down.

I loved the decision to go for it on 4th and short in the first qtr. We seemed an upstart that was there to win and not just keep the score close. Later decisions, not so much.

 

[RamblinRed]

Others have mostly covered what I saw/felt watching the game live.

Some things I will underscore or add:

• I wished we called the timeouts end of first half. Collins offered his explanation in the postgame presser. Agree or disagree, I see both sides. But I see folks are projecting "cowering" as the reason, which I don't think we did last night. We went for it on 4th down three times, converted two of them, including a 4th and 1 (or 2) from our own 37 in the first quarter. Great call/execution. Also loved the swagger on the 4th and 6ish conversion in the 3rd quarter - zipped in a dart on the slant route and great catch by Malik Rutherford.
• I definitely feel like the last second lateral to Shipley from D.J as he was getting sacked was a gamechanger. D.J. just looked/felt more comfortable from that point forward. It was the play Clemson "needed".
• Losing Charlie sucked. If there's a rulebook explanation that was offered on TV, I'd love to hear it. I'm not sure what you coach him to do differently on the play. I'm glad the next game is Western Carolina since we'll miss him for a half.
• For years I've soapboxed on "Turnovers and Special Teams". If you win those phases of the game, you have a shot unless entirely outmanned. Special Teams we obviously lost big time. I think the game flow would have been different if not for the first blocked punt and 5 yd TD drive. Could have been a totally different vibe and game pressure late in the 3rd quarter.

Net result: My outlook for the year is still "wait and see". I wish yesterday's game was played on Saturday. Just not a fan of the built-in disadvantage of playing 3 games in 12 days. I really think Ole Miss will be a better barometer of what's to come otherwise, and hopefully we can make quick work of Western Carolina to "catch up" on the lost rest.

This is a good summary of my feelings.

I see improvements in some areas and the potential to get to 6 wins, but having the potential to get there and actually getting there are 2 different things.

Let's see where we are in a couple more games. Some teams improve alot the first 3-4 games of a season, some don't.
I'll say I was not overly impressed with Ole Miss on Saturday.

I'm also not willing to overlook Western Carolina. We should know that already. If nothing else they put on an offensive show against another FCS opponent.
Not having Thomas for the first half will not be helpful.

Clemson fans were absolutely ready to throw out DJ, their OL and their OC at half time. They felt all the talk about improvement from the QB and the OL was just BS from Dabo.
In terms of that, After 1 game DJ is 10th in the ACC in QBR with a 39.4 score.
In 2021 he finished 13th with a 43.2 last season. So by that metric at least he did not play any better than last year.

Sims was 12th last season with a 52.2. After his first game this year he is 7th with 62.9 - so definitely some improvement in game 1.

My impression of Clemson's OL was that the left side was pretty good, but their right side was really weak and GT just abused that true FR right tackle all night.

To me Clemson looks slightly better overall than they did last year, but they certainly don't look like a NC challenger after game one.

 

[jojatk]

The weak link of Offiense is #67 O-Line. This dude missed I counted 4 critical blocks and had a few false starts. He is just not good at all and needs to be benched immediatly

FYI #67 is Joe Fusile, walk-on r-Fr. Not a good outing for sure. Probably not the ideal time/place to get your first real playing time against a DL like Clemson's. Let's see how he reacts.

I think it's fair to say that our OL was definitely thrown into the deep end of the pool having to face a DL filled with players who are all projected to play on Sundays soon. I won't say they looked good. And the false starts were awful. But I'm also not going to make any final judgments on a revamped OL based on game 1. And I mean judgments regarding what I think this year's OL is going to be.

 

[lv20gt]

That's the biggest problem I had with it, that it sends the wrong message. And yeah, bad stuff might have happened had we tried to move the ball down into field goal range in the last 45 seconds, but if we're not going to try, why are we even there? Was he just trying to keep the score close?

There is being aggressive and then just being reckless. Being risky there was high risk with low reward because of the ball being at mid field already. It was an 11 point game with a half to go. No reason to go for desperation plays at that point which is what people are wanting.

And as far as messaging goes. We came out after half, got a three and out then drove for a TD. Whole lot of made up worry over nothing.

 

[bobongo]

There is being aggressive and then just being reckless. Being risky there was high risk with low reward because of the ball being at mid field already. It was an 11 point game with a half to go. No reason to go for desperation plays at that point which is what people are wanting.

And as far as messaging goes. We came out after half, got a three and out then drove for a TD. Whole lot of made up worry over nothing.

It's not a "desperation play" to try to move the ball and get into field goal range with 43 seconds and three time-outs. Most coaches would take that chance.

 

[Lotta Booze]

I'm no expert on these stats but it looks at net success rate. According to this we didn't get beat that bad. Less badly than how Rutgers beat BC or how Syracuse beat Louisville.

 

[thebull35]

#81 probably had the worst game I’ve ever seen a tight end have. He was directly the cause of 1) Sims arm getting hit, leading to the pick, 2) dropping a key 3rd down conversion 3) That first blocked punt, and a host of other terrible mistakes that put us behind the 8-ball. If he and our Right tackle just had half the mistakes then we would have actually had an opportunity to keep the game exciting.

 

[GT33]

I was probably in the "crowd" of less than a thousand GT fans left in the stands when Clemson last scored. For a "home" game, we must have had a bunch of folks sell their tickets to Clemson fans. Lots of orange in the stadium last night.

Me & my party, too. I'm chapped again about the ticket allotments because I got booted from where I sat last year due to not enough points this year. Reason was we only "owned" half the lower bowl apparently. I stared at a nearly empty area in & around where we sat last year, Clemp fans didn't want to buy the expensive seats apparently. Damn, somebody should have figured that out and realloted the tickets to GT instead of leaving them completely empty. Instead they were empty and if not for a guy I sit next to at Bobby Dodd that couldn't go, I'd have been over on the 20.

 

[lv20gt]

It's not a "desperation play" to try to move the ball and get into field goal range with 43 seconds and three time-outs. Most coaches would take that chance.

Except we didn't have the ball. By the time we had the ball we'd have had ~35 seconds and 2 time outs to go 40 ish yards against one of, if not the, top defenses in the country, to get a low% attempt from an unproven kicker. We weren't scoring at the end of the half. Everyone and their mother knew it. It's risk for the sake of risk and it's stupid on top of it.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Me & my party, too. I'm chapped again about the ticket allotments because I got booted from where I sat last year due to not enough points this year. Reason was we only "owned" half the lower bowl apparently. I stared at a nearly empty area in & around where we sat last year, Clemp fans didn't want to buy the expensive seats apparently. Damn, somebody should have figured that out and realloted the tickets to GT instead of leaving them completely empty. Instead they were empty and if not for a guy I sit next to at Bobby Dodd that couldn't go, I'd have been over on the 20.

From what I was told, those lower bowl seats were certain Falcons PSL owners seats where events like this (CFA kickoff) were included in their PSL agreement, which is why they were empty. They were most likely mutt/SEC fans with no interest in the game.

 

[takethepoints]

The above covers most of the points I would have made. But there is one more.

During the first quarter I suddenly realized that all that talk about Patenaude quitting was a sham! We looked exactly the same! Get to third down: run the ball up the middle against the best DL in the conference or run a complicated route tree that put our QB under stress. First down: run it between the tackles. Second down: … well, you know the drill. Where, I asked myself, was the new, innovative O we were expecting?

Sims did show the results of better coaching for his position. Smith did ok for an RB who had to run right into DLs as soon as he got the ball. The front 7 on D played pretty well. But … the O was soooooo easy to figure out. And with no deception to speak of it comes down to athletes and experience. No joy there for Tech fans against this opponent.

 

[Ash]

During the first quarter I suddenly realized that all that talk about Patenaude quitting was a sham!

Not all of it. The play calling was uneven, but better than the vanilla script I have been watching for 3 seasons. I feel like adjustments were made, something that was hardly the case under the previous OC.

 

[WreckinGT]

Jeff Sims should have his own thread. His passing ability is remarkable compared to last year. Months ago I predicted 2 wins in 2022 now I'm thinking 5-6 as long as he stays healthy. Great credit to this young man first, then to the coaching staff.

His yards per attempt were the lowest in his career (4.6). He had an INT, two other passes that should have been INTs, and he had a fumble. Im not sure that is a remarkable improvement. That said it was against the best defense he is going to see this year. If he has improved significantly, it should show against Ole Miss.

 

[senoiajacket]

SPECIAL TEAMS- Final score would be better if those blocked punts hadn’t happened, special teams gotta do better. Though Jude Kelly looks better, made a FG and barely missed a 57 yarder.

I was not only disappointed in the two blocked punts (which I blame on the blocking and CGC did too in his presser), but what appeared to be lack of effort all around in special teams. When we did force Clemson to punt in the first half, they consistently had 4 guys down field surrounding out punt returner and we didn't have a single guy in the picture. I guess it could have been scheme, but it happened multiple times. Also, on extra point attempts (except 1) it looked like our guys had little to no effort in try to put pressure to get a block. Finally, in the 4th, I thought we might try and bring out one or two of their kick offs. They were 3-4 yds deep and what did we have to lose? I guess they are coached not to bring them out, but at that point, why not try??

OFFENSE- Jeff Sims arm looks a lot more accurate, his only real mistake was trying to hit the home run ball on that first play. Besides that he did well considering the defense he was up against. Play calling was mid but with a new OC it won’t click immediately. We won’t see what we really have at offense until the WCU game.

Well, disagree here. He threw into triple (or more) coverage at the goal line and I believe there was another play he threw into coverage. OTOH, the slant for the first down and the TD pass were things of beauty.

DEFENSE- oh boy oh boy oh boy. Maybe it’s because Clemson is trash at offense but our defense played probably the best I’ve seen under Collins.

Agreed. Nice to finally see a pass rush again. Frustrating when it was 17-10 and we had then 3rd and long and let them off on a Pass Interference and then on 3rd and 4 had guys all over their QB and couldn't get him on the ground before he made that miracle flip to shippley. That was just a really good play by him ....... but we had an opportunity to sack him and end the drive.

OVERALL- Teams looks more organized and disciplined. Coaching was wack but hey, we’d rather make those mistakes now against a team like Clemson so that we can play better in the games were supposed to be winning in. Team looks better, and hopefully we can fix the mistakes we made this week and take out our anger on WCU.

Ummm, the 6 illegal procedure penalties, 1 illegal substitution (by a veteran player) and the targeting not withstanding ..... yeah I guess we looked organized and disciplined.

 

[Knoxknight]

I guess somehow this makes Collins in game decisions better. Let's be clear, he made some highly questionable decisions, Clemson coaching staff even laughing at his calling timeout on the 4th down, that was an embarrassment to me as a Tech fan. I was pleased with the overall effort of the players; thought they were far more competitive than their hopefully soon to be gone coaches.

No, CGC's gotta own his decisions, but if any consolation (not much), Tech doesn't have a monopoly on bonehead logic! So THAT's why Dabo was shown snickering to close out the first half?!?

 

[jacketup]

The two blocked punts are unacceptable. Ten penalties is ridiculous.

The personnel decisions on the OL are puzzling. Is a RFr walk-on OG better than the two 4 stars, one of which has been in a major program 3 years and one in a major program 4 years? Is a transfer RFr tackle that didn't go through spring ball better than the two RFr we recruited and have been in the program for a year?

Key was the highest paid assistant the last 3 years by a good margin, but I haven't seen him earn it.