Look, a winning record is something to applaud, not complain abut. I thought we had settled all that when TFG was at Tech and all of a sudden the last four years of Paul's regime started to look a lot better. That Key could get Tech to a winning record with as inexperienced a team, with new coordinators on both sides of the line, and a difficult schedule is commendable. What the team needs is two more years of experience and some stability in the coaching staff. By then we might actually look like those UCF teams Key helped coach with George. As near as I can tell, that's what we're aiming for and that will deliver 7 - 8 wins regularly and better every no0w and again. That might mean we won't do much better next year; what we should be trying for is a team of redshirt juniors and seniors who know the systems on both sides of the ball and were recruited to meet their requirements. We don't have that yet. When we do and we stumble into a "mediocre season" I think everybody on this bioard will be gripping.
As to last night:
I didn't go to the game; I hurt my foot helping my son fix the exhaust vent for our dryer. (Btw … Success!) I watched it on tv.
a) By the third quarter I saw that we were getting the Paul treatment: the D had been on the field for some time and the Orange were wearing us out. Then the O came out and either punted or scored way too quickly. If I had one complaint about our OC it is that we do try to score quickly, a la Bama and Ugag; our D isn't up to the consequences of that yet. Maybe by next year.
b) We got good games out of Haynes - who has really improved over the year - and King. King still sometimes throws to where he thinks the WR should be instead of where he is. But he ran well last night and passed adequately. Haynes still can't create holes, but he has gotten to where he can exploit them when they appear. Smith came very close on a couple of runs too.
c) The OL did ok and nothing more. They've improved too, but only marginally. As someone said above they're average. That's a real achievement, hwoever.
d) The D was on the field way too much but obviously the DC had them ready for the new Orange O. If they had had Shrader we might have been in a heap off trouble; he can both run and pass effectively. But the D ready for what came at them and did well under real adversity Toward the end I was afraid that the death marches would collapse them, but they played pretty well when they were gassed
e) Finally, I want to commend the OC and his staff for waking up and deciding to use King in the run game more. That has made our ground game much more effective, imho. Maybe the coaches can get him to put on 10 - 15 pounds and we'll just see.
Soooo … congratulations to the Jackets for getting to 6 games and congratulations to the coaches for that extra month of practice.
