You can't pull out just one piece. The reason the safeties were able to stay back and have double coverage was because VL wasn't as good at running the option, so they didn't have to run support. Better option execution leads to not having an all out pass rush by the other team also. Pick your poison. If you spend all your time learning to pass block, you forget how to run block. If your offense is all passing, you can't control the clock late when you need to. If you run all the time, you can't come from behind late. Two types of teams are successful against you, the ones that are better than you physically and the ones that execute better than you. I think CPJ has a double edge strategy. He has done very well against the teams we are better than physically (I know, I know, Kansas and MTSU - I didn't say he was perfect). In 2008 & 2009, when we were physically better than the opposition, look what happened. But CPJ had to know that recruiting and maintaining that physical superiority was not in the cards. We couldn't do it after a MNC with Ray Goof at uga. Where CPJ has come up short is beating teams that we are physically inferior to but could beat thru better execution. His record against them (uga, VT, etc) is in line with previous head coaches, but for us to get better, this is where we have to do it. I know, DUH! The question is how to improve the execution other than by just recruiting better players.
Given the huge unknowns in latent ability and temperament in hormone addled 18 year olds, one strategy might be to quickly shed those players that you see will not be successful in your scheme regardless of how well they performed in high school. Just like in running a business, you are doing people no favor by keeping them in a job they cannot do. It ruins them and the organization. You move them to another position, or you help them find another employer where they can be successful, but you move them on. And you bring in new guys with different talents, and see how they perform. I give CPJ credit. I don't think I've ever despaired so much over Tech football as I did watching all the talent around Reggie Ball and Patrick Nix go to waste, and for four years Chan Gailey would not make the change. He did us nor Reggie any favors. CPJ does not do that. He is constantly moving players and coaches to different positions and different colleges. Maybe it's just clueless churning that keeps the players constantly confused, maybe it's the only thing keeping us above .500 in the ACC and in a bowl every year. There really are only two possible long term outcomes, the house of cards falls apart completely and we have to start over or the pieces come together and we begin a tremendous run of success.
We seem to be on the inflection point right now. So what else is new with Georgia Tech football. On the afternoon of October 7, 1989, I dragged myself into a half empty BDS for a game against Maryland. We had sucked against South Carolina the Saturday Night before. If I had met Bobby Ross on the street after that game as badly as we had played, I think I might have punched him. We were 0-3 on the year and riding a 16 game ACC losing streak. Lee Williamson, the big tall strong armed qb that Ross had recruited, was benched in favor of a redshirt freshman to start the season. We had had only one win of note (and 5 in total against mostly nobodies) in the previous 2+ years. Oddly enough that win was a shutout of #8 South Carolina with a Heisman hopeful qb the previous year. The only thing we had to look forward to was getting the season over and firing the head coach that we had stupidly hired after he was fired in a general house cleaning at Maryland. What did I know. If you don't like an up and down ride, get off the Tech merry-go-round.
