GT (-3.5) at USF

[AE 87]

Welcome @TheBullsFan and @bullsbucsfan426

Watched y'alls game vs Elon. Your QB was indeed dropping dimes to a fast talented WR.

The scouting report is that he buckles under pressure as the reason he lost his starting position at Bama. It will be interesting to see if that holds.

I think we're both hoping for big improvement from game 1 to game 2, us on O and y'all on D, and we're both hoping the good translates from weaker competition to better, us on D and y'all on O.

 

[bobongo]

Cooper is out for the USF game

Bad news. Is Curry okay?

 

[lv20gt]

Not so fast... Thats what the Gamecocks and TT thought. If our Defense can play assignment football the Bulls should win. I know I'm not going to convince you of this and you'll probably reject my reality and substitute your own.

What about WKU? . Anyways, can USF win? Absolutely. Anyone who watched GT last year knows that we have trouble putting teams away, have a weak passing game, and poor special teams. We have enough weaknesses to lose to anyone, and enough big play potential to blow you out. It's not a matter of what will happen, but rather what should. We should be able to run the ball down the middle and eliminate the "assignment football" defense. That would allow us to control the clock, the tempo, and likely the score. If what we have heard about our OL is true, which hasn't been proven yet, then it shouldn't really come down to how well we can run the option. But what should happen and what could, or will, happen are two different things.

 

[Cam]

Your point is noted. I'll observe here that in 2016, when our defense was absolutely atrocious and had just been run on for 300 yards at Temple, we came out and knocked Navy out of the game in the first quarter (it was 28-0). They did come back to lose by 7 (final TD as time expired), but the game was never really in doubt and they had to throw their way back into even having a remote chance.

GT will of course be a challenge, the triple option is always a challenge and winning an FCS game tells you almost nothing about a team. My guess is that it was a significant point of preparation in camp, but the D-line will need to have a very good day. The point someone else was making about running the b-back up the middle is probably what GT will target as we have young, undersized DTs.

Blake Barnett was a welcome relief-he looked confident and poised in the pocket, so as long as he has time to spare I think he will play well against GT. You did well against Alcorn State, but the question for me is that completion percentage-they had no YPA, but they had to be doing something right to complete 15 of 23 passes.

Lastly, are you concerned at all about losing three turnovers? Or will it get cleaned up this week?

I just checked out that USF vs. Navy game and saw some pretty gaudy stats. Navy had 299 yards passing and 317 yards rushing? Holy offensive balance, Batman! It's crazy you guys won that game and barely edged them out at 626 total yards of offense. I might have to watch that game sometime.

With that out of the way, I don't think Charlie Strong or your DC have any experience with stopping the flexbone and that may be your downfall. We are 10-0 in the last 10 seasons against rotating ACC Atlantic opponents because of the advantage its uniqueness gives us. Paul Johnson has seen pretty much every defensive front you can give him, but your team hasn't seen what our offense can bring. It's just an experience mismatch. What generally knocks us down offensively when we face uncommon opponent is when they have an elite linebacker (2012 and 2013 BYU's Kyle Van Noy and 2015 Notre Dame's Jaylon Smith). If you got one of those guys stored away, it could be ugly for us (especially with rain).

I think your best bet is to try to win in a shootout. Ordinarily I'd say you'd have no problem putting points up against us, but I'm feeling weirdly optimistic about our defense with what Nate Woody put together on Saturday. Echoing what you said though, performance against an FCS team is really difficult to gauge. If your kicking is anywhere around average, you could possibly beat us just by matching our touchdown total and making your extra points.

For the last question, turnovers are always going to be a concern. First one was a bad fumble, second was a weird overthrown ball where the receiver fell (got pushed?) down, and the third was the backup QB pitching to a third string RB who bobbled the ball. The first one is inexcusable, but I am willing to give a pass on the other two as first game jitters. Overall, I think our strengths just match up a little too well to your weaknesses. But we'll see on Saturday!

 

[GTJason]

Last time we played a game in Raymond James worked out really well for us.

 

[techfan4]

With that out of the way, I don't think Charlie Strong or your DC have any experience with stopping the flexbone and that may be your downfall. We are 10-0 in the last 10 seasons against rotating ACC Atlantic opponents because of the advantage its uniqueness gives us. Paul Johnson has seen pretty much every defensive front you can give him, but your team hasn't seen what our offense can bring. It's just an experience mismatch. What generally knocks us down offensively when we face uncommon opponent is when they have an elite linebacker (2012 and 2013 BYU's Kyle Van Noy and 2015 Notre Dame's Jaylon Smith). If you got one of those guys stored away, it could be ugly for us (especially with rain).

Well actually... their DC coached every single day against the most talented flexbone offense CPJ has ever had — 2009 Georgia Tech. Their DC is Brian Jean-Mary.

 

[tech_wreck47]

Saw a fan of USF say they will hang 40 and don’t think we can hand with them...... said that after watching us this past Saturday.

 

[Cam]

Well actually... their DC coached every single day against the most talented flexbone offense CPJ has ever had — 2009 Georgia Tech. Their DC is Brian Jean-Mary.

Ah, well that will do it. I thought I recognized his name when I looked him up, but I couldn't find a bio anywhere (now just found one on the Texas site). Well, we'll see what he remembers!

 

[TheBullsFan]

USF has been good the past few years because of their dynamic Lamar-Jackson-like Quarterback Quinton Flowers, but he’s a Cincinnati Bengal now. Charlie Strong or not, they’re back to their same old middle-of-the-AAC selves.

ESPN doesn’t even give them much of a chance. Not to be overconfident but I’m traveling to Tampa and expecting the Ramblin Wreck to roll!

ESPN has a 71% chance to be wrong. Will see Saturday how it plays out.

 

[boger2337]

ESPN has a 71% chance to be wrong. Will see Saturday how it plays out.

In all honesty ESPN is a joke. This game is a toss up, as the miami, VT, and sadly the duke game will be.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

How can we be favorites?!?!?! Our defense hasn’t improved, TaQuon has gotten worse, our ST’s stink, CPJ doesn’t know how to recruit and alienates the players and fan base, and our fan base is too old? (there, did I cover everything from the past 24 hours of postings?).

Seriously, I think this shows Vegas thinks more highly of our team than some of our fans do. I hope that spread turns out to be significantly too low.

Actually it shows how much the gamblers think of our team. Tech fans are too frugal to bet so Vegas has to sweeten the spread to get those bets on Tech. Rabid fan bases like Clem, mutts, and Bama sway spreads for their teams be they favored or dogs.

Can’t blame gamblers too much for not buying in due to our inconsistency in W/Ls every year.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Alcorn or not I feel better about our D this year. Still worried about a lack of legit every down pass rush. We have a lot more depth this year in the front 7 and guys are moving well sideline to sideline. The secondary is young but it’s our most physically gifted in quite a while. USF will be a great test for those younguns.

USF lost some legit talent off their DL last year. I expected to see them suffer accordingly there. But Strong is a good coach and praised their Dline as a team strength. Problem for them is our Oline is ours.

I’m pretty confident we get the W.

 

[684Bee]

[QUOTE="

USF lost some legit talent off their DL last year. I expected to see them suffer accordingly there. But Strong is a good coach and praised their Dline as a team strength. Problem for them is our Oline is ours.

I’m pretty confident we get the W.[/QUOTE]

I think the Oline CAN be our strength, but I don’t think they are yet.

 

[MWBATL]

Not so fast... Thats what the Gamecocks and TT thought. If our Defense can play assignment football the Bulls should win. I know I'm not going to convince you of this and you'll probably reject my reality and substitute your own.

Honestly, I think the outcome totally depends on how our offense performs. We must have a ton of improvement over our opening game performance to beat USF. We had too many mistakes, missed assignments and turnovers (not to mention poor passes) to compete effectively. if we play that way (and the way we played in the 2nd half of last season) you will beat us.

I think your O will move the ball and score some points on our defense. We have a young secondary, and Alcorn missed some open receivers in addition to not really trying to throw it deep on us. Our front 7 is probably better but we are decent, not great defensively as we are all still learning a new system.

I think honestly it comes down to how our QB plays. If he makes the right reads and throws the ball accurately, I think we can beat you. If he doesn't, I think you will win. I believe you can count on getting two turnovers from us.

Hoping I am wrong and we are better than I think.....

 

[MikeJackets1967]

Saw a fan of USF say they will hang 40 and don’t think we can hand with them...... said that after watching us this past Saturday.

They will get an education on Saturday. They sound like a bunch of Miami or FSU wannabes.

 

[Buzzbomb]

I have a feeling GT throws the ball less than 5 times, controls the clock, wins by 10.

 

[684Bee]

I have a feeling GT throws the ball less than 5 times, controls the clock, wins by 10.

We are best when we throw less

 

[stech81]

Saw a fan of USF say they will hang 40 and don’t think we can hand with them...... said that after watching us this past Saturday.

Question here I know how to look for a uga fan they would be in Walmart, how can I tell who is a USF fan when I see one .

 

[RyanS12]

Line down to 2.5 now. If we can hold on to the ball and not turn it over we should be good. Pound it down their throats and wear their D out in that heat as well as keeping our young, inexperienced D fresh and off the field will help big time! This game will tell us a lot. Come out flat and we could get rolled. That could be a bad sign for the season. If they can’t get up for a big road game then we’re in trouble. I expect a tough week of practice since PJ was not pleased. I think we see a locked in team this week that’s ready to make up for last years road woes.

 

[bullsbucsfan426]

I just checked out that USF vs. Navy game and saw some pretty gaudy stats. Navy had 299 yards passing and 317 yards rushing? Holy offensive balance, Batman! It's crazy you guys won that game and barely edged them out at 626 total yards of offense. I might have to watch that game sometime.

With that out of the way, I don't think Charlie Strong or your DC have any experience with stopping the flexbone and that may be your downfall. We are 10-0 in the last 10 seasons against rotating ACC Atlantic opponents because of the advantage its uniqueness gives us. Paul Johnson has seen pretty much every defensive front you can give him, but your team hasn't seen what our offense can bring. It's just an experience mismatch. What generally knocks us down offensively when we face uncommon opponent is when they have an elite linebacker (2012 and 2013 BYU's Kyle Van Noy and 2015 Notre Dame's Jaylon Smith). If you got one of those guys stored away, it could be ugly for us (especially with rain).

I think your best bet is to try to win in a shootout. Ordinarily I'd say you'd have no problem putting points up against us, but I'm feeling weirdly optimistic about our defense with what Nate Woody put together on Saturday. Echoing what you said though, performance against an FCS team is really difficult to gauge. If your kicking is anywhere around average, you could possibly beat us just by matching our touchdown total and making your extra points.

For the last question, turnovers are always going to be a concern. First one was a bad fumble, second was a weird overthrown ball where the receiver fell (got pushed?) down, and the third was the backup QB pitching to a third string RB who bobbled the ball. The first one is inexcusable, but I am willing to give a pass on the other two as first game jitters. Overall, I think our strengths just match up a little too well to your weaknesses. But we'll see on Saturday!

The navy game REALLY wasn't an edge out. We were up 42-14 at half time despite our typically crap defense that year (I'll add that there was a fumble while driving in the red zone just before the half). Yeah, Navy came back, but their last TD came with no time left on the clock. Fine, you give it to them because they got it, but with 30 seconds left we had a 2 TD lead. You're not losing from that position.

The experience factor is an issue and if it was Deadrin Senat lining up at DT, I'd be more confident. We've got some LBs, but it all comes down to how the front 7 play.

I'm wondering about your defense given how many passes the FCS QB missed. I haven't had a chance to see the game, just heard secondhand that he missed open guys, so if that's what was happening, Blake Barnett will make those throws, and quite frankly, Tyre McCants, Randall St. Felix, and Darnell Salomon are quite a bit better than Alcorn State's WR Corps.

Fair enough on the turnovers. This defense goes after them heavily. Let's see how that works out, there won't be many opportunities for INTs against a triple option so it's all about tackling and keeping GT behind the chains.