GT vs #17 Ole Miss GAME THREAD

[roadkill]

for some of us, would you please tell us what the connections are with players and coaches. Another AJC link that goes nowhere.

"...two head coaches who were once on the same staff (at Alabama)"
"Cornerback Zamari Walton, defensive end Jared Ivey, defensive tackle Akelo Stone and running back Jam (formerly Jamious) Griffin are all now Ole Miss Rebels...".
Sharing this since it is pretty much public info. For some reason, I'm now able to read their articles from my browser. Normally I can't see the paywalled ones.

 

[UgaBlows]

 

[UgaBlows]

Tres Harris III	LB	Ques Sat – Knee	Mon, Sep 11	Harris exited the last matchup with a knee injury, leaving his availability for Saturday’s clash versus Georgia Tech up in the air.
Hudson Wolfe	TE	Ques Sat – Shoulder	Mon, Sep 11	Wolfe was absent from the lineup during the previous game with a shoulder injury, and it remains to be seen if he will be in the lineup against Georgia Tech on Saturday.
Mark Trigg Jr.	LB	Ques Sat – Undisclosed	Mon, Sep 11	Trigg has been held out of the past two games with an unknown issue, and it is uncertain if he will take on Georgia Tech on Saturday.
Qua Davis	WR	Ques Sat – Undisclosed	Mon, Sep 11	Davis has sat out the previous two games due to an unspecified injury, and it is unknown whether he will take the field Saturday versus Georgia Tech.
Zakhari Franklin	WR	Ques Sat – Knee	Mon, Sep 11	Franklin missed his second-straight game due to a knee injury, and it is unclear if it will affect his availability for Saturday’s battle against Georgia Tech.
Caden Prieskorn	TE	Late Sept – Toe	Tue, Sep 12	Prieskorn is sidelined while recovering from toe surgery, and he is expected to remain out of the lineup for at least three weeks.
Jalen Knox	WR	Ques Sat – Undisclosed	Tue, Sep 12	Knox is battling an undefined injury, and it is up in the air if he will suit up for Saturday’s clash with Georgia Tech.

 

[LongforDodd]

"...two head coaches who were once on the same staff (at Alabama)"
"Cornerback Zamari Walton, defensive end Jared Ivey, defensive tackle Akelo Stone and running back Jam (formerly Jamious) Griffin are all now Ole Miss Rebels...".
Sharing this since it is pretty much public info. For some reason, I'm now able to read their articles from my browser. Normally I can't see the paywalled ones.

Thanks. what browser usually let's you get behind paywalls?

 

[ibeattetris]

FEI Game rankings (keep in mind, FEI ignores FCS games)
GT

Wk​

Opponent​

R​

Final​

NG Final​

GR​

Pct​

Rk​

OGR​

Pct​

Rk​

DGR​

Pct​

Rk​

SGR​

Pct​

Rk​

1​

Louisville​

L​

34-39​

34-39​

-.02​

.515​

96​

.63​

.788​

42​

-.27​

.404​

118​

.00​

.207​

157​

Ole Miss

Wk​

Opponent​

R​

Final​

NG Final​

GR​

Pct​

Rk​

OGR​

Pct​

Rk​

DGR​

Pct​

Rk​

SGR​

Pct​

Rk​

2​

Tulane​

W​

37-20​

37-20​

.86​

.854​

29​

.23​

.641​

71​

1.21​

.854​

29​

.25​

.854​

29​

Based on our performances this year, GT had a better performing offense, but a much worse defense.

Point per drive information:

Rk

Team

Rec

FBS

NPD

OPD

Rk

OLD

Rk

OMD

Rk

OSD

Rk

DPD

Rk

DLD

Rk

DMD

Rk

DSD

Rk

39​

Ole Miss

2-0​

1-0​

0.96​

2.5​

48​

3​

26​

2.33​

48​

3​

66​

1.54​

41​

0​

1​

1.43​

51​

2.5​

33​

77​

Georgia Tech

1-1​

0-1

-0.38​

2.62​

39​

0​

77​

3.78​

18​

0​

95​

3​

102​

0.75​

52​

4.29​

126​

3​

38​

With only one FBS game, this isn't important, but just thought I'd share it.

Points per play (FBS Only)

Team	Off	Rk	Def	Rk
GT	0.479​	35​	0.6​	118​
Ole Miss	0.552​	21​	0.233​	33​

Yards per play (FBS Only)

Team	Off	Rk	Def	Rk
GT	6.9​	14​	7.3​	124​
Ole Miss	5.4​	63​	4​	16​

I am hoping the defense slept walk through Louisville and will come fired up for Ole Miss. Offense just needs to do what they did against Louisville to give us a shot to win.

 

[roadkill]

Thanks. what browser usually let's you get behind paywalls?

Nothing special - Chrome is my go-to. Again, I don't think it's the browser as I still can't see articles from the NYT or other paywalled sources. And as far as I know, I haven't changed anything that would affect my access to the AJC. So it's a mystery. But if you want to see GT articles from the AJC, their phone app usually works.

 

[wesgt123]

I gotta say. I'm mostly worried about our defense and punt team.

We nearly had one blocked vs Louisville. I still clench my butt when we punt. Looking forward to that not being the case

 

[tmhunter52]

Do you see any similarities to the Pitt upset last year ... big, physical team with a good QB, well-coached ????

Away game. SEC opponent. Still a weak Tech defense with little to show in pass rush pressure. Really good Ole Miss QB who will likely deliver in the absence of a pass rush. Tech team still unsure how to win.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

How can you claim that? Tulane finished in the Top 25 last year and won its bowl game in impressive fashion. I agree that over the years there has been no comparison, but right now...I am not at all certain of that!

There are several metrics that anyone can use - recruiting rankings, talent metrics, etc. There's really no point in trying to argue that Tulane has better talent, because they don't. They get more out of their players because their coaching has been great. I think many people are unable to separate the coaching part of the equation when looking at performance. I believe Tulane has been well coached for several years - much better coaching than what we we've had. But that's only part of the equation. The talent part isn't even debatable IMO.

 

[jacket_fan]

Headed over to Oxford for the game. Will be interesting to go to a sold out game. Unfortunately, last week against SCS and all of the delays, the stadium was less than half full to my eye.

If Tech can get defensive backs to wrap when tackling the defense will perform better. Whether they can slow down Dart and company is the question. Maybe there is a "Thack attack" and we will see it this weekend.

I am cautiously optimistic Tech can beat the spread. But this is certainly a better team than last year.

 

[slugboy]

We keep revisiting this topic (Tulane vs. GT talent) for some reason.



As far as I can tell, 247 does not rerank players when compiling the talent composite. However, they have a separate ranking for transfers that does reevaluate players.
Overall Team Talent: GT: 36, Tulane: 71.
Transfer Talent: GT: 43, Tulane: 82
These are only one system's metric for talent, but I think in aggregate it does as good a job as any. I think the question has been answered.
By the way, Ole Miss Composite Talent stands at 23. Solid, but not elite.

I have a lot of problems with the talent composite, but they definitely re-rate transfers in that metric. They use the transfer rating and not the high school rating. They have both numbers, and they have a database—it’s simple for them to use the “transfer” rating. Recruiting services have adapted to the portal

If the talent composite was predictive of how teams would play, we’d have gone bowling reliably under Collins. That magic number said we were top half—if not top third of the ACC—and that should have been enough

It’s silly that the recruiting services can rate a player to two decimal places. How do you even compare a NT to a WR with one number, and what does it even mean?

There are other ways you can look at it though. If you compare the heights and weights of our linemen against Pitt or Ole Miss or P5 schools, they’re about the same heights and weights. We’re not trotting out 260 lb tackles against 320 lb opponents. It’s other things—they’re not playing as fast, they’re missing blocks, they’re not executing. They’re still a lot better than they were two years ago.

The receivers are good enough, and they aren’t taking plays off. The RBs are good enough.

on defense, players aren’t shedding blocks, and they’re not wrapping up. It’s the kind of stuff that drives you nuts watching game film.

But, back to the question of our talent vs Tulane’s:
Overall, if you let our coaches swap players from our roster for players from Tulane’s, how many players would they swap? More importantly, how many starters would they swap? Which ones?

My gut feel is, a few players, but not that many. Their center? A DT? An EDGE?
Maybe 3 or 4 players?

 

[yeti92]

I have a lot of problems with the talent composite, but they definitely re-rate transfers in that metric. They use the transfer rating and not the high school rating. They have both numbers, and they have a database—it’s simple for them to use the “transfer” rating. Recruiting services have adapted to the portal

Do they? I thought so too, but when they list out how many 5/4/3 star players each team has on the talent composite, that is based on their original high school ranking. For example, almost all of SMU's 4 and 5 star talent shown on the main talent composite page are transfers who's rating dropped to 3 stars (or to 4 stars for the one 5 star) as a transfer - it looks like they actually have 6 guys on their roster who are currently rated a 4 star, either after transferring or because they committed to SMU as 4 stars out of high school and haven't transferred.

 

[iceeater1969]

There are several metrics that anyone can use - recruiting rankings, talent metrics, etc. There's really no point in trying to argue that Tulane has better talent, because they don't. They get more out of their players because their coaching has been great. I think many people are unable to separate the coaching part of the equation when looking at performance. I believe Tulane has been well coached for several years - much better coaching than what we we've had. But that's only part of the equation. The talent part isn't even debatable IMO.

I think age matters too. Our lads keeps pretty good track of age to two deep on offense and defense.
Tulane has a significantly
more sr , rs jr, rs sr 2 deep than gt.
Ol miss offense (1&2) is also significantly more mature. Thier defense is way way more mature w very very few undeclassmen. Those that are underclassmen are stars.



Our offense is doing pretty well and shows some speed and qb / wr abilities.
Also ol has shown some spark.

Ole miss is about 1.5 years older than gt and about .75 years older than Tulane. Hope that helps your discussion.

Our oc is my focus- not expecting perfection against sr s , but plays that sometimes bring a suprise.

Imo, kiffin is all in to best Ala and hope to get an offer when sabin leaves.

 

[roadkill]

Do they? I thought so too, but when they list out how many 5/4/3 star players each team has on the talent composite, that is based on their original high school ranking. For example, almost all of SMU's 4 and 5 star talent shown on the main talent composite page are transfers who's rating dropped to 3 stars (or to 4 stars for the one 5 star) as a transfer - it looks like they actually have 6 guys on their roster who are currently rated a 4 star, either after transferring or because they committed to SMU as 4 stars out of high school and haven't transferred.

That is why I concluded that they used the original recruit rankings for their composite. If @slugboy has evidence to the contrary, great. It doesn't change the point that, by the metric used by the rating service, we have significantly more "talent" than Tulane and not much less than Ole Miss. By no means am I saying that we should use that metric alone as a way to gauge if our team should play better against Ole Miss than Tulane did. I was simply rebutting the statement that our talent is "nowhere near" Tulane's.
I suspect there may be a bit of semantic confusion going on to the extent that for some fans, "talent" can be a proxy for overall player ability, which over time includes coaching and experience. I was using the definition that the recruiting services use. Despite this, the original poster I replied to mentioned that we need to develop our underwhelming D and recruit better due to a presumed lack of talent.

 

[UgaBlows]

I think age matters too. Our lads keeps pretty good track of age to two deep on offense and defense.
Tulane has a significantly
more sr , rs jr, rs sr 2 deep than gt.
Ol miss offense (1&2) is also significantly more mature. Thier defense is way way more mature w very very few undeclassmen. Those that are underclassmen are stars.



Our offense is doing pretty well and shows some speed and qb / wr abilities.
Also ol has shown some spark.

Ole miss is about 1.5 years older than gt and about .75 years older than Tulane. Hope that helps your discussion.

Our oc is my focus- not expecting perfection against sr s , but plays that sometimes bring a suprise.

Imo, kiffin is all in to best Ala and hope to get an offer when sabin leaves.

I agree that Kiffin is angling for the Bama job

 

[MWBATL]

I agree that Kiffin is angling for the Bama job

I know some Bama fans who hope he is the one to replace Saban when he ultimately retires....

 

[bke1984]

Interesting question I’d like to pose - what do you guys think the perception and line would look like had Stewart made his FG and King led us to a TD two weeks ago instead of a miss and a fumble? We likely win that game in that scenario and generate a ton of buzz. Are we still 20 point underdogs? I’m guessing more like 10-13

 

[bobongo]

Interesting question I’d like to pose - what do you guys think the perception and line would look like had Stewart made his FG and King led us to a TD two weeks ago instead of a miss and a fumble? We likely win that game in that scenario and generate a ton of buzz. Are we still 20 point underdogs? I’m guessing more like 10-13

I'd say 13-14 would be the spread had the Jackets beaten Louisville. And our perceptions and our hopes for this game would be much rosier. By the way, the spread is down to 18 now.

 

[senoiajacket]

In my opinion, the defense looks like they are much better coached than they have been in previous years. They aren't looking to the sideline for the defensive play call while the ball is snapped. The CBs and safeties appear to be working the same coverage instead of totally different coverages like the previous years. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is a very low bar to clear. Basically you are saying they don't look completely incompetent this year. I guess its a glass half full/half empty scenario. Personally I expected us to struggle on D as we lost our top 3 defensive players from last year by a long shot. I can't convince myself that the struggles won't continue Saturday against an O that is vastly superior to what we have seen to date.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

This is a very low bar to clear.

Yet it's taken us four years to clear it...