GT VT Post Game

[GTjunkie]

I haven’t read most of the thread but if it hadn’t been stated Buster has regressed as a play caller. He’s having an absolutely abysmal season calling plays. When I can sit on the couch and read his tendencies 80% of the time it’s not good..

He's been below average all year, regardless of who is the QB.

 

[GTjunkie]

Yep. We desperately needed a touchdown at that point and to run such a vanilla play that is not having much success tells me our play calling is way too conservative. Not sure if that falls on, Key or Faulkner, maybe both.

Probably Key, since he wants to "run da bawl"

 

[GT33]

Beginning to see what each of our coaches are about.

After the 8 games in 2022 plus last season, then bowl game and then fsu game, I was convinced Key was going to have well disciplined physical teams. No so sure anymore. Game management was always going to be a question mark. We're kinda like at Butch Jones, Scott Frost, Jeremy Pruitt levels where we've convinced ourselves we should be doing a lot better. We're definitely not Willie Taggart, Kevin Sumlin, Chad Morris bad. Feels like we're just languishing in that malaise range of numb dull pain kind of discontent where you don't know whether or not to take a sudafed, sleep it off or go to the damn walk-in clinic.

I'm hopeful they'll all grow into their jobs and earn a seat at the big boys table.

Does anyone know why we burned a timeout on their extra point attempt?

We were confused who was going to run the delay of game play after the PAT.

 

[Randy Carson]

View attachment 17073

No, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling.

At 5-4, we are EXACTLY where all the savants predicted we would be. Are we looking sharp, like a well-oiled machine? Of course not. That's why we are 5-4 and right where we were expected to be at this point in the season.

Going forward, we can expect a loss against Miami followed by a big win at home against NC State (to get bowl eligible) followed by another loss in Athens to end the regular season at 6-6. The outcome of the Lackluster Middling Bowl depends on who our opponent is, of course.

NEXT year, we need to stay on our upward trajectory by winning at least 7 games. After that, I'd really like to see us winning eight games as a floor consistently. That will depend on recruiting and who's calling the plays on both sides of the ball two years from now.

But for now, while recognizing that 5-7 is still possible, 6-6 is what I have been expecting for this season. That appears to be the likely outcome, IMO.

This observation:

We had more yards, more first downs and more time of possession.

We also had more turnovers (interceptions) and fewer points.

But it looks to me like if we had had a healthy Haynes King, we win this one rather handily.

 

[Ramble1885]

for those in need of a mood boost, shootyhoops returns in 11 days.

 

[iceeater1969]

This observation:

We had more yards, more first downs and more time of possession.

We also had more turnovers (interceptions) and fewer points.

But it looks to me like if we had had a healthy Haynes King, we win this one rather handily.

In what game and when did king injure his shoulder?
Wife says early in UNC cause he held arm.

Kelly at Rivals says he can tell kings been injured for a long time - because he can't throw accurate long balls. Duke he was 68% and UNC unc 50%.

Pyron (great on first drive but not good% ). Any idea if his arm injured?

Philo (45%) made some great throws to the fr wrs but didnt complete a high percent of short and long passes with good pass pro. I think philo sees the field

 

[AUFC]

for those in need of a mood boost, shootyhoops returns in 11 days.

Honestly I hate to say it but I had the same thought.

We are now 3-3 in conference and 5-4 overall.

• We have a fun day/evening at BDS against a Top 5 Miami team. Big 2015 Florida State vibes plus a Big Boi show at HBP beforehand. Should be genuinely a fun night.
• NCSU on a Thursday night under the skyline
• 20 sided dice roll chance to shock UGA in Athens

And if you win one or more of those, you get an invite to the 68 Ventures Bowl against Sam Houston State.

#PACKMCCAMISH

 

[tomknight]

I hate to do this, but if CPJ had these players with on O with a D performance like that we win by 2-3 scores.

That’s not an elite defense. It’s good, but nowhere near elite. We made them look like the 85 Bears. They didn’t do anything all that special. No crazy pressure. No disguised coverage. Just basic cover 2/3/4 that we couldn’t execute against. When Philo came in it looked like we had no confidence in his ability to throw.

We played without our best offensive and best defensive players, but our staff gave us basically zero chance with our offensive game plan. We went from playing in a phone booth to playing in a hallway. By the time we figured that out and put Philo in it was too late.

CPJ wouldn't have those players on O

 

[Thwg777]

for those in need of a mood boost, shootyhoops returns in 11 days.

I’m so old, I mistook this as the name of the musical act at our next football game.

 

[jgtengineer]

CPJ wouldn't have those players on O

I mean We have no idea what NIL would have done to our recruiting under CPJ. If you pay a kid 200k a year to run the option... that kid will run the option.

 

[iceeater1969]

I mean We have no idea what NIL would have done to our recruiting under CPJ. If you pay a kid 200k a year to run the option... that kid will run the option.

And at end of season, that will be a fun topic.

 

[awbuzz]

Philo and Singleton

 

[awbuzz]

Sylvain Yondjouen...

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

I haven’t read most of the thread but if it hadn’t been stated Buster has regressed as a play caller. He’s having an absolutely abysmal season calling plays. When I can sit on the couch and read his tendencies 80% of the time it’s not good..

I agree I dont get it. He did not call that TD play a single time today.

I dont know exactly what the problem is. Since we are running some different option plays a lot are we just picking the same option? But what ever it is, last year was exciting and kept people off balance. not so much this year

 

[yellajacket20]

Like someone said earlier, our first drive has looked significantly better than the rest of the game for several weeks now. A part of that may be the D playing more vanilla, trying to get a feel for what we are going to do. But at the same time, it seems like a plays are much more varied on the first drive and then we revert to run, run, screen as we attempt to catch them out of position for a big gain on one of those plays.

The defense played their hearts out. Height was in the backfield all game. Shelley is a sure handed tackler (maybe not punt returner). Gibbs and Butler looked good as well.

I would like to see Philo get the snaps next game. His feel for the pressure is much better than Pyron and he doesn't hesitate to throw the ball before the receiver is open, which has killed many plays this year...waiting that extra second after the receiver has broken free, allowing the D to get in position or limiting the ability to get some YAC.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

All the “defense looked good” comments…Yall realize VT has one of the worst offenses in the country right?

How many points and yards did they put up in their previous game? I’d say their offense came into the Tech game pretty hot.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

But you gotta admit, that was fun.

And…it turns out…our two biggest offensive threats have been trying to play hurt ever since. That win may have cost us the breakthrough season we hoped for.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I’m too lazy to look up the tackle eligible rules. I’m familiar with some of the earlier changes to the rule but don’t know what they are now. On the TD that VT scored throwing to the tackle position did the ref have to signal that the player was eligible or was this considered an unbalanced line?

Anyway, Efford probably would have spotted it and alerted the defense if he had been in but that was one of 2 TDs that VT scored on trick plays that our defense failed to read.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Alright, here are my thoughts:



So first off, we’ve all been speculating that King hasn’t been 100% almost all season. There were talks as early as the GSU game about how he hasn’t looked right. The same was said about Jamal Haynes at that time and eventually those things were confirmed after the fact(Key and Jamal Haynes saying he was 100% for the first time in awhile against Duke). They kept any nagging injuries quiet, but that didn’t fool the eye test. Something was clearly not right. This leads me to believe that it’s not farfetched that Key also did the same thing regarding King. No need to discuss nagging injuries, but there was no fooling our eyes; something wasn’t right. King has probably been injured most of the season. Jamal Haynes is probably once again injured. These things can not be overlooked when evaluating our season.



Having said that, a common sentiment on here was that one of the backups would be better than an injured King. I think these last two games can put that idea to rest. King’s leadership and playmaking ability is on a different level. This not a knock on the other guys. There is no harm in a backup simply being a backup. Philo may be more in the future, but as is, he’s still too inexperienced to start over an injured King unless King can not play at all. Our season really does hang on whether we get Haynes King back(and a healthy Jamal, for that matter). It’s also worth noting the HB room has been plagued with injuries all year, not to mention the loss of Seither. These impact the offense.



However, regardless of the injuries, Buster has been a bust this season(no pun intended). The offense has been stagnant, stale and completely predictable. The injuries certainly do not help, but there seems to have been a complete lack of adaptability to our new personnel who have filled in for injuries. For example, the OL has struggled and all of our running backs are banged up…why are we running it straight up the middle on every important short yardage situation? We don’t have an identity on offense and it seems that the one we are trying to build (power run) does not work with our current personnel, and yet we won’t deviate from the plan. We have a very similar personnel to last year and yet we have clearly regressed. This is alarming.



I suppose an optimistic look at the obvious regression is that it’s simply the result of the lethal combination of injuries and a sophomore slump. The ACC now has a whole season of tape of Buster’s Offense which, naturally could lead to a sophomore slump. Add the injuries and you get this season.



A pessimistic look at the regression sees this as more of the same of what Buster Faulkner was before he got that UGA shine as an analyst. A pessimistic look sees our offensive line continue to struggle and points to our head coach being the offensive line coach during the clown years.



The truth probably lies somewhere In between, but one can’t help but be worried about a potential lack of progress.



Regarding the defense, I believe we are seeing progress in Year one, but one can’t help but feel trepidation of getting too excited simply because of what’s happened on the other side of the ball. We already crowned a coordinator in his first year on the flats last year and were disappointed in year two. Fair or not, I see progress, but remain trepidatious.



Special teams has been discussed ad nauseam, but that’s clearly something that needs major improvement.



Overall, it’s been nine full seasons since we made back-to-back bowls. I know that doesn’t seem like a super exciting high, but that would be legitimate progress and something I feel we need to find a way to accomplish.

 

[Root4GT]

How many points and yards did they put up in their previous game? I’d say their offense came into the Tech game pretty hot.

Yards and time of possession are often not good yardsticks for how the game played out. Our defense played well for sure. Our offense never threatened to score a TD. That was fairly clear after the 1st drive on. VT smartly played very conservatively on offense as once they got their 2nd TD it was pretty clear only a huge mistake by their offense or STs would allow us to score. Our offense was really bad today regardless of yards gained or time of possession.