Here's a thought

[Techfan02]

Unless they changed their minds from when this article appeared, Pittsburg's entire starting offensive line returns this year:

Pitt’s Starting Offensive Line Will Return in 2022

More good news for the Pitt football program: A day after landing much sought after transfer quarterback Kedon Slovis, the program received some equally as important news. Four members of Pitt’s starting offensive line announced at the same time on Twitter that they’d be returning for the 2022...

pittsburghsportsnow.com

My thing with pitt is loosing their best skill position players they do get that kid from usc but I think that will keep their head above water

 

[bobongo]

My thing with pitt is loosing their best skill position players they do get that kid from usc but I think that will keep their head above water

They'll have to clamp in some replacements at the "skill" positions, but returning that entire solid OL is priceless.

 

[cthenrys]

Lane Kiffin can coach offenses. He's actually grown as a head coach. For all the grief he's been given, he's only had one losing season as a college HC....his second year at Florida Atlantic of all places.

I don't think Kiffin wins 10 games at Ole Miss again next year (SEC West is gonna be BRUTAL), but Kiffin is gonna do what Kiffin does: Put out an exciting offense that churns out big numbers, and cross his fingers on defense.

Kiffin can make the best defenses look foolish. His first season at Ole Miss, when they went 5-5, he put up 48 points against #2 Bama, 35 points in the first game against #5 Florida,

I really hope our defense shows up against Ole Miss. If not, it will get UGLY.

They almost certainly have better talent than we do, and their HC is undeniably better. We've added new assistants who may help but this will be game #3. What's the line now - 9.5 ?

 

[gt69hjcollins]

I think we can all agree that our major problems last year were:
Poor execution bordering on rebellion in the defensive backfield.
Poor game management.
A predictable and ineffective offense.
An ineffective defense.
If we see substantial improvement in those areas and indication of additional future success I would predict 5-6 wins with CGC retained. If all three areas are not improved but the offense and play calling improves significantly I predict Long will be the interim coach at the end of the year.

 

[Techster]

I'll leave this here since there's no need to start a new thread. Hopefully Long will make a measurable impact on our offense, especially the passing game. Will a schematic impact overcome the loss of Gibbs? We'll see:

 

[Oakland]

I think we can all agree that our major problems last year were:
Poor execution bordering on rebellion in the defensive backfield.
Poor game management.
A predictable and ineffective offense.
An ineffective defense.
If we see substantial improvement in those areas and indication of additional future success I would predict 5-6 wins with CGC retained. If all three areas are not improved but the offense and play calling improves significantly I predict Long will be the interim coach at the end of the year.

I agree with this. However, I think Key would be the interim coach based on his title. If Long comes on like gangbusters, this season might be his tryout for head football coach. Now I say that not knowing much more about his background from Notre Dame and Tulane. He was in the running for the Frank Broyles award while at ND and they play good football. Tulane and Tech were both pretty bad last year. Not impressed with Key.

 

[Pointer]

I'd love to see people stop saying 5-6 wins are enough to retain CGC.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

sensing a lot of confirmation bias here. not everyone is getting insane NIL money. there is still talent out there to recruit and if anything it’s gonna be more important now.

unfortunately in college football as we saw at the end of johnson’s tenure x’s and o’s only gets you so far. we haven’t really played a competitive game with clemson in years and after kirby’s first year it kinda became clear the physicality and talent gap was far too great for an option team to ever see success against them. to play with the big boys you gotta at least attempt to match them on size and speed. like it or not uga and clemson aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

obviously collins is far too deficient at x’s and o’s and to see success would need a great coordinator staff, but whoever we bring in needs to be a recruiter first and foremost if we want to at least make an attempt to not have 2 guaranteed losses in the schedule

Agree to disagree.

We will get "some diamonds in the rough" for sure, as we have done off and on for years (see Shaq Mason). But, the recruiting agencies/teams don't miss on as many players these days, so the number out there to get may be reduced going forward. It has definitely been reduced since the 1990's, for example. If our "diamonds in the rough" show out, they will be cherry picked by the teams that have big NIL available. That is how it will be going forward. As I stated, if we get fortunate to have a decent year (7-8 wins), it will be because a great coach (and staff) have recruited and coached up enough "Under the radar" guys who are playing as freshmen or sophs. This is MY opinion. You are welcome to yours. I haven't discontinued reading your posts, although in general, as you know, we disagree vehemently on most things related to GT football.

 

[augustabuzz]

There probably isn't a number of games that would have gotten CPJ fired after 2017. He had enough good will built up from the 2014 and 2016 seasons to survive pretty much anything. He actually got an extension after 2017 even after a mediocre year by our former standards. The key theme there is good will. Beat UGA twice, win an Orange Bowl and win 23 games the previous 3 seasons and you get a little more leeway than if you didn't do any of those things and only won 9 games.

You forgot his win at UGa in 2008.

 

[JacketFan137]

I'd love to see people stop saying 5-6 wins are enough to retain CGC.

no one is saying they want that to be the case in this thread. i think they all believe that is just the realistic answer. 5 or 6 wins will probably be enough to maintain the job if out of the games against clemson uga and ole miss they are competitive and maybe one of them is a W.

if that is the case then it would be a real conversation whether to keep him or move on. whether that is the right call or not would probably depend on our other options, but it would not be as cut and dry as you probably want it to be.

 

[g0lftime]

My thing with pitt is loosing their best skill position players they do get that kid from usc but I think that will keep their head above water

Losing their OC, Whipple, may be their biggest loss besides Pickett.

 

[JacketFan137]

Agree to disagree.

We will get "some diamonds in the rough" for sure, as we have done off and on for years (see Shaq Mason). But, the recruiting agencies/teams don't miss on as many players these days, so the number out there to get may be reduced going forward. It has definitely been reduced since the 1990's, for example. If our "diamonds in the rough" show out, they will be cherry picked by the teams that have big NIL available. That is how it will be going forward. As I stated, if we get fortunate to have a decent year (7-8 wins), it will be because a great coach (and staff) have recruited and coached up enough "Under the radar" guys who are playing as freshmen or sophs. This is MY opinion. You are welcome to yours. I haven't discontinued reading your posts, although in general, as you know, we disagree vehemently on most things related to GT football.

what you’ve said here makes absolutely zero sense and i really don’t know what point you’re trying to make. there is no magical scheme that is gonna make lesser talent trump massive talent gaps anymore, especially with our two biggest rivals being clemson and uga. our only real path to turning those games into actual competitive matchups is recruiting at a high level and getting guys in that can attempt to play with their speed and physicality. recruiting is the priority bottom line

if guys leave for NIL money then that just means the goal should be to recruit good replacements to take their spot. it should always be the focus of the hiring process

 

[Lotta Booze]

I'll leave this here since there's no need to start a new thread. Hopefully Long will make a measurable impact on our offense, especially the passing game. Will a schematic impact overcome the loss of Gibbs? We'll see:

This is what I'm most interested to see, any improvement on passing game/scheme and if that can offset the talent of Gibbs. And improvement on defense would be nice too. And Special Teams while we're at it

The tweet above the one on GT is something that gives me more hope in the first game than I think others have. I see some posts assuming Clemson by quite a bit the first game and maybe it's my gold colored glasses talking but I feel better about Clemson than I do about Ole Miss. I don't know the details on returning production and all that but we played Clemson pretty durn close in their house with Yates as QB last year and I don't really see much of a reason for their offense to take off this year. Maybe if the true frosh star QB breaks out but I'd be surprised if he did so Game 1

I'm also interested to see how Clemson moves forward this year with them losing Venables and Elliott and Dabo promoting from within. I don't doubt their defense will still be one of the best in the country but I'm curious to see if the Clemson system keeps chugging along while losing those coaches.

Throw in some potential Mercedes Magic like we had last year against UNC and maybe we start off the year with an upset. Here's to hoping.

 

[stech81]

I'd love to see people stop saying 5-6 wins are enough to retain CGC.

Unless one of them is our AD it really doesn't matter how they feel or any of us.

 

[JacketFan137]

This is what I'm most interested to see, any improvement on passing game/scheme and if that can offset the talent of Gibbs. And improvement on defense would be nice too. And Special Teams while we're at it

The tweet above the one on GT is something that gives me more hope in the first game than I think others have. I see some posts assuming Clemson by quite a bit the first game and maybe it's my gold colored glasses talking but I feel better about Clemson than I do about Ole Miss. I don't know the details on returning production and all that but we played Clemson pretty durn close in their house with Yates as QB last year and I don't really see much of a reason for their offense to take off this year. Maybe if the true frosh star QB breaks out but I'd be surprised if he did so Game 1

I'm also interested to see how Clemson moves forward this year with them losing Venables and Elliott and Dabo promoting from within. I don't doubt their defense will still be one of the best in the country but I'm curious to see if the Clemson system keeps chugging along while losing those coaches.

Throw in some potential Mercedes Magic like we had last year against UNC and maybe we start off the year with an upset. Here's to hoping.

they do have a new oc. tony elliot was terrible last year (thankfully dodged that bullet in the hiring process even though we took another to the dome lol) so clemson might be better. that being said this clemson team doesn’t have the standouts at the skill positions they’ve had in the past. they were honestly one of the only teams not to dominate us over the top. i don’t think they are the impossible mountain to climb we just need some actual qb play against them and we probably win last year. if the new offense and line can be marginally better that’s winnable

 

[Lotta Booze]

they do have a new oc. tony elliot was terrible last year (thankfully dodged that bullet in the hiring process even though we took another to the dome lol) so clemson might be better. that being said this clemson team doesn’t have the standouts at the skill positions they’ve had in the past. they were honestly one of the only teams not to dominate us over the top. i don’t think they are the impossible mountain to climb we just need some actual qb play against them and we probably win last year. if the new offense and line can be marginally better that’s winnable

Yeah, their new OC is the QB coach from last year who was working under Elliott and Scott in previous years. He hasn't called plays in several years from what I can tell. He could be an improvement....or not. Elliott is certainly responsible for the awful offense they had last year but people thought he was great calling plays on the way to the National Championship. New OC was the QB coach and they did not get great QB play last year. Who knows what we'll see

 

[g0lftime]

Who will call plays for us? Will it be Long? Who will be in the booth if not him.

 

[WreckinGT]

This is what I'm most interested to see, any improvement on passing game/scheme and if that can offset the talent of Gibbs. And improvement on defense would be nice too. And Special Teams while we're at it

The tweet above the one on GT is something that gives me more hope in the first game than I think others have. I see some posts assuming Clemson by quite a bit the first game and maybe it's my gold colored glasses talking but I feel better about Clemson than I do about Ole Miss. I don't know the details on returning production and all that but we played Clemson pretty durn close in their house with Yates as QB last year and I don't really see much of a reason for their offense to take off this year. Maybe if the true frosh star QB breaks out but I'd be surprised if he did so Game 1

I'm also interested to see how Clemson moves forward this year with them losing Venables and Elliott and Dabo promoting from within. I don't doubt their defense will still be one of the best in the country but I'm curious to see if the Clemson system keeps chugging along while losing those coaches.

Throw in some potential Mercedes Magic like we had last year against UNC and maybe we start off the year with an upset. Here's to hoping.

Clemson scored 30+ points in 5 of their last 6 games last year even with poor QB play. We will likely have to hold them to single digits to even have a chance.

 

[JacketFan137]

Clemson scored 30+ points in 5 of their last 6 games last year even with poor QB play. We will likely have to hold them to single digits to even have a chance.

yeah we might not score 4 touchdowns all season. in fact we should just quit football all together.

 

[WreckinGT]

yeah we might not score 4 touchdowns all season. in fact we should just quit football all together.

How many points do you think we are going to score against Clemson?