Jimmy's and Joe's

[AlabamaBuzz]

Our A-back recruiting and WR recruiting must get better. (and of course, our DL and LB recruiting goes without saying) What I mean by this is that we should be able to get some guys with speed AND size. Little guys are going to have more difficulty playing physical and getting the blocks and breaking tackles. Also, ultimately, we need a QB that is elusive, which we have I agree, but would it not be nice to have one with some size to get 1 yard when you need a push? There are 205 lb. QBs with decent speed that can get a yard after contact. Right now, for us to compete, we either need a defense with NO clue or PERFECT execution, and that is very frustrating.

 

[TechTravis]

If a guy has feature back size why would he come to GT to play a-back?

 

[jason72]

Same reason they go to auburn or any of the other schools that run the read option really doesn't seen to be that different to me. But our offense starts with the b-back and if that is no threat it will not work. And this is the first year where that is a position of weakness. Not saying the guys are not good but they have no experience and I think it is needed as much or more that any other position on the team.

 

[Bogey]

I was very, very concerned when Johnson was hired. I did not believe that anyone could win in modern college football without balance.

I no longer believe that to be true. Johnson's offense will work in modern football.

However, like every offense, you need talent. You can't fool talented and well coached defenses.

Johnson has never coached in a major conference until the GT gig. What he has not done well is recruit. I don't think he likes recruiting, and he does not have a salesman's personality. He doesn't seem to understand the importance of recruiting at this level of football. He seems to think that he can use his scheme and his brilliance to overcome the talent deficiency. Even if true, there are limits, and we have seen those limits the last 2 weeks.

Johnson's best back to back years were his first 2--with Gailey's talent. Roof and Pelton are bringing in better talent, but that's not helping this year. Johnson is not and will not become a great recruiter.

Johnson is now 4 games over .500 for the past 5 1/3 years against FBS competition. Very mediocre.

Just like his recruiting rankings.

After sitting thru the Iowa Orange bowl, I too thought this offense had no chance with winning against a team with good coaching and enough talent to execute the game plan. After last season, I changed my mind. I do think it can win big but it requires talent and PJ's talent and attitude towards recruiting limits our ability to recruit enough talented offensive players to make us as good as we should be.

 

[Declinometer]

Maybe it's the uniforms. Maybe it's my familiarity with the Tech players. But it seams in the last two games the LBs and DBs seemed much bigger and physically mature than our players.

 

[orange14]

Of all of the things to hang around CPJ's neck, the lack of A Backs he is now recruiting is not one of them. Neither is their size. We have 5-10, 5-11 and 6 foot A-backs. But they may not weigh enough because they are freshmen. He may not have recruited enough a few years ago, but obviously he corrected this problem.
I am glad he recruited so many this past year as with the injuries we would be playing walk ons about now. If we had any injuries this week, we may be playing walk ons and freshmen recruited for other positions soon.
The thing I do not understand is how they are so bad at spacing when JT goes to pitch. Sometimes they are two feet away. This was week 4 of the season and that was after 4 weeks of Fall practice. They look ridiculous on pitches - as if they never saw the option pitch before.
Ok, they are freshmen in some cases - not all - but I never saw this ridiculous inept pitch spacing in 2008 Maybe I just am not remembering right.

 

[MWBATL]

I think the same. Recruiting is 75% of the battle and we have some good players but hardly any 4 and no 5 star guys. I don't believe CPJ recruited Smelter. He was on the baseball team and hurt his arm. He turned out to be very talented receiver and very important to our offense but you can't expect guys to come out of the woodwork all the time. We really need a few studs who you know are going to be good coming in, not turn into a good player with hard work. Look at AJ Gray today - true freshman and made several big plays. Wish he could have stayed on his feet on interception but still made several big plays. I was pretty sure AJ Gray would be good. He was a stud and surprised only rated a 3 star. On a side note, also congrats to Ricky Juene on his game today.

Maybe we get this straightened out, shouldn't judge on 2 games. But regardless, recruiting concerns me. It's not all CPJ attitude about recruiting - let's be fair, some of it is the offense he runs. I agree with CPJ that a good player is not hurt by playing his offense in preparing for the NFL, however the perception by many I'm afraid is that it does not prepare you for the NFL.

How do we get some of these guys - first we have to try to get them. I'm not sure we are right now. Second we need to fight the perception and convince otherwise. Winning would help.






for the

I couldn't agree more strongly. Recruiting (and no, CPJ gets no credit for Smelter, he did not come here for football) is a key element. Maybe GT will never be at that level and maybe Braine was right. If so, shame of the President of the Institute and the Board of Regents. Shame, shame!!

Beyond that, our offensive coordinator is a stubborn arrogant a*s. He refuses to accept any criticism, and I cannot remember the last time I saw us execute a three step drop and throw. Even when we tried some shotgun with Vad Lee, our passes were very slow developing plays which put extreme pressure on our blocking and doomed it to failure. Watching so many teams that effectively execute three step drops and passing underneath, maybe, just maybe we ought to try a few of those.

Any offense can be defended unless you are outmanned. We clearly do NOT have the athletes to routinely outman other teams, and our record would indicate we really can't effectively compete with the better programs without using balance and surprise to give us an advantage. I thought maybe Johnson's scheme would do that. I am now convinced that (whether it be the scheme or the offensive play-calling) it will not.

 

[33jacket]

WR threat and balance? Smelter did not come to GT for football--not really a Johnson recruit. Fell in Johnson's lap. Took 4 yrs for Waller's light to come on. Blocking? Shaq was not highly recruited but became the best OG I have seen on the Flats.

A lot of luck last year. Lowest number of critical injuries of any year I can recall, which makes up for not having deep recruiting classes. A lot of razor thin wins--VT, GSU, UGa--and Clemson's backup QB throwing INTs. We weren't that far from 7-5, which is a typical Paul Johnson at GT record. Just like Chan, at 2 1/2 times the salary.

a bit of a negative view. I know paul didn't recruit smelter but that talent was on that team. And we used it efficiently. Both are undeniable facts. And it also created more team balance last year than this year or years prior. The passing efficiency last year was through the roof. You can emotionally argue and thats fine. But those are facts. We are missing that component and balance.

GT will never be a consistent top 15 or 20 recruiting school...so I don't know why anyone clamors for that....if we think we can be....then ok...i dont'. In my 20+ years of following GT football, thats never been the case. We may pop in at 23, then next year 38 then 30 then 22 etc. But never consistent. GT has to find other ways. The environment today to do this is worse than ever

As far as waller. He was a S out of high school. Dude didn't play WR. You can say it takes time to develop for sure. But he did...and was a critical component end of last year. At some point you have to give the staff some credit. Not perfect. Not horrible either.

every good season requires luck. Find one that didn't on any team....thats life. That is what makes a winning team vs an avg team. Is luck and a few breaks.

Paul has his faults. I am as vocal as anyone about the lack of moving to a more modern OL blocking scheme while still running his system. He can do that. He hasn't enough.....He can run way more zone and still run the same plays and assignments. Its a different between a scoop and zone set. A guard can check off the DT and go to the LB...we can run zone. We can block our system and not require the OL to belly flop on the ground like a dead fish. To this degree, I think if the NCAA rules out more cut blocking...it may help GT not hurt. It will force paul to change.

We can have better pass pro schemes....it seems we are what we are...

 

[PBR549]

a bit of a negative view. I know paul didn't recruit smelter but that talent was on that team. And we used it efficiently. Both are undeniable facts. And it also created more team balance last year than this year or years prior. The passing efficiency last year was through the roof. You can emotionally argue and thats fine. But those are facts. We are missing that component and balance.

GT will never be a consistent top 15 or 20 recruiting school...so I don't know why anyone clamors for that....if we think we can be....then ok...i dont'. In my 20+ years of following GT football, thats never been the case. We may pop in at 23, then next year 38 then 30 then 22 etc. But never consistent. GT has to find other ways. The environment today to do this is worse than ever

As far as waller. He was a S out of high school. Dude didn't play WR. You can say it takes time to develop for sure. But he did...and was a critical component end of last year. At some point you have to give the staff some credit. Not perfect. Not horrible either.

every good season requires luck. Find one that didn't on any team....thats life. That is what makes a winning team vs an avg team. Is luck and a few breaks.

Paul has his faults. I am as vocal as anyone about the lack of moving to a more modern OL blocking scheme while still running his system. He can do that. He hasn't enough.....He can run way more zone and still run the same plays and assignments. Its a different between a scoop and zone set. A guard can check off the DT and go to the LB...we can run zone. We can block our system and not require the OL to belly flop on the ground like a dead fish. To this degree, I think if the NCAA rules out more cut blocking...it may help GT not hurt. It will force paul to change.

We can have better pass pro schemes....it seems we are what we are...

I agree with you about recruiting. We've never been consistent with any coach. I don't agree about going to a more zone oriented blocking scheme. I've watched us struggle running those schemes also. I think it has everything to do with us being unable to stretch the field vertically either from the wide receiver position or the A backs. That is why we are one dementional. If a defense can play us cover 0 man and sell out against the option like they did the last two games we're in trouble. Look where we recruited last year on offense. We lost to FSU somewhat due to loosing Smelter. Loosing Summers and Searcy hurt yesterday because they were our two best options to stretch the field. The next best are Stewart and T Marshall who are going to be great players but are true freshman who need time. They probably should not even be playing.
Scheme and technique wise I think being different gives us a better chance to win. Conforming to the norm IMO only hurts our chances of being successful. I firmly believe in coach Johnson's ability to make the most out of what we have and to be able to find a way to get the most out of the offense.

 

[33jacket]

I agree with you about recruiting. We've never been consistent with any coach. I don't agree about going to a more zone oriented blocking scheme. I've watched us struggle running those schemes also. I think it has everything to do with us being unable to stretch the field vertically either from the wide receiver position or the A backs. That is why we are one dementional. If a defense can play us cover 0 man and sell out against the option like they did the last two games we're in trouble. Look where we recruited last year on offense. We lost to FSU somewhat due to loosing Smelter. Loosing Summers and Searcy hurt yesterday because they were our two best options to stretch the field. The next best are Stewart and T Marshall who are going to be great players but are true freshman who need time. They probably should not even be playing.
Scheme and technique wise I think being different gives us a better chance to win. Conforming to the norm IMO only hurts our chances of being successful. I firmly believe in coach Johnson's ability to make the most out of what we have and to be able to find a way to get the most out of the offense.

Go watch the fsu uga and miss st games again. Like i did. Very little belly flop cut blocking like we seen the past two games. Something changed. We will just have to agree to disagree about the ol technique we are seeing right now. We are on the ground and ineffective as a result

 

[dressedcheeseside]

If you dont block it doesn't matter if you choose run or pass

This. I wonder if our offense is more dependent on a higher percentage of made blocks than other offenses? I know we were much better at blocking last year, but we still made gains with a missed block here and there. Now we have multiple missed blocks every play.

 

[Techster]

The biggest thing that baffles me about our blocking...both run blocking and pass pro...is our OL. We return 4/5 of our OL, and the one guy we plug in for All-World Shaq Mason is probably the most physically gifted OL GT has signed in the last 20+ years. We had pretty good pass pro last season, and it had nothing to do with our WRs...those guys weren't blocking unless it was a run play. Why the heck does it seem like JeT is running for dear life every time he drops back to pass? Starting to remind me of the Nesbitt years in passing situations.

And what's going on with letting DBs shoot gaps and just crushing our running plays in the backfield? VT has been doing that to us for years, and EVERYONE knows Jeremy Cash is Duke's best defensive player...and dude just had a field day against our offense. CPJ doesn't scheme for player (Um, unless you forget the "Kam Chancellor Game"), but you can scheme to run to the opposite side of them. 8th year in the system...a lot of the difficiencies we saw yesterday from blocking is what we did in year 1 of CPJ. OL was suppose to be the strength of our offense, but if we can't get 2 yards between the tackles when we need it...yikes...

 

[PBR549]

Go watch the fsu uga and miss st games again. Like i did. Very little belly flop cut blocking like we seen the past two games. Something changed. We will just have to agree to disagree about the ol technique we are seeing right now. We are on the ground and ineffective as a result

I'm sure they haven't changed blocking technique from last year. We've had more than we could block at the point of attack sometimes and just didn't make blocks others but I have a hard time believing they are teaching different technique. I admit I haven't looked that closely at the film but why would you fix something that wasn't broke.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

The sum of our individual parts might be greater than last year's team. I still think we have improved in the athleticism and talent departments. The team as a whole however is currently less than the sum of our parts. The margin for error is small. But even small improvements in our execution can lead to much better success.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

The notion that CPJ can't or doesn't scheme around good D players is laughable to me. I seem to recall him doing so with Rahji at BC, Pitt's Donald, and Kam to name a few. Guess we either don't remember or see the same things.

 

[awbuzz]

The notion that CPJ can't or doesn't scheme around good D players is laughable to me. I seem to recall him doing so with Rahji at BC, Pitt's Donald, and Kam to name a few. Guess we either don't remember or see the same things.

Very few remeber the 'details" when things are going well.

 

[stingyoa$$]

[QUOTE="Whiskey_Clear, post: 180727, member: 735"]The sum of our individual parts might be greater than last year's team. I still think we have improved in the athleticism and talent departments. The team as a whole however is currently less than the sum of our parts. The margin for error is small. But even small improvements in our execution can lead to much better success.[/QUOTE]

Name one position this year where we are better than last year. I'm a proof is in the pudding type of guy and I find it odd that as a fan base we make comments like "more athletic" after what we have seen so far. I think this is what PJ is talking about when he used the term "anoint". This team has done nothing to even remotely look like last years team. Of course the year is only a third over and you never know what will happen but you can call me shocked if we even get bowl eligible this year.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

[QUOTE="Whiskey_Clear, post: 180727, member: 735"]The sum of our individual parts might be greater than last year's team. I still think we have improved in the athleticism and talent departments. The team as a whole however is currently less than the sum of our parts. The margin for error is small. But even small improvements in our execution can lead to much better success.

Name one position this year where we are better than last year. I'm a proof is in the pudding type of guy and I find it odd that as a fan base we make comments like "more athletic" after what we have seen so far. I think this is what PJ is talking about when he used the term "anoint". This team has done nothing to even remotely look like last years team. Of course the year is only a third over and you never know what will happen but you can call me shocked if we even get bowl eligible this year.[/QUOTE]
Maybe he meant our upside is higher with the new guys. I can see that. But what you say is true, we're not as good as last year in any position group on offense - even qb. I think that is clear to all.

 

[stingyoa$$]

Potential means nothing to me. Performance is what I take stock in. Right now the performance is in line with their record. TBH...last year in the UGA game we won that game in spite of the poor performance by JT. He certainly helped some in that win but by no means did he put that team on his back and carry us to victory. Two fumbles that led to 14 points for them and 7 less for us. We overcame that with talent and heart and a team that had great leadership from several players. I see none of that this year. This year we can't overcome 1 lousy fumble. I'll give these guys credit when they earn it...at the college level. I don't give a hill of beans what they did in HS. This year could get ugly. I'm hoping they get it together....quick.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

@stingyoa$$

AJ Gray, Will Bryan, Brad Stewart, Qua, T Marshall, M Marshall, Brant Mitchell. Improvements in talent and athleticism. That's for the new guys. All of the returning guys should be a year better this year. And cheese was correct so far as the new guys are concerned...I'm primarily referring to potential. I concede we are not in the same ball park execution wise. Hopefully that gets fixed.