Jordan Yates

[BurdellJacket]

Mack Brown quote from AJC

North Carolina coach Mack Brown has coached an all-time great quarterback before. And he sees the potential for greatness in Georgia Tech quarterback Jeff Sims.
“When I first saw him, in his first game at Georgia Tech, I said, ‘Whew, this guy’s really good. He’s very talented,’” Brown said of Sims on Monday. “‘So he’s going to give them a chance moving forward.’”
Brown was referencing Tech’s season-opening win at Florida State in 2020, when Sims completed 23 of 34 passes for 277 yards while running 13 times for 64 yards in the Yellow Jackets’ 16-13 win.
Watching the game against the Seminoles, Brown said, “I said, ‘Look out, this guy has a chance to be a superstar.’ And I saw that Saturday night.”

Thanks, @TechBurn, appreciate it. That's good to hear for sure.

 

[bobbie_downtown]

Sims height allows up to take advantage of Gibbs ball skills more. That fourth down conversion pass where Gibbs ran that angle route over the middle wouldn’t have been in the playbook for Yates.

 

[LibertyTurns]

The UNC game showed how to make Sims more effective: LET HIM RUN THE BALL. He's good at it and when he runs it inhibits the rush, Also, he doesn't force throws when he can use his feet instead. Like I said in another thread, against UNC we looked like KSU when Bill Synder was there: we ran the ball and passed to keep the other side honest. We need to do that for the rest of the year.

But will we? I have my doubts. I would guess that Paternaude would like to do that; his teams have always been running teams. The question is will Collins let him. I think Collins has visions about what he'd like the team to look like and is going to insist on seeing them to fruition. Hope I'm wrong.

Someone gets it. Play to your players strengths, not the players you want to have. Rummy said something to that effect back in the day. Sims is a running QB with the tools to throw, not a throwing QB with running skills. I hope we use him wisely otherwise use the other guy.

 

[SWATlien]

On the surface your stats make some good points. If you look a little deeper you hear the UNC coach publicly saying that UNC played their best D football in the first half and their worst in the second half (some of this was Sims and some not). We played a very physical game and subbed a lot. As a team we got stronger and stronger as the game went on. No one knows but Sims had the very definite advantage of playing fresh against a beat up wore out team in the second half. Stats can be misleading. Yates played UNC to 7-6 when both teams were fresh. Sims played great and you cannot take that away but there is context to your stats that are missing. There is also the public acknowledgement that UNC prepared for Yates and did not spend much time preparing for Sims as they did not know his injury status. It could have been UNCs poor prep as much as Sims fresh legs that skewed those stats.

Sims came in in the 2nd quarter and accounted for 39pts. That’s not because his legs were fresh and UNC’s defense was wore out.

 

[SWATlien]

I’m reading these comments, smh. It’s amazing what people come up with.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Also, kudos to Collins for not telling Yates to go elsewhere after he took the job (ie what Florida State did with Sims). I think Yates may not fit their system perfectly based on their recruitment of Sims and now the qb from Memphis, but honoring his commitment to tech was big

This is definitely an example of the kind of culture CGC is selling to recruits. Good stuff.

 

[Ibeeballin]

I think Yates is a much better decision maker than Sims and it's not close. Obviously Sims has more physical tools at his disposal.

I went back and watched the UNC game again, and Yates would've moved the ball effectively in the second half with the adjustments we made at halftime. Would he have done the same as Sims? We'll never know. The play calling in the first half was hot garbage, and Yates consistently made the right reads and put the ball in the right places, but was also the victim of horribly bad blocking and the coaches sometimes being very slow getting plays in. In second half Sims made several bad reads but our RBs just ran hard and got yardage anyway.

We could've started the game with Sims and brought Yates in the second half and everyone would be singing Yates' praises. The first short field TD - we started running the inverted read option (RB going laterally, QB goes upfield on the pull) and that's why the TD was an easy walk in. Yates' would've had the exact same thing. We also adjusted blocking, but Sims threw several bad balls just directly into covered WRs. That pass over the middle into double coverage (should've be targeting or at the least PI) was atrocious. An NFL WR would get up and cuss out his rookie QB for throwing him into a train wreck like that. Even the long pass that was caught was at best a 50/50 ball where the WR had to go up and take it away from the DB.

There's 11 guys out there and a lot of the problems in the first half didn't have to do with Yates, and there were a lot less problems in the second half and some of them had to do with Sims. I hope Sims starts the Pitt game and lights it up all game long, he's a tremendous athlete. But if not we have a slightly less mobile QB with an accurate arm and who is a great decision maker and isn't loose with the ball.

Being the “safe” choice doesn’t make you a better decision maker either. Yates decision to not pull the ball on quite a few Read options and pass downfield led to the change

 

[Ibeeballin]

Someone gets it. Play to your players strengths, not the players you want to have. Rummy said something to that effect back in the day. Sims is a running QB with the tools to throw, not a throwing QB with running skills. I hope we use him wisely otherwise use the other guy.

So if the defense continues play heavy run and load box just keep handing it off? This doesn’t make sense

Sims was also 10/13 Saturday and stretching the defense

 

[MidtownJacket]

So if the defense continues play heavy run and load box just keep handing it off? This doesn’t make sense

Sims was also 10/13 Saturday and stretching the defense

Agree If Sims doesn’t have a passing game we are sunk. It’s the same in basketball. Having baller guards who can slash and drive without a Three point threat just clogs the paint.

We HAVE to have vertical threats or else we’ll be sledding uphill trying to run the ball.

 

[dcall]

He needs to be the starter.

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

He needs to be the starter.

LOL

 

[TruckStick]

No starting quarterback will hide the poor game planning and prep on this Pitt game. Way to come out flat and get boat raced.

 

[Stinger21]

He needs to be the starter.

You can’t be serious. He might can start safety if he can guard a post route.

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

Pitt winning both lines of scrimmage. Difference in the game and the two teams

 

[dcall]

You can’t be serious. He might can start safety if he can guard a post route.

Serious about Yates needing to be our starting QB?

 

[lv20gt]

Sims gives us a chance with his playmaking but comes with a risk of turnovers. Yates comes without either.

 

[jgtengineer]

Sims gives us a chance with his playmaking but comes with a risk of turnovers. Yates comes without either.

At this point its nto a risk. its a given.

 

[wvGT11]

At this point Yates should always start 1st quarter and give sims a chance to settle in the game before starting. It worked against UNC

 

[smokey_wasp]

At this point Yates should always start 1st quarter and give sims a chance to settle in the game before starting. It worked against UNC

I don't think you can count on that working on a regular basis.

 

[RamblinRed]

I think the Duke game is important for the QB's. Sims should clearly start, but if he stuggles or has TO issues (and I blame the OL more than Sims for the Pitt game TO's) then we do have to think about how we start games. Sims is now 3-9 as a starter. He is 1-0 off the bench.

I expect him to perform well against Duke, but we'll see when the game arrives.