Lefthanded Column on Tech in Florida Times-Union

TheGridironGeek

Jolly Good Fellow
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http://jacksonville.com/sports/coll.../story/georgia-techs-anachronistic-style-will

What I find funny is that he refers to Tech's "anachronism" offense (invented in the 80s/90s) as enjoying a "modicum" of success, then casually mentions GT being #1 in the conference in yards, first downs, touchdowns, scoring, 3rd down conversions and turnover margin.

Also endorses the myth about the Flexbone only working because nobody is familiar with it. Between teams having to face Tech, Navy, Army, Air Force, Georgia Southern, Wofford, The Citadel and New Mexico, plenty of FBS coaches are well-acquainted by now. I don't see the downturn that's supposed to happen along with that.
 

cuttysark

Ramblin' Wreck
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Here is the Bio on Gary Smits:

"I have been in journalism for 43 years, since I began working for a weekly newspaper in Maryland at the age of 15 covering my high school football team (the mighty Cougars of Thomas Stone High, the pride of Waldorf, Md.). I first worked in Florida at the Clay Today in Orange Park from 1981-1982, and I have been with Morris Communications for 32 years.
I covered the Northside for the former community news publication of the Times-Union, The Neighbor, was the sports editor for the St. Augustine Record from 1984-1988, covered high schools for the Times-Union from 1988-1990, and then covered Florida State and Florida A&M athletics from 1990-1995. Since 1995, I have covered golf and the Gator Bowl, and assisted with our coverage of the Jaguars. I currently cover the Florida Gators and the Florida State Seminoles."


What he is unable to understand about football given that he probably played as much as Erin Andrews and Sam Ponder did; is that it basically comes down to who has the beef in the trenches. Always has, and always will. While this NCAA hurry up spread offense was developed as an equalizer for teams that had no linemen to run the football, ANY offense will be successful with the right pieces. That being said, these pass happy spread offenses from the shotgun are abysmal failures inside the 10 yard line as you are already giving the defenses another 7 yards in their favor before the ball is even snapped. Look at Clemson v. FSU for a prefect example of their inability to get under center and attack the LOS.

This 7 on 7 pass happy spread offense looks real good until it gets deeper into the red zone, then their inability to run the football from under center really begins to show up. If our offense was the dinosauer he claims, then why can't five stars stop it? Not disciplined? Every defense plays assignment football against the offense. This verbiage about we have to be disciplined against GT is becoming quite comical. Do defenses just line up wherever they feel like against any other offense?

What the GT offense is great at doing is making a defense pay when their players try to guess where the ball is going and looking around for the football as opposed to tackling the B-Back every play on the dive whether he has the ball or not. If Gary Smits says our offense is a dinosauer then so is discipline on defenses.

Plug in an Earl Campbell or Bo Jackson at B-Back and see what will happen. The wishbone would be successful today provided a coach understands how to implement it. This article is amusing as discipline wins games in any sport. Just look at the SanAntonio Spurs in the NBA. They run a boring offense and win Championships. Dinosauers indeed
 

Whiskey_Clear

Banned
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10,486
I need this writer's phone number. Got some lumber to lay. I love betting peeps that are truly ignorant....sucker bets rock. Got my bro inlaw on ACC vs sec bet this year :D
 

kg01

Get-Bak! Coach
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Not sure his failure to mention cut/chop-blocking is evidence of his knowledge or extreme lack thereof (if that makes sense in a weird way).
 

00Burdell

Helluva Engineer
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Dinosaurs were pretty strong. Is he saying we are going to mutilate FSU?
This may be a reference to a statement Barry Switzer made about the triple option when confronted by an interviewer that it was "old."

Switzer replied wtte: "So are dinosaurs but if they were still around, they'd still stomp people."

I'm guessing the writer is familiar with the quote or maybe just be a doofus.
 

beernutts

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
40
that was thought to be obsolete when teams such as Oklahoma and Nebraska abandoned it in the 1980s.

LOL, Nebraska went away from the option offense in the 2000's, after going to the national championship in 2001 season.
 

96Jacket

Jolly Good Fellow
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that was thought to be obsolete when teams such as Oklahoma and Nebraska abandoned it in the 1980s.

LOL, Nebraska went away from the option offense in the 2000's, after going to the national championship in 2001 season.
Not to mention they won three national titles with it during the 90s.

Smits must not have been on the Gators' beat when the Huskers gave them a 62-24 mauling with the option in the '95 title game - the biggest beatdown in national championship history.
 
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