Leo B

[yeti92]

I’ve not said it is bad, it is simply not blocking the inside zone well. That’s the main issue I see. Also, it is not holding the pocket for longer passes, forcing a shorter, more horizontal passing game. We saw Saturday that the issue is not King’s arm. The sacks allowed is a good stat but is aided by King’s ability to scramble and run.

Let me reiterate: the OL is not bad by any means, but there is significant room for improvement. Can you live with that, yeti?

You'll have to forgive me then, but with comments like

He also had a great OL which, let’s face it, we do not.

and complaining about the OL in every other thread I'm sure you can see how I'd get the impression you think they are bad or a weakness of the team. If you are expecting every guy on the OL to beat his man 100% of the time or take on multiple defenders successfully, I've got to say your expectations are too high.

As for holding the pocket, they have done that pretty well too. King rarely has to roll out of the pocket. Against Syracuse, King threw a bunch of short passes, especially early, but it wasn't because a lack of protection - he rarely had a defender near him when he decided to throw. The WRs were not getting open downfield, and instead of waiting for them to separate from coverage he was checking down. I don't know if QB Hurry stats are available anywhere, but I'd be interested to see them and I'd bet they further back up my point. I don't think anyone has said King's arm was an issue.

 

[Lil G]

Zach is the next man up. Don't forget he was a high 4*. Zach is not far behind Haynes.

Absolutely. Love Zach. Sorry, I meant in 2-3 years when King and Pyron are gone.

VERY excited about Pyron. A full-time fullback will be awesome.

 

[Jacket20]

Zach is the next man up. Don't forget he was a high 4*. Zach is not far behind Haynes.

We'll see. If King gets drafted it will be a competition for next year. Best QB wins!!

 

[stinger78]

You'll have to forgive me then, but with comments like

and complaining about the OL in every other thread I'm sure you can see how I'd get the impression you think they are bad or a weakness of the team. If you are expecting every guy on the OL to beat his man 100% of the time or take on multiple defenders successfully, I've got to say your expectations are too high.

As for holding the pocket, they have done that pretty well too. King rarely has to roll out of the pocket. Against Syracuse, King threw a bunch of short passes, especially early, but it wasn't because a lack of protection - he rarely had a defender near him when he decided to throw. The WRs were not getting open downfield, and instead of waiting for them to separate from coverage he was checking down. I don't know if QB Hurry stats are available anywhere, but I'd be interested to see them and I'd bet they further back up my point. I don't think anyone has said King's arm was an issue.

Hmm. Where to start…?
First, no forgiveness is necessary.
Second, I see at least two states between “great” and “bad.” Those would be “fair” and “good.” It’s not binary, though we types often try to see things that way. Just their game by game performance grades will tell you that the OL hasn’t been uniformly great this season. Nor have they been uniformly bad. As a unit, they are in between. I think generally pretty good, sometimes fair, other areas very good. I don’t know that I would rate them a strength of the offense. To rate the units, I would rate QB very good, RB good, receivers good, and OL pretty good - the least proficient of the 4. Certainly not a weakness, but not a particular point of strength.
Third, while the no sacks stat is certainly good, we have to understand that the high number of smokes, bubbles, slants, tosses, and draws - most notably QB draws - is a big help to that stat. Still, no sacks is a feather in their collective cap.

Not sure what more I can type.

 

[78pike]

I’ve not said it is bad, it is simply not blocking the inside zone well. That’s the main issue I see. Also, it is not holding the pocket for longer passes, forcing a shorter, more horizontal passing game. We saw Saturday that the issue is not King’s arm. The sacks allowed is a good stat but is aided by King’s ability to scramble and run.

Let me reiterate: the OL is not bad by any means, but there is significant room for improvement. Can you live with that, yeti?

I don't recall seeing King do a lot of scrambling this year to avoid sacks on drop back throws. Most of his running comes from plays calling for him to run such as draws and RPO's. I have been very pleased with the performance of the O line thus far. I keep hearing everyone say that the FSU D line isn't that great now despite the fact they are all 5 stars. Maybe they are as great as everyone said before the season and our O line just made them look bad and we broke them mentally for their subsequent games. Louisville will be the best D line we have played since FSU. Let's see how we look after this game. If we still haven't given up any sacks and we run for some good yards I think that will say a lot about how good our guys up front are.

 

[stinger78]

I don't recall seeing King do a lot of scrambling this year to avoid sacks on drop back throws. Most of his running comes from plays calling for him to run such as draws and RPO's. I have been very pleased with the performance of the O line thus far. I keep hearing everyone say that the FSU D line isn't that great now despite the fact they are all 5 stars. Maybe they are as great as everyone said before the season and our O line just made them look bad and we broke them mentally for their subsequent games. Louisville will be the best D line we have played since FSU. Let's see how we look after this game. If we still haven't given up any sacks and we run for some good yards I think that will say a lot about how good our guys up front are.

Surely there is game to game progression. Again, the two pieces of evidence I see are, first, what I saw in both the GSU and SU games looked like some difficulty blocking the inside zone, and their individual grades game to game. Some have not been good.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Surely there is game to game progression. Again, the two pieces of evidence I see are, first, what I saw in both the GSU and SU games looked like some difficulty blocking the inside zone, and their individual grades game to game. Some have not been good.

It also came after they had some film. The schemes were adjusted and our OL play was much better as the game progressed, after some of the blocking schemes were tweaked. I agree it depends on the matchups and what we're trying to do. Some schemes we'll perform better in as an OL, and some not as well. As long as we're moving the ball, we're choosing the correct schemes.

 

[gtchem05]

I think the OL players and coaches (Wade, Faulkner, and Key) have done an amazing job maximizing the natural talent of the individuals we have on OL. Once even better raw talent arrives on campus, like what is expected next fall based on verbal comittments, I expect Tech to continue developing more diverse run blocking schemes and more of a vertical passing game. Which brings me back to the topic of the thread...Leo Blackburn is a potentially huge weapon in a vertical passing game. If our OL can consistently give Haynes King time to throw to a big, speedy target like Leo over the middle, Tech can have a top-notch offense.

 

[iceeater1969]

I think the OL players and coaches (Wade, Faulkner, and Key) have done an amazing job maximizing the natural talent of the individuals we have on OL. Once even better raw talent arrives on campus, like what is expected next fall based on verbal comittments, I expect Tech to continue developing more diverse run blocking schemes and more of a vertical passing game. Which brings me back to the topic of the thread...Leo Blackburn is a potentially huge weapon in a vertical passing game. If our OL can consistently give Haynes King time to throw to a big, speedy target like Leo over the middle, Tech can have a top-notch offense.

I look forward to seeing him run some pass routes or go high for a reception, but understand that he is coming off injury. Would like to see him spell singleton and run some sideline go routes.

 

[stinger78]

It also came after they had some film. The schemes were adjusted and our OL play was much better as the game progressed, after some of the blocking schemes were tweaked. I agree it depends on the matchups and what we're trying to do. Some schemes we'll perform better in as an OL, and some not as well. As long as we're moving the ball, we're choosing the correct schemes.

Yes, it did progress well in the GSU game, but... in the SU game it was the last 6 minutes. That unit struggled for most of the game. We just cannot gloss over that - at least I can't. But I do agree that there has been progression, and that the performance of the unit is usually average to well above average. My concern is that the VMI game told us relatively little, so how will they perform in the first quarter of the Louisville game? I hope well.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Yes, it did progress well in the GSU game, but... in the SU game it was the last 6 minutes. That unit struggled for most of the game. We just cannot gloss over that - at least I can't. But I do agree that there has been progression, and that the performance of the unit is usually average to well above average. My concern is that the VMI game told us relatively little, so how will they perform in the first quarter of the Louisville game? I hope well.

I think SU told us a lot about what we do well and a lot about what we don't do so well. Now, it's up to the coaches to keep us doing things we do well and adjust away from the things we don't do well. Opposing defenses are going to try to get us to do things we don't do well, so adjustments are going to be important. It's all a learning process. Stay healthy and get better every week. I Get to the bye week healthy and only 1 loss. Then get to the next bye week with only 1 loss. Then get to the next bye week with only 1 loss then beat the hell out of uga.

 

[Techster]

to the topic at hand,
Glad to see Blackburn get some burn. I know he doesn’t want it, but maybe watching Avery Boyd get on the field and make big plays from TE will have him reconsider moving there. He looks like he still has decent speed but he would torch LB and safeties from there instead of the outside. Honestly that’s where his future is in the NFL, might as well jumpstart that process here.

LOL, I've been saying that for years. He'd be an NFL prospect with that size, speed, and athletic combination...and he'd be a cheat code mismatch at TE.

 

[78pike]

I think SU told us a lot about what we do well and a lot about what we don't do so well. Now, it's up to the coaches to keep us doing things we do well and adjust away from the things we don't do well. Opposing defenses are going to try to get us to do things we don't do well, so adjustments are going to be important. It's all a learning process. Stay healthy and get better every week. I Get to the bye week healthy and only 1 loss. Then get to the next bye week with only 1 loss. Then get to the next bye week with only 1 loss then beat the hell out of uga.

I will disagree with your comment in this respect. I don't think we want to, or will adjust away from the things we don't do well. I think we have a staff that will practice very hard on the things we didn't do well in order to keep the entire playbook available. It's like the players say in just about every interview, don't focus on the opponent - focus on ourselves and continue to improve.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I will disagree with your comment in this respect. I don't think we want to, or will adjust away from the things we don't do well. I think we have a staff that will practice very hard on the things we didn't do well in order to keep the entire playbook available. It's like the players say in just about every interview, don't focus on the opponent - focus on ourselves and continue to improve.

I'm talking in-game adjustments. I'm sure they'll keep practicing to try to improve on what they don't do well, but they're going to do what it takes to win on Saturday.

 

[yeti92]

Hmm. Where to start…?
First, no forgiveness is necessary.
Second, I see at least two states between “great” and “bad.” Those would be “fair” and “good.” It’s not binary, though we types often try to see things that way. Just their game by game performance grades will tell you that the OL hasn’t been uniformly great this season. Nor have they been uniformly bad. As a unit, they are in between. I think generally pretty good, sometimes fair, other areas very good. I don’t know that I would rate them a strength of the offense. To rate the units, I would rate QB very good, RB good, receivers good, and OL pretty good - the least proficient of the 4. Certainly not a weakness, but not a particular point of strength.
Third, while the no sacks stat is certainly good, we have to understand that the high number of smokes, bubbles, slants, tosses, and draws - most notably QB draws - is a big help to that stat. Still, no sacks is a feather in their collective cap.

Not sure what more I can type.

Thanks for delineating your scale, though perhaps a letter grade scale would be clearer. I do think I'd rate the WR group as the lowest performing so far, perhaps a C for them. Their inability to get separation, dropped passes, and going back to last season inability to fight for the ball are hurting their rating for me right now.

QB: A
RB: B
OL: B+

 

[GT33]

The OL that leads the country in sacks allowed and is 27th in ypc is not a great OL?

We're 37th in ypc and 35th in ypa, 31st in scoring offense. There's 67 teams in P4 plus ND & xPac. We're decidedly average or you could argue slightly below. Great? No way.

 

[stinger78]

Thanks for delineating your scale, though perhaps a letter grade scale would be clearer. I do think I'd rate the WR group as the lowest performing so far, perhaps a C for them. Their inability to get separation, dropped passes, and going back to last season inability to fight for the ball are hurting their rating for me right now.

QB: A
RB: B
OL: B+

I can hang with that. I think we can agree that the O again has tremendous potential but every position group has improvements to make.

 

[gtrower]

We're 37th in ypc and 35th in ypa, 31st in scoring offense. There's 67 teams in P4 plus ND & xPac. We're decidedly average or you could argue slightly below. Great? No way.

What does there being 67 PX teams matter when you’re including non-PX teams in your ranking? Not to mention the wild SOS/sample size variance for some of these gaudy numbers above us.

Giving up zero sacks through a third of the season is kind of absurd.

 

[yeti92]

We're 37th in ypc and 35th in ypa, 31st in scoring offense. There's 67 teams in P4 plus ND & xPac. We're decidedly average or you could argue slightly below. Great? No way.

@gtrower 's ypc is yards per carry, and matches the data here
https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/yards-per-rush-attempt

That would put us at 19th in the former P5+ND. Pretty dang good, especially when you consider we've played more opponents and more P4/5 opponents than just about everyone.

I'm not sure where your rankings are from as they don't correlate to anything on that site that I can tell. I assume your ypc is per completion and ypa per attempt for passing - if so, I'm not sure how that would be a reflection on the OL performance.

 

[Root4GT]

Thanks for delineating your scale, though perhaps a letter grade scale would be clearer. I do think I'd rate the WR group as the lowest performing so far, perhaps a C for them. Their inability to get separation, dropped passes, and going back to last season inability to fight for the ball are hurting their rating for me right now.

QB: A
RB: B
OL: B+

You guys are not like Tech Professors were back in the day!

QB - A-
RBs - C
WRs - C
TEs - C-
OL - C

The offense has not been up to the standard set in the second half of last season. There has been a lack of consistency across the board on offense in my view. I don’t think we have faced a good defense yet.