Oldgoldandwhite
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Not to nitpick but passing teams have little problems with us on 3rd and long. Running teams have more problems. When you complete 45% of your passes you are not a good team.
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Whiskey_Clear
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I'm gonna go ahead n say we get 60% completion percentage this year. More big plays and a few less picks.
dressedcheeseside
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Techster
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Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a full time starter for CPJ has ever passed for 60%. I'll be happy if JT is the first.
Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau
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This whole play calling thing is a snowball rolling downhill. As we get more proficient at running the triple option, and are gaining beaucoup yards on the ground, guess what? More running plays will be called. There is no reason to pass if you can expect comparable success by just continuing to run. Running the ball is what we do, it is what Paul Johnson wants to do, it is what Paul Johnson believes in. Running the ball has several advantages for us. It fatigues the opposing defense. When it is successful, it tends to demoralize the opposing defense. It shortens the game, it rests our defense, it limits the opposing offense's possessions. In the perfect world, it scores lots of points. There is no denying that a highly successful drive on the ground eventually baits the defense into leaving a big passing play or some gadget running play available. The question the Coach will process will be : is it worth taking the risk associated with a thirty yard pass that I am pretty sure will be there, or to continue to grind it out with a rocket toss, midline, dive series that is working well and ought to gain us that same 30 yards? I think I know the answer.
Northeast Stinger
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Spot on in my opinion. Vad, IIRC, had the lowest pass completion percentage of any QB since CPJ has been at Tech. I think our passing will be much more efficient. And deadly.
Northeast Stinger
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I remember well that blind side hit JT took in the Miami game. I also remember worrying it was going to happen even before it happened. Miami at that point in the game was convinced Tech had no real running threat and the DL had their ears pinned back on every play and were going after the QB. I am hoping this year defenses will not be allowed to be so cavalier and free but a little more cautious about getting burned by a big play.
dressedcheeseside
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One huge drawback to the "death march" is the probability of a single mistake killing the drive goes way up. With the "death march" you have to stay on schedule, you can't suffer no gains or God forbid, losses.
Animal02
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Yeah, but I love how it chews time off the clock.....tires the opposing defense, and frustrates the opposing offense sitting on the sidelines.
dressedcheeseside
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I love it too.... when it's working. When it's not working, we get the opposite of all that.
Northeast Stinger
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Not disagreeing but one things I have noticed from CPJ. He takes what the defense is giving up. His whole offensive philosophy is built around that. Make the defense decide what poison to take and then give it to them.
Treb1982
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I think what you will see this year is similar to 2011 season on offense. GT will get back to leading the nation in rushes of over 20 yards and completion percentage right at 50%. However I believe our defense will be better than 64# in the country.
Rushes over 20 yards
2010: 45
2011: 47
2012: 41
2013: 33
Rushes over 20 yards
2010: 45
2011: 47
2012: 41
2013: 33
Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau
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But how many times did we see Demaryius, or Hill, or sometimes Dwyer or Allen, ten to twelve yards open for big plays. Even Laskey has hauled in some passes where he was the only human in that zip code. I am saying I want to see some of those successfully completed passed sprinkled in----but I think CPJ shies away from that risk now.
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The numbers should inform our opinions.
GTJake
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Ralph knew how to spread the defense, which created advantageous 1-on-1 passing matchups. The defense had to defend sideline to sideline.
Ash
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That's one of the reasons I love football. There are many ways to get the desired result.
takethepoints
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Three comments:
1. As I said in another thread, it looks like JT is becoming Keenan Reynolds for us. Like Reynolds, he can throw on the run or off play action. We'll see if he can do this under game conditions early on soon, but I do think he'll be doing it consistently by the 4th or 5th game.
2. There is nobody in modern coaching who knows how to wait as well as Coach. I remember reading a story about him when he OC was at Hawaii. The O was working great and the D was leaving passing lanes open that could easily be exploited. The head coach came over and asked him why he wasn't throwing the ball. Coach replied that it wasn't time to do it yet. In late in the 4th quarter with Hawaii up 3, he sent in the pass play that had been open half the game. The D by then was totally asleep on the route. TD. Hawaii wins by 10. He knows what he's doing when he doesn't throw the ball early and often.
3. The O is as deceptive and as hard to prepare for as the Fridge's was. Indeed, when it is run correctly (please, Jesus, this year), it is more difficult to prepare for. The reason is that there is an OC on the sideline who can read Ds like a book and who adjusts to what the O is doing on the fly during the entire game. True, we don't have that many plays and we only run about 10 of them regularly. We also commonly change the blocking schemes on those plays a couple of times a game or more, depending on what the D is throwing at us. If you don't think that is a living Hell for opposing DCs, you haven't been listening to them. They know what we are going to do; they also know that they can't predict from series to series how we are going to do it.
1. As I said in another thread, it looks like JT is becoming Keenan Reynolds for us. Like Reynolds, he can throw on the run or off play action. We'll see if he can do this under game conditions early on soon, but I do think he'll be doing it consistently by the 4th or 5th game.
2. There is nobody in modern coaching who knows how to wait as well as Coach. I remember reading a story about him when he OC was at Hawaii. The O was working great and the D was leaving passing lanes open that could easily be exploited. The head coach came over and asked him why he wasn't throwing the ball. Coach replied that it wasn't time to do it yet. In late in the 4th quarter with Hawaii up 3, he sent in the pass play that had been open half the game. The D by then was totally asleep on the route. TD. Hawaii wins by 10. He knows what he's doing when he doesn't throw the ball early and often.
3. The O is as deceptive and as hard to prepare for as the Fridge's was. Indeed, when it is run correctly (please, Jesus, this year), it is more difficult to prepare for. The reason is that there is an OC on the sideline who can read Ds like a book and who adjusts to what the O is doing on the fly during the entire game. True, we don't have that many plays and we only run about 10 of them regularly. We also commonly change the blocking schemes on those plays a couple of times a game or more, depending on what the D is throwing at us. If you don't think that is a living Hell for opposing DCs, you haven't been listening to them. They know what we are going to do; they also know that they can't predict from series to series how we are going to do it.
Yeah, but the thing is, with this offense, we are rarely in 3rd and long. I would rather have our offense trying to run to convert on 3rd and 4 than most offenses trying to throw to convert on 3rd and 8. Last year, when we weren't great at running or throwing the ball, we were still pretty great at converting 3rd downs. In fact, Georgia Tech was 4th in the nation on 3rd down % at 51.4% (LINK). Though not all our years under CPJ have been great, we were 2nd in the nation in 3rd down conversion in both 2011 and 2009. If we consistently rank so high in overall 3rd down conversion, who cares if our 3rd and long conversion % is a bit lower than most good passing teams.
Notably, on defense, we were 34th in stopping 3rd down conversions last year. That is the best we have done under CPJ, with many seasons ranking in the 80s. I would say that is a much much bigger issue than the fact that our 3rd down and long numbers on offense may not be great.
(BTW, I would be interested to see the 3rd and long numbers. I bet they are not as bad as you think they are.)
Bruce Wayne
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I get what you mean but am not sure you are actually saying anything strictly speaking. If a death march isn't working then it isn't a death march. I am just teasing you on the logic though.
Besides there have been a large number of times when CPJ called plays with the intent of eating clock and everyone blocked perfectly and instead of chewing clock the team scored quickly. I recall him saying a couple times that he wished a player would have just taken a knee when they broke past the defense (I think Justin Thomas's first TD may have been like that).
The odd aspect of the death march is that the defense does have to be just good enough to stop Tech from scoring fast but not good enough to stop continual positive gains.