OL Thread

redmule

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
664
It sucks that there are more threads about uniforms than there are about the beating heart of our team, the OL. I think it should be our goal to keep at least one OL thread on the front page of this site thru Spring Practice.

I spent one day last week re-watching Clemson, uga and the OB. The struggle between the Clemson DL and our OL was fantastic. The Clemson DL knew they had no chance in the game because of their qb position, but they fought to the end. They were as a group more physically talented than our OL, I think, but our execution and scheme negated that advantage. Watch that game and don't follow the ball, just the line play. I love playing Clemson. The games and the atmosphere are so entertaining. I think the fans and the players respect each other and give it their all. I hope nothing changes that.

I would pay big money to have a video of the uga DL coach reviewing the film of our game with his players. Especially players on the left side of his DL. I suspect he just burned the tape. All year long we had worried about some team just lining up and running the ball down our throats. Turns out we were channeling uga fans. I'm not sure a good high school DL would have had less success against Burden, Mason, and Joe. If Dean Smith was the only person that could hold Jordan under 20 points, then CPJ was the only person that could hold Laskey under 200 yds that day. Why did he call any other play than Dive Right? Why did we even huddle?

If you look up the definition of "dread" in the dictionary, you probably get a video of the Mississippi State DL coaches reviewing the GT/uga tape. They had a month to prepare. (That's probably why they lost to Ole Miss; they were working on how to stop us rather than the Rebels.) They knew they had no chance unless they could stop Dive Right, the basic football play, the first play that every Midget team learns to run. They had a top 10 defense, one that had been honed in the mighty sec wars, future NFL stars. And all they had to do was stop the Dive play of a team with a converted QB starting at FB for only the fourth or fifth game, a center that sat out all last year with an injury, a stumpy two star right guard that UT had rejected, and a RT that didn't start until the first stringer was injured late in the season. And yet, well you know what happened.

You want to know why we are going to be good for a long time? Watch those three games again, and don't follow the ball.
 

IM79

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
434
I really loved the unbalanced formation to right side. UGA never could stop it the entire second half. #75 was my new favorite player for the way he played the second half of the year.

But, I still haven't figured out what went wrong the series after the kickoff recovery. Why couldn't we just drive all the way to the end zone?
 

takethepoints

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,096
What I liked was the vine that Longestday put up after the Ugag game showing their middle LB running straight across the field toward the play side without even trying to assault the LOS. This was in the third quarter and by then we had their D front 7 crying like little girls. A wonderful thing to see.
 

Lurkerjack

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
53
Location
Atlanta
Best thread on 3 boards in the last 7 days. God it's slow...

A couple thoughts on the op:
Clemson game - the Clemson D seems to play us the best. Remember that they only allowed 14 offensive points and held us to 251 yards rushing (we also had 102 yards passing). If their QB didn't get injured this is a different ball game.

UGA game - The o line AND a back blocking in the last three games was simply outstanding. I too wonder why cpj didn't just run the dive at the end after recovering the kickoff. I did notice that the dawg corners were firing off the receivers to support the run, not covering at all on plays before and after JT's fumble (I couldn't see from the tv angle what the corners did on that play). I wonder if the coaches saw that and were trying to exploit it.

FSU game - can one of you gurus tell me what the FSU D did differently in the second half?

MS ST game - Op, MS ST did not know they would be playing us until after their loss to ole miss. Man, what a game by the O. Total domination by the line and fantastic blocking by the a backs. I would be very interested in knowing if the line and backs received their highest grades of the season after film review. Anyone know this?
 

bke1984

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,447
Best thread on 3 boards in the last 7 days. God it's slow...

A couple thoughts on the op:
Clemson game - the Clemson D seems to play us the best. Remember that they only allowed 14 offensive points and held us to 251 yards rushing (we also had 102 yards passing). If their QB didn't get injured this is a different ball game.

UGA game - The o line AND a back blocking in the last three games was simply outstanding. I too wonder why cpj didn't just run the dive at the end after recovering the kickoff. I did notice that the dawg corners were firing off the receivers to support the run, not covering at all on plays before and after JT's fumble (I couldn't see from the tv angle what the corners did on that play). I wonder if the coaches saw that and were trying to exploit it.

FSU game - can one of you gurus tell me what the FSU D did differently in the second half?

MS ST game - Op, MS ST did not know they would be playing us until after their loss to ole miss. Man, what a game by the O. Total domination by the line and fantastic blocking by the a backs. I would be very interested in knowing if the line and backs received their highest grades of the season after film review. Anyone know this?

Clemson has played us OK from year to year (they and Duke were definitely the best last year), but I actually think VT plays us the best year in and year out.

The drive after recovering the kickoff in the UGA was definitely a little strange. Even a field goal would have been huge there (as we eventually saw). It actually seemed like we abandoned the dive there and went to triple option right away. In hindsight it may have been better to just run the dive six times, but then we wouldn't have the craziest victory I've ever witnessed! I'm kind of glad it turned out this way instead :)

I'm not sure the FSU defense did anything all that crazy in the second half, they just made more plays. We scored two touchdown on five drives after halftime. One drive ended in a pick by Thomas, one ended in a turnover on downs, and a third ended with a punt. The interception occurred with less than five minutes in the game when we were down nine...we were forced into throwing at that point. We were actually moving the ball pretty well before punting, but got into a 3rd and 8 just past midfield and couldn't convert. We actually pushed to midfield before the TOD as well. Looking back on that drive, we probably should have punted. We were only down 6 at that point, and the defense held to a field goal on the ensuing drive. May have pulled out the win if we'd punted there...

Nothing wrong with the MS ST game on the offensive side of the ball. We truly put on a clinic. If I had to find something wrong, it'd be the Thomas pick, but I'd be nitpicking. He's did that a few times this year, where he was trying to throw the ball away but just didn't get it far enough. I think he'll get better at that as he progresses.
 

alaguy

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,117
It sucks that there are more threads about uniforms than there are about the beating heart of our team, the OL. I think it should be our goal to keep at least one OL thread on the front page of this site thru Spring Practice.

I spent one day last week re-watching Clemson, uga and the OB. The struggle between the Clemson DL and our OL was fantastic. The Clemson DL knew they had no chance in the game because of their qb position, but they fought to the end. They were as a group more physically talented than our OL, I think, but our execution and scheme negated that advantage. Watch that game and don't follow the ball, just the line play. I love playing Clemson. The games and the atmosphere are so entertaining. I think the fans and the players respect each other and give it their all. I hope nothing changes that.

I would pay big money to have a video of the uga DL coach reviewing the film of our game with his players. Especially players on the left side of his DL. I suspect he just burned the tape. All year long we had worried about some team just lining up and running the ball down our throats. Turns out we were channeling uga fans. I'm not sure a good high school DL would have had less success against Burden, Mason, and Joe. If Dean Smith was the only person that could hold Jordan under 20 points, then CPJ was the only person that could hold Laskey under 200 yds that day. Why did he call any other play than Dive Right? Why did we even huddle?

If you look up the definition of "dread" in the dictionary, you probably get a video of the Mississippi State DL coaches reviewing the GT/uga tape. They had a month to prepare. (That's probably why they lost to Ole Miss; they were working on how to stop us rather than the Rebels.) They knew they had no chance unless they could stop Dive Right, the basic football play, the first play that every Midget team learns to run. They had a top 10 defense, one that had been honed in the mighty sec wars, future NFL stars. And all they had to do was stop the Dive play of a team with a converted QB starting at FB for only the fourth or fifth game, a center that sat out all last year with an injury, a stumpy two star right guard that UT had rejected, and a RT that didn't start until the first stringer was injured late in the season. And yet, well you know what happened.

You want to know why we are going to be good for a long time? Watch those three games again, and don't follow the ball.

I sure hope that " stumpy 2- star" at RG doesn't prove irreplaceable since basically we ran ALL yr mostly to that side and he was the biggest reason.I would LOVE to see Brown come in and claim that spot for 4 yrs.

On the Ol,this yr we will see how important (and good)it is with the loss on all starters at running back and WR.
 

augustabuzz

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,412
Clemson has played us OK from year to year (they and Duke were definitely the best last year), but I actually think VT plays us the best year in and year out.

The drive after recovering the kickoff in the UGA was definitely a little strange. Even a field goal would have been huge there (as we eventually saw). It actually seemed like we abandoned the dive there and went to triple option right away. In hindsight it may have been better to just run the dive six times, but then we wouldn't have the craziest victory I've ever witnessed! I'm kind of glad it turned out this way instead :)

I'm not sure the FSU defense did anything all that crazy in the second half, they just made more plays. We scored two touchdown on five drives after halftime. One drive ended in a pick by Thomas, one ended in a turnover on downs, and a third ended with a punt. The interception occurred with less than five minutes in the game when we were down nine...we were forced into throwing at that point. We were actually moving the ball pretty well before punting, but got into a 3rd and 8 just past midfield and couldn't convert. We actually pushed to midfield before the TOD as well. Looking back on that drive, we probably should have punted. We were only down 6 at that point, and the defense held to a field goal on the ensuing drive. May have pulled out the win if we'd punted there...

Nothing wrong with the MS ST game on the offensive side of the ball. We truly put on a clinic. If I had to find something wrong, it'd be the Thomas pick, but I'd be nitpicking. He's did that a few times this year, where he was trying to throw the ball away but just didn't get it far enough. I think he'll get better at that as he progresses.
I agree with your VT assessment. Does anyone here believe Clemson holds us to 251 yards rushing if we don't "lose" two possessions to returns for TD?
 

Ggee87

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Douglasville, Georgia
I agree with your VT assessment. Does anyone here believe Clemson holds us to 251 yards rushing if we don't "lose" two possessions to returns for TD?
Good point. Double edged sword type deal. Yes we would have had more possessions without the INTs but... You can't say we wouldn't have turned the ball over or been shut down on those other drives either.
 

augustabuzz

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,412
Good point. Double edged sword type deal. Yes we would have had more possessions without the INTs but... You can't say we wouldn't have turned the ball over or been shut down on those other drives either.
True, it's all speculation. But, I fell fairly confident that the interception in the second half with the adjustments that were made would've resulted in a completed drive.
 

4shotB

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Retired Staff
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4,941
You want to know why we are going to be good for a long time? Watch those three games again, and don't follow the ball.


The 1990 Oline was the best I have ever seen at Tech. The last 3 games was indeed reminiscent of the'90 bunch. I loved the link that showed the end of the GT-Uga game synched with their broadcast guys. One of the guys in their booth sees what is happening and says "their big Oline has our DL on skates" or wtte. Not quite the same as Munson and the notorious WFOMOS statement but....the physical superiority was evident even to their announcers.
 

dressedcheeseside

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14,220
The 1990 Oline was the best I have ever seen at Tech. The last 3 games was indeed reminiscent of the'90 bunch. I loved the link that showed the end of the GT-Uga game synched with their broadcast guys. One of the guys in their booth sees what is happening and says "their big Oline has our DL on skates" or wtte. Not quite the same as Munson and the notorious WFOMOS statement but....the physical superiority was evident even to their announcers.
Very similar indeed! The big difference is I think we had a huge OL in those days, iirc. Now we don't outweigh our opposition (though we are bigger than the recent past) as much as we out quick 'em and out scheme 'em (out execute 'em).
 
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