One year of Nate Woody. What do we think?

[GTRambler]

As a sidebar here in this discussion about Defensive Coach Nate Woody, I’m really interested in seeing how well he can recruit for “his type of defensive players” to Georgia Tech.

This will be Coach Woody’s first shot at recruiting for GT, and the quality of his work in this area should tell us a lot.

 

[ilovetheoption]

As a sidebar here in this discussion about Defensive Coach Nate Woody, I’m really interested in seeing how well he can recruit for “his type of defensive players” to Georgia Tech.

This will be Coach Woody’s first shot at recruiting for GT, and the quality of his work in this area should tell us a lot.

Yep, also super interested in this.

 

[stech81]

As a sidebar here in this discussion about Defensive Coach Nate Woody, I’m really interested in seeing how well he can recruit for “his type of defensive players” to Georgia Tech.

This will be Coach Woody’s first shot at recruiting for GT, and the quality of his work in this area should tell us a lot.

Asking does he recruit ? I mean by visits players home or only talks to them when they visit ?

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

Still have a long way to go to get our defense up to average. Personally, I did not see a lot of improvement over the past few years. The results in the win/loss column were better so I do give him some credit for that. We really need to develop an attacking defense that the fanbase can get excited about.

Go Jackets!

 

[1939hotmagic]

Re CNW, back in August my realistic hope for the first year would be (1) more turnovers, and (2) most defensive stats otherwise, generally, no worse than the Roof years. I'd grade him a "B" for this season, solid for a transition year. I'm glad Tech has him.

Next season, here's hoping for better defensive stats (particularly on 3rd downs), even if turnovers ratchet down a wee bit.

 

[Sebastian GT]

So, I will preface that when I heard that you guys were looking at Woody, I was tickled pink. (I'm relatively sure that there is evidence of this on this board, and it would be tough for me to deny it at this point).

My thoughts were that I would take giving up more big plays if it meant making more big plays.

Well....that's pretty much exactly what has happened. The defense forced a ton more turnovers, but got burned deep more.

Overall numbers by FEI (my preferred metric)

2016: 94 (Roof)
2017: 69 (Roof)
2018: 93 (Woody)

So overall, the numbers don't paint any prettier a picture, BUT my personal bias is "better to go down swinging than die a death by a thousand cuts", plus I think there's a chance that the defense will improve in coming years as guys get more experience, and guys are recruited for the system.

What say you guys?

I'm probably in the minority (don't feel like reading 5 pages of responses) on this but I'm unimpressed with Woody at this point. Statistically we are no different than Roof outside of a few more turnovers but that stat goes up and down every year. Seems like a few years ago Roof's D had a bunch off turnovers too. The parts that bother me the most are first and foremost we are one of the worst tackling teams I've ever seen. No one on that defense wraps up with any consistency when tackling. There is no excuse for that. Tackling IMO is a direct reflection of coaching. No hiding from that.

One of my pet peeves with Roof was playing corners 10-12 yards off their man in most situations but especially on downs like 3rd and 5 leading to easy short completions for 1st downs for the offense. Makes zero sense. Woody is doing the same crap. Has happened all year. Our pass rush sucks. I get it. But when we blitz and still play way off on the outside we're basically saying "yeah we're blitzing but have no confidence we can get there."

An example. In the UGA game they are down just inside our 10. They've got two wide to their right. We blitz. Our corner on the outside receiver is playing way off and for some reason with outside leverage giving the WR an easy slant which they complete for a TD. The unnamed corner who struggled all year never got to within 4 yards of the WR. Who the hell teaches coverage like that? The sideline is your friend. Especially down near the goal line.

I see us getting out schemed. Will happen from time to time but again using the last game as an example they run a slot receiver down the middle of the field on first down and we have our middle linebacker trying to keep up. Again an easy score. Everyone complains when we play ugag, Clemson and some others that we are just outmanned and in some instances we are however we are being outcoached as well.

On a positive note I still believe we have a lot of young athleticism in the back 7 to work with. I don't think we should fire Woody after just one season however I see a lot of issues that if he can't get cleaned up in year two then he's probably not the guy for the job. He can start with tackling. May not matter if Paul doesn't survive next year anyway.

 

[bravejason]

I like that Woody seems to have a fixed scheme. Roof wanted to be multiple so that the defense could be tailored to the opponent each week, which is a great idea, but GT just isn’t the place for that. We don’t have the players and the players don’t have the time to make that work. With Woody, I think the players can just learn a job and then rep it every week so they can learn to do it well and fast, which is something that we haven’t seen in a long while.

 

[g0lftime]

Played a lot of zone on 3rd. Would have liked a little more man at times. Got a lot more turnovers this year. Very good improvement. We need bigger DL and faster LB'S. Not sure speed alone overcomes smaller size. Clemson and UGA had size and speed. We were way overpowered. GT schedule is a lot more difficult than App State plays. Can this guy recruit. I sure hope so.

 

[ilovetheoption]

I'm probably in the minority (don't feel like reading 5 pages of responses) on this but I'm unimpressed with Woody at this point. Statistically we are no different than Roof outside of a few more turnovers but that stat goes up and down every year. Seems like a few years ago Roof's D had a bunch off turnovers too. The parts that bother me the most are first and foremost we are one of the worst tackling teams I've ever seen. No one on that defense wraps up with any consistency when tackling. There is no excuse for that. Tackling IMO is a direct reflection of coaching. No hiding from that.

One of my pet peeves with Roof was playing corners 10-12 yards off their man in most situations but especially on downs like 3rd and 5 leading to easy short completions for 1st downs for the offense. Makes zero sense. Woody is doing the same crap. Has happened all year. Our pass rush sucks. I get it. But when we blitz and still play way off on the outside we're basically saying "yeah we're blitzing but have no confidence we can get there."

An example. In the UGA game they are down just inside our 10. They've got two wide to their right. We blitz. Our corner on the outside receiver is playing way off and for some reason with outside leverage giving the WR an easy slant which they complete for a TD. The unnamed corner who struggled all year never got to within 4 yards of the WR. Who the hell teaches coverage like that? The sideline is your friend. Especially down near the goal line.

I see us getting out schemed. Will happen from time to time but again using the last game as an example they run a slot receiver down the middle of the field on first down and we have our middle linebacker trying to keep up. Again an easy score. Everyone complains when we play ugag, Clemson and some others that we are just outmanned and in some instances we are however we are being outcoached as well.

On a positive note I still believe we have a lot of young athleticism in the back 7 to work with. I don't think we should fire Woody after just one season however I see a lot of issues that if he can't get cleaned up in year two then he's probably not the guy for the job. He can start with tackling. May not matter if Paul doesn't survive next year anyway.

I'm open to responses either way. I appreciate yours!

 

[1BearJACKET]

If we sign 3 QBs in the offseason, will we have enough room for the big nasties that we need on the OL and on defense? I would rather sign one legit QB like the kid from Warner Robin's that is at the same JUCO that Virginia's QB was at last season. He is big, he can sling it, and he has the wheels to get yards if a pocket collapses. We need more OL and DL. Why do we need to sign 3 QB/Athletes every year?

 

[Lavoisier]

Yeah, if a guy is huge and athletic he isn't coming to GT and that's just the reality of the situation. Guys like that are some of the rarest players in football and get scooped up by the Bamas and FSUs of the world.

 

[g0lftime]

PJ has said he likes QB'S because they are usually the best athletes on the team. Can move to RB WR or D.

 

[Lavoisier]

If we sign 3 QBs in the offseason, will we have enough room for the big nasties that we need on the OL and on defense? I would rather sign one legit QB like the kid from Warner Robin's that is at the same JUCO that Virginia's QB was at last season. He is big, he can sling it, and he has the wheels to get yards if a pocket collapses. We need more OL and DL. Why do we need to sign 3 QB/Athletes every year?

We should be signing two QBs because our depth there next year is Johnson, Oliver, and R-Fr Graham. We are one injury/transfer from a really bad situation. The disaster 2016 class is going to bite us bad this coming year.

 

[iceeater1969]

PJ has said he likes QB'S because they are usually the best athletes on the team. Can move to RB WR or D.

May we never again try putting an AB at QB

 

[UgaBlows]

As a sidebar here in this discussion about Defensive Coach Nate Woody, I’m really interested in seeing how well he can recruit for “his type of defensive players” to Georgia Tech.

This will be Coach Woody’s first shot at recruiting for GT, and the quality of his work in this area should tell us a lot.

Our recruiting class is almost full, do any of you who follow recruiting closely know what if any impact that Woody has had? Conspicuously missing from this class imo are the 4-star def players that Roof has been reeling in the past 3-4 years. That is a big loss, especially if the results on the field are virtually the same.

 

[steebu]

May we never again try putting an AB at QB

I know where you're coming from.

It does show, however, why recruiting is such a tough game and one or two misses can spell disaster. In 2016 I think we only recruited one guy - Jay Jones. With attrition and stuff we entered 2017 with very little experience in the post-Justin era. "Jordan Matthews" had to hang it up, Jones transferred, and suddenly our depth was gone.

Don't get on that plane, Dontae. Oh, what could have been.

There's such a thin line between success and failure. I have conversations with my Sooner friends and ask them, "Who's Kyler's backup? Give me his name." And because OU is winning these games 59-56 Lincoln Riley simply can't pull Kyler out because OU has to score. And if Kyler went down with an injury? I'm pretty sure OU would be losing these games 59-20.

Point being: one miss in recruiting and one injury can haunt us, which is why CPJ had to "try putting an AB at QB."

 

[UgaBlows]

I'm probably in the minority (don't feel like reading 5 pages of responses) on this but I'm unimpressed with Woody at this point. Statistically we are no different than Roof outside of a few more turnovers but that stat goes up and down every year. Seems like a few years ago Roof's D had a bunch off turnovers too. The parts that bother me the most are first and foremost we are one of the worst tackling teams I've ever seen. No one on that defense wraps up with any consistency when tackling. There is no excuse for that. Tackling IMO is a direct reflection of coaching. No hiding from that.

One of my pet peeves with Roof was playing corners 10-12 yards off their man in most situations but especially on downs like 3rd and 5 leading to easy short completions for 1st downs for the offense. Makes zero sense. Woody is doing the same crap. Has happened all year. Our pass rush sucks. I get it. But when we blitz and still play way off on the outside we're basically saying "yeah we're blitzing but have no confidence we can get there."

An example. In the UGA game they are down just inside our 10. They've got two wide to their right. We blitz. Our corner on the outside receiver is playing way off and for some reason with outside leverage giving the WR an easy slant which they complete for a TD. The unnamed corner who struggled all year never got to within 4 yards of the WR. Who the hell teaches coverage like that? The sideline is your friend. Especially down near the goal line.

I see us getting out schemed. Will happen from time to time but again using the last game as an example they run a slot receiver down the middle of the field on first down and we have our middle linebacker trying to keep up. Again an easy score. Everyone complains when we play ugag, Clemson and some others that we are just outmanned and in some instances we are however we are being outcoached as well.

On a positive note I still believe we have a lot of young athleticism in the back 7 to work with. I don't think we should fire Woody after just one season however I see a lot of issues that if he can't get cleaned up in year two then he's probably not the guy for the job. He can start with tackling. May not matter if Paul doesn't survive next year anyway.

In 2014 we recovered 29 turnovers on defense, the next season that number fell to 17. So-far this season we have 25 with the bowl game left to add a couple hopefully. It will beinteresting to see if we can sustain it next season, i hope that as our secondary gets more experience that they will be inposition to make more int’s.

http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/change_sport_year_div

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

In 2016 I think we only recruited one guy - Jay Jones.

We also signed Lucas Johnson that year.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

I wish I could share many others' enthusiasm and positive outlook on this - it is VERY simple in my opinion.

IF we get bigger and faster at LB and DE (still assuming a large guy at DT), the D will improve. If not, then it will not. I am dubious on how we get the necessary recruits and depth at this point to make some revolutionary change - I have said that by whatever measurement, if PJ ever had a top 35 defense, I think he might take us to the promised land. With that said, he must create a passing game that is a threat as well. I just don't know what the "magic bullet" is that will start getting us some better recruits at LB, DL, and WR.

PJ Davis, Julian Burnett, Quayshawn Nealy.

We don’t need NFL size and speed to have a good lb core but we need better players. We need guys who are more instinctive, better tacklers and can shed blocks. Size and speed our bonuses.

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

I believe there's a misconception that Roof was responsible for pulling in several of the better D recruits while he was here. Most of those players were recruited by the assistants. All in all, I think Roof had just as many misses (if not more) than he did hits when it came to recruiting.