Phil Steele: GT 14th Most Difficult Schedule in the Country

GTJoeBrew

GTJoeBrew

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Oh boy, good luck Washington.

I still like our chances against anyone on our schedule. With us being towards the back end of the top 25, I have a feeling that our guys will take the "I don't want them to give us anything, I want to take it" approach.
 
CobbTech

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This one of the big reasons why I think people who are talking playoff are crazy. At ND will be tough. We haven't won at Miami in the PJ era. VT is always tough. We've struggled big time at Clemson the last three tries and if Watson is healthy, they will be really tough. FSU still has athletes. We haven't beaten UGA in atl since 1999 so until we actually do that, I'm assuming that's an L.

I'll say it again...with all of the talent and senior leadership we lost from 2014 along with a much tougher schedule, I will be pleased with 8-4 and ecstatic if we get to 9 wins.
 
kyle.smith828

kyle.smith828

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The toughest teams on our schedule lost a lot as well. If JHD regains eligibility, I see our defense making huge strides. Hell, they made huge strides from the beginning of 2014 to the end of the year. We return a guy at QB who is absolutely dynamic with a year of experience under his belt, who knows how to win big games. JT has a chance to cement himself as one of GT's all-time great QBs. We return 4/5 o-linemen, and I expect our line to be one of the ACC's best. If PJ has proven anything, especially at the AB/BB positions, it's plug and play. I'm sure we will have a few break out guys, as every team does every year.

Back to the schedule, yes, it's tough. But every game on the slate is winnable. Clemson has a lot of questions on defense. Miami is Miami. Who knows what we get there. Will UGA have a QB? Who knows. ND? I remember a ND getting run out of town by uSC at the end of year and finishing 7-5.

The line of thought that says "well, PJ hasn't beat such and such at home in his career, haven't beaten UGA at home since 1999, blah-blah-blah," truly irks me. Simply, it does not matter.

Sure, we could finish 7-5, 8-4, etc. I could also see us win 10+. We have a tough schedule in name, but how tough those teams actually are is yet to be determined. I see most of our tough opponents with far greater problems than we have.

The fact is, we have one of the top QB's in the nation, we have one of the best o-line's in the nation, an improved defense and possibly the best d-line we have seen at GT in almost ten years. I swear to God, if our defense can rank in the top 30 nationally in scoring, we have a decent shot to win all of our games.

I expect another historic season from GT (barring injuries). We are strong in the most important phases of the game. PJ finally got this train rolling like we all expected him to after 2009.
 
CobbTech

CobbTech

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kyle.smith828 said:
The line of thought that says "well, PJ hasn't beat such and such at home in his career, haven't beaten UGA at home since 1999, blah-blah-blah," truly irks me. Simply, it does not matter.

Sure, we could finish 7-5, 8-4, etc. I could also see us win 10+. We have a tough schedule in name, but how tough those teams actually are is yet to be determined. I see most of our tough opponents with far greater problems than we have.

The fact is, we have one of the top QB's in the nation, we have one of the best o-line's in the nation, an improved defense and possibly the best d-line we have seen at GT in almost ten years. I swear to God, if our defense can rank in the top 30 nationally in scoring, we have a decent shot to win all of our games.
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I'm sorry it irks you. It irks me that we can't beat UGA at home. We've lost 7 straight in atlanta and most of them haven't been close. A lot of it has to do with they have/had better players. This year shouldn't be any different. They will have a more talented roster. We can beat them. But we better be healthy and have it figured out on offense by then. To me, it's just a little crazy to be talking playoffs.

Sometimes it depends on when you play a certain team. We played GSU and VT in September and nearly lost to both. If we play them in November, we smoke them.

I'll believe the good defense when I see it. We gave up a ton of yards last season. JHD has never played a collegiate snap on the DL. I think expectations need to be tempered for our DL. We've been awful and now everyone thinks we're going to be great.

I keep seeing "If we can get a top 30 defense, we'll be incredible." I'm pretty sure we had a top 30-40 defense in 2013 and we weren't any good. I like our QB and OL much better this year.

I just think too many think were just going to pick up where we left off in the Orange bowl. It's a completely new team and we've seen too many great years followed up by duds. The difference this time is we have one of the best QB's we've ever had. But even Joe Ham followed a 10 win season with 8 wins.
 
GlennW

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If our defense can play a whole season like they did the final third of LAST season, and we can be as healthy thoughout the season as we were LAST season, then we can win EVERY game on our schedule NEXT season, including PLAYOFF games.
 

Animal02

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There is not a team on the schedule that we cannot beat. And there are few that could not beat us. So much will depend on who is healthy when, and then that lucky bounce of the ball. I think ND is still living on its reputation more than its true ability. I also do not think that playing at ND is that intimidating (at least it was not the last 2 times I was there)
 
Dave.S

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CobbTech said:
I'm sorry it irks you. It irks me that we can't beat UGA at home. We've lost 7 straight in atlanta and most of them haven't been close. A lot of it has to do with they have/had better players. This year shouldn't be any different. They will have a more talented roster. We can beat them. But we better be healthy and have it figured out on offense by then. To me, it's just a little crazy to be talking playoffs.

Sometimes it depends on when you play a certain team. We played GSU and VT in September and nearly lost to both. If we play them in November, we smoke them.

I'll believe the good defense when I see it. We gave up a ton of yards last season. JHD has never played a collegiate snap on the DL. I think expectations need to be tempered for our DL. We've been awful and now everyone thinks we're going to be great.

I keep seeing "If we can get a top 30 defense, we'll be incredible." I'm pretty sure we had a top 30-40 defense in 2013 and we weren't any good. I like our QB and OL much better this year.

I just think too many think were just going to pick up where we left off in the Orange bowl. It's a completely new team and we've seen too many great years followed up by duds. The difference this time is we have one of the best QB's we've ever had. But even Joe Ham followed a 10 win season with 8 wins.
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I'm with you on this, we have way to many question marks (inexperience) right now at WR and AB/BB, to be talking CFP. With that said I'm confident we have the talent and coaches to have another great year. With that schedule and the fact that we have a target on our backs this year will mean guys are going to have to step up big time.
 

augustabuzz

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CobbTech said:
I'm sorry it irks you. It irks me that we can't beat UGA at home. We've lost 7 straight in atlanta and most of them haven't been close. ...
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This will be the second game to have ACC refs against UG since 1987. The first game was two years ago and we lost in double overtime.
 
RamblinCharger

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CobbTech said:
I'm sorry it irks you. It irks me that we can't beat UGA at home. We've lost 7 straight in atlanta and most of them haven't been close. A lot of it has to do with they have/had better players. This year shouldn't be any different. They will have a more talented roster. We can beat them. But we better be healthy and have it figured out on offense by then. To me, it's just a little crazy to be talking playoffs.

Sometimes it depends on when you play a certain team. We played GSU and VT in September and nearly lost to both. If we play them in November, we smoke them.

I'll believe the good defense when I see it. We gave up a ton of yards last season. JHD has never played a collegiate snap on the DL. I think expectations need to be tempered for our DL. We've been awful and now everyone thinks we're going to be great.

I keep seeing "If we can get a top 30 defense, we'll be incredible." I'm pretty sure we had a top 30-40 defense in 2013 and we weren't any good. I like our QB and OL much better this year.

I just think too many think were just going to pick up where we left off in the Orange bowl. It's a completely new team and we've seen too many great years followed up by duds. The difference this time is we have one of the best QB's we've ever had. But even Joe Ham followed a 10 win season with 8 wins.
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- Yeah... we didn't have a top 30 defense in 2013. It was 43 and that was because we blew out a bunch of awful teams like Syracuse and we held Duke and UNC to 17-24 points a piece. We'll be better on defense this year than we were in 2013 as long as we stay healthy.
- I'm not asking you to drink the koolaid, but Notre Dame sucks, they're just a name. FSU lost a ton of starters, most importantly Jameis; UGA is the same as usual, they have no QB but they'll be able to run the ball and play solid defense; clemson lost almost their entire defense; VT is going downhill in a hurry; and we're simply better than anyone else on our schedule other than Miami and they're bipolar. I give us a good shot to beat anyone on our schedule, and it's fun to have hope. Live a little.
 
dressedcheeseside

dressedcheeseside

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RamblinCharger said:
- Yeah... we didn't have a top 30 defense in 2013. It was 43 and that was because we blew out a bunch of awful teams like Syracuse and we held Duke and UNC to 17-24 points a piece. We'll be better on defense this year than we were in 2013 as long as we stay healthy.
- I'm not asking you to drink the koolaid, but Notre Dame sucks, they're just a name. FSU lost a ton of starters, most importantly Jameis; UGA is the same as usual, they have no QB but they'll be able to run the ball and play solid defense; clemson lost almost their entire defense; VT is going downhill in a hurry; and we're simply better than anyone else on our schedule other than Miami and they're bipolar. I give us a good shot to beat anyone on our schedule, and it's fun to have hope. Live a little.
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There's no way to know how good any of those teams you mentioned will be this year. Dismissing them out of hand at this point is premature. One thing is for sure, they're all loaded with high caliber athletes up and down their rosters. We will earn each and every W we get this year.
 
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