Postgame GT 23 - Ole Miss 48

[4shotB]

I have been a fan for 50 years give or take. With the exception of a few years when Tenuta, O'Leary, or Lindsey was our DC, we wail and gnash our teeth and blame the numerous coaches, coordinators, and/or the many hundreds of players who have come and gone.

Us idiots and zealots, desperately hang on waiting for the next great coordinator and the next Ted Roof and Ken Swilling to show up and save us from our wanderings in the desert. Meanwhile, our smarter alumna brethren and sisters, having been trained in reason and logic at our glorious Institute, understand that there is ALWAYS underlying root causes for systemic issues and also understand that GT has never been really interested in applying the same problem solving skills taught at Ma Tech to this decades old issue. Because of this, they have moved on to greener pastures. Meanwhile, the handful of us (the crazies? the hopeful? the faithful? the deranged? the people with no other social skills or outside interests? ) who still give a **** point fingers at each other, the most recent coaching staff and the most recent players. This WILL continue until the root cause issue is addressed or the only people sitting in the stands are the moms, dads and the girlfriends. Plus the band. And 3 or 4 Coke and peanut vendors to serve the dozens in attendance.

 

[tmhunter52]

Thacker is a dead man walking. He knows it by now because he’s not stupid. Key also knows it but it won’t happen during the season because Thacker is a good dude and nothing to gain by letting him go in season.

Special teams have to be addressed or Key will be seen as non-serious by the coaching community. Faulkner will be hired away this off season as this job was an audition and he’s already passed. I hope I’m wrong but its pretty obvious an SEC team will grab him up which would set him up to be a head coach within the next 4 years.

The “something to gain” by firing Thacker now is the messaging from Key that poor performance, whether players or coaches, will not be tolerated. It might “inspire” some on the defense to step up. It may also convince a dwindling fanbase to hang on and suffer through more losing for one more year…

 

[JacketOff]

Our plan is a punter that can line drive a kick 25 yards? That’s not much of a plan.

Bro, it was his first punt ever. On a day he probably had zero expectation of going in the game.

 

[slugboy]

Pitt keeps showing up with a reliable defense. An urban school can do it—and if you’ve seen Pitt’s campus, it looks like Georgia State.

Looking at the some of the numbers. We’re getting some of the worst defensive performance in FBS. It’s not the opponents—we gave up more points to SCST than anyone.

Key needs to get it fixed.

 

[bke1984]

If he was punting like that in practice I doubt he'd be in the game. Sometimes bad punts happen, especially when it's the first time you kick under the big lights. Bad execution doesn't mean we didn't have a plan.

Fair. Maybe the moment got him. I’m guessing we will get a chance to find out.

 

[slugboy]

The “something to gain” by firing Thacker now is the messaging from Key that poor performance, whether players or coaches, will not be tolerated. It might “inspire” some on the defense to step up. It may also convince a dwindling fanbase to hang on and suffer through more losing for one more year…

You don’t fire anyone to send a message. Sending a message doesn’t work—at least, not for long.

And if it’s not the coach’s fault—if it’s the players who don’t have their act together—then you showed the team that this is a place to get away from. When I had a manager get fired for something that was clearly not their fault, I started looking for a new place to work.

If you fire someone, it’s because they aren’t getting their job done, and you can replace them with someone better.

Now, setting up coverage 5 yards deep on 3rd and 4, and then backpedaling—that’s a strategy problem. All the defensive coaches should catch hell for that. There’s other stuff to fix, I’m sure.

 

[bke1984]

Pitt keeps showing up with a reliable defense. An urban school can do it—and if you’ve seen Pitt’s campus, it looks like Georgia State.

Looking at the some of the numbers. We’re getting some of the worst defensive performance in FBS. It’s not the opponents—we gave up more points to SCST than anyone.

Key needs to get it fixed.

I’m not super greedy here. A 60th ranked defense would probably be good enough for us to win a lot of games with our offense this year.

I get the feeling that Key is holding the offense back from scoring quickly for fear that the D will just hemorrhage a TD immediately on the next drive.

 

[slugboy]

I’m not super greedy here. A 60th ranked defense would probably be good enough for us to win a lot of games with our offense this year.

I get the feeling that Key is holding the offense back from scoring quickly for fear that the D will just hemorrhage a TD immediately on the next drive.

A #60 defense keeps us in a lot of games. We probably win Louisville with that.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

The “something to gain” by firing Thacker now is the messaging from Key that poor performance, whether players or coaches, will not be tolerated. It might “inspire” some on the defense to step up. It may also convince a dwindling fanbase to hang on and suffer through more losing for one more year…

I’m not against firing him today. But the simple fact is Key won’t. We can argue it either way, but in the coaching fraternity you have to follow the unwritten rules or you’ll lose your membership card. No coach wants that because they all know they are destined to be fired and need the membership card to get the next job. And unfortunately our dwindling fanbase doesn’t have to be convinced of anything because we are a non-factor.

 

[bobongo]

You don’t fire anyone to send a message. Sending a message doesn’t work—at least, not for long.

And if it’s not the coach’s fault—if it’s the players who don’t have their act together—then you showed the team that this is a place to get away from. When I had a manager get fired for something that was clearly not their fault, I started looking for a new place to work.

If you fire someone, it’s because they aren’t getting their job done, and you can replace them with someone better.

Now, setting up coverage 5 yards deep on 3rd and 4, and then backpedaling—that’s a strategy problem. All the defensive coaches should catch hell for that. There’s other stuff to fix, I’m sure.

Sounds like you got the message loud and clear.

 

[awbuzz]

Some of our best defensive players were on the opposing team last night.

... true

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I have been a fan for 50 years give or take. With the exception of a few years when Tenuta, O'Leary, or Lindsey was our DC, we wail and gnash our teeth and blame the numerous coaches, coordinators, and/or the many hundreds of players who have come and gone.

Us idiots and zealots, desperately hang on waiting for the next great coordinator and the next Ted Roof and Ken Swilling to show up and save us from our wanderings in the desert. Meanwhile, our smarter alumna brethren and sisters, having been trained in reason and logic at our glorious Institute, understand that there is ALWAYS underlying root causes for systemic issues and also understand that GT has never been really interested in applying the same problem solving skills taught at Ma Tech to this decades old issue. Because of this, they have moved on to greener pastures. Meanwhile, the handful of us (the crazies? the hopeful? the faithful? the deranged? the people with no other social skills or outside interests? ) who still give a **** point fingers at each other, the most recent coaching staff and the most recent players. This WILL continue until the root cause issue is addressed or the only people sitting in the stands are the moms, dads and the girlfriends. Plus the band. And 3 or 4 Coke and peanut vendors to serve the dozens in attendance.

Spot on. I let it go yesterday and enjoyed an incredible day in the grove. A highlight of my fandom.

 

[awbuzz]

the only games we will be favored is Bowling Green, Va and probably Boston College. Need to steal two and in my opinion most likely are Wake and Syracuse. I think Miami, UNC, Clemson and Georgia will be big favorites

Watch a replay of the FSU vs BC game... not sure we would be favored if we played next week.

 

[slugboy]

Sounds like you got the message loud and clear.

Yeah, but the people who got the message were the ones they wanted to keep (and didn’t)

 

[awbuzz]

We had 0 penalties yesterday. While there are issues to be fixed, I can give grace when we are at least playing disciplined football.

Anyone that does not appreciate our limited penalty count needs to widen their mindset.

 

[bobongo]

Yeah, but the people who got the message were the ones they wanted to keep (and didn’t)

Reminds me of a sort of Solomon story in reverse: A store owner kept coming up short in the till. Two clerks working together had access to it, so he crafted a poorly thought-out plan to take half of what was missing out of each clerk's paycheck (a violation of labor laws, of course, but that's another story). Predictably, this had the effect of causing the honest clerk to quit in indignation, while the crook was happy to stay, as he was being rewarded by profiting half of what he stole.

 

[Techwood Relict]

Bro, it was his first punt ever. On a day he probably had zero expectation of going in the game.

You ought to see the backup punter at my house. I guarantee that poor slob has no shot at ballin out.

I'm fine with our backup punter plan....

 

[roadkill]

Watch a replay of the FSU vs BC game... not sure we would be favored if we played next week.

I have moved BC from a very probable win to a toss-up currently. Could have been an "any given Saturday" type of game, but BC gave FSU all they could handle. I hope to see that next week's game reverts to the mean.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

With our defense, no game is assured.

 

[stinger 1957]

Certainly I'm no expert, but it seems to me that our offense is not a good offense to try and do ball control. Seems to me that a passing offense needs to have the threat of the long ball working for it to be effective and ball control would mean when passing it needs to be shorter passes. The TO would seem to be the ideal ball control offense.
I know we were doing what we had to do, knowing we did not have what it takes on defense to slow Ole Miss down, but just wondering if the ball control game plan help limit us to just 3 pts first half. Don't know that I'm right just asking the question.