Postgame GT 23 - Ole Miss 48

[slugboy]

I understand what you are saying logically. What i am having trouble with, after the last 10-15 years or whatever, is that it is apparently impossible for the coaches to fix the issue during the course of a season for whatever reason. If they knew what to do, they would have already done it. It sounds a bit jaded or harsh but how many bad D's and coordinators have we seen in these years??? I have come to believe that to quote one pretty smart guy, iiwii.

I don’t think we can swap to an entirely different scheme mid season. I don’t expect the players max squat to go up 150 lbs during the season.
I think we improved last season after firing Collins. I think some of that was due to changes in practice and coaching.
While I wouldn’t expect swapping out an entire roster or a scheme, I do expect a team to get better and gel during the year, and there are small things that can be done.
I looked at Sherrer, and I don’t know what scheme he likes. There was a brief time under Saban.
If I were a backup, I’d be arguing that I deserve to start (even more than normal)

Short version: we can’t swap out our defense totally, but we can play tougher and take away some cushion. We can play the players that tackle well

(I don’t expect miracles, but going from terrible to decent should be possible)

 

[iceeater1969]

From the box score on ESPN, 29 Ole Miss players recorded at least one tackle in the game. We had 18. But the key defensive stat is that they had 15 players with at least four tackles. We had 7. Our core defensive unit was playing almost every play and Kiffin was able to rotate his guys. There is clearly a talent difference that gets greater the deeper you go into the two rosters. Thacker can't fix that with schemes.

2 deep Ole Miss were seniors.
Makes me hopeful about our oc especially when we get all receivers health.

 

[iceeater1969]

Let's talk about defensive coaching and scheme.

In Q2, we missed our 4th down conversion on our second drive. King put the ball slightly behind Blalock and the pass was knocked down. Ok, I liked the aggression and at least Ole Miss was backed up on their end of the field.

Our defense forced a 3rd and 3 deep on Ole Miss' end. What did we do?
Not the Thack Attack.

Every one of our DBs lined up 5 yards from the line of scrimmage and back pedaled at the snap. Ole Miss runs a 4 yard out, uncontested, and converts the first down. That is scheme or coaching. That is not a talent issue.

Ole Miss would then drive 93 yards and stop themselves via a dropped pass in the end zone with no defensive player in arm's reach of defending the pass.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

FWIW, I expect that the defense will improve slightly week to week as we play more this season, barring untold amounts of injury.

We lost our best remaining DL after the spring game when Stone transferred to Ole Miss. We lost another DL to the NFL and two great LBs to graduation. With Yondjouen out for the season we are relying on a lot of new players. I stated in the preseason that I fully expected the defense to be a good bit worse this year, but I don't think it will remain terrible. As the remaining players get more practice time and game time I would expect them to improve. We are already seeing Kennard begin to emerge as a possible answer. Our DBs are exposed because we can't generate a pass rush. If we can find ways to dial up some pressure, I think you'll see a defense that can keep a game from getting out of hand and allow the offense to win it for us.

 

[iceeater1969]

Not the Thack attack i remember from last year

 

[g0lftime]

More of an observation rather than a prediction, but no one has mentioned that Key brought in a veteran coach to be co-defensive coordinator. Obvious choice for an interim guy if necessary. Just sayin'.

I noticed that as well. Pump is primed.

 

[Tech93]

The problem on D has and will continue to be the inability to get defensive linemen. If we can ever solve that we’ll be ok.

 

[57jacket]

Coleman?

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I think some starting positions will be up for grabs this week. Some players looked bad in the last 8 minutes.

The transfer portal is a fact of life. We got a receiver from Alabama and our QB is from TA&M. We benefited some—and in the offseason the talk was about how well we’d done in the portal. Yes, we lost 3 really good defenders. Good teams replace departures with other players.

Our defense is less effective than other schools. As an example, Charlotte held SCST to fewer points and yards than we did.

If you look at F+ (a combination of FEI and SP+), it ranked our defense at #75 after week 2. I think it will drop after the Ole Miss game is factored in. Wyoming, Army, San Diego State, Sam Houston, Northwestern, FAU, VT, Troy, Fresno State, Texas Tech, and a lot of teams not known for defense or their recruiting advantages over us are ranked better.

We have an excuse to drop off from last year. It’s not an excuse for how badly we’ve played though. Early grade for defense is a D-.

It has been said many times but worth repeating, "the pine, is a coach's best friend."

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Agreed!
Nobody expected 3-0 start, and only the most optimistic projected 2-1. Eventually we are going to have to outperform expectations, but this is pretty much the start we assumed.

The D is an issue… obviously. We have to get off the field. However, I also think we’ve run up against a couple of pretty good offenses. Time will tell… it’s quite possible that we made them look good. We’re playing a lot of guys with little experience on the D front right now, made even worse with Sylvian out. We have not been good, but I also don’t see any reason to think that we can’t get a lot better relatively quickly. Hopefully the O can help shoulder that burden for us. We don’t have to lock down on anyone, but we have to have enough timely stops to give our O a chance.

The O… it’s certainly a pleasant surprise and something we haven’t seen here for a while. King has been better than expected and people are stepping up around him. HOWEVER… one glaring reality I see is that we have been “out-adjusted” in both of our big games. Lville flat out shut us down offensively in the second half. Maybe the second qtr went a little too well and we relaxed a bit, but the second half was night and day difference. Similarly, we got points on the board before the half to get within a score of Ole Miss. We get the ball to start the 3rd with a chance to really put some pressure on them. O does nothing, D gives up TD and we are stuck playing catch up the rest of the night.

Something has to change in the locker room at the half. I’m not going to pretend to know anything that goes on, but in both losses, we’ve gotten whipped in the 3rd quarter on both sides of the ball.

It needs to change this week. Away game against a respectable but hardly formidable opponent. It better change or this season will likely unravel in a hurry.

 

[roadkill]

Coleman?

Kevin Sherrer

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

ramblinwreck.com

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Please explain how we didn’t quit on Ole Miss final possession.

Hard to tell but 24 points in a little more than 7 minutes is suspicious.

 

[okiemon]

Kevin Sherrer

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

ramblinwreck.com

I forgot about him. Promote him tomorrow.

 

[GetYourBuzzOn]

@slugboy I've been having issues viewing the advanced stats for this game on Game on Paper- have you had the same issues? I ask b/c you've linked to them in the past...

 

[slugboy]

@slugboy I've been having issues viewing the advanced stats for this game on Game on Paper- have you had the same issues? I ask b/c you've linked to them in the past...

The ESPN source stats are missing. Other than staff cuts at ESPN, I’m not sure why we had the bad luck where ESPN lost our stats.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

It's not Game on Paper, but this is the link to the official game stats from RamblinWreck.com

https://ramblinwreck.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/gt090923.pdf

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

Not the Thack attack i remember from last year

The "Thack attack" is when he breaks out the 3-3-5 scheme for big games. Look back on the "upset" games that we have won or games that we should have never been in but were until the bitter end. It wasn't because we were using the "attacking 4-2-5 scheme, we were using our 3-3-5 scheme. Maybe it's time he breaks it back out?

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

The "Thack attack" is when he breaks out the 3-3-5 scheme for big games. Look back on the "upset" games that we have won or games that we should have never been in but were until the bitter end. It wasn't because we were using the "attacking 4-2-5 scheme, we were using our 3-3-5 scheme. Maybe it's time he breaks it back out?

Do we have the LBs to run it this year?

 

[tmhunter52]

The "Thack attack" is when he breaks out the 3-3-5 scheme for big games. Look back on the "upset" games that we have won or games that we should have never been in but were until the bitter end. It wasn't because we were using the "attacking 4-2-5 scheme, we were using our 3-3-5 scheme. Maybe it's time he breaks it back out?

How about just bringing back the Black Watch?

 

[bobongo]

I forgot about him. Promote him tomorrow.

But how are our linebackers holding up this year? This coach has a lot of experience as a linebacker coach at some very good P-5 programs and in the NFL but our linebacker play has been far from stellar.
It's a strong indication that the problem isn't with the coaching. You can only coach the talent up so far.