Postgame: ND 31-GT 13

[g0lftime]

Unless FSU is CCW's "dream job", I'm not sure why he would want to jump into the middle of that dumpster fire.

Key came to GT from Alabama as an alum. Weinke is a FSU alum. Depends on how much compassion he has. He might want an OC job as he moves up the coaching ladder. Again I do not want him to leave.
I personally wouldn't go if I were him. They have administration problems (ACC lawsuit) as well plus a fan base that is unreasonably overconfident.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

Honestly, I just want us to bring the best we’ve got every week. As long as we do that I can live with losses. We haven’t been doing that for most of the year.

And to make matters worse, we just aren’t getting better as a team. We plug a hole in the boat and a leak springs somewhere else. Last year offense looked good, but D was horrible. We focus on the D and make great strides - special teams falls apart, offense regresses. It’s very frustrating with a team that brought back so many starters. Coaches have a lot of work to do.

This is what we all want. The loss does not bother me because I’ve accepted where we are as a program. But if this is the product our coaches are creating then something has to change because what we saw yesterday was garbage. Game 8 and we are false starting and sending in a 12th man? Compare that to the coaching staff 70 miles away who had their team playing disciplined and ready to go when the whole world was watching.

 

[Randy Carson]

Key came to GT from Alabama as an alum. Weinke is a FSU alum. Depends on how much compassion he has. He might want an OC job as he moves up the coaching ladder. Again I do not want him to leave.
I personally wouldn't go if I were him. They have administration problems (ACC lawsuit) as well plus a fan base that is unreasonably overconfident.

I understand the FSU connection, and that's a HUGE plus for making the move.

BUT right now? I dunno...

Norvell is 43. How long is he going to be around after a year like this?

Weinke is only 52. Seems like there is time for him to wait until FSU has its act together - on and off the field - before making that move.

 

[GT33]

Are we allowed to say the gt coaches are also not as talented as nd s coaches and they got pushed around or do we only criticize the players?

I think by now we know what we have in a coach. The in game management he needs someone to help him with. Key’s lack of OC/DC experience is showing. He appears to be a great recruiter. We need to leverage that and build a structure around him like Clemson did for Dabo.

 

[684Bee]

This is what we all want. The loss does not bother me because I’ve accepted where we are as a program. But if this is the product our coaches are creating then something has to change because what we saw yesterday was garbage. Game 8 and we are false starting and sending in a 12th man? Compare that to the coaching staff 70 miles away who had their team playing disciplined and ready to go when the whole world was watching.

Agree. Way too much basic stuff that we aren’t doing well. We are at least supposed to be the smart, disciplined team.

 

[MWBATL]

I felt like our players did their best. We just found out that ND has better players than we do. That’s reality, and I can accept that and move on. One can hope we continue to improve as a program, and I *think* Key has us on the right track for that to happen. I hope so anyway.

The only reason I am concerned and discouraged is special teams, especially FG. Key shouldn’t be having these problems at this stage of his tenure.

Everything else is to me on track.

ZP simply isn’t as fast a runner or as squiggly as HK. HK makes our ground game go because of the threat he represents on the run game. BUT ZP is a winner and did his level best out there. and performed well.

I thought our play calling was wide open and for once we did not continue to throw ourselves at the brick wall that was the ND DL. Throwing the ball was frankly our only realistic chance. Worked for a while, but I never thought we’d score more than 17 points against a VERY GOOD ND defense. In fact, we could have and should have scored a bit more if we could have kicked FGs.

On defense, I thought some of the 2nd string guys got….educated. We just don’t have depth, and that is often what separates OK teams from good teams. This is where we have to remind ourselves that our defensive coaches haven’t been here long enough to make *that* kind of impact yet.

I am NOT dismayed about the rest of the season. I think VPI&SU will be a tough challenge for us. A lot depends on if we get some guys back healthy.

I think we can still reach 8-4 and feel like 7-5 is a highly possible finish if we get healthy.

 

[MWBATL]

I think by now we know what we have in a coach. The in game management he needs someone to help him with.

Actually, I do agree with this. No way we should have had to burn 2 TO’s in the 1st quarter and then why did he use the final TO before the half when the clock was already stopped for a first down? Spike it, keep the TO.

Ket isn’t particularly good with this type of thing.

 

[Techfan02]

I am not terribly upset about today's game. We fought hard, but I never had the sense that we were in full control of the game. Too many key folks out.

Special teams was what killed my day I mean holding them to 24 points on O and they have a top 10 D so not gonna shread our guys gotta get ready for VT.

 

[bobongo]

Yeah, and we played our worst game in facing them to exacerbate the problem. Northern Illinois beat them and Louisville took them to the end of the game. If we had played well we could have kept it much closer - and yeah, still probably lost. We just didn’t.

But as our game isn't static, neither is theirs. I don't know this but just speculating - maybe they played better against us than they did against Northern Illinois. And I don't think Tech is as good as Louisville.
It's been pointed out many times but bears repeating because we forget it - there is no transitive property in college football. If we played Northern Illinois, we may well beat them. Louisville too, on a given day. And on a given day, maybe we would have kept it much closer - or even won. But 9 times out of 10 that team is going to beat us, like they did yesterday.

True we made mistakes, and they should be addressed. But just to put that in perspective, I've never seen a mistake free game. We also did things right, just not enough of them. But you have to take into account that the other team was faster, stronger, more skilled. It's why they went into the game #12, and unlike FSU, merited the ranking.

 

[Techfan02]

Actually, I do agree with this. No way we should have had to burn 2 TO’s in the 1st quarter and then why did he use the final TO before the half when the clock was already stopped for a first down? Spike it, keep the TO.

Ket isn’t particularly good with this type of thing.

The second TO was cause we was subbing late and the final one before half Eh never had a problem with it.

 

[sgreer]

*EDIT* While I was typing, I see that NorthAvenueNation (love that, btw) posted before me. I second everything he says. To wit:

First, did we REALLY expect to beat Notre Dame? Anyone who says, "I expect to win every game," is either lying or a fool.

Second, is the team better today than it was in the not-too-distant past? Anyone who says, "No," simply has an axe to grind.

Third, will we have a better season NEXT year than we will finish with this year? Anyone who says, "No," hasn't looked at the schedule.

Tech is on the rise. We have an excellent coaching staff, and our investment in recruiting the state of Georgia is paying dividends. Everyone (except some of the people on this board) seems to understand this.

I'm just glad I don't live next door to some of you Johnny Rainclouds.

I think Tech is still years away unless they can land some big time transfers. Next year I see 2 losses to Clemson and uga, 2 definite wins, and 8 toss-up games. At least it’s evident that Key has them playing hard and that there is a shot to win in every game.

 

[BonafideJacket]

ND controlled the game completely. Not sure our defense was any good. More like they were comfortable controlling the game and not taking many risks on offense because they trusted their defense.

Four 4th down attempts and two fake kicks say otherwise. ND was doing everything they could to score as many points as possible because they are the ultimate beauty pageant candidate for the playoff. They cannot get an auto bid and they already have a bad loss. Every win has to look really good for them.

 

[bobongo]

I think Tech is still years away unless they can land some big time transfers. Next year I see 2 losses to Clemson and uga, 2 definite wins, and 8 toss-up games. At least it’s evident that Key has them playing hard and that there is a shot to win in every game.

That's what I look for more than anything - did they play hard? Once again yesterday, I would say yes, they did.

 

[Southern psu fan]

Florida St is a big time coaching job and if Florida St wants Weinke he’d be nuts not to take that job. Brent Key is why Ga Tech is in good hands so if weinke leaves I’m not worried one bit. Look at where we were 2 years ago and look at the team today when we are healthy. Everything is good just gotta get our starting QB and LB’r back.

 

[LongforDodd]

CBK cited his biggest issues to address as special teams, tackling, and O-line, in that order. I pretty much agree with him.

I watch a fair amount of CFB and I don’t see any other punter as close to having punts blocked as our kicker. He takes too much time with his particular style on non conventional punting

 

[Southern psu fan]

I watch a fair amount of CFB and I don’t see any other punter as close to having punts blocked as our kicker. He takes too much time with his particular style on non conventional punting

Watch a Penn St game and you’ll see it

 

[RamblinMike]

Thought the same...

They were bad snaps, two consecutive. Freer is usually money. He had a bad day.

 

[stinger78]

Unless they hand CCW the HC job, I don’t think he leaves. Still, there’s too much turmoil there above the HC position. I think he stays.

As for improvement over last year here are the first 8 games LY vs. TY

Louisville (L) - F$U (W)
SC St (W) - GSU (W)
Ole Miss (L) - Syracuse (L)
Wake (W) - VMI (W)
BGSU (L) - Louisville (L)
Miami (W) - Dook (W)
BC (L) - UNC (W)
UNC (W) - ND (L)

I’d say marginal we’ve seen improvement overall.

 

[33jacket]

Said it prior. Its a 6-6 7-5 team today. Some solid individual pieces but not enough in the top 44 players to compete consistently with top 15 teams (true top 15 teams not overranks like fsu etc)

Will take a couple more years

Place kicker needs to be replaced. The block wasn’t on the line as much as hitting one foot above their heads. It was a terrible low kick period especially from that distance. No reason that shouldn’t be plenty high enough. He is below 50 percent. Bad handle on another obviously not his fault.

The punting formation or block scheme is bad. Matter of time before one is blocked somewhere down the line.

The rest is alot of jimmy joes and youth.

Penalties have not been terrible this year. But they seem to bite us in the most critical moments and thats mental. Thats pressing too much.

I think the staff and direction is ok. I am not seeing any need to place too much gross blame on them. Everyone learns and makes mistakes

But turning around a gt ship will take longer than other schools. And can crash quicker. He needs more time and we will see

 

[LongforDodd]

They were bad snaps, two consecutive. Freer is usually money. He had a bad day.

The snaps were a bit higher than normal. Our holder, who’s only been doing this for a relatively brief period of his athletic career, couldn’t handle the higher than usual snap.