Practice Day #10

[Whiskey_Clear]

The best predictor of future performance is prior performance. Just trying to keep y'all from over inflating my preseason expectations. . Building a truly dominate D is difficult currently. Rules of the game favor the O so much more now imo. That said.....there is a fine line between good and great Ds. And probably a finer line between a mediocre and good D. Nebraska's D a few years ago would have been much different I think if you subtract one single player....Suh. Look at the difference USCe experienced after the departure of Clowney and that stud DT they had.

I do agree we will be improved this year on that side. Maybe much improved. Man September seems a long way away.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

The best predictor of future performance is prior performance. Just trying to keep y'all from over inflating my preseason expectations. . Building a truly dominate D is difficult currently. Rules of the game favor the O so much more now imo. That said.....there is a fine line between good and great Ds. And probably a finer line between a mediocre and good D. Nebraska's D a few years ago would have been much different I think if you subtract one single player....Suh. Look at the difference USCe experienced after the departure of Clowney and that stud DT they had.

I do agree we will be improved this year on that side. Maybe much improved. Man September seems a long way away.

The good news is we don't need a great D to be a great team. A good D would do the trick. Heck, an average D might even be good enough.

 

[iceeater1969]

The good news is we don't need a great D to be a great team. A good D would do the trick. Heck, an average D might even be good enough.

Unless defense improves
The slightest drop in offensive performance could send us back to Year before last when defense bent and double bent and was gassed at end of fourth.

a. With a better defense we can take more chances early and perhaps with offense clicking we can win going away in some games.

B. Being super aggressive on defense early in games ( especially with offense clicking ) could get more holding calls, turnovers, and ESPN highlites films for D players( recruiting).

If we are to be in top 10 at end - we need b.

 

[dhbartlett12]

The best predictor of future performance is prior performance. Just trying to keep y'all from over inflating my preseason expectations. . Building a truly dominate D is difficult currently. Rules of the game favor the O so much more now imo. That said.....there is a fine line between good and great Ds. And probably a finer line between a mediocre and good D. Nebraska's D a few years ago would have been much different I think if you subtract one single player....Suh. Look at the difference USCe experienced after the departure of Clowney and that stud DT they had.

I do agree we will be improved this year on that side. Maybe much improved. Man September seems a long way away.

It's baseball season!

 

[Legal Jacket]

The good news is we don't need a great D to be a great team. A good D would do the trick. Heck, an average D might even be good enough.

That's assuming we have a solid offense again, which is a pretty big stretch. I think too many people are assuming we can lose just about every RB on the team and still be ok. We are going to take a hit at WR. We are going to take a hit at BB. And we are going to take a hit at AB once you get past the first team. We averaged 37.9 ppg, 12th in the country. I think you are going to see that number drop a lot. For reference, it was 26 ppg in 2010, 34.3 in 2011, 33.6 in 2012, and 35.1 in 2013. I think we will probably average in the 30-33 point range next year. With a tougher schedule, we will need to have more than an average D to repeat a 10 win season - otherwise we will have at least 3-5 losses with games @ ND, Miami, and climpson and @ home v. UNC, Pitt, FSU, VT, and uga.

 

[GTech63]

That's assuming we have a solid offense again, which is a pretty big stretch. I think too many people are assuming we can lose just about every RB on the team and still be ok. We are going to take a hit at WR. We are going to take a hit at BB. And we are going to take a hit at AB once you get past the first team. We averaged 37.9 ppg, 12th in the country. I think you are going to see that number drop a lot. For reference, it was 26 ppg in 2010, 34.3 in 2011, 33.6 in 2012, and 35.1 in 2013. I think we will probably average in the 30-33 point range next year. With a tougher schedule, we will need to have more than an average D to repeat a 10 win season - otherwise we will have at least 3-5 losses with games @ ND, Miami, and climpson and @ home v. UNC, Pitt, FSU, VT, and uga.

Along with looking at points per game (BTW that is just O points ?) need to look at Yards per game at BB. I think we will be fine at WR and AB but BB is a key to the TO and that is where a big ? mark lies. D should be as good if not better than last years last half.. Schedule is tough, there is no doubt about it. And as I have said before, a dozen plays in 2014 could have put us at 6 and 6 or undefeated. The personality of this team, baring injuries, can get us to the ACCCG and win it. GO JACKETS!!!!

 

[AE 87]

That's assuming we have a solid offense again, which is a pretty big stretch. I think too many people are assuming we can lose just about every RB on the team and still be ok. We are going to take a hit at WR. We are going to take a hit at BB. And we are going to take a hit at AB once you get past the first team. We averaged 37.9 ppg, 12th in the country. I think you are going to see that number drop a lot. For reference, it was 26 ppg in 2010, 34.3 in 2011, 33.6 in 2012, and 35.1 in 2013. I think we will probably average in the 30-33 point range next year. With a tougher schedule, we will need to have more than an average D to repeat a 10 win season - otherwise we will have at least 3-5 losses with games @ ND, Miami, and climpson and @ home v. UNC, Pitt, FSU, VT, and uga.

I think we'll have "a solid offense again," but I think what you expect, ~33 ppg would fit that. According to footballoutsiders F/+ stat, no offense has been as efficient as ours in the last 10 years, not really close. It would be hard to reproduce that. I'm probably a bit more optimistic about our offense, but I still agree that we really need our D to step up more.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Though I don't entirely disagree with the advice of caution about this year's offense, I have to point out the obvious. Most people before last season were expecting a drop off at QB (first year starter) AB (lost several of our proven runners) and BB (lost our starter). Some even thought we would be weak at WR, though that was one I strongly disagreed with.

But the point remains, in spite of having no proven replacements at the time for Anthony Autry, Robert Godhigh, David Sims and Vad Lee, we had players rise up and give us performances well above our expectations. Even with hindsight it still was not realistic to think that this would happen or that question marks at WR, AB, BB and QB would all be answered in one season. How often does that happen with any team, let alone Tech?

Well, here we are again in the same place (except for quarterback) and I am unusually optimistic as a result. Even CPJ seems to be exuding a quiet confidence about this team.

 

[cuttysark]

While it is always proper to be guarded heading into the following season after a successful year, apparently the % percentage of "Negative Nancy's" never diminishes no matter what this program accomplishes. With the returning players and continued hard work, this program should be able to maintain a standard of success under CPJ that far exceeds anything achieved under CCG.

The "Stones" would have never played at BDS while Gailey was the head coach. Mick only goes to venues that are winners.

 

[4shotB]

Well let me be the first to say, if JHD is eligible, the D-line WILL be a strength of the team...undoubtedly. I'm saving this post so that I can brag about it in Dec. '15.

I don't want to come across like I am bragging...but, anyways I graduated a long time ago with a 2.6. I don't need all that anymore so I am hereby authorizing dear ol' Ma Tech to deduct my account for any points needed to be added to Mr. JHD's account. With one caveat...I don't want to go below a 2.3 (that would make me feel stupid) so the rest of you may need to pony up a few points as required. I hereby make this donation in lieu of a check to the Roll Call. Who's with me here?!


If anybody at the GTAA or Registrar's office needs something more official than a post on this site, PM me. I will not be able to answer tomorrow as I aim to be fishing all day.

 

[FatPat]

I foresee special teams winning at least one big game next year. They will keep us in 3 more that the defense wins two of and the offense pulls out the other. Call it a vision!

 

[GTech63]

I don't want to come across like I am bragging...but, anyways I graduated a long time ago with a 2.6. I don't need all that anymore so I am hereby authorizing dear ol' Ma Tech to deduct my account for any points needed to be added to Mr. JHD's account. With one caveat...I don't want to go below a 2.3 (that would make me feel stupid) so the rest of you may need to pony up a few points as required. I hereby make this donation in lieu of a check to the Roll Call. Who's with me here?!


If anybody at the GTAA or Registrar's office needs something more official than a post on this site, PM me. I will not be able to answer tomorrow as I aim to be fishing all day.

I think my GPA was 2.7 so I am with you for 2 or 3 points to help Jabari. Let us know how the fishing went. Hope it is "catching" for you, not just fishing.

 

[Legal Jacket]

Though I don't entirely disagree with the advice of caution about this year's offense, I have to point out the obvious. Most people before last season were expecting a drop off at QB (first year starter) AB (lost several of our proven runners) and BB (lost our starter). Some even thought we would be weak at WR, though that was one I strongly disagreed with.

But the point remains, in spite of having no proven replacements at the time for Anthony Autry, Robert Godhigh, David Sims and Vad Lee, we had players rise up and give us performances well above our expectations. Even with hindsight it still was not realistic to think that this would happen or that question marks at WR, AB, BB and QB would all be answered in one season. How often does that happen with any team, let alone Tech?

Well, here we are again in the same place (except for quarterback) and I am unusually optimistic as a result. Even CPJ seems to be exuding a quiet confidence about this team.

I'll respectfully disagree. Vad was bad. 45.6% completions. 11:10 TD:int. 182 attempts for 513 yards (2.8 ypc). I don't know a soul who thought we would drop off there. Counting the rushing average, Vad very well have put up one of the worst QB seasons ever at GT.

Sims was fine, but Laskey had a higher ypc in 2013. I for one wasn't expecting a drop off, it's not like Sims threw up a Dwyer like 1400 yards (factor in returning starters on the line too).

At AB I expected a drop off, but we did return almost 100 carries for nearly 700 yards.

Not sure why anyone thought we'd need a replacement for Autry. He basically did nothing but have one good game.

We knew we had something in JT, we knew we had returning players with experience who had done great in limited roles.

Compare that to this year. We return what, 5 catches? 0 carries at BB. Second string AB is all freshmen. It's a lot different than this year, where we started Seniors at AB, BB, and WR

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Yes, I was one of those who was optimistic about last season, more even than I let on. But everything you sited is information after the fact, so to speak. People were not looking at it that way at the time.

With regard to Lee, he had very strong defenders on this site and other sites. The argument was that we lost his experience and Justin was unproven as a starter.

I was never a Sims fan but again, the argument from many, was that there was a reason he was the starter and we were losing a proven commodity in him. Laskey and Days were "accused" of being either not as durable or prone to fumbling.

At AB there was much hand wringing because we had "no proven" star returning like Orwin Smith or Robert Godhigh.

Autry was supposed to be our best receiver and more than a few fans were counting on him.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with everything you said, I am just talking about the perception before last season versus the perception after the season. So all this is to say, just as I was optimistic before last season, I am equally optimistic about this season. And as I have said before, since CPJ has been at Tech there has never been a single year when I was seriously worried about the offense. This offense does not seem to have down years. Some years are better than others but it still manages to put points on the board.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Yes, I was one of those who was optimistic about last season, more even than I let on. But everything you sited is information after the fact, so to speak. People were not looking at it that way at the time.

With regard to Lee, he had very strong defenders on this site and other sites. The argument was that we lost his experience and Justin was unproven as a starter.

I was never a Sims fan but again, the argument from many, was that there was a reason he was the starter and we were losing a proven commodity in him. Laskey and Days were "accused" of being either not as durable or prone to fumbling.

At AB there was much hand wringing because we had "no proven" star returning like Orwin Smith or Robert Godhigh.

Autry was supposed to be our best receiver and more than a few fans were counting on him.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with everything you said, I am just talking about the perception before last season versus the perception after the season. So all this is to say, just as I was optimistic before last season, I am equally optimistic about this season. And as I have said before, since CPJ has been at Tech there has never been a single year when I was seriously worried about the offense. This offense does not seem to have down years. Some years are better than others but it still manages to put points on the board.

And should I add, who knew that the offensive line would go from near disastrous to one of the best in Tech's modern history. All goes to show that we sometimes worry about the wrong things.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I don't recall anyone thinking Autry was our best receiver. Deandre Smelter was clearly that at the end of last year. But . . . ancient history . . . water under the bridge and so on.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Last year I was arguing with my bro-inlaw about our receivers. I couldn't convince him that Smelter was a baller. Told him Waller would make plays too (though he actually made a bit fewer than I thought he would).

This year....I have no idea....just a lot of hope. Our O will almost certainly regress a little bit. Hopefully the D can shoulder more of the load.