Seriously....who else we gonna beat?

[GTrob21]

We are going to win a game that we probably shouldn't win. We just have too much talent now. I think Duke, Boston college and maybe 1 more.

 

[tmhunter52]

We lost a game we had no business losing, others have too this season and will continue to do so. This is college football, where most anything an happen outside maybe the top 10 or so teams, no one is really DOMINANT in a way that we can't punch above our weight and win against.

I think we are better than the NIU game showed us to be. There were a number of things that happened that led to the loss, I won't repeat them here because it doesn't do anyone any value and it makes me sad/annoyed to think about again. It is likely in my opinion that we see continued improvement throughout this year and I could see wins in the UNC, Pitt, Duke and BC games without really breaking reality too much. Picking off Clemson/UGA ND(being up there is tough) seems highly unlikely, but the rest are winnable coinflips to me (UVA, VT, UM).

I wouldn't be surprised/unsatisfied by anything in the 6 win range this season and would be thrilled to get to 8 total (regular season).

Against Clemson we will see if we have the ability to chip them and slow them down via the Line play on both sides of the ball, but barring a huge disaster or highly unanticipated miracle game I don't think we learn much more next week, other than Clemson is legitimately elite and we are not yet. Need to stay healthy, not make stupid decisions and treat this with the reality of what it is.

Where will we go bowling this year?

 

[alagold]

Hung 56 on Cut last year

Careful--dook hung 53 on Charlotte last yr and LOST this yr I do believe. (although I think we will best dook but wouldn't bet my savings on it.)

 

[GoJacketsInRaleigh]

BC still has a huge OL but just lost QB Phil Jurkovec for the season.

 

[NorthAvenueNation]

I think we will be more competitive with Clemson then most think. UNC will be our “big” win this year. I see us beating Duke, BC and picking up a W against Miami or VPI.

I predict 5 wins total. I’d love to see six though…

 

[bobongo]

Where will we go bowling this year?

 

[33jacket]

2-3 more wins. 3 win season is a possibility when I see our 2 lines and the new eley guy has not been an upgrade at all to date. Hell pff even rates him near dead last on our team. Just not enough good play vs horrible opponents to say now we are going to win 5 more games with whats remaining. Uga and nd are losses. So is clemson. So thats 3 obvious losses. That leaves 7 games. I just dont see this team doing much more than 3-4 vs that seven. 2-5 or 3-4. So 3-4 win season it seems to me. Want to be wrong. Just don’t see it

we are about to play real teams now….

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Anyone upset at the OP and calling the OP a troll are the real trolls. This is a legitimate question.
According to ESPN, we are only favored against Duke. That doesn’t mean we can’t win anymore games. That also doesn’t mean we can’t lose against Duke. It’s a valid question. Some of you guys need to calm down about getting upset when certain people aren’t as optimistic as you. The truth is it’s not that easy to interpret the facts optimistically right now. Relax. People have different opinions.

I could easily see us losing the rest of our games. I wouldn’t be shocked, but that’s rarely how the game of football works. I think we beat Duke and one more team, probably BC. Would love to be Wrong.

 

[Jacket05]

so what - we beat up on Kennesaw State and you think that translates to the remaining teams on our schedule? Kennesaw isn't even a top 25 FCS team - we had them out manned at every position, yet we were getting stuffed in the middle - KSO only had 65 guys on the sideline - all of our big plays came on individual effort - next week in death valley against a top 10 team - we'll see how we do against the big boys

Actually according to NCAA.com, KSU was ranked #22 after week 1 and is now still ranked #24 AFTER losing to us....

FCS Football Rankings - Stats Perform FCS Top 25 | NCAA.com

Get FCS football rankings from STATS, FCS Coaches Poll and the Simple Ratings System.

www.ncaa.com

 

[CrackerJacket]

I'm thinkin' we beat Dook and win one other game somewhere along the way; another 3-win season. But any close game where clock management is important will not go our way. This has been a CGC weakness since day one.

 

[BurdellJacket]

Anyone upset at the OP and calling the OP a troll are the real trolls. This is a legitimate question.
According to ESPN, we are only favored against Duke. That doesn’t mean we can’t win anymore games. That also doesn’t mean we can’t lose against Duke. It’s a valid question. Some of you guys need to calm down about getting upset when certain people aren’t as optimistic as you. The truth is it’s not that easy to interpret the facts optimistically right now. Relax. People have different opinions.

I could easily see us losing the rest of our games. I wouldn’t be shocked, but that’s rarely how the game of football works. I think we beat Duke and one more team, probably BC. Would love to be Wrong.

It seems it would be more fun for "fans" like you to just cheer for another team.

 

[bobongo]

It seems it would be more fun for "fans" like you to just cheer for another team.

I would assume that's out of the question for someone who bleeds gold and white. I don't quite share his pessimism, but it it doesn't cause me to doubt his fandom.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

It seems it would be more fun for "fans" like you to just cheer for another team.

Oh, good God. *rolls eyes*

If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t care that we have sucked the last two years. If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t have spent the last two Saturdays at Bobby Dodd Stadium. If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t donate money to a school I’m not even an Alma Mater of. Being a fan doesn’t not equate to blind optimism and refusing to be critical. That can be just as toxic as blind pessimism.

 

[BurdellJacket]

Oh, good God. *rolls eyes*

If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t care that we have sucked the last two years. If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t have spent the last two Saturdays at Bobby Dodd Stadium. If I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t donate money to a school I’m not even an Alma Mater of. Being a fan doesn’t not equate to blind optimism and refusing to be critical. That can be just as toxic as blind pessimism.

Well, just enjoy your pessimism to the hilt old fan buddy. Must be fun.

 

[Billygoat91]

Looks like Duke is favored over us per FPI. Doesn't really mean anything. I think we can still beat them. If we have a good showing against UNC, FPI will update accordingly and we will likely be favored in that game and BC with the QB injury. I think we win 4 games this year. Not many P5 teams would have a winning record with our schedule. We need to read between the lines, so to speak, of the W/L record and look for improvement on the field. FWIW, the reduction in penalties has been a big positive this year. Coaching staff discussed reducing turnovers and penalties in the offseason. I believe P-node said that we don't need to try to beat ourselves at the same time as playing the other team. At least we delivered on that thus far.

Regarding Patenaude in general, I have been pleasantly surprised with him this season. Play-calling has been pretty solid, guys have been schemed open, and he has played to our strengths. The OC is usually the first scapegoat that the fanbase goes to if on-field results don't match expectations. I think, regardless of the opnion of the coaching staff as a whole, we can all admit that Patenaude has exceeded expectations so far.

 

[WreckinGT]

Looks like Duke is favored over us per FPI. Doesn't really mean anything. I think we can still beat them. If we have a good showing against UNC, FPI will update accordingly and we will likely be favored in that game and BC with the QB injury. I think we win 4 games this year. Not many P5 teams would have a winning record with our schedule. We need to read between the lines, so to speak, of the W/L record and look for improvement on the field. FWIW, the reduction in penalties has been a big positive this year. Coaching staff discussed reducing turnovers and penalties in the offseason. I believe P-node said that we don't need to try to beat ourselves at the same time as playing the other team. At least we delivered on that thus far.

Regarding Patenaude in general, I have been pleasantly surprised with him this season. Play-calling has been pretty solid, guys have been schemed open, and he has played to our strengths. The OC is usually the first scapegoat that the fanbase goes to if on-field results don't match expectations. I think, regardless of the opnion of the coaching staff as a whole, we can all admit that Patenaude has exceeded expectations so far.

View attachment 11180

Our offense is ranked 59th in total offense, 52nd in yards per play, and 53rd in scoring offense after playing by far the two worst teams on our schedule. How is that exceeding expectations? We should have lit up both of those teams.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Well, just enjoy your pessimism to the hilt old fan buddy. Must be fun.

I never said I was having fun. I’m not. Being a GT fan under this coaching staff has not been fun. But I think most people wouldn’t find it fun losing almost triple the games you’ve won in two seasons and change, so I don’t see how I’m the bad guy here. I suppose Collins’ attracts masochists.

 

[Billygoat91]

Our offense is ranked 59th in total offense, 52nd in yards per play, and 53rd in scoring offense after playing by far the two worst teams on our schedule. How is that exceeding expectations? We should have lit up both of those teams.

I think the opinion of P-node is pretty low with most people on this board. I think the jury is still out on him myself. That said, we had receivers running wide open on multiple plays vs. Northern Illinios that we didn't complete. We left, at a minimum, 13 points on the board that game either due to poor execution on the field (kicker slipped, missed receivers), or Collins going for it. If you add the wide open passes to our passing total, we are easily 40 rank range in passing per game, we are currently 35th in rushing. If we score the points we should have, we are average 37-38 points per game and everyone is halfway happy with those numbers.

I agree we should have lit up both of those teams. Our offensive performance (with the exception of the o-line) was a passing grade against KSU. 45 points against a ball control team that limits possessions is decent. I would have liked for us to break 50, but we didn't. That said, 4 passing td's with a back up qb in his first start his something for us to hang our hat on.

We came out extremely sluggish against NIU. I just don't think that was P-node's fault. Sims just looked like he had the yips, wasn't ready at all. P-node may be the qb coach, but these are 18-22 year old kids. There is no way you can fully control how they are going to respond to a game day atmosphere. He had problems with the mesh (which he had last year and definitely needs fixing if he plays for us in the future, but the offensive playcalling did not cost us that game.

In short, I think it is exceeding expections because the bar was set relatively low for P-node in the first place. He is not the fault of our loss to NIU. I am not happy with the numbers your quoted but we can all admit they are significantly better than the 2 years before this one. If you were expecting us to come out and win 60+ to 7 in both games, I would like to have what your smoking, because that is some good stuff.

In general, I think a lot of our offensive woes comes from poor line play. KSU had our QB running for his life which is unacceptable against that level of competition

 

[Billygoat91]

I think the opinion of P-node is pretty low with most people on this board. I think the jury is still out on him myself. That said, we had receivers running wide open on multiple plays vs. Northern Illinios that we didn't complete. We left, at a minimum, 13 points on the board that game either due to poor execution on the field (kicker slipped, missed receivers), or Collins going for it. If you add the wide open passes to our passing total, we are easily 40 rank range in passing per game, we are currently 35th in rushing. If we score the points we should have, we are average 37-38 points per game and everyone is halfway happy with those numbers.

I agree we should have lit up both of those teams. Our offensive performance (with the exception of the o-line) was a passing grade against KSU. 45 points against a ball control team that limits possessions is decent. I would have liked for us to break 50, but we didn't. That said, 4 passing td's with a back up qb in his first start his something for us to hang our hat on.

We came out extremely sluggish against NIU. I just don't think that was P-node's fault. Sims just looked like he had the yips, wasn't ready at all. P-node may be the qb coach, but these are 18-22 year old kids. There is no way you can fully control how they are going to respond to a game day atmosphere. He had problems with the mesh (which he had last year and definitely needs fixing if he plays for us in the future, but the offensive playcalling did not cost us that game.

In short, I think it is exceeding expections because the bar was set relatively low for P-node in the first place. He is not the fault of our loss to NIU. I am not happy with the numbers your quoted but we can all admit they are significantly better than the 2 years before this one. If you were expecting us to come out and win 60+ to 7 in both games, I would like to have what your smoking, because that is some good stuff.

In general, I think a lot of our offensive woes comes from poor line play. KSU had our QB running for his life which is unacceptable against that level of competition

I might be smoking something too with all of the typos in this message.... smh

 

[bobongo]

Looks like Duke is favored over us per FPI. Doesn't really mean anything.

View attachment 11180

Yeah, I don't believe that matchup predictor for a minute. We are way more talented than Duke. On the field, that is...the sideline is a different story.