Tech in Birmingham Bowl

[Root4GT]

Apply that to your own statement that UGA and Miami are clearly better. Selective logic here.

Look at their record vs GT’s record. They are better. GT 7-5. NCST & UNC both 6-6 - peers. Miami and UGA 10-2 - better. This is not a hard concept.

 

[cpf2001]

Look at their record vs GT’s record. They are better. GT 7-5. NCST & UNC both 6-6 - peers. Miami and UGA 10-2 - better. This is not a hard concept.

And Duke was also 9-3, and a comeback win against GT away from having the same record as UGA. (Or UGA was a GT loss away from the same 9-3.) But that ignores schedule which is stupid, as it is with the other Carolina team comparisons. We could also look at conference records here for GT vs Carolina/NCST.

Your explanation is just “played over their heads against UGA and Miami” but that’s fairly unsatisfactory as to why the ceiling has been raised but the floor hasn’t followed. Key couldn’t get the 2022 team to play like that against UGA. But the 2024 team still plays weaker conference opponents like the 2022 team did.

That needs fixing.

Because GT shouldn’t make 2024 Duke look as competitive as 2024 UGA even if they both were 9-2 outside of the GT game.

 

[MWBATL]

You are not understanding the call. The call was the Vsndy player was pushed into Stockton which negates running into Stockton.


Very weak call.

Terrible terrible call….ESPN agreed. The ESPN analyst who was an official also thought it was a penalty on Vandy. Or should have been…

 

[Treb1982]

Stupid game in a stupid city vs a stupid team... No wonder the ending up being stupid... Ready for 2025

 

[gte447f]

It was a tough loss, but about what I expected with all of the injuries and the transfer portal entries.

King isn't back to 100% and Vandy was always going to be a tough match up this year. Reminds me of that bowl game we drew against Ole Miss 10-12 years ago. I didn't think we would be able to hang then or today.

We aren't there yet but we took a huge step this year.

You didn’t think we would be able to hang with a 6-6 team? I’m a realist, but that seems self defeatist.

 

[Root4GT]

Terrible terrible call….ESPN agreed. The ESPN analyst who was an official also thought it was a penalty on Vandy. Or should have been…

The call should have been reversed when the officials huddled, and they had a fairly long huddle after the play. I can see why one official could throw a flag depending on his vantage point. However after discussion it was fairly clear the slight push in the back did not cause the defender to run into Stockton.

 

[GTNC72]

Well Key didn't call out the refs at his presser... Oh well

He did go ballistic after the KR push not interference or roughing call. I had never seen him so angry. The PI (?) was another dumb*** call. Those are about the only plays I saw as I was with family. Oh, and the int.

 

[kg01]

Sorry but another receiver failing to get separation would not have helped.

It's not about whether or not he'd get separation. It's about the defense accounting for him. Why the unnecessary shots?

 

[Root4GT]

And Duke was also 9-3, and a comeback win against GT away from having the same record as UGA. (Or UGA was a GT loss away from the same 9-3.) But that ignores schedule which is stupid, as it is with the other Carolina team comparisons. We could also look at conference records here for GT vs Carolina/NCST.

Your explanation is just “played over their heads against UGA and Miami” but that’s fairly unsatisfactory as to why the ceiling has been raised but the floor hasn’t followed. Key couldn’t get the 2022 team to play like that against UGA. But the 2024 team still plays weaker conference opponents like the 2022 team did.

That needs fixing.

Because GT shouldn’t make 2024 Duke look as competitive as 2024 UGA even if they both were 9-2 outside of the GT game.

You have a very inflated sense of how good GT is compared to our opponents. We were 7-6 this year and last year. We are a solid team. We are much improved on defense. King’s injury was a significant setback for the offense. As a result the offense was solid but not as explosive as last year. Still good.

Special teams improved dramatically the second half of the season.

We are not at the point where we line up and are much better than most of the ACC Teams.

Recruting and the Portal seem to be helping bring in more talented players. We still have one more day in this Portsl window, I would expect several guys to go into the Portal. There is also a Post Spring Portal that is a great unknown for GT.

 

[Root4GT]

It's not about whether or not he'd get separation. It's about the defense accounting for him. Why the unnecessary shots?

Anyone who thinks Singleton not playing didn’t matter is simply being obstinacy. He is a difference maker.

 

[cpf2001]

You have a very inflated sense of how good GT is compared to our opponents. We were 7-6 this year and last year. We are a solid team. We are much improved on defense. King’s injury was a significant setback for the offense. As a result the offense was solid but not as explosive as last year. Still good.

Special teams improved dramatically the second half of the season.

We are not at the point where we line up and are much better than most of the ACC Teams.

Recruting and the Portal seem to be helping bring in more talented players. We still have one more day in this Portsl window, I would expect several guys to go into the Portal. There is also a Post Spring Portal that is a great unknown for GT.

You’re still cherry picking numbers and ignoring the ones that might contradict your “GT and UNC and NCST are peers right now” belief. Like the 3-5 conference records vs the 5-3 one.

Meanwhile I bet you don’t believe UGA and Duke are true peers despite having identical non-GT-game 9-2 records.

So is overall record the end-all-and-be-all or not?

 

[Yaller Jacket]

Could someone summarize what happened after the delay? Did both trams play their starters?

 

[Root4GT]

You’re still cherry picking numbers and ignoring the ones that might contradict your “GT and UNC and NCST are peers right now” belief. Like the 3-5 conference records vs the 5-3 one.

Meanwhile I bet you don’t believe UGA and Duke are true peers despite having identical non-GT-game 9-2 records.

So is overall record the end-all-and-be-all or not?

5-3 vs 3-5 is one game. FSU FG on the last play of the game. UNC a 60+ yard TD run with 16 seconds left. NCST misses a FG with 3 seconds left. Any one of those goes slightly wrong and we are not a 5-3 team.

You fail to make any case why you think GT is much better than any of the 3 peer teams. Make a case if you have one.

 

[gte447f]

Anyone who thinks Singleton not playing didn’t matter is simply being obstinacy. He is a difference maker.

Singleton is a good player, but he’s not outstanding. Rutherford is better in my book. I think he has been more impactful. He is better at getting open, he is better at catching the ball, and he is better with the ball in his hands. Plus, despite singleton’s speed, after this season, I don’t think most defenses were going to worry much about Haynes King putting the ball downfield whether singleton was on the field or not.

 

[Root4GT]

Singleton is a good player, but he’s not outstanding. Rutherford is better in my book. I think he has been more impactful. He is better at getting open, he is better at catching the ball, and he is better with the ball in his hands. Plus, despite singleton’s speed, after this season, I don’t think most defenses were going to worry much about Haynes King putting the ball downfield whether singleton was on the field or not.

The combination of Rutherford and Singleton make both better. There is a clear drop off from those two to the #3 receiver on our team. Missing Singleton makes it easier to cover Rutherford. The are really the only explosive play making receivers we have.

 

[cpf2001]

5-3 vs 3-5 is one game. FSU FG on the last play of the game. UNC a 60+ yard TD run with 16 seconds left. NCST misses a FG with 3 seconds left. Any one of those goes slightly wrong and we are not a 5-3 team.

You fail to make any case why you think GT is much better than any of the 3 peer teams. Make a case if you have one.

EDIT to supersede the below: it seems like, Root, you think I’m saying “they play down to their competition” as some sort of good thing about the team? Like I’m overly optimistic? An inflated sense of how good the team is? It’s not. It’s a bad thing. I hope you’re right, frankly, because then things can be fixed by the talent Key is bringing in. I think there are some persistent deeper coaching failures that could continue to cost the team if Key can’t fix them.

It’s… two games? Not 1? Unless you’re only counting the head to head ones, but that would be silly.

My claim was “GT plays down to the level of the opponent” so the closeness of those UNC and NCST games tells us nothing about if GT was actually much better than those two. “They don’t play down, they just aren’t that good, because they didn’t beat them by much” is circular.

So we have to look at the other games UNC and NCST played. Because those games being close is built into both of our claims.

And they look… not great. Neither team had any wins suggesting as high a ceiling as GT’s best win (or even close to GT’s best loss). Both teams had worse losses than GT.

If you don’t want to take my eye test’s word for it, FPI has GT 6th in the ACC and UNC 12th, NCST 13th. Similar story by overall efficiency. https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/group/1

Still waiting to hear why your “but the overall record is close!” wouldn’t also apply to Duke/UGA if it applies to GT/UNC blindly. Replace Charlotte and JMU with ND and UGA for UNC and get back to me on that too. Replace NIU with UGA for NCST. You’re using overall record because it fits your argument, but it has some holes.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I’ll wade through these comments in my leisure, as I feel like it, but I did not watch the whole game due to social obligations. When I turned the game on Tech was slightly behind but gaining momentum. Vandy was forced to punt and interfered with the receiver. Bizarrely it was not called and Tech was forced to play out of their own end zone. It looked like a game changing blunder by the refs so I turned off the game after that. There are some bad calls (witness the uga game) that you just don’t recover from unless you’re playing a very bad team.

Still optimistic about the future. And surely our run of bad refereeing will eventually end.

 

[MacJacket]

Singleton is a good player, but he’s not outstanding. Rutherford is better in my book. I think he has been more impactful. He is better at getting open, he is better at catching the ball, and he is better with the ball in his hands. Plus, despite singleton’s speed, after this season, I don’t think most defenses were going to worry much about Haynes King putting the ball downfield whether singleton was on the field or not.

I think you’re both right. Singleton’s speed makes him a threat you have to account for on any play. He also had issues catching this year. Rutherford is very dynamic but doesn’t seem to scare opponents enough to take him away. Both great players and we would be more dynamic next year with both of them.

 

[kg01]

The combination of Rutherford and Singleton make both better. There is a clear drop off from those two to the #3 receiver on our team. Missing Singleton makes it easier to cover Rutherford. The are really the only explosive play making receivers we have.

I have no idea what people are missing in what we're saying. Nobody's saying Singleton is Randy Moss but having him available makes things easier for others. It's not even hard to understand.

 

[apatriot1776]

And Duke was also 9-3, and a comeback win against GT away from having the same record as UGA. (Or UGA was a GT loss away from the same 9-3.) But that ignores schedule which is stupid, as it is with the other Carolina team comparisons. We could also look at conference records here for GT vs Carolina/NCST.

Your explanation is just “played over their heads against UGA and Miami” but that’s fairly unsatisfactory as to why the ceiling has been raised but the floor hasn’t followed. Key couldn’t get the 2022 team to play like that against UGA. But the 2024 team still plays weaker conference opponents like the 2022 team did.

That needs fixing.

Because GT shouldn’t make 2024 Duke look as competitive as 2024 UGA even if they both were 9-2 outside of the GT game.

Floor has been raised but the record hasn’t reflected that yet. But I don’t foresee another BG loss in our future. This year we won most of the games we should and some that we shouldn’t, while we lost none of the games we shouldn’t… Upset at the outcome of this season but that’s progress in my eyes.