Tevin/Vad vs. JT

[Southpaw13]

For all the things that you could compare (speed, arm, decision making) that would be worthy, here's the stat that I think is most telling and at the end of the day, the one that matters most:

Tevin and Vad were a combined 2-18 in games vs. our 'big 4' (VT, Miami, Clemson, UGA) and bowl games/ACC championship games... the 2 wins came in 2011 vs Clemson at home and the bowl win against USC.

Justin Thomas is 2-0.

Yes, tons of other factors can be labored over and considered, but the young man has the will to win and the trust of his teammates. We are in for 3 really fun years ahead and I hope everyone gets behind our team and our coaching staff!

 

[RamblinCharger]

He's the real deal. I wanted him to start last year and still think he should have because he would probably be even better right now, but he's special and I'm glad we've got him.

 

[Techster]

We are in for 3 really fun years ahead and I hope everyone gets behind our team and our coaching staff!

That is what has me excited about this offense. JT, as good as he's played, has only really scratched the surface of his potential. He played limited snaps last season, and we threw him into the deep end this year. He worked through some issues early, but the best thing about it is he's shown that he's learned from his mistakes by not repeating them. We're starting to see his understanding of this offense grow every game. Last night he showed as another facet of being a QB in this offense: the point guard.

You could see he understood how to leverage the defenses keying on him to let his teammates make the play. He distributed the balls and made decisions that turned our offense into a well oiled machine as opposed to hoping one guy makes a play.

To me, he's far ahead of the curve than where Nesbitt, Tevin, and Vad were at the same stage. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but projecting him out the rest of his career you can't but be excited.

 

[GTonTop88]

He's the best passer we've had, also the best runner, will to win >= to Nesbitt, and last night showed he can run the offense like Tevin. That really impressed me, I figured that he would try to make a play and not take what the defense was giving him since he's had to make plays in all of our other games. Recruiting should take off over the next 3 years because we WILL have a national presence now.

 

[4shotB]

two plays stood out to me...the 3rd and 8 conversion on out 1st series (iirc) of the second half and the 3rd and 15 conversion in the 4th that lead to our 4th TD. We now have a guy that can make those plays with his arm. All teams get in those situations and it used to be a 'kiss of death". With this guy, it's a bit like having #14 back there**, he can and does make those plays.(remember 3rd and 15 at Blacksburgh?)

I sat next to a great Miami fan and discussed the game throughout. That 3rd and 15 just was a complete demoralizer (as we know, having been on the other end quite a few times over the years). We had different positions on several coaching decisions....he thought the UM coach should have gone for it when they kicked a FG, I said take the points. I said the same thing when we had the 4th and 2 in FG position...take the 3 points, he liked CPJ's "go for it" mentality.

I am fairly confident that CPJ knows more about coaching FB and game management than I do.

** disclaimer: not saying he is in Joe's class as a college QB (few are) but I think he will have the chance to be mentioned in the same conversation with Joe and Sean Jones.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Could you imagine him with a backfield of Orwin, Dwyer, Allen, and Roddy?

 

[AE 87]

As I've said before, I hate these threads. Our offense was more efficient in 2012.

We have a great QB, and we've had good ones in the past. Still, football is a team sport. Reducing a game played by 11 at a time to the play of one guy seems odd to me.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

As I've said before, I hate these threads. Our offense was more efficient in 2012.

We have a great QB, and we've had good ones in the past. Still, football is a team sport. Reducing a game played by 11 at a time to the play of one guy seems odd to me.

You can't discount the QB. FSU - good when they have a good QB. Same with Florida, Tennessee, Miami, A&M, and every team not named Alabama.

 

[takethepoints]

The thing that impressed me the most about Thomas last night was his unselfishness. He had been running opposing Ds ragged. The temptation to keep doing that and hope for the breaks must have been substantial. Instead, he used their focus on him to lure them into situations where both the dive and the pitches were there for the taking. And he was absolutely faultless on his pitches in this game, though da U helped on that by committing to stop him so early.

If you want to make a comparison between him and Tevin, I think that it is this. While Tevin ended up as the all-time ACC leader in rushing for QBs, most teams didn't respect him - correctly - as a game breaker. Result = against really good Ds they would make him beat them with his arm and feet and cut off everything else. That resulted in a lot of very, very close games where Tevin performed well but that Tech usually lost, largely because we couldn't get the rest of the skill players involved. As the VT game showed, those days are over. I expect most opposing Ds to put "stop Justin Thomas" first and foremost for the rest of the year. Some will succeed, like da U did last night. And they will pay for it, like da U did last night.