The Case For Georgia Tech And The Option Offense

[lv20gt]

Jeez, I don't know about this regarding Tevin. Our offense was actually pretty good in 2011 and 2012. The issue those two years was that our defense was a wet paper bag. 2012, especially...we went 8-5 and easily should have beat VT and Miami to be 10-3. The MTSU game probably doesn't go the way it does if we win those two either...

That team could have easily been a 10 or 11-win team.

We actually went 7-7 in 2012. VT was the OT game that Tevin made an ill-advised pass in OT leading to an INT. The miami game we lost in OT after Tevin made a check without telling the rest of the team and got stuffed.

 

[AE 87]

Tevin should have had the role that Byerly has had. A career back up. Would have fit him perfectly. But as a starter. No thank you.

Why? He led our offense to the #9 most efficient in ppd against BCS AQ opponents for two successive years. Do you have a rational basis for this opinion or is it just emotional?

 

[Carober18]

I think that a lot of people formed negative opinions about Tevin and then relied on confirmation bias to keep those opinions.

I agree with this. And, I think it's probably not emotional as much as it is that a big factor in people's memories is the eye test. I think Nesbitt passed the eye test and clearly JT passes it pretty much every game. PJ had some enlightening quotes in the press conference the other day when he was asked about what games he watched. He essentially said he flipped the channels, watching games for entertainment purposes, and that you can only watch for entertainment purposes if you're just watching games on TV. Hinting at (and I think stating) the fact that you have to watch the broken down film to confirm whether someone is good or not. Unless one has done that with Tevin, JN and JT, then there's really no reasonable basis on which an assessment can be made except for... reasonable statistics, like PPD against decent teams. I will defer to Boomer and those who do the breakdown, because I do not, but the numbers speak for themselves except to the extent that there are 11 people on the field and it's hard to judge whether Nesbitt or others benefitted or were hurt by other players. I speculate that by far the most important thing a QB can do in this offense is make the right reads, and that the average fan does not know anything about how well a QB does that.

 

[gtg936g]

I really wish Tevin would join Brandon and Sean in the booth for the ND game.

 

[deeeznutz]

2010 was bad for a variety of reasons. Regardless, it seems to me--correct me if I'm wrong--that you still have a "God bless his little heart" attitude to Tevin.

So, let me try and put in other words what my graph has failed to communicate. In 2011 and 2012 (admittedly the latter includes Vad's UNC game but also includes his lesser contributions), GT averaged 2.82 pts/drive, the #8 most efficient average for those two years. We were #9 in Off ppd vs BCS AQ in each of those years. You're right that a better OL and better receivers would have made these numbers even better, but those are still pretty impressive.

I think that a lot of people formed negative opinions about Tevin and then relied on confirmation bias to keep those opinions.

Not really...I think Tevin was very good, but his limitations lined up very poorly with the rest of our roster. I think if we had had a dominant RB or WR during his time, or an OL that was built more like the ones we've put out the last couple years, that he would have looked a lot better. Hell, even a little better defense those years would have helped take some pressure off him. As it was, he was often required to do more than he was capable.
And btw, saying that those years may be the low water mark for our offense isn't the same as saying our offense sucked those years. If that is our baseline, we are doing damn well. Every time I look at scores around the country I thank God we aren't stressing over 13-10 type games!

 

[Carober18]

We actually went 7-7 in 2012. VT was the OT game that Tevin made an ill-advised pass in OT leading to an INT. The miami game we lost in OT after Tevin made a check without telling the rest of the team and got stuffed.

Yeah, that's a bit of cherry picking. GT took the lead with less than a minute in the game only to have VT tie it up to force overtime. If this was a thread about GT's defense, I could use that game as an example of it being lost by the defense, which also would be cherry picking--as you might want to point out the fact that they allowed 20 points in game that went to OT, which is pretty good.

 

[GlennW]

The problem with Tevin and Vad was it seemed like they just couldn't win close games like Joshua Nesbitt and Justin Thomas, and the reason was, in my opinion, was because the team just didn't BELIEVE they could/would be able to win those games like they did/do under Joshua and Justin. Go back and look at our comeback wins, or close wins, versus games we ended up losing leads and totally crumbled and couldn't recover, and I think you'll get a sense of which QB's the team's just believed in more.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Tevin did not have the supporting cast that JN had.

 

[AE 87]

Two RS Soph QBs starting their first games for GT against an FBS opponent:
Pass ..Att ..Cmp .Cmp% ..Yds ..yds/att...TDs ....Int
QB 1: 8 ..... 3 .... 37.5 ......15 ... 1.9 .........0 ........ 1
QB 2: 16.... 7 .... 43.8 ...... 101 ..6.3 ........ 1 ........ 0

Run ..Att ...Yds ..yds/att...TDs
QB 1: 10 .... 70 ...7.0 ......... 0
QB 2: 21 ....122.. 5.81 ........ 0

 

[GTech63]

Tevin didn't have a strong arm and IMO the ability of JT5 to pass keeps the opposition D more honest than his feet. The passing threat really opens up the ground game. And as you said the D was awful. Tevin was no JT5 but he did a heck of job IMO. People also forget that 2009 Shaw had to come in for an injured Nesbitt and did quite well so all of the 2009 offense is not all Nesbitt. Tevin does not get enough credit in my opinion.

 

[GTech63]

Two RS Soph QBs starting their first games for GT against an FBS opponent:
Pass ..Att ..Cmp .Cmp% ..Yds ..yds/att...TDs ....Int
QB 1: 8 ..... 3 .... 37.5 ......15 ... 1.9 .........0 ........ 1
QB 2: 16.... 7 .... 43.8 ...... 101 ..6.3 ........ 1 ........ 0

Run ..Att ...Yds ..yds/att...TDs
QB 1: 10 .... 70 ...7.0 ......... 0
QB 2: 21 ....122.. 5.81 ........ 0

1 is JT5 and 2 is Tevin?? Who was Tevins FBS opponent?

 

[AE 87]

1 is JT5 and 2 is Tevin?? Who was Tevins FBS opponent?

Justin vs Tulane
Tevin vs Miami

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I have been pretty consistent in saying this, and I will say it again without reservation. I would take TW to run my flexbone offense before I would take JN. Before your brain explodes, I am not saying I don't like JN or that I don't think he was good. We all know JN was a warrior. I just think TW was better.

My brain did explode

JN made the whole team better and was much better in clutch time than TW IMHO. I can't prove that but others have talked about the TW choke at various times .... but I think that was because TW had to do more with less talent to go to.

Part of my bias is from seeing TW getting on the team bus. I will never forget looking at him and thinking that if I saw him in the airport, I'd never guess he played football, let alone D1 starting QB. So I will agree that per pound of muscle, TW may have been better than JN

And I am glad that both of them gave everything they could to help GT.

 

[GlennW]

Justin vs Tulane
Tevin vs Miami

Yet JUSTIN led HIS team to a victory, and Tevin to a monumental DEFEAT. Thanks for proving my point.

 

[DC Bee]

Wow. I just mentioned TW & JN in the same sentence to expand on the topic, and the thread was immediately hijacked. Serves me right.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I have been pretty consistent in saying this, and I will say it again without reservation. I would take TW to run my flexbone offense before I would take JN. Before your brain explodes, I am not saying I don't like JN or that I don't think he was good. We all know JN was a warrior. I just think TW was better.

Agreed. Nesbitt could run like a bull and we loved him for it. But I still would rather have seen Tevin teamed with both the running backs and the receivers that Nesbitt had, not to mention the defense.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Justin vs Tulane
Tevin vs Miami

You did that like a prosecution lawyer setting the defense up and making them almost beg to hear the witness on the stand deliver the coup de grace.

 

[GlennW]

You did that like a prosecution lawyer setting the defense up and making them almost beg to hear the witness on the stand deliver the coup de grace.

And it didn't help prove Tevin was a better option than Justin, it actually, did just the opposite because GA Tech won under Justin and lost under Tevin, and at the end of the day, isn't THAT what you're looking for from your QB; more wins than losses?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

And it didn't help prove Tevin was a better option than Justin, it actually, did just the opposite because GA Tech won under Justin and lost under Tevin, and at the end of the day, isn't THAT what you're looking for from your QB; more wins than losses?

That is what someone who thinks a team wins or loses because of the QB would think. They have all eyes on them more than any one player, like the starting pitcher in baseball . . . yet in neither case is it adequate to the job of assessing the ability of that one player to judge them by wins and losses.

The only person in college football that I hold to a standard based almost solely on wins and losses is the head coach. I judge zero players that way. If for no other reason because at Tech they are authentically student-athletes, so even if I thought they deserved the blame for losses I would refrain from attributing it to them.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

And it didn't help prove Tevin was a better option than Justin, it actually, did just the opposite because GA Tech won under Justin and lost under Tevin, and at the end of the day, isn't THAT what you're looking for from your QB; more wins than losses?

Sometimes teams win and lose in spite of their qb's. Iow, there's a couple dozen other dudes out their affecting the outcomes of games.