This WIN is a sneak peek of what CGC has in mind

[gt02]

I love the effort we saw out there. Did you see the hit Charlie Thomas put on that guy in Miami's first play in overtime? He really sacrificed his body, laid it all on the line.

hopefully he is not hurt. came off kind of slowly there.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Nope, we were 18point underdogs because of our recruiting and retention over the past 4 years.

Well then....we won yesterday because of recruiting and retention.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

This year and next year are simply foundation years for Collins. He is building a program not a week to week team. There’s a huge difference. Until we get the OLine and DLine recruited we’ll win some and lose a lot. If you haven’t figured that out by now you’ll be extremely frustrated the next 18 months. Luckily, we play in a division that gives us a chance to win from time to time during these foundation years, but don’t get that confused with being able to actually compete with programs that can rotate in 4 star bodies. I’m excited because Collins will methodically implement his program and get us to the level where we can compete week after week, year after year. That’s where we are headed.

It’s been like this for decades. It will probably continue past the next two years unless recruiting improves in a mind boggling way. Then we still need an elite OC.

 

[gtrower]

OL doesn’t look great all the time, but we continue to create running lanes and have serviceable pass protection at times. I’m impressed with what Key has done there. We just gashed a pretty good defense on the ground.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

It’s been like this for decades. It will probably continue past the next two years unless recruiting improves in a mind boggling way. Then we still need an elite OC.

This is what Collins brings. We’ve never had a head coach who lived and breathed recruiting. Never! In the old days we had our pick of players when school actually mattered. Ross was a great coach and solid recruiter. Same can be said for most of our coaches. TStan sold out on the recruiting side with Collins which was the right call. He hasn’t been on the job for a year yet and look at the kids giving us love. Just think about the kids we’ll be getting 3-4 years from now. Say, we lose a Gibbs to Bama this year. Sucks, but the next Gibbs in 9th grade with Collins on him for four years. We’ll land him. The fact that he single handedly flipped Griffin from NC State after a month or so on the job is the proof in the pudding. Griffin is a stud. We saw a glimpse yesterday. With him and Mason we are set. Collins has the perfect strategy to embrace the city and its working. We just need to be patient for a few years.

 

[FLTech]

If we had a decent offensive line / we be a pretty dang good team

 

[Bogey]

Just don't understand why it took so long to figure out what we have NOW.

I never expected much before mid season. Loss to Citadel was unexpected though. Takes awhile to to get dive blocking out of your system.

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[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

But there's more to it than that. What they knew after pre-season was that James Graham was the guy they wanted to develop but he wasn't ready, and so they eased him into it until he was. Now, to your point that doesn't explain why we played three QB's, but it does explain why we played two.

Two I could have dealt with, as long as they were each left in the games for more than one series in order (hopefully) to establish a rhythm. Frankly, and I may be totally off on this, I thing Lucas was the one they really wanted.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I never expected much before mid season. Loss to Citadel was unexpected though. Takes awhile to to get dive blocking out of your system.

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We actually did some cut blocking yesterday in a couple (maybe more) instances. Was this Key's call or old habits. I personally think it was Key's call, because he is smart enough to know when that is the ideal way to block for a given play.

 

[bobongo]

Two I could have dealt with, as long as they were each left in the games for more than one series in order (hopefully) to establish a rhythm. Frankly, and I may be totally off on this, I thing Lucas was the one they really wanted.

Maybe so. We may never know, but it's clear they wanted somebody who could throw the rock better than Tobias.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Maybe so. We may never know, but it's clear they wanted somebody who could throw the rock better than Tobias.

I thought all along that Graham would end up being the starter, but to be fair, Tobias never really got that many opportunities to "throw the rock". When he did, he certainly wasn't BAD, but yes, Graham seems to be better.

 

[gthxxxx]

We actually did some cut blocking yesterday in a couple (maybe more) instances. Was this Key's call or old habits. I personally think it was Key's call, because he is smart enough to know when that is the ideal way to block for a given play.

Maybe because the offense had more plays this game to evaluate than previous, but it looked very different, including starting under center and starting QB with 2 RBs from the shotgun. And yes, I also saw a significant increase of cut blocking to great success, i.e. bringing the defender down to the ground. There were also some instances of pitching and lateral passing.

 

[pbrown520]

We actually did some cut blocking yesterday in a couple (maybe more) instances. Was this Key's call or old habits. I personally think it was Key's call, because he is smart enough to know when that is the ideal way to block for a given play.

As much as people hate it, cut blocking is a part of almost every offense until it gets legislated out of the game.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

As much as people hate it, cut blocking is a part of almost every offense until it gets legislated out of the game.

HOW ABOUT THAT !!! LOL

 

[alagold]

Two I could have dealt with, as long as they were each left in the games for more than one series in order (hopefully) to establish a rhythm. Frankly, and I may be totally off on this, I thing Lucas was the one they really wanted.

yep, especially after he got his 6th yr (and with Grahams academic issues possibly)

 

[bke1984]

Biggest improvement...WE WON! Really all that matters, but...

I do think the offense looked a little better. There were sustained drives, and they looked good running the ball. But the overall grade can’t be very good. They only scored once in regulation and turned the ball over on what could have been a game winning drive. They’re moving the ball a little better, but they’ve got to find a way to score. We can’t rely on a Punter throwing a TD and a defensive TD to win any more games. They’ll have to start scoring if we want to win any more this year.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Biggest improvement...WE WON! Really all that matters, but...

I do think the offense looked a little better. There were sustained drives, and they looked good running the ball. But the overall grade can’t be very good. They only scored once in regulation and turned the ball over on what could have been a game winning drive. They’re moving the ball a little better, but they’ve got to find a way to score. We can’t rely on a Punter throwing a TD and a defensive TD to win any more games. They’ll have to start scoring if we want to win any more this year.

Chan managed 7 wins every year having an offense that made you want to gouge your eyeballs out on most Saturdays. GT’s had half a team for the most part of the last 3 decades. We saw what happened when GT last had an offense & a defense, we won the National Championship.

 

[GaTech4ever]

Tech teams usually play with grit and little quit in them. Have for a very long time. Glad to see some things don’t change.

Agreed. The only two games that stick out where it seems the team gave up the bowl game last year and Duke in 2017.

 

[COJacket]

The Temple game wasn't horrible on offense except for constant turnovers. The strategy in the Clemson game seemed to be run with Oliver. Not a bad strategy because I don't think anything the team in the first game in a new system against a team as good and deep as Clemson would have done better than what happened in that game. The next few games had constantly changing QBs and running plays that didn't work, and didn't appear to have any chance of working. In the Citadel game, Oliver was moving the ball well. If he got in a third and long during a long drive, instead of seeing if Oliver could get a first or gain enough to be close enough to go for it on fourth, they sent in Johnson who was sacked a couple of times I think. It has appeared that when something starts working, they quickly went away from it and tried plays that didn't play off of the successful plays. In the second half of the Duke game, it was like playground ball, just take long shots on every play. It worked on three drives, but two or three other drives were three and out so it left the defense on the field for a very long time.

In the Miami game, there were issues and mistakes. However,(this is just my opinion from watching the game live) the play calling consistently used what was working. They put in an extremely quick slant pass. They put in that jet sweep--forward pitch pass play. Mason ran really well, and they used his running to set up pass plays. They used option concepts more. They put in motion that could have been used for a rocket toss. They put Graham under center on some short yardage plays.

In short it appeared to my untrained eyes as though the game plan was better thought out than in previous games. I don't think all of the progress on offense in this game was due to players playing better. I think at least part of it was due to the offensive coaches putting them in better positions to get good results. The play ratio was 60/40 run/pass. There were three sacks, so it was probably 55/45 play selection. I think a lot of what some people have been complaining about with respect to Patenaude has been the appearance of trying to force 60/40 pass/run with players who can't do that.

IMHO RonJohn you nailed it in this analysis. Each game the way you described it is how I experienced those games with my old, untrained eyes. My hope and prayer is that we have more game plans that attack our opponents weaknesses and trust that our talent, and I do believe we have some talent unlike some on the board, can get the job done if they have the right game plan. Between last year and this year you have to trust Mason now. Nothing less than 15 runs per game, maybe 20 minimum. Sometimes it takes a little time to get the running game going. You have to trust Graham is becoming another potential Joe H (at least I would). Our banged up OL did a good job of run blocking against a very good run defense by the U. Let's trust they can continue to get better. And please if something is working don't go away from it too soon. Nice job on your analysis RonJohn!

 

[bke1984]

Chan managed 7 wins every year having an offense that made you want to gouge your eyeballs out on most Saturdays. GT’s had half a team for the most part of the last 3 decades. We saw what happened when GT last had an offense & a defense, we won the National Championship.

Chan’s offenses while not great were much better than what we’re doin RIGHT NOW. I think this will get better, but your point is not valid. If we keep playing offense averaging 14 points or less per game with that group we are going to lose a lot of games...many more than we will win.

Oh, and almost every team in college football is playing with “half a team,” as you put it. There are very few teams that are great on both sides of the ball. And yeah, of course they’re the best teams...