UNC 2024 Post Game

[MWBATL]

There’s a difference. When the backup QB comes in, the opposing defense basically expects them to have limited plays and stacks to stop simple run plays. If the starting AB was still in, your point would be spot on, because the defense knows our full playbook is open. I think you throw a pass early with the backup to try to stop the defense from doubling down on simple runs and have to defend against all threats, all plays. Their second level worrying about the pass is what caused our runs to work in the last 30 seconds of each half.
(Btw, my concern about

Meant to add my concern about play calling was on Pyron first series where we went 3 and out and missed the FG.

 

[CEB]

Meant to add my concern about play calling was on Pyron first series where we went 3 and out and missed the FG.

I thought for sure we’d go for it on 4th… it was a “free” possession anyway. I knew in my gut that if we played for a FG it would be trouble…. One way or another.

 

[Blue&Gold1034]

Most coaches are middle of the road and win because their team just happens to play better that week than their opponent - that's why you can lose to Georgia State and beat Bama just a few games apart. Most of the teams that win a lot still have otherwise mediocre coaches, but can out talent their opponents more often than not.



I highlighted many of the positives from the game right up front, I guess you skipped over those. I've also routinely defended this team under Key as better than we played or than others might think. I criticized CPJ plenty too, but I'm sorry but it doesn't take a microscope to see that Key, at least so far, is not on the same level of coaching as CPJ. He's just flat out not. I know plenty on here are excited at the prospect of 6 wins and a bowl game, maybe that's you too. Personally, I expect better, and I always have. 6-7 wins is mediocre.


It has nothing to do with not believing in a coach. I'm not advocating for Key to be fired yet. I criticized Johnson when we played poorly under him too because I know we were capable of doing better. I believe Key is capable of doing better as well, but he's not shown much improvement in that regard yet. People like to point to our "upward trajectory" but that was mainly from TFG setting the bar so low. We are in season 2 and it looks like we will finish about the same as we did last year. Hopefully we suprise somebody in the final 5 games, but our play so far doesnt suggest it. We have not been opportunistic.


It sure seems like you are okay ignoring them and don't want to talk about them, just focus on the positive. I know another guy who wanted to just focus on the positive - TFG.

We have settled for kicking field goals multiple times when we didn't have to. Going into the half against Cuse, we had absolutely abysmal clock management, barely even got into field goal range and then missed it. We could have scored a TD there and made the difference in the game being a W, instead we end up losing by 3 points. Against UNC we had time to take a shot at the endzone before half, and we settled again for a field goal without even trying. We settled for a field goal when we had gotten to the 6 last week. How do you preach toughness and physicality and yet settle so often?


When a team has inferior talent and gets outcoached, they don't usually have a lead going into the 4th quarter, and you beat them by more than 10.

I mean if you really think that successful teams are headed mainly by mediocre coaches then I'll let you believe that lol.

Key is in his second full year as a head coach. I don't expect him to be on Johnson's level given that Johnson took over at Tech with 10 years of coaching experience. I will say that in his first two years he has done a better job given the circumstances. He's taken a dumpster fire of a program that did not make a bowl game in 4 years and righted the ship. Johnson took over a fairly talented roster which had gone to bowl games before and won with it. It's been a harder job and in his first 20 games his record compared to Johnson's is 12-8 to 15-5. Im ok with seeing how he gets better as a coach down the road since he's relatively new to this.

You did mention some of the good, but spent most of your post harping on the bad. I predicted that Tech would win 8 games this year from the outset and I still believe that the team can do so. Additionally, I've always wanted Tech to be better than what a lot of people here were ok with. Whether it was recruiting or expanding the resources of the program, I always believed that Tech could do better and should routinely be in the national discussion as a program.

Im going to focus on the positive as a fan because there is nothing I can do to fix the issues. Complaining about it on a message board that the coaches do not care about means nothing. The coaching staff will fix the issues not because you or others talk about them. Why waste my time writing a thesis about everything wrong when nobody of note is gonna read it? It will do more bad than good and make me not enjoy watching the team win.

I will not argue about Syracuse because you are right in that regard. UNC on the other hand I do not agree. The team has not been great throwing the ball in the redzone this year which would have been the only option in that position. Rather take the points in that situation than risk a turnover or sack.

Duke is an extremely well coached football team that has played better teams than Tech close over the past few years. Thinking that they are just going to rollover and let Tech beat them by 3+ scores is dumb. And if you watched the game, Tech's offense didn't score those last two touchdowns because they were bigger, faster, and stronger than Duke. They did it through attacking where Duke was weak. That is outcoaching.

 

[yeti92]

I mean if you really think that successful teams are headed mainly by mediocre coaches then I'll let you believe that lol.

Jimbo Fisher, Mike Norvell, Mario Cristobal, Ryan Day, etc. These guys aren't football wizards, they just have way more talent than most of the teams they play.

Key is in his second full year as a head coach. I don't expect him to be on Johnson's level given that Johnson took over at Tech with 10 years of coaching experience. I will say that in his first two years he has done a better job given the circumstances. He's taken a dumpster fire of a program that did not make a bowl game in 4 years and righted the ship. Johnson took over a fairly talented roster which had gone to bowl games before and won with it. It's been a harder job and in his first 20 games his record compared to Johnson's is 12-8 to 15-5. Im ok with seeing how he gets better as a coach down the road since he's relatively new to this.

3 more wins in a season and a half is significant, and we can review how Key's record looks vs CPJ for the first 2 seasons at the end of this season if you'd like. We are likely to lose more than we win the rest of the way, at least with the way we've been playing/coaching. Key also did not implement a wholesale change in offensive style, he picked up where HE left off. I'll put this in here again - I want Key to be successful, and I hope I'm wrong.

Im going to focus on the positive as a fan because there is nothing I can do to fix the issues. Complaining about it on a message board that the coaches do not care about means nothing. The coaching staff will fix the issues not because you or others talk about them. Why waste my time writing a thesis about everything wrong when nobody of note is gonna read it? It will do more bad than good and make me not enjoy watching the team win.

Nothing we do on the message boards matters, good or bad. It's all for your own personal entertainment. If being able to acknowledge flaws in our play makes you not enjoy watching us win, that's a you problem. I'm happy we won. If you want to just wear gold-colored glasses and have an echo chamber about how great GT is and only focus on positives, you'll need to put myself and at least half this board on ignore.

I will not argue about Syracuse because you are right in that regard. UNC on the other hand I do not agree. The team has not been great throwing the ball in the redzone this year which would have been the only option in that position. Rather take the points in that situation than risk a turnover or sack.

We've given up 1 sack and 1 interception all year, and THAT is what you are worried about?? We are only 6/11 on field goals, no reason not to take a shot imo.

Duke is an extremely well coached football team that has played better teams than Tech close over the past few years. Thinking that they are just going to rollover and let Tech beat them by 3+ scores is dumb. And if you watched the game, Tech's offense didn't score those last two touchdowns because they were bigger, faster, and stronger than Duke. They did it through attacking where Duke was weak. That is outcoaching.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Who Duke played the past few years is irrelevant, they have a completely different staff this year. Tech has a notably more talented roster - 46th vs 70th according to the 247 Talent Composite. I'm not sure there is a position on either side of the ball where Duke is more talented.

 

[Blue&Gold1034]

Jimbo Fisher, Mike Norvell, Mario Cristobal, Ryan Day, etc. These guys aren't football wizards, they just have way more talent than most of the teams they play.


3 more wins in a season and a half is significant, and we can review how Key's record looks vs CPJ for the first 2 seasons at the end of this season if you'd like. We are likely to lose more than we win the rest of the way, at least with the way we've been playing/coaching. Key also did not implement a wholesale change in offensive style, he picked up where HE left off. I'll put this in here again - I want Key to be successful, and I hope I'm wrong.


Nothing we do on the message boards matters, good or bad. It's all for your own personal entertainment. If being able to acknowledge flaws in our play makes you not enjoy watching us win, that's a you problem. I'm happy we won. If you want to just wear gold-colored glasses and have an echo chamber about how great GT is and only focus on positives, you'll need to put myself and at least half this board on ignore.


We've given up 1 sack and 1 interception all year, and THAT is what you are worried about?? We are only 6/11 on field goals, no reason not to take a shot imo.


We'll have to agree to disagree. Who Duke played the past few years is irrelevant, they have a completely different staff this year. Tech has a notably more talented roster - 46th vs 70th according to the 247 Talent Composite. I'm not sure there is a position on either side of the ball where Duke is more talented.

Saban, Meyer, Dabo, Kirby, Osborn, Harbaugh, DeBoer, Carroll, Stoops, etc. They all had better talent yet are held in high regard as very smart coaches, not mediocre.

3 more wins in a season in a half is much easier when you're taking over a better program. Dwyer, Nesbitt, Morgan, Johnson, and Thomas were much better players than anyone on the Tech in 2023. The team was also 2 years removed from an ACC Championship in 08. Makes it much easier to win those 3 additional games. Id love to revisit Key's 2 year record at the end of the season making note of the fact that the past two seasons have been two of the toughest schedules Tech has had in a long time.

Honestly you might be right since it does make being a fan much worse. This board is becoming a Monday morning Paul Finebaum show after Bama wins an ugly game. Constantly having to find misery in success can be tiring, especially when you are talking about a game played by 18-22 year olds for entertainment. If your personal entertainment entails wracking your brain over the flaws more than enjoying the good, well that's on you.

Tech have given up 1 sack and 1 interception because they aren't taking shots and throwing the ball into contested areas. The redzone is the most contested part of the field to throw into and the team has not shown that it can execute passing the ball on this part of the field. All of the missed field goals are coming from 40+ out. The field goal before the half was a 29 yard kick and Birr has been perfect on all kicks from 20-29 yards.

We will have to agree to disagree. I hope you and more of the fans here can find more joy in watching Tech get a W because in the end that's all that matters.

 

[Root4GT]

Saban, Meyer, Dabo, Kirby, Osborn, Harbaugh, DeBoer, Carroll, Stoops, etc. They all had better talent yet are held in high regard as very smart coaches, not mediocre.

3 more wins in a season in a half is much easier when you're taking over a better program. Dwyer, Nesbitt, Morgan, Johnson, and Thomas were much better players than anyone on the Tech in 2023. The team was also 2 years removed from an ACC Championship in 08. Makes it much easier to win those 3 additional games. Id love to revisit Key's 2 year record at the end of the season making note of the fact that the past two seasons have been two of the toughest schedules Tech has had in a long time.

Honestly you might be right since it does make being a fan much worse. This board is becoming a Monday morning Paul Finebaum show after Bama wins an ugly game. Constantly having to find misery in success can be tiring, especially when you are talking about a game played by 18-22 year olds for entertainment. If your personal entertainment entails wracking your brain over the flaws more than enjoying the good, well that's on you.

Tech have given up 1 sack and 1 interception because they aren't taking shots and throwing the ball into contested areas. The redzone is the most contested part of the field to throw into and the team has not shown that it can execute passing the ball on this part of the field. All of the missed field goals are coming from 40+ out. The field goal before the half was a 29 yard kick and Birr has been perfect on all kicks from 20-29 yards.

We will have to agree to disagree. I hope you and more of the fans here can find more joy in watching Tech get a W because in the end that's all that matters.

We are a good Red Zone team according to the NCAA Statistics. #7 Nationally with 21 TDs in 27 RZ trips and 5 FGs. Only once have we not scored in the RZ.

 

[Blue&Gold1034]

We are a good Red Zone team according to the NCAA Statistics. #7 Nationally with 21 TDs in 27 RZ trips and 5 FGs. Only once have we not scored in the RZ.

You're 100% correct. Tech is very good in the redzone, but the vast majority of the RZ scores come from rushing TDs. Only 5 RZ passing TDs to 16 rushing per the NCAA. However, I only count 4 RZ passing TDs this year so either I'm wrong or the NCAA is.

 

[CEB]

You're 100% correct. Tech is very good in the redzone, but the vast majority of the RZ scores come from rushing TDs. Only 5 RZ passing TDs to 16 rushing per the NCAA.

Those are still worth 6, right?

 

[Blue&Gold1034]

Those are still worth 6, right?

Yes they are. But that post was in regards to a discussion about whether or not Tech should have passed the ball in the RZ before halftime against UNC.

 

[Thwg777]

$ Down the drain.

Ordering these custom tees for our remaining 2022 games was money well spent

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

Athletics had to cut various budgets this year, which included the Band and Cheer Squad. This eliminated travel to away games except Ireland which was primarily funded through different means, and u(sic)ga, where they'll be sending a pep band.

It would be quite a shame not to send a full band and cheer squad to the ugag game…it’s part of the pageantry of college football and helps bring the boys juice to the biggest game of the year.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Are there some really long comments in this thread?

 

[bobongo]

It would be quite a shame not to send a full band and cheer squad to the ugag game…it’s part of the pageantry of college football and helps bring the boys juice to the biggest game of the year.

Yeah, geez it's just 60 miles down the road.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Yeah, geez it's just 60 miles down the road.

shudders*****brrrrr****

That’s way too close !!!

 

[bke1984]

I think some of the fans questioning the play selection during our last possession either didn't see or else forgot that we got the ball with even less time if the first half (36 seconds iirc) and drove into FG range with 3 run plays. That series stopped some of UNC's momentum going into halftime.

During which we were also running the ball in hopes Jamal busted a big play. Go back a few games. We did the same thing, but when it didn’t work we took a knee and went to the locker room.

 

[buzzn3]

It would be quite a shame not to send a full band and cheer squad to the ugag game…it’s part of the pageantry of college football and helps bring the boys juice to the biggest game of the year.

I believe it'll be a ~140 person pep band. Budget, it being Friday night instead of Saturday this year, and the Band being put in the very upper deck all played a role in the full band vs. pep band decision from what I was told.

Since we moved visiting bands to the upper deck of BDS, u(sic)ga has apparently also not sent their full band.

 

[tomknight]

Are there some really long comments in this thread?

from what i can gather, a couple of guys try to out argue each other about our level of suckitude.

 

[yeti92]

Saban, Meyer, Dabo, Kirby, Osborn, Harbaugh, DeBoer, Carroll, Stoops, etc. They all had better talent yet are held in high regard as very smart coaches, not mediocre.

Maybe by you. Dabo was not a particularly impressive coach when he had equal or only slightly better talent. Kirby has only ever had top talent, and he still put together only a 7 win regular season his first year. Harbaugh got caught cheating.

3 more wins in a season in a half is much easier when you're taking over a better program. Dwyer, Nesbitt, Morgan, Johnson, and Thomas were much better players than anyone on the Tech in 2023. The team was also 2 years removed from an ACC Championship in 08. Makes it much easier to win those 3 additional games. Id love to revisit Key's 2 year record at the end of the season making note of the fact that the past two seasons have been two of the toughest schedules Tech has had in a long time.

Sure, if you completely ignore the offensive switch and how nobody on that team knew how to run the offense at all when Johnson showed up and how we had a completely slapped together offensive line. Whereas Key's offensive line is made up of guys all picked by... Key! In regards to SOS, according to teamrankings.com our SOS is currently #51. Just going back to the last CPJ year, 2018, SOS was #28.

Honestly you might be right since it does make being a fan much worse. This board is becoming a Monday morning Paul Finebaum show after Bama wins an ugly game. Constantly having to find misery in success can be tiring, especially when you are talking about a game played by 18-22 year olds for entertainment. If your personal entertainment entails wracking your brain over the flaws more than enjoying the good, well that's on you.

There is some irony to me in your statement about finding misery in success, because some of the people who have sided with you this time around were the same ones complaining about our OL performance after every game earlier this season while I defended their performance.

I do find personal entertainment in breaking things down and knowing howand why they work at a deeper level, and then making them work as best as they possibly can. Obviously that can't be said for the whole fanbase. I like to strive for perfection, but plenty are happy with just being a little above average.

Tech have given up 1 sack and 1 interception because they aren't taking shots and throwing the ball into contested areas. The redzone is the most contested part of the field to throw into and the team has not shown that it can execute passing the ball on this part of the field. All of the missed field goals are coming from 40+ out. The field goal before the half was a 29 yard kick and Birr has been perfect on all kicks from 20-29 yards.

Are you suggesting we should never throw in the redzone then because it might be contested? We have several receiving TDs in the redzone this season by the way.

 

[tomknight]

@yeti92 - now you're arguing with yourself too. If you want CPJ back - he ain't coming. If you think Key was the shadow head coach under the last guy, well, can't help you there either.

in case you hadn't realized it, we scored more points than the other guys last saturday.

 

[stinger78]

Our OL did go through a 2-3 game stretch where they did not play well. We lost two of those three games. I, for one, acknowledged this.
After the week off, they cane back strong and have played well two weeks in a row. They had a great game Saturday and that last play was a thing of beauty!