Virginia Postgame

[randerto]

This team is a year or two away from being VERY good. You guys can crap on our team if you want, but I see a lot of good things happening. I see things that need to be fixed, and I see things that will fix themselves with a little maturation. Although we lost, and that's a gut shot, I think we're going to be really good. It's not like Armstrong hasn't trashed 4 other teams this year. You guys act like they had some yahoo out there.

Love the optimism and feel the same about our O. However, tell us what you see about our D performance this season that would indicate any form of current or future upward trend at all?

 

[randerto]

Often while rushing three

Have noticed other teams throw Swilling's way frequently this season. And unfortunately with frequent success. All the game tape those teams review each week would be a strong indicator of a weakness there eh...

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I tried to think of a nice way to say it , but our defense plays like Sh*t and looks worse. Not sure how you can look worse than Sh*t but they found a way to do it.

We gave up over 600 yards in total offense and made a pretty pedestrian quarterback look like the second coming of Cam Newton with 99 yards rushing. I think UVA scored on every possession but one, perhaps two. Thompson had a game for the ages against us, rushing, receiving and blocking. Just amazing.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I will say this. The score was closer than I thought it would be. Either our offense found something that works, we had a good night or UVA has a terrible D. Take aways are all on the defensive side. I said this many times. We are forcing the 3-4 on a team that simply does not have the personnel for said 3-4. We need a big gap controlling NG. can't say we have that. We need speedy OLBs to perform blitzes. Can't say we have that either. I am not a fan of the 3-4, but I played in a 4-3 team too. I think a 3-4 can be good, if you have the right parts. We are not there.

"Either our offense found something that works, we had a good night or UVA has a terrible D." A mixture of all three. The game was not as close as the final score would indicate. The roughing the passer call on UVA in the first half that resulted in an interception was a terrible call.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

The O shows positive signs of life, and with improved O-line play, might just be really good next year. But JS must quit locking into receivers and forcing passes into coverage. Generally, he did better yesterday, but UVA"s D is really bad. And, we must continue to improve the O-line through recruiting, through the portal, and through development.

The D will not improve, in my opinion, until we have difference makers at DT. I hope we are getting recruits for this position that can be plugged in early, because we need difference makers NOW - we've needed them for a very long time. But, I will say that our pass coverage seems to be "prevent" much of the time. Like others have said, even with 8 in coverage, it seems we can't cover, even for a few seconds.

With all of that said, I still don't think the current HC/staff are going to be difference makers on gameday with their decision making. I do want to point out that the reduced penalties is a sign of growth and possible discipline with the team. Yesterday, I was frustrated at times, but I can accept frustration if the team is making progress.

 

[MidtownJacket]

I have started to write this three times then given up each time. I don’t want to be unduly unkind to any players or this staff.

This loss was tough. We see flashes of what could be, but then get anchored down by an inability to consistently execute individual assignments, which leads to plays breaking down, which leads to drive killers, which leads to losses stacking up. I don’t know if it is a preparation problem, a talent problem or game day execution but they all three fall back on the staff.

I’m not calling for benching any specific player but it does seem the guys play a style of ball where there is no consequence to their action. Even winning is trivialized by the staff at every chance they get in pressers.

Lack of execution on the field + public statements from the coach praising effort and talking about the unbelievable progress the team is making and how world beating the opposition is, makes it hard for a lot of our fans base to stomach this.

I don’t even disagree with the statement that we are getting better week to week - but the problem I have is that we don’t seem to carry over specific improvements play to play, series to series, quarter to quarter, week to week. We make great calls on D then shift back to soft zone; we tackle well with big hits then whiff going for strips, we make great reads on Zone read them make boneheaded ones that get our guys laid out, we make great throws then drop uncontested lobs, it is at every position and across the ATL chart.

We are the epitome of a Dr J and Mr H team, and I guess for now we have to just accept that as fans.

I don’t even know what I would realistically do differently as AD or HC but this is a bitter pill to take. It just seems like more accountability is required for the guys to get over the mental mistakes. Not public, but something that works for the team because this isn’t getting it done.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

I have started to write this three times then given up each time. I don’t want to be unduly unkind to any players or this staff.

This loss was tough. We see flashes of what could be, but then get anchored down by an inability to consistently execute individual assignments, which leads to plays breaking down, which leads to drive killers, which leads to losses stacking up. I don’t know if it is a preparation problem, a talent problem or game day execution but they all three fall back on the staff.

I’m not calling for benching any specific player but it does seem the guys play a style of ball where there is no consequence to their action. Even winning is trivialized by the staff at every chance they get in pressers.

Lack of execution on the field + public statements from the coach praising effort and talking about the unbelievable progress the team is making and how world beating the opposition is, makes it hard for a lot of our fans base to stomach this.

I don’t even disagree with the statement that we are getting better week to week - but the problem I have is that we don’t seem to carry over specific improvements play to play, series to series, quarter to quarter, week to week. We make great calls on D then shift back to soft zone; we tackle well with big hits then whiff going for strips, we make great reads on Zone read them make boneheaded ones that get our guys laid out, we make great throws then drop uncontested lobs, it is at every position and across the ATL chart.

We are the epitome of a Dr J and Mr H team, and I guess for now we have to just accept that as fans.

I don’t even know what I would realistically do differently as AD or HC but this is a bitter pill to take. It just seems like more accountability is required for the guys to get over the mental mistakes. Not public, but something that works for the team because this isn’t getting it done.

Pretty much spot on. Ya'll need to listen to this man. "I don't even know what I would realistically do different as AD or HC..." Neither do I because it seems like the breakdowns are so random and as you put it we are now the epitome of a "Dr. J (no, not that one, the other one) and Mr. H team..."

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

Watching our defense, I don't know if I have ever seen a worse Tech defense and I have seen some bad Tech defenses. We have a lot of talent on the field. No excuse for such poor coaching. It all started with the terrible hire by CGC then not being able to recognize it and keeping Thacker for 3 seasons. Total clown show of coaching ineptitude.

 

[RamblinRed]

This team is a little better than last year, but it is hard to say how much better.
I expected a close game, in some ways i'm not sure that is what we got. As someone above mentioned the final score felt closer to me than the game did. until we recovered the 2nd onside kick it never felt like we had a chance in the second half. It was good to see the team not give up, but the probability of recovering 2 straight onside kicks is not exactly high. Defensively it was basically a s*** show. We got a 3 and out on the first drive and a 3 and out early in the 4th, otherwise UVA scored on every possession that lasted more than 3 plays - except for running out of time at the end of the first half. Nothing really worked on defense. Now UVA is one of the best offenses we will face, but that D performance was flat out embarrassing.

If we are going to play the 'what if' game of points we left off the board, other teams get to do that as well. Maybe we win this game, but we lose to Duke who missed 2 short FG's. You sort of are what you are and 3-4 feels about right for this team right now.

Offensively - we get better in small steps. I fully expected to put points on the board. UVA is probably one of the 2 worst defenses we play this year - along with UNC. All the points count, but having 27 points with 2 1/2 minutes left was never going to be enough to beat UVA. Sims is progressing slowly but he is still more potential than finished project. The run game looked excellent today, but that likely had more to do with the defense we were playing against than with how good are running game actually is as the running game has been largely stoned by multiple ACC defenses. That was the first 100+ yd rushing game by a GT RB against a P5 team all season. I expect Sims to have some WTF decisions every game, they just happen. Sometimes they hurt us, sometimes they don't. His upside is so clear to see, but we have to wait and see whether he will ultimately reduce his bad plays, which will make his good plays even better.

Defensely - Frankly their hasn't been much good for the defense all year and this game is just a continuation of that. The game against Clemson has to be put into perspective of how Clemson has played all year - which is pretty much ineptly. They haven't scored 20 points in regulation against a P5 opponent all year. The defense played well against UNC, but at this point that looks more like the exception than the norm - almost all our sacks against P5 teams came in that one game. The defense doesn't do anything well. It doesn't stop the run and it is even worse against the pass. It seldom is able to generate consistent pressure and its secondary is a mess and doesn't cover well and frankly seems to have communication issues.

Overall it is really difficult to get a sense of how much improvement is being made in the program. But we will have at least 2 more years to follow as CGC was the pick of the GT money men and his contract is structured in a way that there is basically 0% chance of him being let go until season 5.

The hope is that recruiting will be better and it will result in better results on the field. That doesn't happen in a vacuum. For that to happen those recruits have to be developed and taught to play to their potential. Right now that doesn't feel like that is happening.

I sort of break the role of coaches into 3 parts. One is recruiting, a second is player development, and the third is game coaching/decisions. I feel like we are getting better in part 1, but to this point have taken steps back in parts 2 and 3 that overall are leading to worse results than we have seen at GT in over 25 years. We need significant improvement in parts 2 and 3 just to get back to where we were 5 yrs ago. I'm hoping all 3 parts will improve considerably because I really don't want to see a coaching change in 2 yrs as that means this program did not produce as hoped.

 

[wesgt123]

The O shows positive signs of life, and with improved O-line play, might just be really good next year. But JS must quit locking into receivers and forcing passes into coverage. Generally, he did better yesterday, but UVA"s D is really bad. And, we must continue to improve the O-line through recruiting, through the portal, and through development.

The D will not improve, in my opinion, until we have difference makers at DT. I hope we are getting recruits for this position that can be plugged in early, because we need difference makers NOW - we've needed them for a very long time. But, I will say that our pass coverage seems to be "prevent" much of the time. Like others have said, even with 8 in coverage, it seems we can't cover, even for a few seconds.

With all of that said, I still don't think the current HC/staff are going to be difference makers on gameday with their decision making. I do want to point out that the reduced penalties is a sign of growth and possible discipline with the team. Yesterday, I was frustrated at times, but I can accept frustration if the team is making progress.

Constantly running 3 down linemen also doesn’t help when it’s apparent we ain’t getting pressure.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

We averaged 7.9 ypc rushing. Take away the 71 yd Gibbs TD and we’re still averaging 6 ypc. That’s the sign of a stout running game. Sims started out hot averaging 15 ypa the first 2 drives. Before the late game surge where we netted about 110 yds on 10 passes, Sims’ ypa was down to something like 4.8. Ended up at 6.8 ypa.

We came out with a pretty good game plan, were getting all our weapons involved. Had the French off-balance with some variety in play calling. French got a couple of scores and all of a sudden we got mental issues, plus we go back to hiding Mason and Smith on the sideline.

It’s almost like someone’s sitting upstairs yapping in G’s ear telling him, hey we’re not passing enough or Gibbs hasn’t had a carry in 3 possessions give him the ball, etc instead of using what’s working. Pretty damn frustrating to watch.

Coaching is a lot more than recruiting and Rah rah waffle house juice.

 

[slugboy]

I’ll copy this—it’s UVA’s drive chart
===========
Punt
TD
TD
TD
FG
FG
FG
TD
TD
Punt
TD
===========

Fortunately, Mendenhall had a mental meltdown before halftime.

I see a lot of “we only rush 3” observations

1. When you rush 3, you have 8 in coverage. The offense has 6 eligible receivers, and one is the QB, which means you have 8 people covering 6. You can do this, especially on third and 12.
2. Defenses rush 3 often. I watched Oregon get picks on Saturday rushing 3. Their DBs made plays and won 1:1 matchups.
3. The fact that we have 3 down linemen doesn’t mean we’re only rushing 3. I saw us rush 4, 5, or more pretty frequently on Saturday. We made penetration.
4. I still like rushing more than 3, especially if you can be smart about it.
5. However, rushing 6 and having all 6 blocked is gruesome.
6. So far, what I’ve seen is either mistakes in the defensive backfield, or opposing receivers winning 1:1 matchups against the defender. I saw a lot of that on Saturday.

Positives from Saturday:

• The OL looked better, even with players getting dinged up again
• The RBs were great. Wow, there were some highlight plays.
• The first quarter looked amazing.
• Safeties made some good plays in coverage (not enough, though)

Negatives:

• The middle two quarters were a train wreck.
• Tackling was often poor. Sometimes, it was great, and we bowed up and made great hits, but our poor tackles kept drives alive.
• Sometimes, UVA was pushing us down the field like we weren’t there. Quite a few times, they’d drive us for 5 or 6 yards after initial contact
• We’d make two good defensive plays, and couldn’t make the third to get them off the field. This happened multiple times on the same drive. Our defense wore themselves out by not getting off the field.
• We let some people get wide open against us.

Other observations:

• Armstrong had a better game against us than he did against Duke. Maybe their coverage was better, but he threw more bad throws last week
• Our punt return still doesn’t block the gunners. There always seems to be a group of tacklers to be the first to meet the returner.
• We get hung up on a particular formation, especially on defense. Other teams will run more than one formation. They’ll adjust. As fans, and apparently as coaches too, we’ll get wrapped up in “the 4-2-5 wasn’t working, now the 3-3-5 is good; now the 3-3-5 doesn’t work, we need to do something else”. Teams don’t stay in nickel all the time. They’ll play situational defense. Getting the basic physical skills right, and making the right reads, and getting to the right place with speed are all more important to us right now vs whether we’re in a 3-4 or a 52 or another formation.

 

[jacket_fan]

I sort of break the role of coaches into 3 parts. One is recruiting, a second is player development, and the third is game coaching/decisions. I feel like we are getting better in part 1, but to this point have taken steps back in parts 2 and 3 that overall are leading to worse results than we have seen at GT in over 25 years. We need significant improvement in parts 2 and 3 just to get back to where we were 5 yrs ago. I'm hoping all 3 parts will improve considerably because I really don't want to see a coaching change in 2 yrs as that means this program did not produce as hoped.

Agree with this post.

The staff has brought in players which have improved the kicking game. And the offense has improved statistically this year. (Hard to believe Clemson is last statistically) The defense is still near the bottom. Just don't see the team improving significantly year over year.

I do not leave a game going "That is a well coached team".

It is frustrating being a Tech fan. Will be in the stands the last three home games. It is going to be painful listening to the dawg fans...

 

[SandySpringsJacket]

Missed PAT.

And the blocked extra point is another one....

 

[SandySpringsJacket]

After sleeping I still hate our defense , I hate this is only 3 year if anything our defense is getting worse not sure how you can but they have but I guess they can't go down hill from here. Still don't understand after a few plays one defensive coach didn't tell them if 99 get the ball tackle him

Some of yall don't seem to have watched the game based on your comments.


Overall the score was closer than the game felt, I think largely due to the onsides kicks. It felt a lot more like the 48-27 score midway through 4th. Refs as usual were doodoo, UVA got away with some pretty blatant PI and holding that the commentators mentioned. We benefited from the roughing the passer call that was pretty flaky though.

Special teams - kickoffs were good. Jude Kelley should be ACC special teams player of the week for the back to back perfect onsides kicks and the fake onsides kick that got downed at the 4. punts were half turds and half good. punt returns, I don't know what we are doing there. Rey seems to never fair catch but just dances back and forth in place until he's tackled. FG/extra points, Cimaglia kicks everything low, but at least there was just the one miss tonight.

Offense - Receivers dropped several balls put right on the numbers. Line blocked fairly well all night, only one play I can remember Ryan Johnson got beat around the edge immediately. RB room was going off, we should have leaned on them a lot more and passed less. Sims threw some great passes, made some good plays with his legs, but at least 4 WTF throws, two of which got picked. If CPJ or CCG were coach, Yates would start over Sims because Sims turns the ball over too much. UVA has a poopoo defense, we could have run the ball every play and averaged 7yds/carry.

Defense - Not much positive to say. We did a decent job bringing pressure - even if it didn't result in sacks, Armstrong had guys hitting him as he threw and in his face a good bit of the time. Secondary was Downy soft all game though so it didn't matter what the d line did. If the secondary could have covered for more than 0 seconds we could have sacked Armstrong a lot, but they didn't. Lots of new guys got beat - King, Sims, Allen and several others got beat, Walker in particular was getting picked on for a while. Swilling getting turned around multiple times. The secondary generally seems to not know what the call is or what their responsibilties are on most plays. Lots of arguing and confusion at the snap, all year long. Linebackers were okay blitzing, but terrible in coverage. There was one pass play where 3 guys just stood there like their feet were cemented in place, no attempt to cover, blitz, anything, just frozen.

Run defense was non-existent. Like we expected them to run 0 times that game and practiced accordingly. This seems to be a trademark of Thacker - focus all preparation on stopping the opponent's strength, and completely ignore the weaker part of their game.

 

[Oakland]

I see a lot of “we only rush 3” observations

1. When you rush 3, you have 8 in coverage. The offense has 6 eligible receivers, and one is the QB, which means you have 8 people covering 6. You can do this, especially on third and 12.
2. Defenses rush 3 often. I watched Oregon get picks on Saturday rushing 3. Their DBs made plays and won 1:1 matchups.
3. The fact that we have 3 down linemen doesn’t mean we’re only rushing 3. I saw us rush 4, 5, or more pretty frequently on Saturday. We made penetration.
4. I still like rushing more than 3, especially if you can be smart about it.
5. However, rushing 6 and having all 6 blocked is gruesome.
6. So far, what I’ve seen is either mistakes in the defensive backfield, or opposing receivers winning 1:1 matchups against the defender. I saw a lot of that on Saturday.

Yes Oregon can do and well as many others. I don't want to degrade any of our players, but we're not there yet. I won't go any further on that, but when you rush just 3 they're getting double teamed and that makes it more difficult for them to watch for the run or pass. They have to be getting gassed too. You're right, the three man rush is not being used on all plays, but our opponents are hitting big plays when we do use it.

 

[SandySpringsJacket]

It’s really sad at the games. We’re lost easily half the diehard fans in my section, if not more. Not sure if it was the schedule starting off with a couple 1AA teams, then game 3 was at the Benz. I’d have thought after Unc, the Pitt attendance would have been better, but didn’t materialize. We may have already lost too many core fans. My family is seemingly the only one in my section actually rooting for the team. Seems like everyone around me just wants an end to the

This team is a little better than last year, but it is hard to say how much better.
I expected a close game, in some ways i'm not sure that is what we got. As someone above mentioned the final score felt closer to me than the game did. until we recovered the 2nd onside kick it never felt like we had a chance in the second half. It was good to see the team not give up, but the probability of recovering 2 straight onside kicks is not exactly high. Defensively it was basically a s*** show. We got a 3 and out on the first drive and a 3 and out early in the 4th, otherwise UVA scored on every possession that lasted more than 3 plays - except for running out of time at the end of the first half. Nothing really worked on defense. Now UVA is one of the best offenses we will face, but that D performance was flat out embarrassing.

If we are going to play the 'what if' game of points we left off the board, other teams get to do that as well. Maybe we win this game, but we lose to Duke who missed 2 short FG's. You sort of are what you are and 3-4 feels about right for this team right now.

Offensively - we get better in small steps. I fully expected to put points on the board. UVA is probably one of the 2 worst defenses we play this year - along with UNC. All the points count, but having 27 points with 2 1/2 minutes left was never going to be enough to beat UVA. Sims is progressing slowly but he is still more potential than finished project. The run game looked excellent today, but that likely had more to do with the defense we were playing against than with how good are running game actually is as the running game has been largely stoned by multiple ACC defenses. That was the first 100+ yd rushing game by a GT RB against a P5 team all season. I expect Sims to have some WTF decisions every game, they just happen. Sometimes they hurt us, sometimes they don't. His upside is so clear to see, but we have to wait and see whether he will ultimately reduce his bad plays, which will make his good plays even better.

Defensely - Frankly their hasn't been much good for the defense all year and this game is just a continuation of that. The game against Clemson has to be put into perspective of how Clemson has played all year - which is pretty much ineptly. They haven't scored 20 points in regulation against a P5 opponent all year. The defense played well against UNC, but at this point that looks more like the exception than the norm - almost all our sacks against P5 teams came in that one game. The defense doesn't do anything well. It doesn't stop the run and it is even worse against the pass. It seldom is able to generate consistent pressure and its secondary is a mess and doesn't cover well and frankly seems to have communication issues.

Overall it is really difficult to get a sense of how much improvement is being made in the program. But we will have at least 2 more years to follow as CGC was the pick of the GT money men and his contract is structured in a way that there is basically 0% chance of him being let go until season 5.

The hope is that recruiting will be better and it will result in better results on the field. That doesn't happen in a vacuum. For that to happen those recruits have to be developed and taught to play to their potential. Right now that doesn't feel like that is happening.

I sort of break the role of coaches into 3 parts. One is recruiting, a second is player development, and the third is game coaching/decisions. I feel like we are getting better in part 1, but to this point have taken steps back in parts 2 and 3 that overall are leading to worse results than we have seen at GT in over 25 years. We need significant improvement in parts 2 and 3 just to get back to where we were 5 yrs ago. I'm hoping all 3 parts will improve considerably because I really don't want to see a coaching change in 2 yrs as that means this program did not produce as hoped.

Agree with this post.

The staff has brought in players which have improved the kicking game. And the offense has improved statistically this year. (Hard to believe Clemson is last statistically) The defense is still near the bottom. Just don't see the team improving significantly year over year.

I do not leave a game going "That is a well coached team".

It is frustrating being a Tech fan. Will be in the stands the last three home games. It is going to be painful listening to the dawg fans...

I’ll copy this—it’s UVA’s drive chart
===========
Punt
TD
TD
TD
FG
FG
FG
TD
TD
Punt
TD
===========

Fortunately, Mendenhall had a mental meltdown before halftime.

I see a lot of “we only rush 3” observations

1. When you rush 3, you have 8 in coverage. The offense has 6 eligible receivers, and one is the QB, which means you have 8 people covering 6. You can do this, especially on third and 12.
2. Defenses rush 3 often. I watched Oregon get picks on Saturday rushing 3. Their DBs made plays and won 1:1 matchups.
3. The fact that we have 3 down linemen doesn’t mean we’re only rushing 3. I saw us rush 4, 5, or more pretty frequently on Saturday. We made penetration.
4. I still like rushing more than 3, especially if you can be smart about it.
5. However, rushing 6 and having all 6 blocked is gruesome.
6. So far, what I’ve seen is either mistakes in the defensive backfield, or opposing receivers winning 1:1 matchups against the defender. I saw a lot of that on Saturday.

Positives from Saturday:

• The OL looked better, even with players getting dinged up again
• The RBs were great. Wow, there were some highlight plays.
• The first quarter looked amazing.
• Safeties made some good plays in coverage (not enough, though)

Negatives:

• The middle two quarters were a train wreck.
• Tackling was often poor. Sometimes, it was great, and we bowed up and made great hits, but our poor tackles kept drives alive.
• Sometimes, UVA was pushing us down the field like we weren’t there. Quite a few times, they’d drive us for 5 or 6 yards after initial contact
• We’d make two good defensive plays, and couldn’t make the third to get them off the field. This happened multiple times on the same drive. Our defense wore themselves out by not getting off the field.
• We let some people get wide open against us.

Other observations:

• Armstrong had a better game against us than he did against Duke. Maybe their coverage was better, but he threw more bad throws last week
• Our punt return still doesn’t block the gunners. There always seems to be a group of tacklers to be the first to meet the returner.
• We get hung up on a particular formation, especially on defense. Other teams will run more than one formation. They’ll adjust. As fans, and apparently as coaches too, we’ll get wrapped up in “the 4-2-5 wasn’t working, now the 3-3-5 is good; now the 3-3-5 doesn’t work, we need to do something else”. Teams don’t stay in nickel all the time. They’ll play situational defense. Getting the basic physical skills right, and making the right reads, and getting to the right place with speed are all more important to us right now vs whether we’re in a 3-4 or a 52 or another formation.

It is hard to win a game when do go through a stretch where you are out scored 48-14. This team has way too many stretches like that where the defense totally collapses. Didn’t Pitt score 42 in the first half? In my memory, Tech has never had a front four capable of regularly pressuring the QB since 1990, and we have never had a great defense, but it seems they have always been better prepared and coached than this.

 

[VRTechFan]

McGowan dropped TD… settled for 3.
Sims tripped by turf monster… settled for 3.

Left 8 points on the field from those two plays and lost by 8.

Ifs and buts and all - never counts - but those were big unforced errors.

Don't forget the pick in the redzone as well. Left 3 or possibly 7 pts.

 

[stech81]

This team is a year or two away from being VERY good. You guys can crap on our team if you want, but I see a lot of good things happening. I see things that need to be fixed, and I see things that will fix themselves with a little maturation. Although we lost, and that's a gut shot, I think we're going to be really good. It's not like Armstrong hasn't trashed 4 other teams this year. You guys act like they had some yahoo out there.

I'm happy you feel like that but if you see things that need to be fixed it's sad the coaches don't ( or know how to fix them ) Offense I see improvement , defense I don't not even a little. And think back to each game when you say Armstrong isn't trash ( no he ain't) but why is it everyone we play has a good to great QB , could it be our BD's .

As far as the players will get better than you have to coach them up , other than CTC I have not seen any of them able to coach players up.

I remember something my high school said to a player one day , son you have potential and he ask the player what did that mean, The player said no , and the coach said maybe one day you will be good but right now you play like sh*t.

On defense you need players who want to hit and hit hard I'm not seeing many who do.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I’ve been a huge homer for Collins the last 2 seasons. Love the energy, the love of GT and Atlanta, he’s a local guy, etc. I’ve tried to give him some cover with the “scrimmage“ seasons rhetoric even though elementary coaching mistakes were being made every week. This year should have been different but it’s not because he just isn’t a good game day coach and it’s obvious not much development is taking place. Those who say Sims is getting better are accurate. But it’s not due to coaching, it’s due to natural progression of an athlete getting playing time. What we see from Sims is a kid who is better because he is playing, so naturally he’s going to get more comfortable and use to game speed. If he was getting any coaching at all he would be way beyond where he is now after getting double digit starts.

A random thing I saw from Collins this week which speaks volumes is on a UVA pass play where the WR caught it and our DB pushed him back 5 yards and Collins is pleading with the ref to spot it at the point where he hit the ground and not 5 yards upfield where his progress was stopped. It’s like he doesn’t even know the rules. In fairness (although it just may have been the TV angle) I didn’t notice him fighting ball boys for the ball to hand to the ref this week. I like the guy, but I’ve never seen high school coaches do the goofy stuff he does on the sideline. He does everything except actually coach. Most coaches are already thinking of the next play before the ball is even snapped on the current play. Collins from what we see is almost like a fan. The play is over, he argues about a spot or fiddles with the ball or dabs everyone up all while the next play clock has started and then he thinks, oh, it’s 2nd and 5. Did y’all notice when he was yelling to the team that it was 4th down. What kind of head coach has to tell his grown arse players what down it is instead of matching wits with the opposing coach. If we were improving I could laugh this off as just his goofiness, but if he does this during games I can only imagine what team practices are like.