Way too early analysis - GT v. Alcorn

[Whiskey_Clear]

My biggest question coming into the season on O was / is WR play. Spring game didn't make me feel real good. But Summers nice snag helps boost my confidence. And the WRs seemed to block well and run good routes by and large. I'm currently optimistic. We have 3 WR that appear to have the size, hands, and athleticism we need to make plays. I'm a bit concerned with Messick's hands but he has pretty good speed.
2nd biggest concern on O was AB. It no longer is really. I love how athletic and talented this group looks.
Will all of this look as good vs better talent? Of course not. But I think our offense is fine.

Defense. 1st string played lights out. But that QB played horribly. I know we pressured him with 4 man rush but his head wasn't right regardless. And his skill guys didn't help him at all. For this reason I feel this game showed me less about the D than it did the O. Tulane will give us a better barometer of where we are on D.

 

[forensicbuzz]

The FCS game wasn't necessarily to test us, per se, it was to get used to running at full speed on both O and D against someone other than ourselves (i.e. a preseason game). It's about seeing what you do well at full speed and what you need to work on, without much risk to the season. This is especially important when you have a host of new players/starters. My preference would be to start with a "Tulane" and then 3 P5 teams, but that's just me.

 

[Southpaw13]

I'm trying HARD to temper expectations. That said, if I was any other team, I'd be dreading the date the jackets are on the calendar. I think this team can legitimately beat anyone in the country. I realize in that statement there are a number of good teams on the schedule and we may not win even 9, but this team has the potential to win them all.

One at a time, lets try to keep that mindset and not get ahead of ourselves. This could be one of the best seasons in a long long while. Savor every game we have JT under center with the speed and power around him. Savor and enjoy watching our best D line we've had in years and an incredibly strong secondary. This will be a really fun year.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

But equally dominant. The point is that FCS games don't tell us much either way. Did a dominant Elon performance in 2013 foretell that season any more than a subpar Wofford fame did last?

Yes. If y0u watched the games and not the score.

 

[tech_wreck47]

Ricky is a pretty good blocker. I was very happy with that, and the yards he got after the catch, he can make good things happen when he gets some open field.

 

[DC Bee]

Defense. 1st string played lights out. But that QB played horribly. I know we pressured him with 4 man rush but his head wasn't right regardless. And his skill guys didn't help him at all. For this reason I feel this game showed me less about the D than it did the O. Tulane will give us a better barometer of where we are on D.

I agree that Alcorn wasn't "with it" offensively. We'll never know if the GT D had anything to do with that.

I wouldn't be so sure about Tulane though. They got shutout by Dook, whom I don't consider being as good as last year, for the 1st 3 quarters. Real displays of power in that game.

I know the GT coaching staff will find things for the team to work on, and my major hope is that GT doesn't get a rude reality-check awakening in South Bend.

 

[4shotB]

I'm trying HARD to temper expectations. That said, if I was any other team, I'd be dreading the date the jackets are on the calendar. I think this team can legitimately beat anyone in the country. I realize in that statement there are a number of good teams on the schedule and we may not win even 9, but this team has the potential to win them all.

This has always been my "vision" or 'expectations" for the GT FB team. To recruit and develop players and execute offensively and defensively at a level where you can go into every game on the schedule and compete with a reasonable chance to win. CPJ and staff appear to have laid this foundation. Now we get to enjoy the season as it unfolds.

Like you said, we may not win them all. But I derive great satisfaction from knowing that we can.No longer feel like we are taking a knife to a gun fight. Haven't felt this way since the latter part of the CBR era.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

In most years, even the best teams in America have a loss or two. We may be one of the best teams in the land at 9-3, and there's no shame in that.

If you want more details: I've been following Tech football for 15 years, and even in years in which we have the better team, we seem snakebit against the Dwags. Color me nervous of that game just because of what seems like a curse.

Then, there's VT. Bud Foster is probably the best in the business, pound for pound. It always seems to be a brawl.

Duke is no slouch, and as last year showed, we can't be sluggish against them. I have no reason to think that we will be, but the Tech alums on the board constantly assure all of us that Tech is mentally grueling.

Miami has a boatload of talent and we seem to have a thing about them mentally as well. Maybe that curse is over, too, but streaks are funny things in sports.

FSU and Notre Dame are talented teams. I think we can hold our own, but if we go down in a valiant effort like last year's ACC championship, it will not surprise or disappoint me.

You and Skeptic need to trade monikers.

 

[Boomergump]

I am about half way through my offensive DVR review, so I will save the details for that writing. I will say this, however, I don't think we played well on offense. How can I say that when we racked up soo many points so easily? Well, we were sloppy whiffing on blocking assignments, taking the wrong man, we let some DLs get up under us on some short yardage plays etc etc etc. Obviously, there were shining moments too. If you want something positive to take away, it is this, we TOTALLY dominated another college team while not playing crisp option based football. I guarantee you, the grades that come back to the players after film room are gonna be mediocre and crying for improvement. That is what we are going to hear from the coach in his patented matter of fact delivery "we could have played a lot better".

Am I worried? No. But that is what I am seeing.

 

[zhavenor]

I am about half way through my offensive DVR review, so I will save the details for that writing. I will say this, however, I don't think we played well on offense. How can I say that when we racked up soo many points so easily? Well, we were sloppy whiffing on blocking assignments, taking the wrong man, we let some DLs get up under us on some short yardage plays etc etc etc. Obviously, there were shining moments too. If you want something positive to take away, it is this, we TOTALLY dominated another college team while not playing crisp option based football. I guarantee you, the grades that come back to the players after film room are gonna be mediocre and crying for improvement. That is what we are going to hear from the coach in his patented matter of fact delivery "we could have played a lot better".

Am I worried? No. But that is what I am seeing.

I'm not worried about the mistakes, that's why you start out with a cupcake after all. I'm more worried if the players truly realize the importance of fixing them. I'm not saying they don't I just worry about things like that.

 

[chrsw003]

Had to watch the replay bc had a couple to many drinks Saturday. The one thing that rlly stood out to me is we have upgraded the talent at a and b back by alot. This is what we've been waiting for. Super excited, rlly think BIG things are coming.

 

[Skeptic]

Had to watch the replay bc had a couple to many drinks Saturday. The one thing that rlly stood out to me is we have upgraded the talent at a and b back by alot. This is what we've been waiting for. Super excited, rlly think BIG things are coming.

I agree to the [point of the dreaded "potential". ) The A backs did things on the edge we haven't done in years past, or that I can remember: the quickness, agility, burst speed. (I think it was Searcy turning right end with a move that reminded me of Thomas against FSU: a sudden burst through a hole that just didn't exist. Skov is a driving force in the middle, and Marshall, for one game anyway, is the quickest through the line than any B back since Dwyer. He got through small but open gaps into the clear. We'll see going forward but we're still a way from being superior at both positions. I saw some good blocks, a couple of decent blocks, and a few whiffs at the edge.

Unrelated but it is bugging me: GT opened the game with three straight plays out of conventional set: an A back slotted. The rocket toss and then what was setting up to be a triple option were run out of it. Then late in the game Matthew Jordan slotted right, came back in motion behind the B back, and Byerly ran the triple option from that set, to Jordan. I don't recall ever, ever, seeing that, and I wonder if Byerly's motion just before the snap was trying to get Jordan back into the set. Maybe it has been there but I don't recall it. Anybody?

 

[gtg936g]

I watched the defense again and wanted to make a couple observations.

Gostis does not get enough credit. He is our best defensive lineman IMO. I know the talent level of Alcorn was not on par with us, but he was double teamed for most of his time in their. At times he out leveraged BOTH of the O linemen blocking him. He was a force for us on the inside.

Hunt is very quick for a DT. He controlled his man for the most part. In a lot of cases he was on the "stay at home" assignment to account for a QB run. When the QB stepped up he made him rush his throw. Alcorn ran the run/pass option where the QB would step up into a lane then either run or dump the pass off. It is almost a shuffle pass, except the QB is running toward the LOS. Hunt took the QB run away forcing the throw. The LB has to step up and take the throw away. In many cases our LBs focused on the QB and got out of position. The run was not there for the QB, but the LBs did not trust the DL to take the run away or lost track of the guy underneath. I say all that to say we have a decent D line, but we don't have a unit functioning as one defense yet. That is not really a surprise at this point in the season.

Milton and White are good corners. Those guys are going to get some picks this year. I would not be afraid to put them in man coverage against 99% of the recievers out there.

I think we got in the head of the QB early in the game, and he never recovered which is a positive when you play against a QB that has played a lot of football.

 

[slugboy]

I'm just looking at stats (not at the DVR). You can get some good game stats off the NCAA site here. We're way up at the top on rushing offense, and I think we'll still be there after this weekend. We got 8 tackles for loss and 1 2-yard sack. I didn't start watching the game until around halftime, so a lot of backups were rotating in heavily already. We did well on the line, but I hoped that we'd be getting a lot of sacks and tackles for loss in the second half as we wore Alcorn down with more depth, and hungry backups looking to make their marks charged in.
We gave up some big plays--a 44 yard pass, a 21 yard pass, a 30 yard run.
We only had six third downs. We converted half of them. I'd hope we'd be better on that. Those failed conversions mostly happened after Byerly was out and Swilling was though.
I'm guessing we played pretty bland on defense. I don't remember any blitzes.
I'm happy we beat the spread and had a lot of deep playing time, but I think we'll know more after the Tulane game.

 

[Longestday]

@Boomergump I agree... there were some shining blocking moments, the QB's did good reading, and passing was strong. There were some blocking the right person issues and blocking in general issues. The A Backs did show some athleticism, which helped with blocking issues. This includes the 1st quarter.

 

[tech_wreck47]

The guys on ESPN game day just said they think GT will beat ND and one said GT is a for real team and is a top 10 team, sounds like some guys actually did their research on us.

 

[OldJacketFan]

I was just about to post this as well!

 

[slugboy]

@Boomergump I agree... there were some shining blocking moments, the QB's did good reading, and passing was strong. There were some blocking the right person issues and blocking in general issues. The A Backs did show some athleticism, which helped with blocking issues. This includes the 1st quarter.

Are you going to do a "film room" on Alcorn State, or is it too small of a game? (just curious)

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I'm not worried about the mistakes, that's why you start out with a cupcake after all. I'm more worried if the players truly realize the importance of fixing them. I'm not saying they don't I just worry about things like that.

Don't worry; be happy.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I say all that to say we have a decent D line, but we don't have a unit functioning as one defense yet. That is not really a surprise at this point in the season.

Helpful observation.