We're Doomed...

[Techster]

We will know CPJ has broken thru when he can get and keep an in state kid like Watson to Tech...

FWIW...our staff was on him early. GT was one of the first schools to offer him. He just did not want to play in our offense. I think CPJ could have tweaked some things to make it work, like go more Run n Shoot like he did at Hawaii, but we all saw what happened when CPJ tried to tweak too much of his offense to make it work with a QB.

I'm a big Deshaun Watson fan, but 8 years into CPJ's tenure, I think we all know what we are and what we are not on offense. We're not going to throw the ball up and down the field 30+ times a game. We're going to run the ball down your throat, soften up the secondary on run support, and hurt you vertically when the opportunities arise. The QBs we recruit have to understand that and get with the program...which may exclude a LOT of really good dual threat QBs, but the ones that do sign are 100% on board with CPJ is trying to accomplish on offense.

 

[Skeptic]

FWIW...our staff was on him early. GT was one of the first schools to offer him. He just did not want to play in our offense. I think CPJ could have tweaked some things to make it work, like go more Run n Shoot like he did at Hawaii, but we all saw what happened when CPJ tried to tweak too much of his offense to make it work with a QB.

....Hindsight being what it is, Vad Lee is a poster boy for QBs who think at 18 they can get with Johnson's offense, but simply can't, and it wasn't so much physical as mental and "want-to". It would be awfully hard to argue with Watson's choice, or at the same time, with Johnson's: dance with the one what brung you, and that is his under-center spread option, up to four wideouts at once, and an alignment that looks kind of funky until it just explodes at a defense. (MSU and at times FSU looked like they couldn't get off their heels before the play was on top of them. Watson's decision was a good one for him, and will be for other skilled QBs who just won't or can't adapt to the offense. I wish him well. Except once a year. Twice if they get to the championship game.

 

[TechPhi97]

This has not historically been good for GT....we thrive as being underappreciated. Maybe we can turn the tide on that one this year.

It's not good for anyone. How many times are they right? Once every 7-8 years? It's because they choose the team that finished first or second last year, and teams in college football can get better and worse much more quickly than that. I've never seen anyone pick last year's fourth place team to finish first, but that probably happens a fair amount.

 

[chewybaka]

I don't see the rationale behind sentiment like this. Expecting every single kid to want to stay in state after high school is unrealistic at best. After high school I wanted almost nothing to do with the state of Georgia and I went all the way to Wisconsin to get away from it. SOme kids don't want to stay in state and setting your expectation thjat every kid should is a bad frame of mind imo.

How about one 5 Star....ONE... if you think that is not a realistic goal we all need to raise the bar....

 

[Longestday]

Just re watched the GT Clemson game. Watson was on fire after the first bad series. The game is not predictable if he is not injured, but the game would have been in serious jeopardy.

The O was having some difficulty until one of their DTs got hurt. The loss of the DT opened things up. They were cross charging splitting the BB and the QB causing some read issues as well.

Glad GT won, and I hope that DT is in the NFL this year!

 

[AE 87]

Just re watched the GT Clemson game. Watson was on fire after the first bad series. The game is not predictable if he is not injured, but the game would have been in serious jeopardy.

The O was having some difficulty until one of their DTs got hurt. The loss of the DT opened things up. They were cross charging splitting the BB and the QB causing some read issues as well.

Glad GT won, and I hope that DT is in the NFL this year!

You may have a point about the game, but I'm not sure about Watson. IIrc, we stopped them pretty quick on drive 1 and held them to a FG on drive 2 before he got injured right in that same FG area in drive 3 (I haven't gone back to check, but I think this is close). Now, my only hesitancy in yielding the point about Watson is that a lot of teams did that too us. Maybe, they all have great quarterbacks, or maybe it's just a feature of last year's D.

Or maybe, I'm just being disagreeable today for some reason?

 

[Longestday]

Clarification ... Watson was on fire compared to their other QB. He was moving the ball with his legs.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

You may have a point about the game, but I'm not sure about Watson. IIrc, we stopped them pretty quick on drive 1 and held them to a FG on drive 2 before he got injured right in that same FG area in drive 3 (I haven't gone back to check, but I think this is close). Now, my only hesitancy in yielding the point about Watson is that a lot of teams did that too us. Maybe, they all have great quarterbacks, or maybe it's just a feature of last year's D.

Or maybe, I'm just being disagreeable today for some reason?

And perhaps I am being argumentative but I agree with you. Clemson was moving the ball some but those were hard fought yards and Tech's D was not laying down for them. Any touchdown Watson might have gotten latter would not have been automatic and meanwhile Tech's offense would have taken some time off the clock and shortened the game. But I still claim Tech was hitting really hard in that game, much like they did in the Orange Bowl, and Clemson's offense was never going to just open up and explode on Tech.

 

[Architorture23]

watson was scrambling or zone-reading his way down the field. I don't know how on-fire he was. we have struggled mightily with zone read for years now.

i know his injury was kinda self-inflicted but it was also easy to see that he was likely to get hurt sooner or later because he took a mighty beating on the first few drives.

 

[Longestday]

I agree the D came to play. I think we can all agree Watson was better than their backup QB.

 

[Skeptic]

You may have a point about the game, but I'm not sure about Watson. IIrc, we stopped them pretty quick on drive 1 and held them to a FG on drive 2 before he got injured right in that same FG area in drive 3 (I haven't gone back to check, but I think this is close). Now, my only hesitancy in yielding the point about Watson is that a lot of teams did that too us. Maybe, they all have great quarterbacks, or maybe it's just a feature of last year's D.

Or maybe, I'm just being disagreeable today for some reason?

Probably.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

How about one 5 Star....ONE... if you think that is not a realistic goal we all need to raise the bar....

Go out there and buy us one. I won't stop you.

 

[GTBandit22]

Did you watch him against FSU and UGA? His only problem in those games were Dabo wanted to platoon him with Cole Stoudt...which was idiotic. Clemson wins the FSU game and maybe the UGA game if Dabo doesn't do that.

As for missing half the season, that's just injury. No arguments from me that he needs to stay healthy. As for Chad Morris...dude is overrated. Look at all the talent he had in 2012 and 2013, and when he didn't have Watson in 2014, Clemson really didn't do much with Stoudt. I think he will be exposed at SMU.

Watson will be fine without Chad Morris.

Stoudt didn't play after the third series, but they scored 17 points. Sure, they missed 2 FGs(1 with Stoudt at QB), but we put 35 on FSU. We didnt get to play their backup on offense either. I think he's a good player, but let's be real here. His FSU performance looks a lot different looking back on it than during it.

You can say what you want about Morris, but he is a great OC. He may fail at SMU, but that doesn't matter to Clemson. Friedgen ultimately failed at Maryland, but that didn't make Chan's offense better.
Clemson has never been lacking talent, but the last time they produced like the Morris era? Woodrow Dantzler and **** Rod. Great coaches need great players, but I believe the inverse to be just as true.
Who knows? Maybe Watson will go on to be awesome without Morris. I just don't see how losing his OC is helpful to that goal. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

 

[tech_wreck47]

You may have a point about the game, but I'm not sure about Watson. IIrc, we stopped them pretty quick on drive 1 and held them to a FG on drive 2 before he got injured right in that same FG area in drive 3 (I haven't gone back to check, but I think this is close). Now, my only hesitancy in yielding the point about Watson is that a lot of teams did that too us. Maybe, they all have great quarterbacks, or maybe it's just a feature of last year's D.

Or maybe, I'm just being disagreeable today for some reason?

If I'm not mistaken the fg on the second drive was off of a short field. I don't think they actually drove the ball very far in that drive.