What do you predict for GT 2021 wins?

[Oldgoldandwhite]

I voted 7. But I want to be competitive in all the games. We should be improved in all areas over the past two years.

 

[alagold]

Before you make bowl reservations check out the schedules of our opponents and see who they play before us.(maybe assuming they have to get up for a big game and/or get "beat up" and have less left in effort for us.) That information doesn't help our cause. ex-see Pitt

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

here we go

We should beat Northern Illinois, Kennesaw, and Duke. After that...it gets dicey. Maybe one or two wins out of Pitt, Virginia Tech, UVA, and BC (although some expert picked BC as this year's dark horse surprise team in the ACC, take it for what its worth) I am not optimistic about UNC, Miami, Notre Dame, Clemson, and UGA. I picked us to win four which is what a lot of the preseason magazines have us as winning. It is now or never for Coach Collins. Given the schedule, I don't think four or five wins is all that bad but another three win season would not be a good look for fans or recruits.

 

[BuzzStone]

I feel really good about 4-5 wins. If we make it to 6 wins that is amazing

 

[RhoChi]

I think we can win up to 8/9 games. Note I said "can" not will. I think we will realistically win 5/6 games. We can beat KSU, NIU, Dook, Miami, Pitt, Virginia, VT, BC, and potentially suprise ND or UGA. That's 8/9 right there. But as we have improved so have other teams. The real deciding factor in the 2-4 games we could win or lose will be our mistakes. Penalties and turnovers. We win when we dont have to beat ourselves. We couldve had 6 wins last season imho if we didnt make stupid decisions and errors. We limit those, we go and win games.

 

[GoldZ]

We should beat Northern Illinois, Kennesaw, and Duke. After that...it gets dicey. Maybe one or two wins out of Pitt, Virginia Tech, UVA, and BC (although some expert picked BC as this year's dark horse surprise team in the ACC, take it for what its worth) I am not optimistic about UNC, Miami, Notre Dame, Clemson, and UGA. I picked us to win four which is what a lot of the preseason magazines have us as winning. It is now or never for Coach Collins. Given the schedule, I don't think four or five wins is all that bad but another three win season would not be a good look for fans or recruits.

Good post Ghost. I fear 4 wins will be a LOT like 3. The momentum will be lost and the boo birds will chirp. I picked 6 because Pitt, BC, UVA, and VT are not world beaters. That's ASSuming we don't trip over KSU or Duke. We should at least surprise someone like Miami or unc. Speaking of unc, it saddens this OF's heart to read here that unc is out of reach this year and in recruiting going forward!? I may have misunderstood things, but didn't I hear promises of elite recruiting? It's for sure improving, but elite?

On a positive note, actually landing actual DTs gives me hope! THWG

 

[Buzztheirazz]

I think as Mack Brown ages so does UNC recruiting. He won’t be able to promise guys that he will be there in 4 years. Should be pretty easy to negatively recruit in the near future.

 

[Lotta Booze]

Good post Ghost. I fear 4 wins will be a LOT like 3. The momentum will be lost and the boo birds will chirp. I picked 6 because Pitt, BC, UVA, and VT are not world beaters. That's ASSuming we don't trip over KSU or Duke. We should at least surprise someone like Miami or unc. Speaking of unc, it saddens this OF's heart to read here that unc is out of reach this year and in recruiting going forward!? I may have misunderstood things, but didn't I hear promises of elite recruiting? It's for sure improving, but elite?

On a positive note, actually landing actual DTs gives me hope! THWG

UNC is not out of reach. They lost to UVA and FSU last year. Yeah that FSU that GT beat in the first game of the season led by a freshman QB in his first college football game ever with no spring practice and limited fall camp. Yeah, Howell is a good QB and that's likely why they'll be favored but I am by no means chalking that up as a loss. Last time we played them in 2019 we essentially had one bad quarter where we let the game get away from us. 1st quarter they only scored a FG, then they scored 2 TD's in the 2nd quarter to get a 17 point lead and they held that lead. 2nd half was 22-21 GT. Not nearly enough to make up for that ugly 2nd quarter, but that's it. And I think GT is a MUCH better team in 2021 than in 2019.

Miami being out of reach? BS. The last time we played them we won. The biggest difference from then to this year is D'Eriq King who is coming off of a knee injury. Both UNC and Miami are good teams who get favored because they have talent at the QB position. Jeff Sims could take a step this year and become one of those guys.

Beyond the QB position GT was close to worst in the country in turnovers and penalties. Part of that is youth and limited preseason practice. Fix those 2 things and we'll see a bowl game.

 

[gville_jacket]

UNC is not out of reach. They lost to UVA and FSU last year. Yeah that FSU that GT beat in the first game of the season led by a freshman QB in his first college football game ever with no spring practice and limited fall camp. Yeah, Howell is a good QB and that's likely why they'll be favored but I am by no means chalking that up as a loss. Last time we played them in 2019 we essentially had one bad quarter where we let the game get away from us. 1st quarter they only scored a FG, then they scored 2 TD's in the 2nd quarter to get a 17 point lead and they held that lead. 2nd half was 22-21 GT. Not nearly enough to make up for that ugly 2nd quarter, but that's it. And I think GT is a MUCH better team in 2021 than in 2019.

Miami being out of reach? BS. The last time we played them we won. The biggest difference from then to this year is D'Eriq King who is coming off of a knee injury. Both UNC and Miami are good teams who get favored because they have talent at the QB position. Jeff Sims could take a step this year and become one of those guys.

Beyond the QB position GT was close to worst in the country in turnovers and penalties. Part of that is youth and limited preseason practice. Fix those 2 things and we'll see a bowl game.

I agree with this so much. I don't know why we are lumping Miami and UNC into a category of no way we win. Do I think we beat both? Probably not, but we should be competitive in both and in a close game, in the 4th quarter, anything can happen. I'm not even convinced ND is as great as advertised, again, they'll be tough to hang with but I think we'll beat the spread at a minimum.

My bold prediction: we come out swinging against Clemson and it's within 14 at half. I think everyone expects us to be terrible again this year but I really think our OL, DL play will be much improved this year. With Northern Illinois and Kennesaw St before them, we shouldn't need to show too much of the playbook before Clemson and could catch them off guard in the first half.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Expansion thread: ACC is too weak to survive.
Outlook thread: Toughest schedule in history.

 

[WreckinGT]

UNC is not out of reach. They lost to UVA and FSU last year. Yeah that FSU that GT beat in the first game of the season led by a freshman QB in his first college football game ever with no spring practice and limited fall camp. Yeah, Howell is a good QB and that's likely why they'll be favored but I am by no means chalking that up as a loss. Last time we played them in 2019 we essentially had one bad quarter where we let the game get away from us. 1st quarter they only scored a FG, then they scored 2 TD's in the 2nd quarter to get a 17 point lead and they held that lead. 2nd half was 22-21 GT. Not nearly enough to make up for that ugly 2nd quarter, but that's it. And I think GT is a MUCH better team in 2021 than in 2019.

Miami being out of reach? BS. The last time we played them we won. The biggest difference from then to this year is D'Eriq King who is coming off of a knee injury. Both UNC and Miami are good teams who get favored because they have talent at the QB position. Jeff Sims could take a step this year and become one of those guys.

Beyond the QB position GT was close to worst in the country in turnovers and penalties. Part of that is youth and limited preseason practice. Fix those 2 things and we'll see a bowl game.

I think we can beat Miami. They have tons of talent but alot of unknowns on their team. Its hard to predict just how good they are going to be. I can't imagine we could score enough to beat UNC. They will have one of the best offenses in the country. If we put up 40 against them we probably lose and they should have a decent defense.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

UNC is not out of reach. They lost to UVA and FSU last year. Yeah that FSU that GT beat in the first game of the season led by a freshman QB in his first college football game ever with no spring practice and limited fall camp. Yeah, Howell is a good QB and that's likely why they'll be favored but I am by no means chalking that up as a loss. Last time we played them in 2019 we essentially had one bad quarter where we let the game get away from us. 1st quarter they only scored a FG, then they scored 2 TD's in the 2nd quarter to get a 17 point lead and they held that lead. 2nd half was 22-21 GT. Not nearly enough to make up for that ugly 2nd quarter, but that's it. And I think GT is a MUCH better team in 2021 than in 2019.

Miami being out of reach? BS. The last time we played them we won. The biggest difference from then to this year is D'Eriq King who is coming off of a knee injury. Both UNC and Miami are good teams who get favored because they have talent at the QB position. Jeff Sims could take a step this year and become one of those guys.

Beyond the QB position GT was close to worst in the country in turnovers and penalties. Part of that is youth and limited preseason practice. Fix those 2 things and we'll see a bowl game.

Of course, two of the most underachieving teams historically are never "out of reach" for any team having a good day. On the other hand, for UVA, Virginia Tech, BC, and even Duke, we are not "out of reach" either so its a two edged sword as these things usually are in the Coastal.

 

[Lotta Booze]

I think we can beat Miami. They have tons of talent but alot of unknowns on their team. Its hard to predict just how good they are going to be. I can't imagine we could score enough to beat UNC. They will have one of the best offenses in the country. If we put up 40 against them we probably lose and they should have a decent defense.

For UNC I think if they are clicking and Howell is having a hot hand then yeah, I don't think many people will be able to stop them. BUT if BC and FSU can keep them under 30 last year then I think we have a shot. Collins needs to deliver on his Minister of Mayhem moniker for that to happen though. Steal a couple possessions, get Howell off rhythm, etc.

 

[gville_jacket]

For UNC I think if they are clicking and Howell is having a hot hand then yeah, I don't think many people will be able to stop them. BUT if BC and FSU can keep them under 30 last year then I think we have a shot. Collins needs to deliver on his Minister of Mayhem moniker for that to happen though. Steal a couple possessions, get Howell off rhythm, etc.

Let’s also not forget that Howell has had some amazing RB last year, both of whom got drafted. If the rushing attack drops off, they’ll be more reliant on the passing game which Howell hasn’t had to do much.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

Let’s also not forget that Howell has had some amazing RB last year, both of whom got drafted. If the rushing attack drops off, they’ll be more reliant on the passing game which Howell hasn’t had to do much.

UNC's season was interesting to say the least. Scored nearly 50 points or more in 6 games including an impressive 62 against Miami. On the flip side they lost 4 games including FSU, UVA, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M. They gave up 45 points against Virginia Tech and 53 against Wake and managed to win both of them. About the only time the defense bothered to show up was against Syracuse and Western Carolina as they held both of them to under 10 points and to a lesser extent against Miami holding them to 26. As for the rushing attack, they did snag that former 5 star from Tennessee but will have to work him into the offense. We should have such problems. Besides the two running backs, both of whom were productive and durable, the player that stood out to me was Chaz Surratt (spelling?). All of them are gone so there is that.