I’m rooting like heck for Collins. I have since he was hired because I pull for every GT coach because it’s my curse (ha). The way we lost to Pitt to end last season and the way we looked against NIU was the lowest of the lows. Last night was the first non-fabricated show of life. Collins rhetoric was not needed because his team finally SHOWED it on the field. That’s all we’ve wanted.
I really believe the defense has taken a step forward because we have young talented players. Ivey, Robinson, Kennard are studs. Our linebacker play is the best it’s been in over a decade. The secondary still has issues but we have talent coming up.
Offensively, I’m not ready to believe. Why? I remember how I felt after FSU last year. And I feel like that this morning. It’s a grea5 feeling but we know how it went as coaches adjusted to us. Sims is a talent. And he and Patenaude shredded UNC. Now, there is tape for our upcoming DC’s. What we ran was still very vanilla. The question is did it work last night because we are that good or did we simply catch UNC off guard? I tell you right now, those runs Sims had will get him smoked by UGA and probably VT. Kirby figured out the mesh read long ago.
I believe Collins can be a fine coach because the #1 ingredient is recruiting and he has that down. But, if he hitches his boat to Patenaude like he has it could hurt his career. I loved seeing Patenaude go with Gibbs and Smith together. Awesome and great. Now, come up with a system that uses their speed and mitigates our bad OLine. This season is going to be interesting to see if Patenaude can adjust to how the defense adjusts to Sims.