Where the Program stands

[RamblinRed]

Here is where I sort of see the program right now (as we wait for hopefully a few more portal additions).

Coaching - offense - I feel like we are stronger here than we have been the last 3 seasons primarily due to the hire of Long. Whether our position coaches are better I don't know, but I think Long is a significant upgrade over PNode. That by itself is likely to be the biggest positive for the offensive side of the ball going into the season.

Defense- I'm not sure we are much better here. I like the hire of Turner, i'm hoping our DB play will be better due to having one coach, but his time at Mich St is sort of a mixed bag as his position was arguably the weakest part of their defense and Thacker is still the DC (whether he is getting help from Collins or not).

Special Teams - don't know what to think here since it sounds like we will be using multiple coaches.

Transfer portal - My take here is that I believe we have gained more in 'athletic potential' in the portal than we have lost this season, but I think we have also lost more proven college production than we have gained. We have largely lost our most productive players on both offense and defense to the portal and what we have brought in are guys who were considered to have high potential coming out of HS but haven't really produced yet at a college level. If you take Gibbs total production (rushing, receiving, kick returns) and compare it to the total production of McDuffie and Hall it is almost an exact match.

Development - It is hard to see much development so far. Alot of this is due to having few players who have been in the program for a long period of time. From the class of 2019 we have lost 8 of the top 10 ranked players from both Rivals and 247sports. The Class of 2020 is better with 7 of the top 10 rated recruits still on campus, unfortunately that includes 2 of the top 4.

Upcoming season - If GT football is going to take a step forward this year a few things need to happen. First, coaching in all phases needs to be better. Second, the remaining players in the classes of 2020 and 2021 and the portal players remaining from last year need to step up big time, Third, we need some of these portal players to be big hits - so far GT hasn't had a single portal player who was not a significant player at their previous program be a significant player at GT their first year here. If that happens this year then GT is going to get very little out of its 15 players coming in from the portal.

My thoughts on position groups.
QB - I feel we have improved here. Sims is back for season 3. We also brought in 2 transfers to push him - Gibson and Phommachanh. Having a dedicated QB coach and a better OC will help here I think.
RB - overall I would say a slight downgrade here. Losing Gibbs is a huge blow. McDuffie and Hall help but McDuffie is not the breakaway threat Gibbs is and Hall isn't nearly as shifty. GT also loses Mason. While I think the staff has done a good job rebuilding this unit overall I think it is still a slight downgrade from last year. Gibbs was a huge target out of the backfield, neither Hall or McDuffie are close to him there.
WR - Right now I would say this is probably a slight downgrade. McGowan was one of the best transfers we had, we also lost Adonicas Sanders. We haven't brought anyone in that replaces that production, we are hoping the young guys step up. If they do we will be ok here, if not we have problems.
TE - I think we have a significant upgrade here. First having Long as the position coach and then with what we have portaled in. PNode didn't use the TE's much - whether that was due to them not being a big part of his offense or whether it is the quality of TE's we had on campus or the ability of our QB's to find them can be debated. Benson provides a real receiving option here. Hopefully we get guys healthy here as well. I would not be surprised to see EJ Jenkins play some here as well.
OL - this is my biggest concern right now on the team and I feel like on paper this is a significantly weaker group than last season. Minihan, Cooper, Cochran and Johnson were all starters when healthy. This year's squad is arguably more talented but also alot less experienced. We brought in 4 OL, but none of them have shown to be legit P5 starters yet in college. OL is a position that you have to be able to work more as a group than any other area on the team and the lack of time together concerns me alot.

DL - this is my second most concerning group right now. The good news is that we rotated alot of guys here. The bad news is the guys who produced the most are who left - Ivey and Domineck were our 2 most productive ends and Brooks (graduating) was by far our most productive interior line player. They had 100 tackles between the 3 of them. The rest of the returning DL players combined had about 1/2 that many. Unfortunately the portal has been unkind to us here. This is another position where right now it feels like a significant downgrade from last season. Love the coaching staff here though and hope they can work some magic. This is another area where the guys already in the program have to step up big time.

LB - I sort of feel like this is a wash so far. We lost our most productive defensive player - Quez was 1st in tackles, 2nd in tackles for loss, 3rd in sacks, 1st in fumbles recovered. But getting Eley back was a positive and I like our young guys here. I also like the new LB coach so i'm hoping this is at worst a push.

DB - I don't really know what to think here. We lost most of the players here but our DB play was atrocious. We also have a single, new coach. We've stockpiled young talent through the portal the last 2 offseasons, now is the time for that talent to step up and produce. I believe we are more talented but less experienced here than in the past.

Special Teams
KO - feel really good here with Stewart returning.
Punting - I think this will be better than last year.
KO Returns - I'm hoping this is a push with Hall taking over for Gibbs primarily.
Punt Returns - We lost both guys who returned punts last year but we were awful in punt returns so hopefully new blood here helps.
Extra points - Cimaglia was 31-33 on these last year. Hopefully we are as solid this year.
FG - We were at least solid here last year with Cimaglia going 11-15, but the long was only 37. But for the first time under Collins we could kick FG's within 40 yds and feel like we would make most of them. With Cimaglia gone will we be as solid in the short to mid-range FG. Feel like have to think this is a downgrade until proven otherwise.

So overall I am pretty happy with the coaching changes, though not thrilled Thacker is still the DC, whether that is in name only or not. I am most concerned about our lines and feel like those are the biggest danger areas in holding back improvement for this upcoming season. I think the offensive structure will be better with Long as the OC and he is likely to utilize the pieces he has better than PNode, but the OL is flat out scary. IMO there is too little proven production both among the returnees and among the incoming transfers to expect significant improvements, but hopefully I am wrong. I'd put the ceiling at 6 wins, and alot has to go right for us to get to that level.

 

[bobongo]

OL - this is my biggest concern right now on the team and I feel like on paper this is a significantly weaker group than last season. Minihan, Cooper, Cochran and Johnson were all starters when healthy. This year's squad is arguably more talented but also alot less experienced. We brought in 4 OL, but none of them have shown to be legit P5 starters yet in college. OL is a position that you have to be able to work more as a group than any other area on the team and the lack of time together concerns me alot.

You can fix whatever you want to fix elsewhere on the team, and it isn't going to amount to much on the scoreboard unless you fix the OL.
A bad OL crashes the whole offense and puts the defense behind the 8-ball.
Some people are going to have to step up on OL or we're toast.
But if they do, we'll be okay.

 

[cthenrys]

Is a good breakdown. The lines are the key. The delta between OL performance that we've seen and what is needed to win 6 is pretty darn large so there's a hill to climb. Would agree that 6 is the ceiling but I don't see us making that. The talent may be marginally capable of reaching this but the coaching has shown nothing so far to make it possible to get the most out of what we have.

 

[Billygoat91]

Is a good breakdown. The lines are the key. The delta between OL performance that we've seen and what is needed to win 6 is pretty darn large so there's a hill to climb. Would agree that 6 is the ceiling but I don't see us making that. The talent may be marginally capable of reaching this but the coaching has shown nothing so far to make it possible to get the most out of what we have.

Turnover at O-line has been pretty big, too. It seems like we have replaced at least 2 starters per year along the o-line and replaced the departures with transfers. All in all, our guys have not had a lot of time to develop as a cohesive unit.

 

[Sheboygan]

Good analysis Red. I agree with you on both lines being the most critical to our improvement. Heck, we've been saying that for almost as long as I can remember. IMO, this is a critical year for Key. He was able to coach 5 stars at Bama. Can he make 3 stars into 4 stars at Tech ? The jury is still out on that.
What you didn't mention specifically is what we can call the "culture" of the program. IMO, that has been an issue since the 2nd year of CGC as it became obvious that all the talk of elite performance, etc. was just that .....talk. Can Collins become a leader of this team, causing players to admire, respect and fear him all at the same time ?
From what I see, admittedly from very far away, is a lot of uncertainty and lack of experience from the HC, covered over by saying things that HE truly believes are true.
By the lack of improvement in 3 years , it's obvious that there have been several issues to fix. Whether CGC can become a leader of a Power 5 team is the elephant in the room if you ask me.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

RB - overall I would say a slight downgrade here. Losing Gibbs is a huge blow. McDuffie and Hall help but McDuffie is not the breakaway threat Gibbs is and Hall isn't nearly as shifty. GT also loses Mason. While I think the staff has done a good job rebuilding this unit overall I think it is still a slight downgrade from last year. Gibbs was a huge target out of the backfield, neither Hall or McDuffie are close to him there.

Smith will bring some of the speed we lost with Gibbs. We are still not as good as we were, but we are still strong at RB.

 

[Billygoat91]

Smith will bring some of the speed we lost with Gibbs. We are still not as good as we were, but we are still strong at RB.

I really hope Smith gets a chance to shine this year. No offense to Hall and McDuffie, I expect and hope them to be major contributors and look forward to watching them play, but seeing Smith hit the hole with so much aggression over the past 2 seasons has me excited to watch him in a larger role.

 

[alagold]

You can fix whatever you want to fix elsewhere on the team, and it isn't going to amount to much on the scoreboard unless you fix the OL.
A bad OL crashes the whole offense and puts the defense behind the 8-ball.
Some people are going to have to step up on OL or we're toast.
But if they do, we'll be okay.

B,
EXACTLY what I was going to say.The OL is the key and unfortunately the outlook is not encouraging withthe experience lacking especially.It is like dominoes--when the OL goes flat the run game stops ,then the passing and then the DEF gets worn out. Sad but true.

 

[JacketFan137]

WR i would not be surprised if we are better. blackburn is a BALLER and Moore looked very good in the spring game. mcgowan was a loss but adonicas sanders was basically a non factor most games outside of a fantastic performance at duke. how much of that was scheme vs talent is up for debate, but i don’t think he was significantly better than other guys on the depth chart

i’m hoping the addition of Luke benson at the TE position who is very athletic for the position and EJ jenkins (not sure whether he’ll be listed at TE or WR but he’s 6’7!!!) can more than make up for that.

ultimately though the biggest issue for collins teams have been the o line and the d line. we lost some guys on d line and i get people love the names but aside from UNC at what point did our defensive front look good? i guess it could be worse on paper but ultimately that’s not a huge difference lol

 

[GTBandit22]

At WR, we have been waiting for a player to step up and be “the guy”. We have had burners and we have had possession guys, but there hasn’t been anyone here since Waller/Smelter that we say we have to get the ball to.
McGowan was a good piece and Carter has had some streaky play, but we really need a reliable threat out there. I like what guys like Blackstrain and Haynes bring, but would love to see Carter or McCollum step up and make some plays.
As others have said, everything flows from line play. Yes you can be decent without good play there but you will never be good.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

The OLine is the engine of the team. If the engine isn’t any good it doesn’t matter how good the tires are (WR’s) or how good the paint job is (RB’s) or how good the driver is (QB). The OLine is all that matters in 2022 other than someone locking Collins in his office on game days. We all know the defense is going to be the worst in the ACC because we have seen it 3 years in a row and not much has changed. I hope I’m shown to be wrong but I don’t see us stopping anyone with any consistency.

 

[4shotB]

. Whether CGC can become a leader of a Power 5 team is the elephant in the room if you ask me.

I've always understood the "elephant in the room" phrase to be something hat people are aware of but tapdance around or avoid speaking of directly. In this case, I don't think CGC's coaching abilties can qualify as the "elephant in the room." 95% of the posts here are around this issue,

 

[Sheboygan]

I've always understood the "elephant in the room" phrase to be something hat people are aware of but tapdance around or avoid speaking of directly. In this case, I don't think CGC's coaching abilties can qualify as the "elephant in the room." 95% of the posts here are around this issue,

I thought about not using that phrase, but the current post seems to be personnel related, rather than coaching, that will determine whether we are
significantly improved. Perhaps it was the wrong phrase, but I think it's more than coaching abilities, although that is certainly part of it. I was referring to a leadership "style "more than coaching. Coaching is more for assistants. Leadership is for the Head Coach. You know- the type of coach that players say they would run through a wall
for; that make a lasting influence on them as young men.

 

[bobongo]

I thought about not using that phrase, but the current post seems to be personnel related, rather than coaching, that will determine whether we are
significantly improved. Perhaps it was the wrong phrase, but I think it's more than coaching abilities, although that is certainly part of it. I was referring to a leadership "style "more than coaching. Coaching is more for assistants. Leadership is for the Head Coach. You know- the type of coach that players say they would run through a wall
for; that make a lasting influence on them as young men.

According to College Football Data.com, the Jackets were ranked #32 last year in talent (ranked ahead of Pitt, for example).

CollegeFootballData.com

collegefootballdata.com

That ranking was borne out by the fact that 8 players off that team have signed NFL contracts. Our problem wasn't the players, it was their coaches.
Assistant upgrades will help a lot, though we've lost a lot of talent - talent that wasted away under bad coaching (and weak leadership).
Some point to our poor record and claim it's evidence that we didn't have much talent and that it didn't matter that we lost starters off a bad team.
But the problem in their performance seems to have been quite clearly the coaching they received. That coaching is going to improve this year, but it may not be enough.

 

[WreckinGT]

Significant offensive improvement seems unlikely after losing Gibbs and others. If we are going to take a leap as a team it is going to have to be on defense where we really shouldn't be as bad as we are.

 

[iceeater1969]

Here is where I sort of see the program right now (as we wait for hopefully a few more portal additions).

Coaching - offense - I feel like we are stronger here than we have been the last 3 seasons primarily due to the hire of Long. Whether our position coaches are better I don't know, but I think Long is a significant upgrade over PNode. That by itself is likely to be the biggest positive for the offensive side of the ball going into the season.

Defense- I'm not sure we are much better here. I like the hire of Turner, i'm hoping our DB play will be better due to having one coach, but his time at Mich St is sort of a mixed bag as his position was arguably the weakest part of their defense and Thacker is still the DC (whether he is getting help from Collins or not).

Special Teams - don't know what to think here since it sounds like we will be using multiple coaches.

Transfer portal - My take here is that I believe we have gained more in 'athletic potential' in the portal than we have lost this season, but I think we have also lost more proven college production than we have gained. We have largely lost our most productive players on both offense and defense to the portal and what we have brought in are guys who were considered to have high potential coming out of HS but haven't really produced yet at a college level. If you take Gibbs total production (rushing, receiving, kick returns) and compare it to the total production of McDuffie and Hall it is almost an exact match.

Development - It is hard to see much development so far. Alot of this is due to having few players who have been in the program for a long period of time. From the class of 2019 we have lost 8 of the top 10 ranked players from both Rivals and 247sports. The Class of 2020 is better with 7 of the top 10 rated recruits still on campus, unfortunately that includes 2 of the top 4.

Upcoming season - If GT football is going to take a step forward this year a few things need to happen. First, coaching in all phases needs to be better. Second, the remaining players in the classes of 2020 and 2021 and the portal players remaining from last year need to step up big time, Third, we need some of these portal players to be big hits - so far GT hasn't had a single portal player who was not a significant player at their previous program be a significant player at GT their first year here. If that happens this year then GT is going to get very little out of its 15 players coming in from the portal.

My thoughts on position groups.
QB - I feel we have improved here. Sims is back for season 3. We also brought in 2 transfers to push him - Gibson and Phommachanh. Having a dedicated QB coach and a better OC will help here I think.
RB - overall I would say a slight downgrade here. Losing Gibbs is a huge blow. McDuffie and Hall help but McDuffie is not the breakaway threat Gibbs is and Hall isn't nearly as shifty. GT also loses Mason. While I think the staff has done a good job rebuilding this unit overall I think it is still a slight downgrade from last year. Gibbs was a huge target out of the backfield, neither Hall or McDuffie are close to him there.
WR - Right now I would say this is probably a slight downgrade. McGowan was one of the best transfers we had, we also lost Adonicas Sanders. We haven't brought anyone in that replaces that production, we are hoping the young guys step up. If they do we will be ok here, if not we have problems.
TE - I think we have a significant upgrade here. First having Long as the position coach and then with what we have portaled in. PNode didn't use the TE's much - whether that was due to them not being a big part of his offense or whether it is the quality of TE's we had on campus or the ability of our QB's to find them can be debated. Benson provides a real receiving option here. Hopefully we get guys healthy here as well. I would not be surprised to see EJ Jenkins play some here as well.
OL - this is my biggest concern right now on the team and I feel like on paper this is a significantly weaker group than last season. Minihan, Cooper, Cochran and Johnson were all starters when healthy. This year's squad is arguably more talented but also alot less experienced. We brought in 4 OL, but none of them have shown to be legit P5 starters yet in college. OL is a position that you have to be able to work more as a group than any other area on the team and the lack of time together concerns me alot.

DL - this is my second most concerning group right now. The good news is that we rotated alot of guys here. The bad news is the guys who produced the most are who left - Ivey and Domineck were our 2 most productive ends and Brooks (graduating) was by far our most productive interior line player. They had 100 tackles between the 3 of them. The rest of the returning DL players combined had about 1/2 that many. Unfortunately the portal has been unkind to us here. This is another position where right now it feels like a significant downgrade from last season. Love the coaching staff here though and hope they can work some magic. This is another area where the guys already in the program have to step up big time.

LB - I sort of feel like this is a wash so far. We lost our most productive defensive player - Quez was 1st in tackles, 2nd in tackles for loss, 3rd in sacks, 1st in fumbles recovered. But getting Eley back was a positive and I like our young guys here. I also like the new LB coach so i'm hoping this is at worst a push.

DB - I don't really know what to think here. We lost most of the players here but our DB play was atrocious. We also have a single, new coach. We've stockpiled young talent through the portal the last 2 offseasons, now is the time for that talent to step up and produce. I believe we are more talented but less experienced here than in the past.

Special Teams
KO - feel really good here with Stewart returning.
Punting - I think this will be better than last year.
KO Returns - I'm hoping this is a push with Hall taking over for Gibbs primarily.
Punt Returns - We lost both guys who returned punts last year but we were awful in punt returns so hopefully new blood here helps.
Extra points - Cimaglia was 31-33 on these last year. Hopefully we are as solid this year.
FG - We were at least solid here last year with Cimaglia going 11-15, but the long was only 37. But for the first time under Collins we could kick FG's within 40 yds and feel like we would make most of them. With Cimaglia gone will we be as solid in the short to mid-range FG. Feel like have to think this is a downgrade until proven otherwise.

So overall I am pretty happy with the coaching changes, though not thrilled Thacker is still the DC, whether that is in name only or not. I am most concerned about our lines and feel like those are the biggest danger areas in holding back improvement for this upcoming season. I think the offensive structure will be better with Long as the OC and he is likely to utilize the pieces he has better than PNode, but the OL is flat out scary. IMO there is too little proven production both among the returnees and among the incoming transfers to expect significant improvements, but hopefully I am wrong. I'd put the ceiling at 6 wins, and alot has to go right for us to get to that level.

VERY Nice comparison of players . Lots of fact info.


I wonder if u have thoughts about how the coaches compare- relative to now verses first 3 years.
Perhaps - years of p5 experince , players in nfl, salaries before we hired, etc

What ever u decide to use for comparisons is fine.

I think we have a major Age and experience up grade.
Not sure it matters but it's the off season

 

[jacketup]

You can’t analyze where the program stands without understanding where the program stood when Collins took over.

Let’s go back. We had an offense that was recruited for the option. 280 lb OTs are fine in the option, but they can’t pass block well enough for a balanced offense. This isn’t a knock on Johnson, he recruited what worked for his offense. The QB needs to be a runner, not a passer. WRs need to be skilled at blocking, not route running. TE’s? A backs don’t work well as TE’s.

Then there is the defense. Even the most avid Johnson apologist has to admit that the defenses weren’t good. We lost 8 starters from Johnson’s last team and the one that Collins inherited. One of the downsides of the option is that it inhibits D recruiting.

The biggest need when Collins took over was at the line of scrimmage—on both sides. We needed OL and DL, and still do. Headed into last season, Collins had 2 recruiting classes to recruit. Why? The December signing date means that a newly hired coach is stuck with what the previous coach had recruited—and on offense that was guys suited for the option. Then, you don’t win with FR and SOPHS. Further, as O’Leary said, the further you are from the LOS the sooner you can play. The portal has been a mixed bag at best. LOS talent and depth hasn’t been there, but it’s improving.

Knowledgeable observers knew that the transition would be painful. They knew it would take 4-5 years at best to get the program in order. It has taken time to get the talent we need to be competitive. The recent portal guys generally have 3-4 years of eligibility, which is a good sign, but we are still putting the pieces in place to be competitive .

Coaching wise, the staff was one of the lowest paid in P5. Our coordinators only made a little bit more than UGa’s lowest paid position coach ($425K and $450K vs. $400K per USA Today) . How many P5 teams had coordinators making less than $500K? The position coaches were paid less, and paying to live in Atlanta. I don’t believe that pay scale was Collins’ decision. Do people really believe we can be competitive with top teams without paying competitively for coaches? I believe—but don’t know—that this issue finally came to the attention of some people willing to write checks, which is why we saw such staff turnover since last year.

A head coach doesn’t need to be great at X’s and O’s or development. Dodd wasn’t. After Graves and Broyles left, his record was pretty mediocre. Dabo isn’t an X’s and O’s guy, and people made fun of him after he lost to Spurrier at SC for five straight years. How did that work out? Clemson spent money on assistants. Tech hasn’t.

People accuse me of being a Collins fan. He has recruited at a higher level, which we needed. But is he the right guy? I don’t know, but I am willing to give him time. Time, under the circumstances is 5 years-- due to COVID, the December signing date, the coaching budget, and the talent on hand when he took over. And don’t tell me about Rivals and 247 recruiting rankings as a measure of team talent. Such BS.

Then there is the schedule for 2022.

I’m being patient for two more seasons.

 

[JacketFan137]

You can’t analyze where the program stands without understanding where the program stood when Collins took over.

Let’s go back. We had an offense that was recruited for the option. 280 lb OTs are fine in the option, but they can’t pass block well enough for a balanced offense. This isn’t a knock on Johnson, he recruited what worked for his offense. The QB needs to be a runner, not a passer. WRs need to be skilled at blocking, not route running. TE’s? A backs don’t work well as TE’s.

Then there is the defense. Even the most avid Johnson apologist has to admit that the defenses weren’t good. We lost 8 starters from Johnson’s last team and the one that Collins inherited. One of the downsides of the option is that it inhibits D recruiting.

The biggest need when Collins took over was at the line of scrimmage—on both sides. We needed OL and DL, and still do. Headed into last season, Collins had 2 recruiting classes to recruit. Why? The December signing date means that a newly hired coach is stuck with what the previous coach had recruited—and on offense that was guys suited for the option. Then, you don’t win with FR and SOPHS. Further, as O’Leary said, the further you are from the LOS the sooner you can play. The portal has been a mixed bag at best. LOS talent and depth hasn’t been there, but it’s improving.

Knowledgeable observers knew that the transition would be painful. They knew it would take 4-5 years at best to get the program in order. It has taken time to get the talent we need to be competitive. The recent portal guys generally have 3-4 years of eligibility, which is a good sign, but we are still putting the pieces in place to be competitive .

Coaching wise, the staff was one of the lowest paid in P5. Our coordinators only made a little bit more than UGa’s lowest paid position coach ($425K and $450K vs. $400K per USA Today) . How many P5 teams had coordinators making less than $500K? The position coaches were paid less, and paying to live in Atlanta. I don’t believe that pay scale was Collins’ decision. Do people really believe we can be competitive with top teams without paying competitively for coaches? I believe—but don’t know—that this issue finally came to the attention of some people willing to write checks, which is why we saw such staff turnover since last year.

A head coach doesn’t need to be great at X’s and O’s or development. Dodd wasn’t. After Graves and Broyles left, his record was pretty mediocre. Dabo isn’t an X’s and O’s guy, and people made fun of him after he lost to Spurrier at SC for five straight years. How did that work out? Clemson spent money on assistants. Tech hasn’t.

People accuse me of being a Collins fan. He has recruited at a higher level, which we needed. But is he the right guy? I don’t know, but I am willing to give him time. Time, under the circumstances is 5 years-- due to COVID, the December signing date, the coaching budget, and the talent on hand when he took over. And don’t tell me about Rivals and 247 recruiting rankings as a measure of team talent. Such BS.

Then there is the schedule for 2022.

I’m being patient for two more seasons.

people won’t want to listen to this even though it’s facts.

 

[SandySpringsJacket]

Here is where I sort of see the program right now (as we wait for hopefully a few more portal additions).

Coaching - offense - I feel like we are stronger here than we have been the last 3 seasons primarily due to the hire of Long. Whether our position coaches are better I don't know, but I think Long is a significant upgrade over PNode. That by itself is likely to be the biggest positive for the offensive side of the ball going into the season.

Defense- I'm not sure we are much better here. I like the hire of Turner, i'm hoping our DB play will be better due to having one coach, but his time at Mich St is sort of a mixed bag as his position was arguably the weakest part of their defense and Thacker is still the DC (whether he is getting help from Collins or not).

Special Teams - don't know what to think here since it sounds like we will be using multiple coaches.

Transfer portal - My take here is that I believe we have gained more in 'athletic potential' in the portal than we have lost this season, but I think we have also lost more proven college production than we have gained. We have largely lost our most productive players on both offense and defense to the portal and what we have brought in are guys who were considered to have high potential coming out of HS but haven't really produced yet at a college level. If you take Gibbs total production (rushing, receiving, kick returns) and compare it to the total production of McDuffie and Hall it is almost an exact match.

Development - It is hard to see much development so far. Alot of this is due to having few players who have been in the program for a long period of time. From the class of 2019 we have lost 8 of the top 10 ranked players from both Rivals and 247sports. The Class of 2020 is better with 7 of the top 10 rated recruits still on campus, unfortunately that includes 2 of the top 4.

Upcoming season - If GT football is going to take a step forward this year a few things need to happen. First, coaching in all phases needs to be better. Second, the remaining players in the classes of 2020 and 2021 and the portal players remaining from last year need to step up big time, Third, we need some of these portal players to be big hits - so far GT hasn't had a single portal player who was not a significant player at their previous program be a significant player at GT their first year here. If that happens this year then GT is going to get very little out of its 15 players coming in from the portal.

My thoughts on position groups.
QB - I feel we have improved here. Sims is back for season 3. We also brought in 2 transfers to push him - Gibson and Phommachanh. Having a dedicated QB coach and a better OC will help here I think.
RB - overall I would say a slight downgrade here. Losing Gibbs is a huge blow. McDuffie and Hall help but McDuffie is not the breakaway threat Gibbs is and Hall isn't nearly as shifty. GT also loses Mason. While I think the staff has done a good job rebuilding this unit overall I think it is still a slight downgrade from last year. Gibbs was a huge target out of the backfield, neither Hall or McDuffie are close to him there.
WR - Right now I would say this is probably a slight downgrade. McGowan was one of the best transfers we had, we also lost Adonicas Sanders. We haven't brought anyone in that replaces that production, we are hoping the young guys step up. If they do we will be ok here, if not we have problems.
TE - I think we have a significant upgrade here. First having Long as the position coach and then with what we have portaled in. PNode didn't use the TE's much - whether that was due to them not being a big part of his offense or whether it is the quality of TE's we had on campus or the ability of our QB's to find them can be debated. Benson provides a real receiving option here. Hopefully we get guys healthy here as well. I would not be surprised to see EJ Jenkins play some here as well.
OL - this is my biggest concern right now on the team and I feel like on paper this is a significantly weaker group than last season. Minihan, Cooper, Cochran and Johnson were all starters when healthy. This year's squad is arguably more talented but also alot less experienced. We brought in 4 OL, but none of them have shown to be legit P5 starters yet in college. OL is a position that you have to be able to work more as a group than any other area on the team and the lack of time together concerns me alot.

DL - this is my second most concerning group right now. The good news is that we rotated alot of guys here. The bad news is the guys who produced the most are who left - Ivey and Domineck were our 2 most productive ends and Brooks (graduating) was by far our most productive interior line player. They had 100 tackles between the 3 of them. The rest of the returning DL players combined had about 1/2 that many. Unfortunately the portal has been unkind to us here. This is another position where right now it feels like a significant downgrade from last season. Love the coaching staff here though and hope they can work some magic. This is another area where the guys already in the program have to step up big time.

LB - I sort of feel like this is a wash so far. We lost our most productive defensive player - Quez was 1st in tackles, 2nd in tackles for loss, 3rd in sacks, 1st in fumbles recovered. But getting Eley back was a positive and I like our young guys here. I also like the new LB coach so i'm hoping this is at worst a push.

DB - I don't really know what to think here. We lost most of the players here but our DB play was atrocious. We also have a single, new coach. We've stockpiled young talent through the portal the last 2 offseasons, now is the time for that talent to step up and produce. I believe we are more talented but less experienced here than in the past.

Special Teams
KO - feel really good here with Stewart returning.
Punting - I think this will be better than last year.
KO Returns - I'm hoping this is a push with Hall taking over for Gibbs primarily.
Punt Returns - We lost both guys who returned punts last year but we were awful in punt returns so hopefully new blood here helps.
Extra points - Cimaglia was 31-33 on these last year. Hopefully we are as solid this year.
FG - We were at least solid here last year with Cimaglia going 11-15, but the long was only 37. But for the first time under Collins we could kick FG's within 40 yds and feel like we would make most of them. With Cimaglia gone will we be as solid in the short to mid-range FG. Feel like have to think this is a downgrade until proven otherwise.

So overall I am pretty happy with the coaching changes, though not thrilled Thacker is still the DC, whether that is in name only or not. I am most concerned about our lines and feel like those are the biggest danger areas in holding back improvement for this upcoming season. I think the offensive structure will be better with Long as the OC and he is likely to utilize the pieces he has better than PNode, but the OL is flat out scary. IMO there is too little proven production both among the returnees and among the incoming transfers to expect significant improvements, but hopefully I am wrong. I'd put the ceiling at 6 wins, and alot has to go right for us to get to that level.

Great summary but unfortunately you correctly note that the OL and DL are likely to be weaker this year, and they were not great last year. It is hard to win when you cannot control the line of scrimmage. I will be a BDS cheering them on and hoping for a pleasant surprise.

 

[awbuzz]

If the OL and DL show serious improvement we likely can get in a Bowl game, if not...
Well I'll be out there in the stands anyway.