I'm not sure what to make of what I saw on Saturday night in Bobby Dodd Stadium in front of a less than a packed house, but it was just unacceptable to lose a game the way they did for a program entering year three under a head coach who has enough talent to win now and has used that as his own motto for the season W.I.N. 21. All three phases of the game let them down, the offense couldn't punch it in when they needed to, the defense couldn't get off the field at the most critical point in the game or defend a two-point conversion and they missed three field goals including having another one blocked granted it was a prayer attempt by Gavin Stewart, but still...
Clock management was terrible. Collins burned bad timeouts again in both halves and the playcalling was interesting at times.
Georgia Tech needed to line up and smash NIU in the mouth and they did at times show that ability on both sides of the ball, but too often they couldn't cash in and now Collins has burned up what was left of his goodwill and he will need to start winning games in a big bad way to get people to jump back on the train IMO. This was a bad loss. The Citadel loss two years ago was a bit forgivable given transition, but not really that was a bad team.
NIU was one of the few easy buckets on a very hard schedule and Tech drops to 1-3 under Collins against non-P5 schools. Paul Johnson went 7-1 in those games in his final four seasons which weren't his best years at Tech as a guidepost. The one loss came against USF who was in the middle of a 28-4 run of games over a two and a half year period.
NIU went winless last year.
As a HC Collins record against those types of schools is not great either
At Temple, they had some real struggles
2017 Villanova 16-13 win
2017 UMass 29-21 win
2017 at Army 28-31 loss in OT
2018 Villanova 17-19 loss
2018 Buffalo 29-36 loss
At GT
2019 USF 14-10 win
2019 Citadel 24-27 loss
2019 at Temple 2-24 loss
2020 UCF 21-49 loss
2021 NIU 22-21 loss
So that's 3-7 against teams from lesser conferences and 1-2 against FCS teams. That's not great.
Playing down to your opponent is a bad sign.
Should people throw themselves off a bridge? No
Collins is a good salesman, the roster is more talented than what he inherited, but they should've beat NIU by two or three scores.
If they had just hit the three field goals he wanted to try (Collins listened to the crowd or his coaches or both and called a timeout and tried for a TD on fourth and goal from the two instead of kicking a chip shot FG that would've been a difference-maker in the game.
I'll do a good, bad and ugly tomorrow, but I was just disappointed for the players, the fans, and the coaches who I like with what I saw on the field. It was a substandard product and not what I expected to see in year three of this regime. If they don't make a massive improvement throughout the season and even into next week there will be a lot of concerns for all involved moving ahead and that is the nature of the business.
There were bright spots, obviously, the three RBs (Dontae should get more touches hey we say that every week) and Jordan Yates played his tail off and I thought some guys on D did a good job like Wesley Walker. David Shanahan and Gavin Stewart both get kudos for their play as well.
I'm going to bed try to not be jerks to each other and be respectful especially with the players.
Clock management was terrible. Collins burned bad timeouts again in both halves and the playcalling was interesting at times.
Georgia Tech needed to line up and smash NIU in the mouth and they did at times show that ability on both sides of the ball, but too often they couldn't cash in and now Collins has burned up what was left of his goodwill and he will need to start winning games in a big bad way to get people to jump back on the train IMO. This was a bad loss. The Citadel loss two years ago was a bit forgivable given transition, but not really that was a bad team.
NIU was one of the few easy buckets on a very hard schedule and Tech drops to 1-3 under Collins against non-P5 schools. Paul Johnson went 7-1 in those games in his final four seasons which weren't his best years at Tech as a guidepost. The one loss came against USF who was in the middle of a 28-4 run of games over a two and a half year period.
NIU went winless last year.
As a HC Collins record against those types of schools is not great either
At Temple, they had some real struggles
2017 Villanova 16-13 win
2017 UMass 29-21 win
2017 at Army 28-31 loss in OT
2018 Villanova 17-19 loss
2018 Buffalo 29-36 loss
At GT
2019 USF 14-10 win
2019 Citadel 24-27 loss
2019 at Temple 2-24 loss
2020 UCF 21-49 loss
2021 NIU 22-21 loss
So that's 3-7 against teams from lesser conferences and 1-2 against FCS teams. That's not great.
Playing down to your opponent is a bad sign.
Should people throw themselves off a bridge? No
Collins is a good salesman, the roster is more talented than what he inherited, but they should've beat NIU by two or three scores.
If they had just hit the three field goals he wanted to try (Collins listened to the crowd or his coaches or both and called a timeout and tried for a TD on fourth and goal from the two instead of kicking a chip shot FG that would've been a difference-maker in the game.
I'll do a good, bad and ugly tomorrow, but I was just disappointed for the players, the fans, and the coaches who I like with what I saw on the field. It was a substandard product and not what I expected to see in year three of this regime. If they don't make a massive improvement throughout the season and even into next week there will be a lot of concerns for all involved moving ahead and that is the nature of the business.
There were bright spots, obviously, the three RBs (Dontae should get more touches hey we say that every week) and Jordan Yates played his tail off and I thought some guys on D did a good job like Wesley Walker. David Shanahan and Gavin Stewart both get kudos for their play as well.
I'm going to bed try to not be jerks to each other and be respectful especially with the players.
