Thanks to our new sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
As I’ve maintained for several weeks going back to the Bowling Green, progress isn’t a linear path and it took this Georgia Tech team some time to find their feet, but the have and are now a tough out capable of playing with teams on the schedule. The win at Virginia showcased how the team plays together and complimentary football.
It was encouraging to me that they kept their foot on the gas and even overcame some bad calls and penalties to keep in control of the UVA game. That was a game that would’ve slipped away earlier in the season as they lost momentum but they just kept humming along other than two drives in the game where maybe they got a little too conservative with the big lead on offense.
Does that mean they will beat UGA or Clemson, games they will be double-digit underdogs in? No. Does that mean they’ll have a shot if they play well? Yes.
The margin of error is pretty thin and they created enough despite some bad penalties on defense extending UVA drives multiple times in the last game. Haynes King held on to the football and made plays with his legs when the passing game wasn’t there.
The running game and the balance between Dontae Smith and Jamal Haynes was what everyone expected early in the year and Smith has proved to be the complimentary piece to Haynes’ dynamic speed and space running whereas Trey Cooley wasn’t powerful enough to fill that void.
The linebacker play is still inconsistent and that is hurting in the run defense numbers and they will have to clean that up to have a shot this week with Clemson. Clemson just played bully ball with a pretty stout Notre Dame defense and that doesn’t bode well for the Jackets going into this game.
I don’t know what to expect from GT in these final three games, but I think they will play hard and will figure out a way to go bowling and that will help get people back on the bandwagon. A win at Clemson would be a nice way though to get bowl eligible for the Jackets…
Clemson is a mature program led by a man who is a tremendous recruiter and they still have loads of talent on both sides of the ball. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers respond to finally winning a big game this season as well. Did Tyler galvanize Dabo's team? Or was that just an emotional response to the moment? This is the first time in a while where I think GT has a decent shot going into this game and that actually has me oddly more concerned that it will go the other way... The last two games were extremely tight games with an ejection of Charlie Thomas paving the way last year for Clemson to pull away and a bad penalty wiping out a touchdown and a missed block away from an upset in the last trip to Death Valley.
It will be an interesting test to see where the Jackets are at though. For the first time in many years, I'm not totally dreading making the drive up to Clemson, SC expecting to cover a beating. That is never fun unless the school you are covering is the one throwing haymakers.
As I’ve maintained for several weeks going back to the Bowling Green, progress isn’t a linear path and it took this Georgia Tech team some time to find their feet, but the have and are now a tough out capable of playing with teams on the schedule. The win at Virginia showcased how the team plays together and complimentary football.
It was encouraging to me that they kept their foot on the gas and even overcame some bad calls and penalties to keep in control of the UVA game. That was a game that would’ve slipped away earlier in the season as they lost momentum but they just kept humming along other than two drives in the game where maybe they got a little too conservative with the big lead on offense.
Does that mean they will beat UGA or Clemson, games they will be double-digit underdogs in? No. Does that mean they’ll have a shot if they play well? Yes.
The margin of error is pretty thin and they created enough despite some bad penalties on defense extending UVA drives multiple times in the last game. Haynes King held on to the football and made plays with his legs when the passing game wasn’t there.
The running game and the balance between Dontae Smith and Jamal Haynes was what everyone expected early in the year and Smith has proved to be the complimentary piece to Haynes’ dynamic speed and space running whereas Trey Cooley wasn’t powerful enough to fill that void.
The linebacker play is still inconsistent and that is hurting in the run defense numbers and they will have to clean that up to have a shot this week with Clemson. Clemson just played bully ball with a pretty stout Notre Dame defense and that doesn’t bode well for the Jackets going into this game.
I don’t know what to expect from GT in these final three games, but I think they will play hard and will figure out a way to go bowling and that will help get people back on the bandwagon. A win at Clemson would be a nice way though to get bowl eligible for the Jackets…
Clemson is a mature program led by a man who is a tremendous recruiter and they still have loads of talent on both sides of the ball. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers respond to finally winning a big game this season as well. Did Tyler galvanize Dabo's team? Or was that just an emotional response to the moment? This is the first time in a while where I think GT has a decent shot going into this game and that actually has me oddly more concerned that it will go the other way... The last two games were extremely tight games with an ejection of Charlie Thomas paving the way last year for Clemson to pull away and a bad penalty wiping out a touchdown and a missed block away from an upset in the last trip to Death Valley.
It will be an interesting test to see where the Jackets are at though. For the first time in many years, I'm not totally dreading making the drive up to Clemson, SC expecting to cover a beating. That is never fun unless the school you are covering is the one throwing haymakers.
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