Tech football this year and the future

[stech81]

We all have opinions and they are only opinions that does not make one right or one wrong. I would like to know what the problems are and how you feel about the future.

I'll start by saying I really like CPJ and most of the staff. We all know the problems with the restrictions we have with academics and I don't think that will change.
First we know Tech is not a football factory and won't be unless a butt load of intelligent athletes become available for the next 10 years. I am not criticizing any of our player I respect all of them like all of them. Those that went to Tech know playing football studying and passing at Tech is a lot of work.
One thing I know very few years do we sign our limit of scholarships. Not sure why I do believe it's not from trying but you can't make a player come to Tech that doesn't want to work hard.
By not signing all we can puts us short because of players that are lost for injuries ( example Chris Griffin)a and ones who we thought would help but did not for other reasons ( Gary Brown,Travis Custis, and Myles Autry) . Most know that OL is one of the hardest positions to learn. Most teams will red shirt them but here we are forced to play them as true freshman. Our OL is still vert young and will be our bright spot next year and 2018.

I know some will say that crap we will lose our QB after this year. I think the world of JT . But I also think MJ will be great next year. No he is not as fast as JT but he runs the TO more like the QB's do at Navy. If he gets the read and keeps the ball he will cut it up field like it is meant to be run ( most runs from 4-7 yards but it keeps the offense moving and out of 2nd or 3th and long). The A-back has the outside lane if the QB takes his lane then the A-back has no room run as GTJT has said the sideline is the 13Th player on defense. We are in good shape at A-backs and B-backs for the next 2 year. Maybe its only me but I do think our offense will be good the next two years.

Now the defense I hope GTJT can tell us what he thinks. I think CTR plays too soft on defense. Not sure why but even when we do try to blitz our people look like all they do is try to run into the blocker. I don't like to see our CB's play 10 yards off the WR's .

I would love to see us get hot these last few games and the best thing I feel would help us next year is to beat uga the last game and go to a bowl game and win.

Would like to know what you guys think. Not looking for anyone to agree with me but would like to know what you think. ( I did say I like most of our staff but there are two I don't care to see them go but that is something I will keep to myself )

 

[BornAJacket]

I see that even the academic side of Ga Tech is making a major shift. Many kids from large portions of the state simply do don't have the ability to attend GT. Even the highest performers. They don't have the GPAs, the AP credits nor the SAT scores to attend GT. As long as the student body continues to move away from the general population of Ga, I see no chance of the athletic side keeping up. We will continue to see more students from out of state and the fan base will not grow as others around us grow.

There's simply not enough pressure in the administration to compete at the top of the football landscape. I see that GT will continue to be competitive, will continue to have great seasons from time to time. But I just don't see the parameters set by the Institute helping GT reach the ultimate goals athletically.

I didn't used to think this way, but I see this as the biggest hurdle. And it is not getting addressed. In fact I think it continues to get tougher.

 

[Buzzforlife]

Will be interesting to see what Lucas Johnson or Taquan Marshall can do throwing the ball. We know what Matt Jordan has as his weakness in the passing game, hopefully he keeps getting better holding on to the ball so he can get reps. in the Red Zone.

 

[stech81]

Will be interesting to see what Lucas Johnson or Taquan Marshall can do throwing the ball. We know what Matt Jordan has as his weakness in the passing game, hopefully he keeps getting better holding on to the ball so he can get reps. in the Red Zone.

Guess we will find out in the spring game , I want to see what Lucas Johnson can do

 

[GTJT622]

This season is going about as I expected. Still half of the season left for the team to make some noise. No matter what happens, if we can win 2 days after Turkey Day, I will of course be ecstatic.

Two weeks ago, I stated a lot would be made of Clemson & Miami's offenses but the biggest tests to our defense are on the horizon with Pitt, the Cheaters and the Hokies. I stand by that. The D did not play as well as we hoped at Pitt, but leading up to the game last week I warned that they would rush well, they would score, and this would be a high-scoring game. Face it, Pitt is just good offensively and underrated IMO.

When you look at our season to date, the D has played well for the most part. Gave up 14, 10 and 7 in the first 3 games against poor offenses. Gave up 26 to Clemson, though 2 pts were on a fluke play. Miami scored 35, though 14 of those are on our offense, not defense. Then came Pitt. No excuses for giving up 37. Again though, Pitt is one of the best offenses we will face all season and the best we've seen so far. The Cheaters and especially Hokies will be just as good.

What bothers me most about our defense is the inability to come out of the gate and play well on the opponent's opening possession. It's getting beyond ridiculous the likelihood now of us giving up a TD early. We've given up 42 pts in the 1Q, 44 in the 2Q (though the offense didn't help with 14 of those), but only 43 pts in the 3Q + 4Q combined. That's both good and bad. The good in the 2nd half is obvious. The inability to avoid getting behind early is mind boggling.

CTR needs to sign some burner type corners to play up on the LOS like you are suggesting. We are a zone scheme team. Mixing up the coverages from zone to man to zone, etc., is something you can do with a seasoned team...which is what was terribly disappointing about last year's defense which was very experienced. I agree it is frustrating to see us give up 10 yards on a 3rd-and-4. I think we should take our chances in those situations. Other times, I agree with CTR's approach. If we get burned deep, then folks will be angry about that too. CTR has had success with keeping offenses in front of him in pass defense. Our pass rush is not a strength and hasn't been for a while. Trubisky at Cheaterville and Evans at Blacksburg will be salivating when they watch film of our D knowing they should have all day to find receivers.

The crossroad Tech faces is about much of the Coastal (perhaps all) stepping up with excellent hires. We can't beat the Hokies or Canes with any frequency. Clemson has turned into a mammoth. That's 3 likely losses every season. And now, the Cheaters will be favored in a few weeks to lay a 3rd straight on us.

We are young. I feel like we will be better next year with almost all of our 2-deep on offense returning and the vast majority of our D returning. I'm happy with this '17 recruiting class we have in progress. CPJ isn't going anywhere unless he wants to. He deserves the opportunity to do something not only this year with what's remaining, but next year when all this youth grows up a bit.

As a fan, I don't care what offense we run as long as it is effective. We ran a more traditional offense under Gailey for 6 years and it put me to sleep most of the time. I woke up when Tenuta's defense ran onto the field. Hopefully, the offense shows improvement over the 2nd half of the season. Only the Hokies have the D to really limit us and perhaps even shut us down in dominant fashion like Clemson did. It will not surprise me at all if we light up the other 5 defenses like a Christmas tree.

Bottom line, I'm concerned. Looking back to 1997, when the program developed some consistent winning and avoiding the meltdown seasons (until last year), we've had a nice run. I don't take winning 7 games in a season for granted. If we can go from 3 to 6 this year and then up to 8 or 9 with a similar bump, that is great. I mark 4 likely losses in an odd-numbered year on the schedule before we even get started - Clemson, Va Tech, Miami, and Cesspool (who we never beat at home anymore...not even when we limit them to 13 pts like last year). So, to get to 8 wins, we have the run the table against the rest of the schedule - highly unlikely. We don't have much success at Scott Sisson Stadium. The Cheaters will be good. Tennessee will be too, though they lose a bunch to graduation and early NFL entry after this season.

Sorry for the long response. Expecting 6-6. Won't be shocked if we finish 5-7. Will be shocked if we finish 4-8. Won't be shocked if we finish 7-5. In fact, will be delighted. 8-4 means this team is growing up and playing some really good ball heading into a MEG - albeit highly unlikely considering our competition. Va Tech will be ugly. We have a chance in the other 5. A good chance in 3 of them.

 

[stech81]

Thanks GTJT I knew you watch and like the D. Looking at who we lose next year how do you think the D will be in 2017,? Hoping the Swillings can help next year but only saw them play once when they were on ESPN.
I know people get sick of hearing next year but I really feel the offense will be even better . I know some are worried about the center position just a guess I could see Will moving over to center next year.

 

[GTJT622]

We should be better defensively next year. We are doing better this year than I expected at this point. Sounding like a broken record I realize, but whether we have made great strides this year will be tested when we play back-to-back weeks at Chapel Hell and the Cow Pastures of Southwest Virginy.

We have a lot of talent. Very young. Entire D-Backfield returns. We will miss PJ Davis, but Alexander appears to be ready to step right in. Curry is improving on the other side. As Texwood pointed out in the Pitt postgame thread, Simmons is stepping up at DE. We will miss Gamble a LOT - more than Gotsis (IMO). We have some young players on the inside who are very talented. It is very important that we find a couple of talented interior DL's in this current recruiting class. We absolutely CANNOT strike out this year. Otherwise, I am very excited about the defensive players committed to us so far in this current class. We have some playmakers coming in. Just need those big uglies to step in and be ready by '19 (or earlier if we have attrition/injuries heaven forbid).

 

[GTJT622]

Btw, if we go 1-5 the rest of the way...

...I take everything back and claim Paul Johnson is a WITCH!

 

[stech81]

We should be better defensively next year. We are doing better this year than I expected at this point. Sounding like a broken record I realize, but whether we have made great strides this year will be tested when we play back-to-back weeks at Chapel Hell and the Cow Pastures of Southwest Virginy.

We have a lot of talent. Very young. Entire D-Backfield returns. We will miss PJ Davis, but Alexander appears to be ready to step right in. Curry is improving on the other side. As Texwood pointed out in the Pitt postgame thread, Simmons is stepping up at DE. We will miss Gamble a LOT - more than Gotsis (IMO). We have some young players on the inside who are very talented. It is very important that we find a couple of talented interior DL's in this current recruiting class. We absolutely CANNOT strike out this year. Otherwise, I am very excited about the defensive players committed to us so far in this current class. We have some playmakers coming in. Just need those big uglies to step in and be ready by '19 (or earlier if we have attrition/injuries heaven forbid).

Don't forget Adams at DT coach wants him to lose a little weight , much like Devine on offense. Adams can plug up a hole .

 

[Buzzforlife]

At YJA, Devine looks to be in better shape than Adams. So Brandon does need to get in better shape in order to be able to stay on the field.

Tenuta took the best athletes on defense. I thought when we placed Gray & Walker back there, we started to make strides to get back to that era/way. Freeman has been a little disappointing from the rush end spot.