Georgia Tech's gauntlet of a season may look a little less daunting after a rough second weekend of college football, but the reality is this team can't take anyone for granted. The NIU game was a great example of that and the KSU game was an example of what the team can do if they limit mistakes and focus. There was a lot to like about how Georgia Tech played against KSU, but the quality of the opponent can't be overlooked either. The Owls staff thought they had a better shot in the game than they did on the field in the actual game so that is progress as well.
On the QB situation, Jeff Sims was cleared to play but was not 100-percent. How close will he be to 100-percent and how solid is the team behind Jordan Yates right now are the two things I think Geoff Collins and his staff have to figure out. I don't want to see musical chairs at QB against a team like Clemson either so they need to just make a call either way and roll with it. Sims is not the type of guy who will get up in arms if they decide to roll with Yates again this week and see how it goes. It could be easier for him to come into the Clemson game if GT falls behind considerably and get back into form as well. I do think you will need both QBs to make it through the season with the schedule GT has. They got very lucky last year that Sims made it through the year mostly unscathed. I think Yates brings a little swagger that they need, but Sims has a more dynamic toolbox and sees the field better. Yates probably reads the defense better, so it will be interesting so see how all of this plays out and if there is a true QB competition now because it seemed like the staff had been Ride or Die with Sims since August of 2020 and nothing was changing that until Yates got his turn. I've been a big proponent of giving Yates a shot in a reasonable situation unlike his playing time in 2020 so we will probably see more of what he can do now that he has proven himself to be effective on the field.
One interesting thing from the KSU game was the performance of Jahmyr Gibbs and Jordan Mason who both left a lot of runs on the field and were not very effective running the ball compared to week one or their normal production. That was sort of odd to me. Dontae Smith sparked them and had a great day getting some national love from PFF and he needs to see the field if the other two are not producing because his initial burst and the way he hits a hole a 100mph is a good motivator for the other guys and is effective. You could tell Jamious Griffin was pressing a little in his first action hence why he left his feet and fumbled. Hopefully, he is not too banged up from that play.
On the receiver front, Kyric McGowan continues to live up to his preseason hype as a big improvement over Ahmarean Brown (he has only played 22 snaps in the Gamecocks first two games by the way) and his veteran presence and intelligence with his routes and feel for defenses has helped out Yates a ton. Kalani Norris finally got some burn taking over the snaps that normally go to Adonicas Sanders and he played a great game, I'm guessing Dono was a little banged up and was limited to 12 snaps while Norris got 21. Nate McCollum has also looked good in his role this season behind McGowan and he should've had a TD catch in the first game if Sims put the ball anywhere in the zip code he beat his man so badly. Peje Harris also continues to deliver in his role. Malachi Carter was not much of a factor in the game this past week.
I feel sort of bad for the TEs, they still don't get used very much. GT is still playing a ton of double slot with the TE lined up as either a slot or out receiver away from the formation so Dylan Leonard didn't get much work. Dylan Deveney did not dress for the second straight week as he is dealing with an injury (could be the AC joint issue mentioned in camp). BIlly Ward and Jack Coco saw some decent snaps in the heavy red-zone package, but not really any passing plays. Ward actually played the most snaps of his career and did a decent job while Coco continues to hold down the H-back slot. I did think we'd see more from Leonard given his comfort with Yates in key downs and distances, but they were also not in a ton of those on Saturday either.
The OL did not do a ton of favors for the team as the RTs had a tough day both Nick Pendley and Jordan Williams and it looks to me like neither are 100-percent as well so that isn't helping. KJ Kirby got some reps to give Devin Cochran a break late in the game at LT, Cochran had a good game. Mikey Minihan was good in pass pro, but Ryan Johnson continues to have a slow start to the year and Kenny Cooper was very solid despite dealing with some discomfort after an injury on a PAT.
Defensively Jordan Domineck had a great game at RE as did Charlie Thomas at SAM/WLB in a more traditional 4-3 and sometimes overload look. I actually thought it was clever how Thacker used Thomas and Jaylon King as edge protectors as KSU ran a lot of tight formations and they blew up the slots on the outside. King did well especially considering Tariq Carpenter lasted just one play. King has some tackling he needs to clean up but otherwise, he looked like he did in 2019 which was much better playing a much heavier load than expected. Derrik Allen also came off the bench playing safety after spending all fall at CB and did his job well. Djimon Brooks, Akelo Stone and Jared Ivey I thought were the standouts up front aside from Domineck on the defense. Overall the tackling has been much better and a vast improvement helping the defense tremendously.
Credit where credit is due, Thacker had a very good plan defensively and KSU is pretty good at the system and it took two broken plays to score the only TDs of the day for them one of which was just a lucky play on a fourth and forever. I don't think the defense has been as bad as people think, but it will get a real test at Clemson to gauge how much things have improved.
It was good to see Cimaglia hit a short FG and put his PATs through. David Shanahan continues to kill the ball which is great, he reminds some of Pressley Harvin III as a freshman when Pressley was still developing some touch on his punts and would over kick the coverage some and Shanahan put a couple through the end zone in the first two games that will end up as in20s as he gets more experienced. Gavin Stewart has been great on kickoffs, though again I think it will be interesting this week against a more dynamic return game who won't give up as easily.
I thought Collins' game management was a lot better, I think he only had one somewhat noticeable gaffe and he caught it himself late in the first half when KSU was trying to run the clock down before a punt, he let maybe an extra 10 seconds come off before calling a timeout, so they lost a little bit of time GT just ended up running the clock out there.
Overall it was a B+ effort maybe A- which is probably as good as they've had in a non-conference game thus far under Collins. The real test comes this week with Clemson who embarrassed the heck out of the program last year in BDS. Can they cover the spread? Can they make it a competitive game? Can they win up there? Clemson has not lost a home game since Nov. 12, 2016. They have the longest active home winning streak (29 gms) in the FBS.
On the QB situation, Jeff Sims was cleared to play but was not 100-percent. How close will he be to 100-percent and how solid is the team behind Jordan Yates right now are the two things I think Geoff Collins and his staff have to figure out. I don't want to see musical chairs at QB against a team like Clemson either so they need to just make a call either way and roll with it. Sims is not the type of guy who will get up in arms if they decide to roll with Yates again this week and see how it goes. It could be easier for him to come into the Clemson game if GT falls behind considerably and get back into form as well. I do think you will need both QBs to make it through the season with the schedule GT has. They got very lucky last year that Sims made it through the year mostly unscathed. I think Yates brings a little swagger that they need, but Sims has a more dynamic toolbox and sees the field better. Yates probably reads the defense better, so it will be interesting so see how all of this plays out and if there is a true QB competition now because it seemed like the staff had been Ride or Die with Sims since August of 2020 and nothing was changing that until Yates got his turn. I've been a big proponent of giving Yates a shot in a reasonable situation unlike his playing time in 2020 so we will probably see more of what he can do now that he has proven himself to be effective on the field.
One interesting thing from the KSU game was the performance of Jahmyr Gibbs and Jordan Mason who both left a lot of runs on the field and were not very effective running the ball compared to week one or their normal production. That was sort of odd to me. Dontae Smith sparked them and had a great day getting some national love from PFF and he needs to see the field if the other two are not producing because his initial burst and the way he hits a hole a 100mph is a good motivator for the other guys and is effective. You could tell Jamious Griffin was pressing a little in his first action hence why he left his feet and fumbled. Hopefully, he is not too banged up from that play.
On the receiver front, Kyric McGowan continues to live up to his preseason hype as a big improvement over Ahmarean Brown (he has only played 22 snaps in the Gamecocks first two games by the way) and his veteran presence and intelligence with his routes and feel for defenses has helped out Yates a ton. Kalani Norris finally got some burn taking over the snaps that normally go to Adonicas Sanders and he played a great game, I'm guessing Dono was a little banged up and was limited to 12 snaps while Norris got 21. Nate McCollum has also looked good in his role this season behind McGowan and he should've had a TD catch in the first game if Sims put the ball anywhere in the zip code he beat his man so badly. Peje Harris also continues to deliver in his role. Malachi Carter was not much of a factor in the game this past week.
I feel sort of bad for the TEs, they still don't get used very much. GT is still playing a ton of double slot with the TE lined up as either a slot or out receiver away from the formation so Dylan Leonard didn't get much work. Dylan Deveney did not dress for the second straight week as he is dealing with an injury (could be the AC joint issue mentioned in camp). BIlly Ward and Jack Coco saw some decent snaps in the heavy red-zone package, but not really any passing plays. Ward actually played the most snaps of his career and did a decent job while Coco continues to hold down the H-back slot. I did think we'd see more from Leonard given his comfort with Yates in key downs and distances, but they were also not in a ton of those on Saturday either.
The OL did not do a ton of favors for the team as the RTs had a tough day both Nick Pendley and Jordan Williams and it looks to me like neither are 100-percent as well so that isn't helping. KJ Kirby got some reps to give Devin Cochran a break late in the game at LT, Cochran had a good game. Mikey Minihan was good in pass pro, but Ryan Johnson continues to have a slow start to the year and Kenny Cooper was very solid despite dealing with some discomfort after an injury on a PAT.
Defensively Jordan Domineck had a great game at RE as did Charlie Thomas at SAM/WLB in a more traditional 4-3 and sometimes overload look. I actually thought it was clever how Thacker used Thomas and Jaylon King as edge protectors as KSU ran a lot of tight formations and they blew up the slots on the outside. King did well especially considering Tariq Carpenter lasted just one play. King has some tackling he needs to clean up but otherwise, he looked like he did in 2019 which was much better playing a much heavier load than expected. Derrik Allen also came off the bench playing safety after spending all fall at CB and did his job well. Djimon Brooks, Akelo Stone and Jared Ivey I thought were the standouts up front aside from Domineck on the defense. Overall the tackling has been much better and a vast improvement helping the defense tremendously.
Credit where credit is due, Thacker had a very good plan defensively and KSU is pretty good at the system and it took two broken plays to score the only TDs of the day for them one of which was just a lucky play on a fourth and forever. I don't think the defense has been as bad as people think, but it will get a real test at Clemson to gauge how much things have improved.
It was good to see Cimaglia hit a short FG and put his PATs through. David Shanahan continues to kill the ball which is great, he reminds some of Pressley Harvin III as a freshman when Pressley was still developing some touch on his punts and would over kick the coverage some and Shanahan put a couple through the end zone in the first two games that will end up as in20s as he gets more experienced. Gavin Stewart has been great on kickoffs, though again I think it will be interesting this week against a more dynamic return game who won't give up as easily.
I thought Collins' game management was a lot better, I think he only had one somewhat noticeable gaffe and he caught it himself late in the first half when KSU was trying to run the clock down before a punt, he let maybe an extra 10 seconds come off before calling a timeout, so they lost a little bit of time GT just ended up running the clock out there.
Overall it was a B+ effort maybe A- which is probably as good as they've had in a non-conference game thus far under Collins. The real test comes this week with Clemson who embarrassed the heck out of the program last year in BDS. Can they cover the spread? Can they make it a competitive game? Can they win up there? Clemson has not lost a home game since Nov. 12, 2016. They have the longest active home winning streak (29 gms) in the FBS.
