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.
I was sort of pleased I was forced to be away from the site for a big chunk of Saturday morning driving up to Kentucky to watch an eerily similar head coach debut his rebuilding program, this time with my number two pick behind Brent Key to be the next Georgia Tech head coach, Alex Golesh. USF jumped out to an early lead and they did their damage in the first quarter instead of the second like the Jackets, but a veteran coach Tyson Helton with a talented roster also counterpunched the same way Jeff Brohm did GT.
Jeff Brohm is considered one of the top coaches in college football and is paid that way (he makes 2x what Key makes). He adjusted well and GT with a less experienced quarterback, offensive line, and minus two starting defensive backs and the top defensive end in the second half didn't.
There were scheme issues, there were play-calling questions but when I really thought about all of it, it becomes clearer as to why some of that happened.
Let's start with the first red flag, the left tackle spot. Corey Robinson was raved about all fall camp and he looked like he was running completely different plays than the other four OLs and on a time delay. It was the worst performance I've seen from an offensive lineman in a long time and I've covered some rough OLs during my long tenure at GT. I assume there is more to the story as to why Corey had a tough day and I'm sure he will bounce back, but when he was pulled that inserted a true freshman Ethan Mackenny into the lineup and I thought he played well, but I'm also going to guess that limited the calls and some of the things offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner was comfortable doing.
I don't have access to the play calls, but I'm going to guess some of those dive runs were RPOs that Haynes King didn't read properly and just handed it off to the RB who was blown up inside. That is a core concept of what GT has in the offense with King and when you misread it, it looks ugly. Go back to CPJ's games and you saw tons of these because it is not easy to do.
Chase Lane and Eric Singleton Jr. were both as good as advertised. Dominick Blaylock was not. I would like to see a lot more from Singleton, like a lot. I'll be curious what the rotation looks like come November as guys like James BlackStrain, Leo Blackburn and young guys like Singleton or Bailey Stockton start to play more.
The running back situation is interesting. I thought it was interesting that Jamie Felix did not play. I'm unsure if he was hurt or just out of the rotation for the day or something else. With the poor vantage point in MBS and my lack of binoculars I couldn't see who was dressed and who wasn't. I thought Trey Cooley bounced back well, he had missed some time in camp and ran hard. Jamal Haynes is a great fit for what Buster likes to do with his RBs in the pass game and in space. I am hopeful for Dontae Smith he gets some more to operate next time. He had one decent hole to run through.
Louisville made great adjustments and GT didn't have great counter moves for some of it but the game came down to three plays that killed momentum and one late drop. The team still had a chance to recover an onside kick with some momentum and win the game, but you wouldn't know it because most of the GT fans left the freaking stadium before the game was out of hand.
The rest of the OL played well. I thought King was pretty good, his clock needs to speed up given the LT issues though or he won't survive if that spot doesn't improve.
Defensively, they had issues tackling in the secondary and Trenilyas Tatum and Paul Moala are not Ayinde Eley and Charlie Thomas yet in this defense where they can erase some of those errors.
Not having either Myles Sims or Zamari Walton and their level of experience was tough at the CB spot. I thought Kenan Johnson played okay but his tackling like the rest of that group was not good. Ahmari Harvey was playing his first real snaps and Kenyatta Watson came off the bench and played so I'd be curious to see how they look more settled in with more real game snaps again. Both played really well in fall camp.
Losing LaMiles Brooks was huge because he is a huge playmaker and when he goes out that duo of Jaylon King and Clayton Powell-Lee didn't look as comfortable. LaMiles only played 16 snaps on Friday before leaving with an undisclosed injury. King and Powell-Lee should be rotating with each other not subbing for the best safety in the ACC IMO. They need Brooks to be healthy to win games this year.
Upfront, Sylvain Yondjouen suffered a knee injury and it didn't look good. I'm very concerned as someone who has known that young man now for five years that his season might be done. Hopefully, that is not the case. If it is, they really need Eddie Kelly and Josh Robinson to step up.
The DL faced one of the best guard boxes they will see all year so I would not put much stock in how the DTs looked and some of the pass rush. Jack Plummer is very good at getting the ball out his hand and avoiding sacks and he did that consistently.
David Shanahan punted the ball better, and Blaylock did a good job with the punt returns. Christian Leary made some very bad decisions on kickoffs early to put GT behind the sticks. Gavin Stewart kicked off well, but the missed field goals are a concern. I told Russell on the second one when King scrambled to the right I thought he would miss it. I didn't like the hash for that short kick for Stewart and he pulled it. The long kick, I'm sure Key told him don't get it blocked and he kicked that one okay.
Overall, I thought they looked better than I expected out of the gate. The offense was significantly better than I expected. The defense was hit-and-miss, but Brohm is a great offensive coach and folks need to remember this is a process.
I mentioned Golesh up top. He took over a team that has 3 wins in three years or something like that. He played 46 guys on offense and defense combined in game one just seeing who can play. Key unfortunately has expectations and can't do things like that and has to win games out of the gate so he has to keep tinkering with things here and there but they have to figure out some key spots like CB, LT and finding a way to be more consistent in the run game.
My ceiling is probably one game lower now, but I'm encouraged by what I saw.
I was sort of pleased I was forced to be away from the site for a big chunk of Saturday morning driving up to Kentucky to watch an eerily similar head coach debut his rebuilding program, this time with my number two pick behind Brent Key to be the next Georgia Tech head coach, Alex Golesh. USF jumped out to an early lead and they did their damage in the first quarter instead of the second like the Jackets, but a veteran coach Tyson Helton with a talented roster also counterpunched the same way Jeff Brohm did GT.
Jeff Brohm is considered one of the top coaches in college football and is paid that way (he makes 2x what Key makes). He adjusted well and GT with a less experienced quarterback, offensive line, and minus two starting defensive backs and the top defensive end in the second half didn't.
There were scheme issues, there were play-calling questions but when I really thought about all of it, it becomes clearer as to why some of that happened.
Let's start with the first red flag, the left tackle spot. Corey Robinson was raved about all fall camp and he looked like he was running completely different plays than the other four OLs and on a time delay. It was the worst performance I've seen from an offensive lineman in a long time and I've covered some rough OLs during my long tenure at GT. I assume there is more to the story as to why Corey had a tough day and I'm sure he will bounce back, but when he was pulled that inserted a true freshman Ethan Mackenny into the lineup and I thought he played well, but I'm also going to guess that limited the calls and some of the things offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner was comfortable doing.
I don't have access to the play calls, but I'm going to guess some of those dive runs were RPOs that Haynes King didn't read properly and just handed it off to the RB who was blown up inside. That is a core concept of what GT has in the offense with King and when you misread it, it looks ugly. Go back to CPJ's games and you saw tons of these because it is not easy to do.
Chase Lane and Eric Singleton Jr. were both as good as advertised. Dominick Blaylock was not. I would like to see a lot more from Singleton, like a lot. I'll be curious what the rotation looks like come November as guys like James BlackStrain, Leo Blackburn and young guys like Singleton or Bailey Stockton start to play more.
The running back situation is interesting. I thought it was interesting that Jamie Felix did not play. I'm unsure if he was hurt or just out of the rotation for the day or something else. With the poor vantage point in MBS and my lack of binoculars I couldn't see who was dressed and who wasn't. I thought Trey Cooley bounced back well, he had missed some time in camp and ran hard. Jamal Haynes is a great fit for what Buster likes to do with his RBs in the pass game and in space. I am hopeful for Dontae Smith he gets some more to operate next time. He had one decent hole to run through.
Louisville made great adjustments and GT didn't have great counter moves for some of it but the game came down to three plays that killed momentum and one late drop. The team still had a chance to recover an onside kick with some momentum and win the game, but you wouldn't know it because most of the GT fans left the freaking stadium before the game was out of hand.
The rest of the OL played well. I thought King was pretty good, his clock needs to speed up given the LT issues though or he won't survive if that spot doesn't improve.
Defensively, they had issues tackling in the secondary and Trenilyas Tatum and Paul Moala are not Ayinde Eley and Charlie Thomas yet in this defense where they can erase some of those errors.
Not having either Myles Sims or Zamari Walton and their level of experience was tough at the CB spot. I thought Kenan Johnson played okay but his tackling like the rest of that group was not good. Ahmari Harvey was playing his first real snaps and Kenyatta Watson came off the bench and played so I'd be curious to see how they look more settled in with more real game snaps again. Both played really well in fall camp.
Losing LaMiles Brooks was huge because he is a huge playmaker and when he goes out that duo of Jaylon King and Clayton Powell-Lee didn't look as comfortable. LaMiles only played 16 snaps on Friday before leaving with an undisclosed injury. King and Powell-Lee should be rotating with each other not subbing for the best safety in the ACC IMO. They need Brooks to be healthy to win games this year.
Upfront, Sylvain Yondjouen suffered a knee injury and it didn't look good. I'm very concerned as someone who has known that young man now for five years that his season might be done. Hopefully, that is not the case. If it is, they really need Eddie Kelly and Josh Robinson to step up.
The DL faced one of the best guard boxes they will see all year so I would not put much stock in how the DTs looked and some of the pass rush. Jack Plummer is very good at getting the ball out his hand and avoiding sacks and he did that consistently.
David Shanahan punted the ball better, and Blaylock did a good job with the punt returns. Christian Leary made some very bad decisions on kickoffs early to put GT behind the sticks. Gavin Stewart kicked off well, but the missed field goals are a concern. I told Russell on the second one when King scrambled to the right I thought he would miss it. I didn't like the hash for that short kick for Stewart and he pulled it. The long kick, I'm sure Key told him don't get it blocked and he kicked that one okay.
Overall, I thought they looked better than I expected out of the gate. The offense was significantly better than I expected. The defense was hit-and-miss, but Brohm is a great offensive coach and folks need to remember this is a process.
I mentioned Golesh up top. He took over a team that has 3 wins in three years or something like that. He played 46 guys on offense and defense combined in game one just seeing who can play. Key unfortunately has expectations and can't do things like that and has to win games out of the gate so he has to keep tinkering with things here and there but they have to figure out some key spots like CB, LT and finding a way to be more consistent in the run game.
My ceiling is probably one game lower now, but I'm encouraged by what I saw.
