Most teams are good for an occasional dud during the season but during the Geoff Collins era these disappointing performances have been more the norm and than the outlier they were under O'Leary, Gailey, or Johnson. That is concerning at this point and it is concerning the area that is the most disappointing over the last two years is the specialty of the head coach the defense and namely the secondary. I have never seen a team where more guys stare at each other after a big play and point fingers on the field after someone fails to cover their man or switch off in coverage. That led to two cheap scores for VT on big plays to Tre Turner on Saturday that were straight-up busts. Collins is a defensive coach, he has to get it fixed or bring in someone to fix it.
The rebuild on the defensive line is clearly part of this, but the inability to get pressure on D since the UNC game has been a major issue. The 3-3-5 scheme is not working because it is dependant on pressure on the QB from the LBs blitzing and that has been largely absent and ineffective in games. Not having Keion White is big, but something is just off and they are getting pushed off the ball and teams are running down the throat of the GT defense. I'm not sure what you do to fix that other than go back to the 4-man front and man up. That was disappointing to see a pretty mediocre offense eat the clock and march up and down the field at will.
Collins is a defensive coach, the defense has to be better and can't look poorly coached. If you just are getting manhandled that is almost more excusable, but both that and the poor coverage in the secondary is unacceptable.
Offensively Jahmyr Gibbs and Jeff Sims running the ball are your best weapons, play to that more. They did a better job of that, but in the middle parts of the game where Tech struggled they got away from being creative with them and just ran the ball up the middle where they are not strong and threw passes. The pass pro struggled as did both guards. I think that Paula and Lay looked good against a 3-man front against UVA because it is easy to read and Minihan is handling the pure NT. Against VaTech's DL they had among the worst performances I've seen and Key stuck with them which didn't help. I'm still sort of amazed they haven't tried Wing Green at RT and slid Johnson back inside.
I think what is frustrating everyone is the inability to close the gap in close games. Collins is correct they are more competitive this year and without a doubt that has been correct, but they are 1-4 in close games and if they are 3-2 or 2-3 they have a chance to go bowling.
Ultimately there is some type of disconnect on defense clearly in the backend and player development has not proceeded as expected. Other than Myles Sims and Wesley Walker can anyone point to a DB that has improved a lot? Tobias Oliver counts as well I guess but he was starting at a zero moving from QB to WR to DB. That is where the staff inherited talent and added talent and they have mostly regressed or not progressed. This is a player development program and has to be, that group looks exactly the same as in 2019 and the same guys mostly play save Sims, Walker and Oliver from 2019 yet the results are getting worse.
Collins has to figure that out.
Looking at the offense, I still think they lack an identity or thing to fall back on other than the RPO. I think Patenaude has some good ideas and concepts and calls some good stuff, but the OL is a hot mess due to injuries so they needed to probably learn hard on the run and get more creative there and didn't. Gibbs needs more touches in space. Why is he not in the 2-minute package? I get that he is a bad pass blocker (PFF backs this up) but put him in the slot instead of a TE, he will draw two defenders wherever he is on the field.
I've seen some weird criticism of some of the staff on here as well like the TE coach Chris Wiesehan. Wiesehan is actually probably one of the most accomplished coaches on the staff, he has two former walk-ons (a HS WR/TE and a HS OL) and Deveney a HS WR as his only older bodies to even work with. They've signed two normal TEs out of HS who are both kids Billy Ward and Ben Postma. That was always going to take the longest to develop and Sims still struggles to read them in the offense anyway so I think that is unfair at this time. Both Dylans are dealing with significant injuries as well with Leonard trying to play through his. Like the OL it will take time to develop this position group.
At the end of the day, the VaTech game sucked and it was another example of the team not being able to help themselves and the refs not helping matters either calling back two scores on borderline/phantom calls.
Collins has to improve his in-game coaching, chasing points has cost him a win against NIU straight up and put the team in a bad spot in the VaTech game late when they didn't convert to make it a three-point game late. I'm fine with the first one they chased needing momentum, but the second time you make it 3 and play D.
My advice to Collins moving forward is to be more honest in his public assessment of the team, don't need a GOL or CPJ presser, but he should dive into more details and explain the why part of it better. I thought his presser was better after this game, but he dug a hole with pragmatic GT fans with the overly positive and spinning pressers in years one and two.
If he can't get to five wins I think he needs to make a few changes, but I think you do that at the end of the year.
Overall, I'd say the last two games have been extremely disappointing. The team looked really good for three games KSU, Clemson and UNC and then fell off in a big way the next three barely beating a horrid Duke team and losing to Pitt and UVA. Now, this stretch has started poorly. They need an upset of Miami on Saturday and win over BC to create some momentum for next year otherwise people will want some blood IMO. Collins is paid a lot of money to build a winning program, not to put guys in the NFL or recruit well, to win. Winning has to be the focus with everything else on the next level. He has to figure out how to get there or what support remains will dry up quickly because the leash is short and GT has been historically bad the last two and a half years.
Here is a look at the first 30 games for the last 7 GT head coaches and where Collins stands:
Paul Johnson 22-8
Chan Gailey 16-14
George O'Leary 15-15
Bill Lewis 11-19 fired
Bobby Ross 10-20
Geoff Collins 9-21
Bill Curry 6-23-1
Collins has to figure how to become like Curry or Ross and not Lewis...
