ACC power rankings

aeromech said:
Seriously. Very few had Demarius Thomas pegged as an All-Pro coming out of high school. Very few had Nesbitt and Dwyer pegged as future NFL Hall of Famers either (except for a few posters on here who think Dwyer is/was better than Bo Jackson). I don't think most even had Nesbitt picked as our for sure starter, there was some other QB recruit (I think from Arizona?) who we hoped would win the starting job because the prospects of our QB's on staff (Nesbitt, Bilbo) looked so grim. MJ and Burnett were the only ones I think most were confident would play on Sunday. Walker, Richard, and Morgan (along with MJ) gave us hope on defense. Our offensive line was a catastrophy that lacked a full set of starters and had no depth.

It is in hindsight that we recognize how good that class was. The new system worked wonders for Nesbitt and Dwyer, and probably helped advance Thomas' career. Do you seriously think we remember Nesbitt as a great QB if he was forced to work out of a pro-set offense?
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Mostly agree, but the 2007 class was very highly rated at the time. There were a lot of question marks around the team, though, as you've highlighted.

Also, Bilbo was gone well before Nesbitt came along. Bilbo was a GOL recruit.
 
Yeah, Bilbo was part of the 51-7 debacle in the cesspool, along with Suggs. Our team looked frightened that day.
 
bonham said:
Umm, that class was widely recognized as the best GT class in decades at the time they were recruited.
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Here is what they were saying about GT in the summer of 2008:

The 'Rambling Wreck' only returns nine starters from a 7-6 campaign. They are introducing a new coach, albeit a good one, in Paul Johnson, and they will be breaking in a new QB, RB, and an entire secondary.

Josh Nesbitt and Jonathan Dwyer (QB, RB) could be something special, but they are only sophomores amongst a very inexperienced team. Just ask Notre Dame how well that went for them last year.

Throw in the loss of stud LB Philip Wheeler, along with their top four tacklers from last year, and this has nothing but rebuilding year written all over it.

Paul Johnson will get these guys to compete, but there are too many more talented and experienced teams in the ACC for coaching to overcome. They also play Virginia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina, and Georgia on the road.

A .500 season should put Coach Johnson in line for "Coach of the Year" honors. I don't see that happening.
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That was a far cry from everyone expecting GT to break out because of all the talent Gailey left behind.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/34002-college-football-2008-acc-preview
 
wesleyd21 said:
Seriously?

Michael Johnson, Vance Walker, Daryl Richard, Derrick Morgan, Dwyer, Nesbitt, Burnett, Tarrant, and Demarius Thomas. All on that team. Chan’s 2005 team was also stacked. The man simply was a supremely mediocre football coach. He had awesome talent and could never deliver.

Most people thought we would suck because of the transition into the triple option, not the lack of talent. This year is the exact opposite of that problem.
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We had some high end talent, certainly more than we have now but we didn't have talent across the board and very little depth. That's really just normal power 5 talent.
 
aeromech said:
Here is what they were saying about GT in the summer of 2008:



That was a far cry from everyone expecting GT to break out because of all the talent Gailey left behind.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/34002-college-football-2008-acc-preview
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Well you are conflating two different points.

1. There were low expectations for the team as a whole from the media (and many fans) heading into 2008 - point granted
2. "It is hindsight that we recognize how good that class was." At the time of NSD the class was the best we had ever had since such things have been tracked.
 
gtfan088 said:
Well you are conflating two different points.

1. There were low expectations for the team as a whole from the media (and many fans) heading into 2008 - point granted
2. "It is hindsight that we recognize how good that class was." At the time of NSD the class was the best we had ever had since such things have been tracked.
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I am not conflating anything. We knew it was a good class when we signed it, we didn't know how good it actually was until after the 2009 season and they started turning pro. It was the best class we had signed in a while; but there was no reason to believe it was as good as a typical class signed by the elite programs.
 
aeromech said:
I am not conflating anything. We knew it was a good class when we signed it, we didn't know how good it actually was until after the 2009 season and they started turning pro. It was the best class we had signed in a while; but there was no reason to believe it was as good as a typical class signed by the elite programs.
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No one knows how good their class actually is until 2-3 years down the road. Nothing unique to us.
 
aeromech said:
Exactly. You know how good it is in hindsight.
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Yet you can still make general observations about the level of talent on the team based off what you've seen, recruiting rankings, etc. Though Thomas had yet to break out, we knew we had top-end talent in guys like Dwyer, Morgan, Burnett, Johnson, Walker, et al. I don't think the same is true heading into 2019, though we may have more depth.
 
gtfan088 said:
Yet you can still make general observations about the level of talent on the team based off what you've seen, recruiting rankings, etc. Though Thomas had yet to break out, we knew we had top-end talent in guys like Dwyer, Morgan, Burnett, Johnson, Walker, et al. I don't think the same is true heading into 2019, though we may have more depth.
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No. We did not know Dwyer and Burnett were top end talent going into 2008. We had seen them play sparingly and had high hopes; but neither was a starter. We had high hopes with MJ; but he was undersized going into the off season and needed to beef up some. Dwyer rushed for 436 yards in 2007 for example, and broke out in 2008 for 1395 yards.
 
aeromech said:
No. We did not know Dwyer and Burnett were top end talent going into 2008. We had seen them play sparingly and had high hopes; but neither was a starter. We had high hopes with MJ; but he was undersized going into the off season and needed to beef up some. Dwyer rushed for 436 yards in 2007 for example, and broke out in 2008 for 1395 yards.
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Dwyer was rated #115 nationally per Rivals, and the #8 player in the state of GA. He had 9 TDs in 2007. That he wasn't the starter was irrelevant, as he was behind Tashard Choice. Morgan Burnett was #84 nationally and #5 in GA. He had 3 INTs as a freshman and played very well. It was not some shock that both ended up being great players in 2008.

MJ was preseason All-ACC in 2008. In his early mock draft (April 2008) for 2009, Todd McShay had MJ going #2 overall. Virtually everyone had him as a first-round pick entering the season.
 
gtfan088 said:
Dwyer was rated #115 nationally per Rivals, and the #8 player in the state of GA. He had 9 TDs in 2007. That he wasn't the starter was irrelevant, as he was behind Tashard Choice. Morgan Burnett was #84 nationally and #5 in GA. He had 3 INTs as a freshman and played very well. It was not some shock that both ended up being great players in 2008.

MJ was preseason All-ACC in 2008. In his early mock draft (April 2008) for 2009, Todd McShay had MJ going #2 overall. Virtually everyone had him as a first-round pick entering the season.
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Ok, I found Todd McShay's mock draft. You are correct, he had MJ as number 2 right behind Fili Moala. I think that's all I need to say about that.

None of these guys were starters in 2007 (MJ only started his senior season); but I guess some knew they were great. I just remember a whole bunch of excitement after the 2008 season by people speculating what Paul Johnson could do after he recruited a few classes rather than using a converted DE/TE as a OL a walk on DE as a center, and the other scraps CCG left behind. Overall the talent on the team when CPJ arrived was not seen by most as good. Top the bottom we are probably better off right now than we were going into fall 2008.
 
aeromech said:
Ok, I found Todd McShay's mock draft. You are correct, he had MJ as number 2 right behind Fili Moala. I think that's all I need to say about that.

None of these guys were starters in 2007 (MJ only started his senior season); but I guess some knew they were great. I just remember a whole bunch of excitement after the 2008 season by people speculating what Paul Johnson could do after he recruited a few classes rather than using a converted DE/TE as a OL a walk on DE as a center, and the other scraps CCG left behind. Overall the talent on the team when CPJ arrived was not seen by most as good. Top the bottom we are probably better off right now than we were going into fall 2008.
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Not a lot of freshmen in college football start. MJ was a guy who didn't quite put it together until late, but no one questioned his talent. He was behind Darrell Robertson, who was all-ACC in 2007. Going into 2008, the starting d-linemen were all considered NFL-caliber.

There is enough talent CPJ is leaving behind for us to be competitive, especially in a weak division, but he's not leaving us a ton of guys who already look likely to play at the next level. That's not a comparison of CCG and CPJ as coaches, as I'd take another 11 years of CPJ before even one more of CCG.
 
JJacket said:
Threet shouldn't have transferred.
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If I recall correctly, wasn’t Threet probably going to be the starting QB here in 2007?

My guess is Gailey would have finally had himself a good QB and we’d have never seen CPJ here had Threet stayed.
 
wesleyd21 said:
If I recall correctly, wasn’t Threet probably going to be the starting QB here in 2007?

My guess is Gailey would have finally had himself a good QB and we’d have never seen CPJ here had Threet stayed.
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Maybe. Threet was decent but not great at Michigan and Arizona State. 18 TD/16 INT in his last year against fairly weak Pac-10 defenses.
 
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