GT98
Dodd-Like
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2002
- Messages
- 4,409
Before I start the body of this post, I am not trying to offend anyone (certainly not any of our student-athletes). Feel free to point out where I am wrong.
Nickel-back:
I really like Rhino's heart/courage and tenacity on kick coverage units. I wonder if we don't have better options at nickel back, though. The reality is that his "heart of a lion" is wrapped in a body that is 5' 6" or so and not very fast. Clemson recognized this and picked on him throughout the game since he covered the receiver lined up in the slot. True, no cornerback can always cover their guy one on one and needs help from a safety, but we cannot leave him out there at all w/o help. On Clemson's TD drive in the 3rd quarter, they went exclusively to the slot receiver for a handful of plays in a row, recognizing the instant mismatch. While Houston may be hurt, could Dennis Davis not play here? Certainly he has speed or else he would not be on the kick return unit returning kickoffs at times. What about Landry? Again, I like Rhino's heart, but think that he is a liability in the field. Surely, we can take a Davis or Landry and have them take the duties of the slot receiver in the nickel package. I think that Hester and Cox have played pretty well thus far, but we need to give someone else a shot at the nickel back. BYU will line up in 4 and 5 receiver sets the majority of the time and would love to have this matchup all game.
Gathers? It is painful to watch such a good player that is slowed down from "minimal change" disease. He has not been a factor at all this year and when was the last time that you have seen a team just block him straight up w/o help? I am not sure what the staff can do here, but I wish that their was a way to help him return to the player that he was.
Hollings! I have not seen a running back this fast at GT in a long time. He was gaining seperation on Clemson just like the Vandy and Uconn defenses. Take away his long 70+ yd. TD run and he still average right at 4 yds. a carry. Why not continue to run him and Ford until the other team proves that they can stop it? I state this since Suggs is not there mentally yet, IMO. You cannot take sacks on 2nd and 1 to create the predictability of 3rd and 12. If you cannot escape or throw the ball away, simply go down for a 3 yd. loss as opposed to 3rd and really long. I think that we need to scale down the offense and use some more screens and slants to keep the defense's pass rush/blitz honest. Hollings and any of our receivers on the edge is a great matchup for us.
Clinkscale? He has pretty good hands, but lackluster speed, IMO. I think a better option for the 4 receiver, one back set would be Ford or Hollings. Spell Hollings on 2nd down w/Ford, Dixon, Hatch and keep Hollings in on 3rd downs when we need our best playmakers on the field. Hollings is clearly our best playmaker on offense right now.
The positive to me is that for everything that we did wrong in the Clemson game, we still only lost by 5 pts. and had a chance to win late. True, there is no moral victories, but the problems (outside of a lack of pass rush w/o blitzing) are all correctable. Let's hope that they are corrected starting Sat.
GO JACKETS!
Nickel-back:
I really like Rhino's heart/courage and tenacity on kick coverage units. I wonder if we don't have better options at nickel back, though. The reality is that his "heart of a lion" is wrapped in a body that is 5' 6" or so and not very fast. Clemson recognized this and picked on him throughout the game since he covered the receiver lined up in the slot. True, no cornerback can always cover their guy one on one and needs help from a safety, but we cannot leave him out there at all w/o help. On Clemson's TD drive in the 3rd quarter, they went exclusively to the slot receiver for a handful of plays in a row, recognizing the instant mismatch. While Houston may be hurt, could Dennis Davis not play here? Certainly he has speed or else he would not be on the kick return unit returning kickoffs at times. What about Landry? Again, I like Rhino's heart, but think that he is a liability in the field. Surely, we can take a Davis or Landry and have them take the duties of the slot receiver in the nickel package. I think that Hester and Cox have played pretty well thus far, but we need to give someone else a shot at the nickel back. BYU will line up in 4 and 5 receiver sets the majority of the time and would love to have this matchup all game.
Gathers? It is painful to watch such a good player that is slowed down from "minimal change" disease. He has not been a factor at all this year and when was the last time that you have seen a team just block him straight up w/o help? I am not sure what the staff can do here, but I wish that their was a way to help him return to the player that he was.
Hollings! I have not seen a running back this fast at GT in a long time. He was gaining seperation on Clemson just like the Vandy and Uconn defenses. Take away his long 70+ yd. TD run and he still average right at 4 yds. a carry. Why not continue to run him and Ford until the other team proves that they can stop it? I state this since Suggs is not there mentally yet, IMO. You cannot take sacks on 2nd and 1 to create the predictability of 3rd and 12. If you cannot escape or throw the ball away, simply go down for a 3 yd. loss as opposed to 3rd and really long. I think that we need to scale down the offense and use some more screens and slants to keep the defense's pass rush/blitz honest. Hollings and any of our receivers on the edge is a great matchup for us.
Clinkscale? He has pretty good hands, but lackluster speed, IMO. I think a better option for the 4 receiver, one back set would be Ford or Hollings. Spell Hollings on 2nd down w/Ford, Dixon, Hatch and keep Hollings in on 3rd downs when we need our best playmakers on the field. Hollings is clearly our best playmaker on offense right now.
The positive to me is that for everything that we did wrong in the Clemson game, we still only lost by 5 pts. and had a chance to win late. True, there is no moral victories, but the problems (outside of a lack of pass rush w/o blitzing) are all correctable. Let's hope that they are corrected starting Sat.
GO JACKETS!