For all the Taylor Bennett Doubters...

Lay em down & smackem Jackets

Lay em down & smackem Jackets

Flats Noob
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Messages
737
You are the smart ones. You are the realistic ones. He looked bad. Not a good outing, as a whole.

Negatives: several overthrows & underthrows, poor vision (missing Mike Cox wide open for a TD in the first half), ducks, overall nervous and hasty.

However.....

There are many positives and reasons for optimism.

1. He won his first game as a starter in a very awe-inspring setting.

2. He really did run the offense pretty well as far as tempo goes.

3. He made one technically great pass with that out pattern first down to JJ in the second half. This is a good sign. He also had a good pass to Colin Peek which sent the Tech fans into a chorus of "Tight End", "Tight End?", "Tight End!", "Where are we?", 'Who is this?", and so on... Very humorous.

4. No turnovers, although he tried. This should still be a confidence booster and a point from which to build.

5. Our next game is at home against Samford. Hopefully he can settle into his role a bit. (Let's make sure we don't take this one for granted like Michigan did against App St.).

6. Our next big game is at home.

7. Worse comes to worse, a huge Calvin Booker is his back-up, and he is backed up by our QB of the future.

Anyway, I am not overflowing with confidence, but I think I will be, eventually.

On a random prognosticatory note, the games I am most worried about are VPI (they are the nation's darling. We better have a big ol' pre-game ceremony in their honor, to be shown on national television, and we all had better wholeheartedly show our support for them in enduring that horrific event. I will not support us losing to them in football over it, though), MD, UVA (the facts that this is in Charlottesville and they already lost to Wyoming don't help), and ga (I will always be worried about this one until we beat them). I don't know why, but I am only secondarily worried about BC, Clemson, and our date with F$U in the ACCCG.

Thank you for reading what turned into a rambling post.
 
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I also thought that he played well below what he did in the Gator Bowl. Seemed to be rushing the throw slightly. Lets hope he gets settled in against Samford.
 
There is definitely a difference between being thrown into a bowl game with no real expectations and going into your first game as THE starter with all the expectations of your last great outing. Its a new role for him, and TB will adjust, learn, and settle down. Showing a few nerves on Saturday are to be expected, and the fact that they didn't result in anything damaging are a definite plus.
 
This was a different ball game than the bowl...literally. Plus, he didn't have Calvin to boost his confidence. All in all, I didn't think he performed badly. He threw some strikes along with the overthrows and not always seeing open receivers. He had a nice touch on the ball when he threw over defenders to the backs. I thought his roll outs looked good. There were no interceptions, no fumbled snaps, etc. He played well enough for us to win (understatement).

Let's give TB a few more games before we become disappointed.
 
Of course we all hope that Taylor will get it together. My main concern is that he has never played much football as a starting QB and is not loaded with athletic ability. Plus I did not see that great a job in scrimmages this year. In any case, we need a plan B in case he doesn't come around. We have too much talent on this team to waste without trying some other options if things don't work out for Taylor. I had enough of that with Chan and Reggie. But as BOR has said, I am just a dumb butt.
 
Remember Godsey's first game against a bad UCF team? UCF came in and almost beat us in Atlanta. GT had to score 2 late touchdowns to win 21-17, IIRC.

Godsey's line - 19-31, 189, 0 TD, 0 INT.
 
Also to Bennett's credit is that he did a good job reading the blitz and adjusting the OL and the play to the blitz. Once the game slows down for him, he'll be good to go.
 
ContactBuzz said:
Remember Godsey's first game against a bad UCF team? UCF came in and almost beat us in Atlanta. GT had to score 2 late touchdowns to win 21-17, IIRC.

Godsey's line - 19-31, 189, 0 TD, 0 INT.
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My thoughts exactly. And this wasn't UCF at home, it was Notre Dame in South Bend.
 
I Deny Being A "Doubter"

That's a perjorative term that is not appropriate for the situation. I want him to do well, like I want all GT players to do well.

Bennett was uptight and clearly not ready for a major defense like ND's. He threw it too quickly, when an extra click would have allowed him to find the wide open second option. He threw it out of bounds or where only our receiver could have caught it, if said receiver made an exceptional play, when he could have just laid it in there. He was too obsessed with avoiding a turnover or sack to truly be effective.

As a result, 2 of the 3 touchdowns happened when we were in the wildcat, and TB was not even in the game. In the touchdown drive that TB was able to see to the end, it happened after we broke ND's spine.

The amusing part is that the same fonts who KNEW that TB was ready last year and should have been played ahead of RB are the same fonts making excuses for TB not being ready this year, even though he has another year under his belt.

Perhaps the coaches are not the dumb bag of rocks that certain fonts think they are.

TB will be fine. He's a junior who just needs more experience and confidence. He will get there. He's our best quarterback option right now, and that speaks well of him.
 
Damn, by reading some of these posts you would think we had lost. Tater played like it was only his 3rd start. Guess what? It was.

Leave the poor kid alone. He made mistakes, get over it! Personally I thought he did a helluva job handing the ball off to Duece.
 
He's not as bad as he looked against Notre Dame and not as good as he looked against WVU, but he'll be alright.
 
He rushed some throws, missed some open receivers --but he also made some good throws during the game too.

GT won the game --33 - 3 no less-- mainly because we're that much better than ND this year, but it certainly helped that the QB remained poised and didn't make any key mistakes, i.e. turnovers.

To have a successful season GT will certainly need more out of TB --and I do think he will improve as the season rolls along.
 
Re: I Deny Being A "Doubter"

Techbert said:
The amusing part is that the same fonts who KNEW that TB was ready last year and should have been played ahead of RB are the same fonts making excuses for TB not being ready this year, even though he has another year under his belt.
Click to expand...

If Taylor had played exactly this way against UGA last year we would have beaten them. Don't forget Taylor's most important stat: zero turnovers. Also don't forget that he doesn't have Calvin Johnson to throw to this year.
 
The ONLY thing anybody needs to know about Taylor's performance Saturday is he did NOT beat us!!!!

How looong has it been since we could say that about our QB play!?

How wonderful would it have been to say that after Athens and Jacksonville last year, because a performance even short of Saturday's would've DEFINITELY equalled 2 W's. THWG
 
I think TB had an OK game. Not great, but he managed the game. Clearly, he could have thrown several of those bounce passes better, but all in all he managed the game.

What I thought was strange, and it hasn't been mentioned here, is that ND seemed to be much more comfortable in pass rush mode. This was their first game in the 3-4 defense, and they were clearly better when they were the one's picking which gaps to rush. When they had to stop the run, they just weren't big enough to hold their ground against our o-line.

With our o-line and Choice, we need a Phil Sims type QB rather than a Brett Farve. Just manage the game, make some throws to keep the D honest, and don't turn the ball over.
 
I'm optimistic that TB will improve. The thing to remember is that he didn't do anything to lose the game for us today. That's something we've been missing for awhile.
 
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