Everyone is sleeping on GT and Jeff Sims and I don’t blame them. 3-7 last year with big losses to Syracuse, BC, UCF won’t instill confidence in anyone. Jeff Sims completed ~55% of his passes and had a 13/13 TD/INT split. It doesn’t look great.
But picking Tech to finish 6th in the Coastal is wrong. Picking Tech to not go to a bowl is also wrong. Yes the schedule is hard, but there is a very clear path to 6 games and at least a 4-4 record in the ACC. The facts just aren’t immediately apparent to the 30 seconds of research that most people do before ranking a team.
Fortunately I will lay it all out for everyone right here, right now: why Tech will win AT LEAST six games if not several more.
Personnel - we are 13th in the country in returning production (83%)
1. The OL will be vastly improved. We are adding three college-ready, high caliber OL in Cochran, Pendley, and Kirby. Jordan Williams is entering his second year of starting. Ryan Johnson, Kenny Cooper, and Minihan are back. Brent Key’s first OL class will have at least a full year under their belts. Our OL performed admirably last year, with very limited depth and COVID. But this year, the OL will be significantly deeper, bigger, and more experienced. This brings me to my second point:
2. The running backs. This is an elite group of RBs. Gibbs and Mason alone might be the best starting RB tandem in the ACC and top 5-10 in the country. But there is also Jamious Griffin and Dontae Smith behind them. These are four legitimate threats at RB and the deepest the GT backfield has been in a very long time. Our improved OL should be able to open up way more running lanes for these RBs this year. It is my opinion that our OL + RB combination should be enough to beat several of the teams on the schedule by themselves.
3. Pass rush. It is almost scary to see what is brewing at DE. Here’s who I anticipate to be taking most of the snaps off the edge.
- DE Jordan Domineck - led the team in sacks (4) and TFL (8.5) last year. Eighth highest pressure rate in the nation. Highest returning pressure rate in the ACC. He's a RS Soph and was dominant down the stretch
- DE Kyle Kennard - closed out the year better than anyone and had 10 tackles and 2.5 sacks in the final two games of the season. He is 6-5 235.
- DE Antonneous Clayton - he's back and should be finally healthy
- DE Keion White - one of the most coveted DE's in the transfer portal and believed to be an NFL draft guy. Finished 10th in the nation in TFL (19.5) in 2019 and was dominant against VT and UVA that year (14 tackles, 5.5 TFL). That was his first year playing DE.
- DE Kevin Harris - transferred in from Bama and is impressing already
Waiting behind these four: 6-6 Jared Ivey, 6-4 Sylvain Yondjouen (was having a terrific season before a season-ending injury). Now throw in the fact that our secondary is loaded with talent that has underperformed in part due to a lack of a complimentary pass rush and you've got a turnover-making machine on defense. The biggest question marks are on interior DL and ILB, and that will continue to be our weakness on defense, but we've addressed that by adding Eley and Tatum and Scott, plus Chimedza will be back and healthy again.
Schedule
Here's your path to six wins: NIU, KSU, Pitt, @UVA, BC, @Duke. We get four of these teams in Atlanta. I like our chances against all of them. We should have a higher talent composite than all of these teams. We played Pitt very close last year with half the roster missing due to COVID. I'm not buying the BC hype. These are six wins.
The next tier of teams - VT, UNC (Mercedes Benz), @Miami. I expect us to get at least one of these as well. These are not unbeatable teams. Last year, UNC lost to FSU and UVA; VT lost to Wake and Liberty. I'm not saying we'll be favored in any of these, but taking 1 of 3 seems reasonable. The least likely win, in my opinion, is @Miami. It wouldn't shock me to beat UNC and VT.
The tier of unlikely wins: @Clemson, uga, @ND. Playing at Clemson and at ND is tough. Both teams are replacing quarterbacks. uga beat Kentucky 14-3 and Miss St 31-24. These teams finished a combined 8-13. They also snuck out a win vs Cincinatti in the final minutes. They are not unbeatable.
All this to say, yes, the schedule is hard. But it's not impossible. We have a couple of elite teams on the schedule and the rest are toss-ups or we'll be favored. I don't think anyone will be favored by more than 7-10 points against us other than Clemson uga and ND.
Conclusion
Our roster was decimated for most of last year due to injuries and COVID. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think we were missing enough players against both NCSU and Pitt to be below the threshold of scholarship players needed to play the game. Yes, everyone else was impacted by COVID as well - but our depth situation was unique and I believe we were hit harder than most. We started a true freshman at QB who didn't even get a full offseason to prepare. That same QB won ACC Rookie of the Week several times and has ridiculous upside. He has all the tools - mentally, physically - he is there. It's going to be a very fun ride with Sims the next few years.
We are being vastly underrated by the media. Look at the 2 deep. Is this a team that loses more than 6 games? Absolutely not.
