I still don't think we've seen this team at more than 85-90% of what they're capable of. This was another game where, were it not for self-inflicted mistakes, they could've easily put up 50 and blown UNC straight off the field.
Offensively, it took a while for the group to get going. I attribute that to several factors: 1.) I think UNC's defense played an inspired game knowing their offense is trash, 2.) UNC was doing a ton of shifting right before every snap to try to confuse the offensive line about their assignments pre-snap, 3.) I think Tech was missing Jahaziel Lee a lot and JJ Green to a lesser extent, 4.) It seemed like game conditioning might've been a bit of an issue with UCF ducking that game and therefore the club not being used to playing two FBS schools on back-to-back weeks. Also, Coach Johnson clearly came out with a plan to throw the ball more and the pass blocking and receivers getting separation wasn't there consistently. Even when it was, the receivers had a case of the drops in this contest that was uncustomary. Thank goodness Marshall kept it together in the first half by making a lot of plays through shear willpower alone. Eventually, because UNC's offense was so bad, the TOP caught up to their defense and eventually Tech started to bulldoze them in the second half. Unfortunately, there was still a pair of fumbles, and they just can't have those once they run up against quality opponents. That's been the scariest thing about the team this year: the turnovers still haven't been cleaned up. They're dynamic and have a ton of weapons, but they're going to lose the opportunity to pick off some of these quality teams coming up on their schedule if they keep laying the ball on the turf.
Defensively I don't want to overestimate Saturday's performance. UNC was bummy from top to bottom, and I thought Fedora's game plan of nearly exclusively running QB draws and RB draws was pathetic. Say what you want about Tech during the 3-9 season when they had injuries, they were at least competitive in a lot of those 9 games where they lost some close ones like against Pitt. Jacksonville State looked like they had a better offensive game plan than UNC did, and that's on Fedora. Dude's going to rightfully get himself fired. With that said, Georgia Tech's played excellent defense in 10 of 12 quarters so far this year. The run fits and overall run defense looks much improved from last season. I thought the team had a lot of pretty good pieces on the defensive line, despite their youth, and that they might be a lot better than advertised and so far they have been. Older guys like Simmons have really been pass rushing well and you even have younger guys like Glanton giving the team quality snaps when they get in. In past years, Glanton would've already been a starter because of how thin Tech always was on D-line. Now they've actually got a reasonably decent two deep up front. The defensive backfield wasn't really tested much all game, but they did play well when called upon. One thing we definitely learned Saturday was that Tech has one safety who can catch the ball (AJ Gray) and another not so much (Corey Griffin). AJ Gray had two picks. Griffin should've had two picks and the first one, right before halftime, should've been about a 75 yard pick six. If he secures that, he's still running. He might be to Lake City, FL by now.
Special teams is still special, but they did make all their kicks and, while they allowed a few good returns and gave the D some field position issues to deal with, UNC posed no threat to do anything with it. I was surprised they burned Brenton King's red shirt in the second half. Hopefully that means he's been looking good in practice and is challenging for the starting spot. He made his field goal and extra point opportunity. His first kick off was squirrely as heck, though.
I think Coach Johnson's going to work these guys hard and coach these guys hard to get them ready during the bye week for Miami. It sets up perfectly for Tech to go down there and steal the win. It really does look like a classic trap game for Miami, and Tech's absolutely got the talent to compete with those guys. They've just got to stop turning the ball over and keep tightening up on special teams.
