PJ: Masterful coaching in the 1st and 4th qtr.

[stinger78]

The first quarter was obvious: PJ was the master of the trick play.

The fourth quarter was not so obvious: PJ was the master of CU's DL. He saw their crash on the A gaps and the DE's pursuit of the pitch, and waited to exploit it with Nesbitt's feet. CU was clueless, never re-adjusted, and couldn't stop it. The rest is history.

I'll never understand why he took so long to do this, or why he insisted on Nesbitt doing a Dan Marino imitation. Perhaps Nesbitt had the read and just insisted on going deep. Who knows. Nesbitt's legs and getting back to the shorter passes was the key adjustment to winning that game.

 

[TechinItEasy]

As I just posted in the other thread...I read the AJC article regarding this adjustment yesterday. But only after reading it today did I actually figure out WHAT the adjustment was and did.

PJ KNEW that clemmons DL was gunning for Dwyer. So he set it up so that they could get Dwyer whenever they wanted...and when Dwyer carried the ball, he was stuffed each time...Just like PJ planned. Clemmons THOUGHT what they were doing was WORKING, and PJ made them think that. Truly brilliant.

 

[MtownJacket]

The first quarter was obvious: PJ was the master of the trick play.

The fourth quarter was not so obvious: PJ was the master of CU's DL. He saw their crash on the A gaps and the DE's pursuit of the pitch, and waited to exploit it with Nesbitt's feet. CU was clueless, never re-adjusted, and couldn't stop it. The rest is history.

I'll never understand why he took so long to do this, or why he insisted on Nesbitt doing a Dan Marino imitation. Perhaps Nesbitt had the read and just insisted on going deep. Who knows. Nesbitt's legs and getting back to the shorter passes was the key adjustment to winning that game.

PJ waited until Clemson didn't have time to adjust half-way into the fourth quarter.

It took Clemson a full quarter to make the initial adjustment. I honestly think PJ waited for the exact perfect moment to come away with the win.

Reminds me of a story I heard about PJ where the one of the backs tells him that every time he goes to block there is an open hole, and PJ says "I'll wait until I need it" and he doesn't exploit the weakness until the game winning drive. Beautiful.

 

[BuzzLaw]

I wish I could be that optimistic, but I don't think PJ gave up the lead so he could make his adjustment just in the nick of time. I think it took a while for us to figure out what to do and for JN to get comfortable doing it. Just glad it all got done in time, and its excellent work that we've got a coach that is willing to make the adjustments mid-game.

 

[TechinItEasy]

No of course he didn't give up the lead and purposely wait to adjust.

I'm optimistic because HE MADE ADJUSTMENTS. 30 points on a decent Clemson D is fine with me...I'll take it all day long. The fact that, no matter how ugly the game got, he was able to coach his way out of it is a fantastic breath of fresh air for GT football.

The defensive side of the ball gave up the lead.

 

[Diseqc]

I think he was trying to save that adjustment for later games thinking he could win this game without it. When Clemson began to put the fear of god in us, PJ was forced to take advantage of the adjustment to win this game. I really think he wanted to save it so future opponent's DCs would show similar approaches.

 

[BerryGT]

Their are several stories out there about CPJ holding onto plays he knows will work until late in the game. We didn't really use the Midline Option all night, IIRC, until the last 2 drives. We should have been able to win without it, but the combo of their Dline and our blocking kept causing busted plays. I believe when he saw that other, smaller adjustments weren't going to get it done, he went to the Midline. That's the play that killed Miami lasted year most of the game.

I've been surprised by CPJ's playcalling this year so far. He seems to be using the base stuff from last year, 3O and Midline, a lot less this year in favor of newly installed plays. I figured he'd still use the base stuff, and wait to pull out the new stuff til we needed it, as a curveball.

 

[TechinItEasy]

Their are several stories out there about CPJ holding onto plays he knows will work until late in the game. We didn't really use the Midline Option all night, IIRC, until the last 2 drives. We should have been able to win without it, but the combo of their Dline and our blocking kept causing busted plays. I believe when he saw that other, smaller adjustments weren't going to get it done, he went to the Midline. That's the play that killed Miami lasted year most of the game.

I've been surprised by CPJ's playcalling this year so far. He seems to be using the base stuff from last year, 3O and Midline, a lot less this year in favor of newly installed plays. I figured he'd still use the base stuff, and wait to pull out the new stuff til we needed it, as a curveball.

I agree with you Berry, but I think that PJ's is employing the "reverse curveball" by running all new stuff to throw off opposing DC's that much more.

He knows there is no way that a team can prepare for EVERYTHING in his playbook in a weeks time. So by showing all kinds of different stuff the DC just has no idea what to tell his team.

 

[Allen Koholic]

I'm not a football genius, but I swear I saw us run the mid-line option a few times in the first quarter. The difference was either that Nesbitt was making a poor read on it and not keeping, or Paul had him adjust his read. I'm sure, since it's a play we don't run often, Josh was unsure exactly how to execute.

I know there's a few people on this board who know what they're looking at in great detail, and I'd love for one of them to do a write up on this game, especially the first and third quarters.

 

[stinger78]

I'm not a football genius, but I swear I saw us run the mid-line option a few times in the first quarter. The difference was either that Nesbitt was making a poor read on it and not keeping, or Paul had him adjust his read. I'm sure, since it's a play we don't run often, Josh was unsure exactly how to execute.

I know there's a few people on this board who know what they're looking at in great detail, and I'd love for one of them to do a write up on this game, especially the first and third quarters.

Nesbitt only ran the ball once in the first quarter. I'll have to dial up ESPN360 again to see what it was, but I doubt it was the mid-line. It was probably a keeper on the option.

 

[Yellow Fever]

One note on Nesbitt's passes and I sure as heck am not a Coach or QB coach but it seems like he is not setting his feet like traditional passing QB to give him a good push with his legs, to me is seems like he is only using his arms on a lot of throws.

 

[stinger78]

One note on Nesbitt's passes and I sure as heck am not a Coach or QB coach but it seems like he is not setting his feet like traditional passing QB to give him a good push with his legs, to me is seems like he is only using his arms on a lot of throws.

He's throwing a lot on the run, and is throwing off his back foot maybe 50% of the time. He's doing better this year than last year, but CU was getting a good rush on him at times.

 

[Allen Koholic]

Nesbitt only ran the ball once in the first quarter. I'll have to dial up ESPN360 again to see what it was, but I doubt it was the mid-line. It was probably a keeper on the option.

I think I saw us run the mid-line at least once early in the game, because it wasn't a play I recognized, but he gave the ball to, I wanna say Anthony Allen, rather then keep. I only remember it because it looked a lot like a zone read to me. But, I'm not very football smart, even less Paul Johnson football smart, and I was hoping someone would be able to enlighten me.

 

[BuzzLaw]

I think he was trying to save that adjustment for later games thinking he could win this game without it. When Clemson began to put the fear of god in us, PJ was forced to take advantage of the adjustment to win this game. I really think he wanted to save it so future opponent's DCs would show similar approaches.

We he ran the fake field goal, I remember thinking, "We're beating Clemson down - why didn't he hang on to that for a different game." Glad he didn't ask my opinion!

 

[Allen Koholic]

We he ran the fake field goal, I remember thinking, "We're beating Clemson down - why didn't he hang on to that for a different game." Glad he didn't ask my opinion!

That play will only work against a coaching staff that is incompetent. So, we use it now, or hang onto it for Al Groh. No one else lets us get away with that. If anything, it's good to use it now, and get some teams to burn timeouts when they see it.

 

[BarrelORum]

His coaching was masterful, but his playcalling throughout the game was awful. There I said it. For the first time since PJ has coached here, I thought his playcalling sucked.

1.) We're throwing low percentage pass plays and not trying to get our QB in a rhythm. We constantly went for a long pass on 2nd down and long situation. Its one of the reasons our 3rd down conversion rate sucked ass was because we were almost shooting ourselves in the foot every opportunity. We failed to manage our downs.

2.) We failed to put Dwyer in situations where he could get the ball in open space. We didn't pass to him. We ran him up the middle almost all the time. We tried the edge twice that I can recall. Once Nesbitt almost fumbled the pitch that he should have caught, and the second time Dwyer was stuffed. Got to get the Big Man in open space even if it means lining him and AA up at the Abacks with Cox at the B-back and daring them to crash the gaps.

3.) We didn't use a lot of our personnel. Wright, Peebles and Cox hardly saw the field if they did at all. It was almost like we were trying to run 4 plays with the same 3 guys until we got lucky.

 

[LongforDodd]

The first quarter was obvious: PJ was the master of the trick play.

The fourth quarter was not so obvious: PJ was the master of CU's DL. He saw their crash on the A gaps and the DE's pursuit of the pitch, and waited to exploit it with Nesbitt's feet. CU was clueless, never re-adjusted, and couldn't stop it. The rest is history.

I'll never understand why he took so long to do this, or why he insisted on Nesbitt doing a Dan Marino imitation. Perhaps Nesbitt had the read and just insisted on going deep. Who knows. Nesbitt's legs and getting back to the shorter passes was the key adjustment to winning that game.

Other than the fake FG what other trick play was there in the first QTR?

 

[BuzzLaw]

His coaching was masterful, but his playcalling throughout the game was awful. There I said it. For the first time since PJ has coached here, I thought his playcalling sucked.

1.) We're throwing low percentage pass plays and not trying to get our QB in a rhythm. We constantly went for a long pass on 2nd down and long situation. Its one of the reasons our 3rd down conversion rate sucked ass was because we were almost shooting ourselves in the foot every opportunity. We failed to manage our downs.

2.) We failed to put Dwyer in situations where he could get the ball in open space. We didn't pass to him. We ran him up the middle almost all the time. We tried the edge twice that I can recall. Once Nesbitt almost fumbled the pitch that he should have caught, and the second time Dwyer was stuffed. Got to get the Big Man in open space even if it means lining him and AA up at the Abacks with Cox at the B-back and daring them to crash the gaps.

3.) We didn't use a lot of our personnel. Wright, Peebles and Cox hardly saw the field if they did at all. It was almost like we were trying to run 4 plays with the same 3 guys until we got lucky.

2 posts in the same day calling out PJ. I think that is a first since he took the reigns on the Flats.