Reggie Ball

[goldmember]

I don't understand why everyone is so quick to blame Reggie for everything. Watching the game it was evident that Reggie was not as good as the QB on the other side, who consistantly made plays to sustain drives. It was also equally evident that the other side was running a sophisticated, diverse offense and many of his completions were relatively simple throws to open recievers - who made plays.

You can't seperate Reggie from the scheme, play calling, and talent around him. Quite frankly I don't think any of it is very good. Talent wise, we are seeing the fruits of 5 years of Gailey/Dave Wilson recruiting that has left us with not nearly enough offensive playmakers and a smallish, moderately talented offensive line. We compound that problem with a simplistic offensive scheme that produces very little easy gains. Hence you are left with an offense that has consistantly ranked in the bottom 20% of BCS teams, despite having one of the greatest players to ever wear the white and gold. If it weren't for Calvin, I think we would be no better than Miss. State.

A skill position upgrade is on the way, but we have to find a way to get more out of the talent we do have.

 

[TechGator1066]

I don't understand why everyone is so quick to blame Reggie for everything. Watching the game it was evident that Reggie was not as good as the QB on the other side, who consistantly made plays to sustain drives. It was also equally evident that the other side was running a sophisticated, diverse offense and many of his completions were relatively simple throws to open recievers - who made plays.

You can't seperate Reggie from the scheme, play calling, and talent around him. Quite frankly I don't think any of it is very good. Talent wise, we are seeing the fruits of 5 years of Gailey/Dave Wilson recruiting that has left us with not nearly enough offensive playmakers and a smallish, moderately talented offensive line. We compound that problem with a simplistic offensive scheme that produces very little easy gains. Hence you are left with an offense that has consistantly ranked in the bottom 20% of BCS teams, despite having one of the greatest players to ever wear the white and gold. If it weren't for Calvin, I think we would be no better than Miss. State.

A skill position upgrade is on the way, but we have to find a way to get more out of the talent we do have.

Very good point goldmember, I think RB is the scapegoat on this board when something offensively goes awry. Honestly, I was very pleased with RB's performance. He did not throw any interceptions, did not try to force any balls, and threw the ball away when necessary. The thing that he was superb in doing was the QB draw, we should have run that play until ND could prove that they could stop it. I am excited to see what he can do for us if the offense is run like it was in the first half and if the QB draw play is utilized more.

 

[goldmember]

I think the QB draw was effective in part because one safety was almost always cheated over to double Calvin and many time the other safty was cheated to the other side. I agree it's a good, effective play, but it sure seems like there should be other was to attack the middle of the field (caused by the constant Calvin double team) without just running your QB.

 

[non-gineer]

You can't seperate Reggie from the scheme, play calling, and talent around him. Quite frankly I don't think any of it is very good. Talent wise, we are seeing the fruits of 5 years of Gailey/Dave Wilson recruiting that has left us with not nearly enough offensive playmakers and a smallish, moderately talented offensive line. We compound that problem with a simplistic offensive scheme that produces very little easy gains.

I agree, GM. It all comes down to one thing: the head coach. But we've been beating that horse for a couple of years now, and probably still will be come December.

 

[76tornados]

I think the QB draw was effective in part because one safety was almost always cheated over to double Calvin and many time the other safty was cheated to the other side. I agree it's a good, effective play, but it sure seems like there should be other was to attack the middle of the field (caused by the constant Calvin double team) without just running your QB.

Wouldn't the draw be perfect when the safeties are occupied. Not QB draw, but a delayed handoff once the safeties have commited. I don't recall that play being utilized.

 

[jacketup]

(I)t sure seems like there should be other was to attack the middle of the field (caused by the constant Calvin double team) without just running your QB.

Not when the middle of your offensive line is getting their butts handed to them. The QB draw works because the LB's drop into coverage, and the OL doesn't have to worry about blockingthem.

For all the complaining about coaching, we are trying to scheme around a poor OL. That's an impossible task.

Gardner is good, Wrotto will get there. Tuminello is OK. We have openings for guards. It's not solely a talent issue.

 

[knoxjacket]

It's unfair to blame Reggie because he's never had the chance to play for even a halfway decent offensive coordinator.

We could have Peyton Manning out there and not do jackshit. Once again all the college football world sees it, but many Tech fans choose to ignore it.

 

[goldmember]

I agree with you, hence my point about 5 years of Dave Wilson recruiting coming back to byte us. Not sure what you mean by it being no a talent issue though - unless you're just looking at skill position talent.

 

[statelinejacket]

It's unfair to blame Reggie because he's never had the chance to play for even a halfway decent offensive coordinator.

We could have Peyton Manning out there and not do jackshit. Once again all the college football world sees it, but many Tech fans choose to ignore it.

knox: If we had a new offensive coordinator I doubt we would be seeing Reggie Ball at quarterback.

 

[hiveredtech]

knox: If we had a new offensive coordinator I doubt we would be seeing Reggie Ball at quarterback.

The next few years will tell a lot...particularly with recruiting, player excitement, fan excitement, etc. on a monumental upswing.

If we cannot run an offense full of options (not "the option") with the likes of Ingram, Threet, Nesbitt, etc. then I will really be concerned.

 

[jacketup]

Not sure what you mean by it being no a talent issue though - unless you're just looking at skill position talent.

The worst decision of Gailey's tenure was letting Coach Mac go and replacing him with Coach D, who came from that juggernaut Duke. I do know from a reliable source that Gailey was given bad advice on retaining assistants by a former GT assistant who was still on the payroll at the time. I will not say who it was.

 

[jacketup]

If we cannot run an offense full of options (not "the option") with the likes of Ingram, Threet, Nesbitt, etc. then I will really be concerned.

Unless we learn to block, 800 plays and Joe Hamilton at QB will not help us. We are finally getting some talent in, on the O Line, but it may take more than our former Duke assistant to develop that talent. Even a talented O lineman takes time to develop, so this will not be an immediate turnaround.

 

[ncjacket]

Disagree with you on both points.

First, the line couldn't sustain anything because of our play calling and schemes. You said it yourself, a draw works because the LBs have to worry about something behind them. The ND LBs didn't have to worry about anything last night. They simply keyed on our one back in the shotgun and shot the gaps. There's no OL in the country that was going to be able to handle that.

Second, there was no way Coach Mac could stay after being passed over for HC. He wouldn't have wanted to and he pretty much mandated his departure when he forced his way into the discussion for HC. Braine told him he wasn't going to be considered (I don't want to get into whether that was a good decision or not, simply that it's what happened), but he made them decide publicly. There's pretty much no way to recover and remain after that.

Again, I don't think the OL is a power running group. But they also aren't the problem we had Sat night. No line in the country would have been successful with what we were trying to do in the second half.

 

[77GTFan]

I do not fault Reggie Ball for this loss. He played fairly well.

We actually played an inspired first half, gave up momentum on the drive before the half, then played a very bland and uninspired second half on both sides of the ball.

Rather than trying to be imaginative and taking a few risks on O or D to win the game in the second half, it seemed we just tried to hold on and hope for the best. Way too reminiscent of games from last year like UGA and NCSU.

 

[JTS]

Reggie did enough on Saturday for us to win. He completed half his passes, ran for 75, and most importantly did not turn the ball over.

Anybody who thinks Reggie Ball is not our best QB is completely ignorant of our QB situation. Reggie is our best option and it is not even close.

We lost because we could not convert on 3rd and short. We had at least 3 drives end on a failed 3rd and inches/1 yard.

Playing for the FG instead of taking a shot at the endzone on our last scoring drive was a big mistake in my opinion. The coaches should know that we needed to score at least 2 TDs to beat one of the best offenses in the country and we had a really good shot there of getting the second.

Notre Dame's offense for the 3rd quarter revolved around throwing at Pat Clark with a couple of runs sprinkled in the mix. We eventually pulled Clark for Jahi, but I wish we would have made the adjustment sooner.

Our D was completely gassed after the third and never recovered. I am really surprised that ND did not score again.

The good news is that this might be the best offense we play all year and we held them to 14. The bad news is that ND's defense is probably below average compared to our remaining schedule and we only scored 10.

For the "you only have to score one more point than your opponent to win" crowd, we did not out score our last opponent, our opponent's last year, and our opponents over the last 3 regular seasons.

Over the past 6 years, there have been 16 teams with winning records that have scored 22 points per game or less. Georgia Tech teams coached by Gailey (past 4 years) represent 4 of the 16 teams. We are the only team to appear on this list more than once.

Only 3 of the 16 managed more than 7 wins and 1 of the 3 need 13 games to get their 8th win. The point is that it is very rare for a team to have a winning record while scoring less than 22 points per game and it is extraordinarily rare for a team to win more than 7 games while scoring fewer than 22 points per game. The idea that you can win championships with a low scoring offense like the one we have might have worked before the face masked was invented, but it is not reflective of modern college football.

 

[jacketup]

First, the line couldn't sustain anything because of our play calling and schemes..

You've made that post at least three times today in one form or another and it deserves an award: The Dumbest Statement Ever Made on an Internet College Football Board. And that's saying a lot.

Since when does the play calling dictate how good your offensive line play is? That is absurd. The middle of our line was getting physically whipped So according to you, if we call different plays they are going to start whipping ND's defensive line? Is play calling like spinach to Popeye for OL? That is so idiotic I can't believe that I am wasting time responding to you, and I did not the first three times I saw your public exhibition of stupidity.

You also stated in another post that there is no way that 5 OL and a TE can ever match up against 4 DL and 3 LBs. Is that so? Every defense runs a 7 man front, and most offenses have 5 OL and a TE. According to you, the running game will never work for any offense, so every offense should just forget about rushing the football. You are too dumb to understand this, but perhaps others will: It's about the OL creating holes-gaps if you will, and the RB finding those holes. Our OL was not creating holes. Our running game was not working because ND was stopping it with their DL by whipping the middle of our OL. Gailey warned this might happen earlier in the week, if you were paying attention. When their DL took away the run game, and they began playing deep help on Calvin, defending what was left of the passing game became became pretty easy for ND-especially since the delayed blitz was totally confusing our OL.

You also don't know what you are talking about with regard to Mac. He publicly made the statement that he wanted to stay at GT after Gailey was hired.

Back to the original point: There is a name for teams that adapt their scheme to poor OL play:Losers. Maybe that is your name, too.

So, when do you graduate from middle school? Or did you flunk out?

 

[ncjacket]

Okay douchebag, idiotic huh? Seems to me your the one too stupid to understand a simple point. Let me try it again.

The ND DL and LBs knew what we were running BECAUSE WE RAN THE SAME DAMN PLAYS OVER AND OVER. We didn't do anything to make them play honestly...we simply let them tee off from the snap. The point about matchups is simple as well. Normally, as in when a defense has to play it honest, LBs have to play their keys before making their move. In the second half it was obvious where we were going. They didn't have to worry about either the TE or FB...only where Reggie and our 1 back were. Get it now?

Mac may have publicly stated he wanted to stay, but I defy you to find a coach who was passed over for the HC job anywhere in D-1 who stayed on the staff.

BTW, I have a degree from Tech and a graduate degree. How about you moron?

 

[KrazieJacket]

You 2 are acting like a couple of little girls. We lost and it sucks. No matter who we think is good or bad, we have to support this team and its coaches this season. Good or bad we are all in this together, as soon as the fan base realizes this the sooner our players will get the attitude they need to kick the heck out of every team we line up against. It doesnt really matter who graduated from high school or who graduated from GT. We are all trying to make the same goal!