So, why did we fall apart this year?...

[bugboy]

Is it coaching? Lack of Defensive talent? Players not giving a total effort? Injuries? Mental breakdowns?

I think it's a little bit of all of the above. First of all, I'm not for firing anyone. I think Roof and O'Brien are good coordinators. But they are still learning. Unlike many, I think O'Leary might give them too little input, especially during the game. When Roof called the prevent during the Maryland game, O'Leary should have trumped him and gotten us out of it. If he was the control freak everyone says he is, he would have. However, I do think Big Bee is pushing O'Brien towards the boring smashmouth style. This would be fine, but our O Line is not good enough for that type of offense yet. And if we're gonna run JFB left, right and up the middle, why not give him a fullback and do it out of the I formation instead of the one back setup.

How about injuries? I think the injuries to our linebackers REEEALLY hurt our D more than many are willing to admit. Our starters, when healthy are great, but when they're hurt, we lack depth here. The loss of Smith really killed us in the Clemson game and even when he got back, he wasn't the same. Let's not forget that the knee injury to Goose effectively took the option game away from us. I don't know why we even ran it this year. It never worked. Without any threat of running, or option, Goose was under a lot of pressure to run a more basic offense and make proper throws from the pocket. Let's not forget the loss of Nate Curry. That hurt us.

How about depth and talent? Well, the middle of our DL is pretty weak. We lack cover corners in the secondary. Maybe we're not up to par on that side of the ball yet. We certainly have good DE's, but they didn't really play up to their capability, IMO.

Lack of motivation? This is the worst part, IMO. No one took a leadership role on this team. There was something missing with this group...a certain malaise...a lack of fire in the belly. Many might blame this on the coaches, and maybe they're right. But the seniors need to step up to the plate and assert themselves. That never seemed to happen this year.

There's just so many things. I'm glad this year is almost over.

 

[stingpower]

I'm glad the season is almost over too.I could go to the SB,however I prefer to be at PA that day for GT vs UGA,wbb.Here's my list of where 01 fb went bad.1-Our O line,no/very little push.I hope this can be corrected for 02.Dorsey gives us hope.2-Godsey's injury prevented him from being able drop back,plus no ability to scramble.3-Special team breakdowns,UVA and WF games.4-No/little pass rush.5-Safety's and DB play inconsistent...6-this may be debatable,playing at different dates/times,and the long break from 9/11.I really am not sure how much to blame O'leary,Roof,Obrien,however,BB is in Charge and at some point the buck stops with him.Sadly,I'm not sure it's a good thing that we return many of the same players.In 02,freshmen must step it up and play with some spirit.BTW,who is on our OOC schedule for 02?

 

[GT Adamni]

bugboy,

Excellent post. I think you hit the nail on the head, and I couldn't agree more. I'm optimistic that all/most of those problems will be fixed next year. If we can avoid the rash of injuries that we had this year, we'll be very good.

Stingpower, our OOC schedule next year is BYU, @UGA, and @Vandy. We will have one other OOC opponent, but it has not been decided who it would be. We would be playing Middle Tennessee State, but they wanted out of the game, so we are looking for another opponent. Some teams that have been mentioned are Syracuse, Mississippi, and I think Air Force.

 

[Aiken Jacket]

I agree with a lot of what you said, bugboy.

I have said before on this board that I am not smart enough to truly answer your question, but I think injuires and lack of real depth hurt us a good bit, especially on defense. It seemed we lost a good bit of fire when Daryl Smith went down against Clemson, and losing Ather Brown was also a big blow. We went through 3-4 games with a patchwork LB crew, and never really regained the early season form we showed.

I'm very concerned about recruiting and developing depth on the D-line and at LB. I like the starters a lot, and think they are a talented bunch, but deeper than that I'm just not sure. I think we had no one to clog the middle, fight off the blocks, and make the tackles, and the OCs we faced took advantage of it.

I am less concerned about the offense, because I think we have decent talent at the skill positions, and our O-line wasn't bad (especially with the emergence of Dorsey as all-ACC). In 9 of 12 games, I think our offense was more than effective enough, even with some rather predictable play calling. I like O'Brien, and think he will make an outstanding OC over time. We all miss Fridge, but I'm betting he wasn't at his peak in his very first year, either. It takes time to develop "your" system, and I'd like to give O'Brien the time.

Once again, to beat the horse even after it is buried, I am very happy that Tech football has returned to a point where a 7 win regular season illicits such a bad taste in the fans' mouths. I think we all need to remember to support the student-athletes win or lose, and to continue to support the teams we love. Let's not turn out to be like Clemson!

 

[Country Brown]

You know, I was thinking today, that in 2000, we were pleased at the overachievment. Granted Godsey's injury took away a lot of things he could do, but maybe this year, Tech went the other way. What I'm getting at is, Tech had some things happen for them in 2000 that set them up to win. In 2001, some things happened that had a negative effect. Maybe this was the same team as last year, but we saw what effect negatives week after week had on them vs positive things happening week after week in 2000.

I still believe that the line of scrimmage was their waterloo, but had positive things happened at just the right time, they may have overcome even that in the end.

 

[bugboy]

AikenJacket,

I was saying something along the same lines to my wife the other day. She's a Clemson grad and I was telling her that compared to other schools, Clemson folks desert their program more when things go bad. When they win, they pack in 85,000. When they start to lose, they get 60K or so, maybe less. The swing in attendance is unreal.
I don't think that will happen at Tech. Our fan base is smaller to begin with, so there's less to lose. Also, the fans we do have are loyal and have stuck around through much worse.

 

[toe meets leather]

if one player is responsible for the loss to clemson,we are much thinner than everyone thought. our defense made people like ,spinner at uva look like all world and david greene at uga and chris rix. we havent had a pass defense all year and against uga and fsu we couldnt tackle granny smith. as far as godsey, if he cant run the option, why keep trying to do so. we hardly ever used the screen pass, on the few occasions we dis we were very successful. we continued to run jb against 7 or 8 man lines and that is just plain dumb. players disappeard from the radar screen for what reasons we dont know. we had no trick plays,such as the one uva used to beat us and we had no offensive imagination, we were not motivated emotionally , did not even appear to be motivated for the uga game. we run pass routes for 7 yards when we need 11, we run jb 2 or 3 times when we are behind by 10 or more points. all of this to me starts at the top.

 

[Geetee]

historic post... pretty funny to read, acutally. Not much has changed.