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texstinger said:
In the last 10 years CU has averaged signing 18 OL & DL per year.

We have averaged 10 OL & DL per year.

Now they didn’t all work out, some quit, some went home - for both schools.

But have to wonder if those extra 80 OL & DL might have some impact?

And our kids are fighting their guts out. A lot of credit for that goes to the Ga Tech coaches.

Thank heavens CPJ was smart enough to know the jig was up and quit.
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Those numbers are waaay off.
 
gt6828d said:
My feeling is that Graham's lack of progress on short throws (he throws a pretty deep ball, though) is due to bad footwork/fundamentals. My question, then, is whether we have a good QB coach who is working on that with him. And if we don't, we need to get one fast in the offseason. Not so much for Graham's sake alone, but because QB play is just essential to team success and I want to see the guys who follow in his place like Yates and Gleason succeed.

I've seen enough of Lucas Johnson.

I believe they can play Yates three more games before they burn up his redshirt. I'd give him a couple of series in the next three games as a diagnostic to see where he's at heading into the offseason. No need to throw him into the fire against UgA, but I think playing UVA, VT, and NC State would be a good sampling to see how far along he is and what he needs to work on.

The O-line still isn't great and third and long remains a death sentence for anyone taking a snap, but they're managing to open up cracks just big enough for a top flight back like Mason to work with.

The defense has played inspired ball the past couple of weeks and it's amazing to see how well the D-line is holding up under the circumstances. It's just a shame the O is so far behind the curve right now that it feels like the team has to get a non-offensive touchdown every game for the team to have a chance.
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I don't think we can tell squat about our skill players on offense because of the OL.

That being said, Tech has always struggled to recruit quality depth along both lines of scrimmage. I remember O'Leary making a comment, to the effect that it's hard to find 6'6 330-pound high school players that want to be engineers.

In the modern era, GT has had 2 really good offenses. One was coached by Ralph Friedgen, who at the time was considered one of the most innovative, progressive offensive minds in CFB. Ironically, the second one was a Professor and PhD. of the old triple option.

Neither coaches ever enjoyed an Oklahoma or Ohio State sized OL. Actually, Chan Gailey arguably had some of the best offensive and defensive lines in modern-day GT history.

IMO, early indicators suggest that Dave Patenaude is not as gifted as Friedgen or Paul Johnson. And that's not to say he's a bad coach.

Which brings us back to recruiting. Can Collins, Key, et. al. recruit bigger, stronger and faster players in the trenches than their predecessors did for the past 30 years?

Because if they cannot---the "way-to-early-to-tell" indicators suggest to me, GT will average between 7.0 and 8.0 wins per year starting about 2021. But the 10 and 11 win seasons will be remembered fondly because of the rarity.
 
KrazieJacket said:
This is where this staff will be judged. They have the juice, can they keep it and improve? We have every card stacked against us. Hopefully they can and when they do they show the coaching needed to grow the juice. Then hopefully we can keep them if necessary.
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"..every card stacked against us" is clearly hyperbole. And I'm sure you understand that.

Collins does.

He would inform you that where we are in "404".

And that factor alone gives GT a pair of 10's and the Dealer a 16 in the game of CFB blackjack.

We will be fine! Give it time!
 
johncu said:
Agree that we played hard and I'm very happy with recruiting, but your optimism toward our playcalling is unfounded. We caught just about every break possible today and were totally incapable of capitalizing. We have one of the worst offenses in all of FBS. Not P5, FBS. We've taken an offense deficient in talent and made them significantly worse.
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Optimism, in regard to the offense,and unfounded have no way in hell of being equated in my post. I'm just not going to shit on a guy who inherited an o-line built for the TO and is under talented in comparison to competition to begin with. Pick your adjectives more wisely next time teach.
 
midatlantech said:
The plays were open damn near 100% of the time. It is a lack of a credible qb, not coaching.

Our OL did an admirable job against the top pass rushing defense.
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I completely agree. When Lucas Johnson came in he completed what like 5 out of 6 passes. Graham just is not a good passing QB.
 
Tampa Jacket said:
Which brings us back to recruiting. Can Collins, Key, et. al. recruit bigger, stronger and faster players in the trenches than their predecessors did for the past 30 years?
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Go look at our 2020 commits and you’ll already see that’s the case
 
”Physical superiority cancels all theories” - some guy who knew quite a bit about offense (and creating physically inferior rosters)
 
79tech said:
I have not been particularly happy with our OC but today I thought he had some imaginative calls. Running Mason on 3rd down - good call. He had other good calls. The oline does suffer and struggles. With that said, I thought #4 today was awful. He was just off target. Missed several passes. It showed when #7 came in and began throwing more accurately and the offense began moving the ball. Unfortunately he made a critical error at the goal line and was hurt as well. I'm not saying he is the answer but it was clear today that inaccurate passing was our achilles heal. And wouldn't you know #4's first pass (and second best pass) was dropped in what would have been a big play. I hope we can find a QB. Right now we are struggling at the most important position.
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Don't think the answer to QB is on campus yet unless it might be Yates. I don't know a lot about it, but seems to me in this offense it takes the ability to read defenses well, and quickly and yes some of that can be taught but the good ones just have a God given talent for that IMO. James Graham is a good FB player, but most other P5 schools wanted him as an athlete or DB, at least that is why VT wanted him.
 
What I see is the opposing teams leaving the slot receivers undefended at the snap and yet we never quick pass to the slots or run jailbreak screens. I think we are leaving a lot of easy yards on the field and are missing opportunities to spread the opposing defense laterally, which would help take some pressure off the OL.
 
Tampa Jacket said:
"..every card stacked against us" is clearly hyperbole. And I'm sure you understand that.

Collins does.

He would inform you that where we are in "404".

And that factor alone gives GT a pair of 10's and the Dealer a 16 in the game of CFB blackjack.

We will be fine! Give it time!
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Hah. That will be good when we have student prostitutes openly tucking the players into bed at night as is done at other schools in the south. Not what I want but what is done. Don’t get pissy with me because of it. Your average GT student is an antisocial dude who maybe speaks English, maybe knows that football is not something played with a spherical ball, and maybe could breathe when a female is in the room. Reality.
 
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Been sayin since Braun transferred that the OL personnel decimation was going to be more impactful than the transition. CPJ would have had a bad year too (if Braun had still transferred).

You cannot scheme your way out of recruiting 2 OL in as many years, then having your best one transfer and your next best 2 go down with season-ending injuries. It is what it is. Reinforcements are on the way. We just need 2 DTs so next year we're not having the same discussion about the DL.
 
Exactly. The good thing is Collins knows this and he won’t waiver in getting it done. TStan is on board so we just gotta suck it up for a few recruiting cycles to get out of the hole we are in regarding the offensive and defensive lines. Also, Collins won’t be playing an “athlete” at QB. Gleason is the first of many big strong passers we’ll be getting on campus. But it’s gonna take several years.
 
OptionJacket said:
Exactly. The good thing is Collins knows this and he won’t waiver in getting it done. TStan is on board so we just gotta suck it up for a few recruiting cycles to get out of the hole we are in regarding the offensive and defensive lines. Also, Collins won’t be playing an “athlete” at QB. Gleason is the first of many big strong passers we’ll be getting on campus. But it’s gonna take several years.
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Key word: "waiver"
 
OptionJacket said:
Exactly. The good thing is Collins knows this and he won’t waiver in getting it done. TStan is on board so we just gotta suck it up for a few recruiting cycles to get out of the hole we are in regarding the offensive and defensive lines. Also, Collins won’t be playing an “athlete” at QB. Gleason is the first of many big strong passers we’ll be getting on campus. But it’s gonna take several years.
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Collins will play a qb who can scramble for sure.....gleason can and does; he is athletic. But yeah guys like we have on the roster now probably dont fit and may even be gone next year; we need to land a true qb and true ol asap.
 
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