Watching GT Football

[johncu]

I'm also a Clemson fan (second to GT, obviously) and I was thinking last night how totally different the experience is watching GT vs. watching Clemson, and I'm not even talking about wins and losses.

Yesterday GT scored on 6 of 12 legit possessions (50%).

Clemson scored on 4 of 13 legit possessions (31%).

Yet today I'm reading all this criticism of Marshall, Searcy, and Johnson's offensive decisions, while people are talking about how Clemson has the 2 best QBs in the ACC and Etienne and Higgins should be All-Americans.

When Clemson's offense is on the field, there's no sense of urgency. Clemson can go 3-and-out twice in a row and it's not really that big of a deal. In direct contrast, if Georgia Tech's offense stalls on consecutive possessions we probably end up in a huge hole.

My point is that it feels like there's enormous pressure for each possession to result in a touchdown, and that's probably pretty destructive to the confidence of some of the offensive players. People are talking like TaQuon Marshall was a failure yesterday, and he probably feels that way as well, but I think that's absurd. He ran the offense pretty well, made some amazing plays keeping the ball himself, and even passed for almost 200 yards. I get that we lost and that's supposed to suck, but damn if it doesn't feel like a losing proposition to play for the GT offense right now.

I think that culture has to change before we get where we want to be as a program, and I hope Nate Woody has what it takes to do it.

 

[LegendaryGT]

Clemson played a well prepared team full of top 20 recruiting classes and didn't look like clowns.

Georgia Tech did the opposite of that.

Stats can mislead you.

 

[79tech]

There is nothing wrong with his stats - you shouldn't have to score every time.

 

[LegendaryGT]

There is nothing wrong with his stats - you shouldn't have to score every time.

Sure, but when you don't score, do you ever pay attention to why? I dont say, "oh well I scored a lot before so it doesn't matter". Just my opinion though.

 

[coit]

Clemson played a well prepared team full of top 20 recruiting classes and didn't look like clowns.

Georgia Tech did the opposite of that.

Stats can mislead you.

Looked like clowns?

 

[OmnipoTech]

I'm also a Clemson fan (second to GT, obviously) and I was thinking last night how totally different the experience is watching GT vs. watching Clemson, and I'm not even talking about wins and losses.

Yesterday GT scored on 6 of 12 legit possessions (50%).

Clemson scored on 4 of 13 legit possessions (31%).

Yet today I'm reading all this criticism of Marshall, Searcy, and Johnson's offensive decisions, while people are talking about how Clemson has the 2 best QBs in the ACC and Etienne and Higgins should be All-Americans.

When Clemson's offense is on the field, there's no sense of urgency. Clemson can go 3-and-out twice in a row and it's not really that big of a deal. In direct contrast, if Georgia Tech's offense stalls on consecutive possessions we probably end up in a huge hole.

My point is that it feels like there's enormous pressure for each possession to result in a touchdown, and that's probably pretty destructive to the confidence of some of the offensive players. People are talking like TaQuon Marshall was a failure yesterday, and he probably feels that way as well, but I think that's absurd. He ran the offense pretty well, made some amazing plays keeping the ball himself, and even passed for almost 200 yards. I get that we lost and that's supposed to suck, but damn if it doesn't feel like a losing proposition to play for the GT offense right now.

I think that culture has to change before we get where we want to be as a program, and I hope Nate Woody has what it takes to do it.

Marshall wasn't 6 of 12 though, he was 3 of 9. Not saying he played poorly or is at fault for the loss, though he did have a few boneheaded decisions and garbage pass attempts, but I don't expect him to be perfect. Although I do think his attitude about how he expected the game to end was not the attitude anyone on our team should have, much less the starting qb (perhaps this comes from CPJ).

The problem is with CPJ. His offense is good, sure, but its increasingly not enough to overcome the lack of defense or the "flukes" that seems to always accompany it. He's a typical nerd, like a lot of the engineers that I work with. Full of book smarts but no street smarts, no understanding of how the real shit works. He makes all his calculations based on approximations of what he thinks should happen with no planning for what else could possibly happen. He expects a B quality-team to hold a .0001" tolerance instead of designing the part to work just fine with a .1" tolerance then has no idea why his parts don't fit together.

 

[LegendaryGT]

Looked like clowns?

How would you describe the fourth quarter of our offense? It was pretty embarrassing.

Edit: hell, the 2nd quarter wasn't good either.

 

[00Burdell]

Our football program is what Johnson has defined it to be.

We, as a fan base, are conditioned to think that any un-capitalized scoring opportunity will likely cost us the game. And that seems to be a valid assumption. Not so with Clemson.

 

[coit]

Marshall wasn't 6 of 12 though, he was 3 of 9. Not saying he played poorly or is at fault for the loss, though he did have a few boneheaded decisions and garbage pass attempts, but I don't expect him to be perfect. Although I do think his attitude about how he expected the game to end was not the attitude anyone on our team should have, much less the starting qb (perhaps this comes from CPJ).

The problem is with CPJ. His offense is good, sure, but its increasingly not enough to overcome the lack of defense or the "flukes" that seems to always accompany it. He's a typical nerd, like a lot of the engineers that I work with. Full of book smarts but no street smarts, no understanding of how the real öööö works. He makes all his calculations based on approximations of what he thinks should happen with no planning for what else could possibly happen. He expects a B quality-team to hold a .0001" tolerance instead of designing the part to work just fine with a .1" tolerance then has no idea why his parts don't fit together.

TQM was 9-18. Not sure where you are getting 3 of 9?

 

[18in32]

I'm also a Clemson fan (second to GT, obviously) and I was thinking last night how totally different the experience is watching GT vs. watching Clemson, and I'm not even talking about wins and losses.

Yesterday GT scored on 6 of 12 legit possessions (50%).

Clemson scored on 4 of 13 legit possessions (31%).

Yet today I'm reading all this criticism of Marshall, Searcy, and Johnson's offensive decisions, while people are talking about how Clemson has the 2 best QBs in the ACC and Etienne and Higgins should be All-Americans.

When Clemson's offense is on the field, there's no sense of urgency. Clemson can go 3-and-out twice in a row and it's not really that big of a deal. In direct contrast, if Georgia Tech's offense stalls on consecutive possessions we probably end up in a huge hole.

My point is that it feels like there's enormous pressure for each possession to result in a touchdown, and that's probably pretty destructive to the confidence of some of the offensive players. People are talking like TaQuon Marshall was a failure yesterday, and he probably feels that way as well, but I think that's absurd. He ran the offense pretty well, made some amazing plays keeping the ball himself, and even passed for almost 200 yards. I get that we lost and that's supposed to suck, but damn if it doesn't feel like a losing proposition to play for the GT offense right now.

I think that culture has to change before we get where we want to be as a program, and I hope Nate Woody has what it takes to do it.

The equanimity of Clemson fans is a direct result of recent multiple ACC championships, three CFP slots and a NC. If this were the Tommy Bowden years people would be freaking out over every little thing just like we're doing. Tantalizingly close losses are the worst, because you know you could've won with just a few little changes, a few plays going your way, etc.

 

[OmnipoTech]

TQM was 9-18. Not sure where you are getting 3 of 9?

On scoring drives, not passing attempts. Context clues...

 

[coit]

How would you describe the fourth quarter of our offense? It was pretty embarrassing.

I would describe it as decimated by injuries and ejections. @beej67 covered it pretty well, but overlooked the in game injuries, the late arriving backup for Carpenter, the existing injury to Swilling and others and the off-season loss of AJ Gray.

What do you expect out of the defense this year? We are way too thin on the depth chart.

 

[coit]

On scoring drives, not passing attempts. Context clues...

So you are complaining about his completion percentage on drives in which we scored? What’s the relevance?

 

[OmnipoTech]

So you are complaining about his completion percentage on drives in which we scored? What’s the relevance?

Senility is not a good look for you.

 

[coit]

Senility is not a good look for you.

Yeah I didn’t figure you would have an intelligent response.

 

[18in32]

I would describe it as decimated by injuries and ejections. @beej67 covered it pretty well, but overlooked the in game injuries, the late arriving backup for Carpenter, the existing injury to Swilling and others and the off-season loss of AJ Gray.

What do you expect out of the defense this year? We are way too thin on the depth chart.

I think the complaint is that 10 years is long enough to have built up depth on the defense.

 

[LegendaryGT]

I would describe it as decimated by injuries and ejections. @beej67 covered it pretty well, but overlooked the in game injuries, the late arriving backup for Carpenter, the existing injury to Swilling and others and the off-season loss of AJ Gray.

What do you expect out of the defense this year? We are way too thin on the depth chart.

Lol beej thinks literal black magic is going on. Next.

I get that we lost some guys, but in the third quarter the same decimated offense utterly mauled USF. It was so good, I actually typed "this is Paul Johnson football at its finest". Then it stopped doing that and started shooting itself in the foot, then it started to panic and call nothing but pass plays and it just looked embarrassingly uncoordinated and poorly thought out. Clownish, in a word. The two minute drill in garbage time didn't look all that bad, but it was actual garbage time, so I dont know how much weight to put on it. And it didnt score anyway, not that it would've mattered.

I'm not buying that all this is outside the ability of the coach to control. We are not just some thunderstruck victim, because the same clownishness is popping up on defense and ST as well. I'm not buying that the loss of a handful of guys should be expected to ruin an entire team.

On defense I dont expect much, but I do expect sound technique. I expounded on that more in another thread.

 

[ramblinwise1]

I'm also a Clemson fan (second to GT, obviously) and I was thinking last night how totally different the experience is watching GT vs. watching Clemson, and I'm not even talking about wins and losses.

Yesterday GT scored on 6 of 12 legit possessions (50%).

Clemson scored on 4 of 13 legit possessions (31%).

Yet today I'm reading all this criticism of Marshall, Searcy, and Johnson's offensive decisions, while people are talking about how Clemson has the 2 best QBs in the ACC and Etienne and Higgins should be All-Americans.

When Clemson's offense is on the field, there's no sense of urgency. Clemson can go 3-and-out twice in a row and it's not really that big of a deal. In direct contrast, if Georgia Tech's offense stalls on consecutive possessions we probably end up in a huge hole.

My point is that it feels like there's enormous pressure for each possession to result in a touchdown, and that's probably pretty destructive to the confidence of some of the offensive players. People are talking like TaQuon Marshall was a failure yesterday, and he probably feels that way as well, but I think that's absurd. He ran the offense pretty well, made some amazing plays keeping the ball himself, and even passed for almost 200 yards. I get that we lost and that's supposed to suck, but damn if it doesn't feel like a losing proposition to play for the GT offense right now.

I think that culture has to change before we get where we want to be as a program, and I hope Nate Woody has what it takes to do it.

Did you not watch that game last night? CU almost crapped the bed against an unranked team. How far did you drop in the polls?

 

[coit]

I think the complaint is that 10 years is long enough to have built up depth on the defense.

Since guys don’t stay in school for 10 years, that length of time is irrelevant. Sure, we should have more depth, but some years you lose more than others. This year we lose the twins and AJ Gray. That’s 3 starters out of 4 DBs. That’s just a fact. And from what we have been hearing, Swilling is struggling to adapt to the new scheme since he was only listed 2nd on the chart before his mysterious scooter injury. We lose our Saint-Amour on the front and a safety in the backfield.

Lol beej thinks literal black magic is going on. Next.

I get that we lost some guys, but in the third quarter the same decimated offense utterly mauled USF. It was so good, I actually typed "this is Paul Johnson football at its finest". Then it stopped doing that and started shooting itself in the foot, then it started to panic and call nothing but pass plays and it just looked embarrassingly uncoordinated and poorly thought out. Clownish, in a word. The two minute drill in garbage time didn't look all that bad, but it was actual garbage time, so I dont know how much weight to put on it. And it didnt score anyway, not that it would've mattered.

I'm not buying that all this is outside the ability of the coach to control. We are not just some thunderstruck victim, because the same clownishness is popping up on defense and ST as well. I'm not buying that the loss of a handful of guys should be expected to ruin an entire team.

On defense I dont expect much, but I do expect sound technique. I expounded on that more in another thread.

You can’t compare offensive performance late in a game to defensive. Surely you understand that fundamental concept? Defenses have to react to what the offense is doing. We’ve benefitted from a gassed defense many times in CPJ’s tenure. And we had it in hand this time until the fumble.

We definitely missed some tackles yesterday, but the ones that I noticed were not due to tackling technique as much as our guys not being in great positions to make the play. To me this comes from the learning curve of the new defense. I expect those glitches to be worked out over the course of this first season.

And the fact that @beej67 thinks the cause is black magic doesn’t mean his point about our defensive numbers is any less valid. And how do you know it isn’t black magic? Can you prove it?

 

[smokey_wasp]

I dont think lack of depth/injuries adequately explain our failures on D/ST. These are still mostly 3 star recruits and legit P5 players. I expect a dropoff, even a significant one. I dont expect them to look totally helpless against a G5 team that lost a lot of experience in the offseason.