We've been here before. Can we handle it?

Two things about this team worry me the most:
1. They are currently 104th out of the 120 FBS teams in 3rd down conversion defense.
2. My friend who knows things (also, he's not cynical and he cares about these guys) told me Saturday night that he's not so sure this team is mentally tough.

However:
1. UNC has not shown any great proclivity for converting 3rd downs (I do see them converting at or slightly above 50% against us, but we just saw the difference between letting the other team go 7/9 and letting them go 9/17).
2.
beej67 said:
I think our schedule is very favorable this year for building to larger challenges.
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I disagree with the notion that UNC will be our first test. I don't think UNC is good enough to qualify as a real overall test of our team. Their athletes might be better, so it can be a test of how we'll perform against someone with higher athletic ability, but schematically they are failing. Paul Johnson already knows which play is going to score from scrimmage.

The only question to me is do we get 500+ yards of offense, or 600+? A win is not in doubt at all.
 
I am still playing devil's advocate and predicting someone surprises us like Kansas did last year. I'm still predicting that team to be NCST. I believe we start 4-0 and if we beat NCST we will beat Maryland and start 9-0.
 
Big game this Saturday--no two ways about it.
 
ThisIsAtlanta said:
I disagree with the notion that UNC will be our first test. ...The only question to me is do we get 500+ yards of offense, or 600+? A win is not in doubt at all.
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You are presuming that we bring our A game. The point of my original post is to ask how likely is it that we do exactly the opposite. If we play like our lives depended on it, I'm not sure if we lose before the month of December.

But if that happens, it will be the first time in 30+ years of watching Tech football that we haven't laid an egg at least once during the season.
 
00Burdell said:
You are presuming that we bring our A game. The point of my original post is to ask how likely is it that we do exactly the opposite. If we play like our lives depended on it, I'm not sure if we lose before the month of December.

But if that happens, it will be the first time in 30+ years of watching Tech football that we haven't laid an egg at least once during the season.
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We didn't bring our A-game to anywhere last year and we ran for 350 yards on UNC. This year our receivers can catch the ball, too. We are going to destroy them unless we bring our F-game. Last year's UNC > this year's UNC.

I'm not saying we'll always bring our A-game and that we won't lay an egg this season. I'm saying it won't be against UNC. Even though we've still got some questions and some improvements to make, UNC is overrated as a "test" or a "challenge". We're gonna knock 'em out if we bring any effort or intensity to the game at all. Everybody is just gunshy right now because they still remember what a surprise it was for us to end up in 2010's shape after 2009, but even in that shape we still beat UNC.
 
ThisIsAtlanta said:
-----UNC is overrated as a "test" or a "challenge". --------
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The challenge is to see how our O line and D line perform against bigger athletic guys. Their O line seems to be massive. Their D line have only 3 guys over 300 but still best we have faced. IMO if we handle this bunch we have an exciting future.
 
GaTech63 said:
The challenge is to see how our O line and D line perform against bigger athletic guys. Their O line seems to be massive. Their D line have only 3 guys over 300 but still best we have faced. IMO if we handle this bunch we have an exciting future.
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I acknowledged this in my last post, that it might be a challenge to see how we square off against better athletes. I would take it with a grain of salt though if we have a stellar performance against them, because they aren't executing up to their potential thus far. 300 lbs in the wrong direction doesn't help a defense at all, and that's going to happen more than once this game.
 
ThisIsAtlanta said:
We didn't bring our A-game to anywhere last year and we ran for 350 yards on UNC. This year our receivers can catch the ball, too. We are going to destroy them unless we bring our F-game. Last year's UNC > this year's UNC.

I'm not saying we'll always bring our A-game and that we won't lay an egg this season. I'm saying it won't be against UNC. Even though we've still got some questions and some improvements to make, UNC is overrated as a "test" or a "challenge". We're gonna knock 'em out if we bring any effort or intensity to the game at all. Everybody is just gunshy right now because they still remember what a surprise it was for us to end up in 2010's shape after 2009, but even in that shape we still beat UNC.
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That's certainly part of it -- some of us who are older also carry previous scars which are NOT HELPING, DAMMIT! :turbonoes:
 
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ThisIsAtlanta said:
Everybody is just gunshy right now because they still remember what a surprise it was for us to end up in 2010's shape after 2009, but even in that shape we still beat UNC.
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Remember though that UNC was basically playing while on crutches last year because of all the NCAA investigation going on. If I remember correctly, they sat out like 14 players, 7 of them were starters; most of them played defense.

Our guys came out with their hairs on fire after losing to Kansas but yet we still didn't dominate them.

Schematically, I don't know if CPJ knows what they will do because of their coaching shuffle. They promoted their former DC as the interim head coach and their promoted Kaufman as their new DC. Will they have the exact same gameplan as last year? Given our film from the first three games, I really doubt it.

We have historically always played it pretty close against UNC.

I think we can win by >= 14 pts if our guys play great football. Realistically, I think we will win a close one.
 
We are playing UNC...this means the refs will make sure all the calls will be in favor of the Tar Holes. We may have to beat two teams on Saturday.
 
gtzulu said:
Big game this Saturday--no two ways about it.
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This is a big game. It will eb a slug fest, and the guys better be ready. I suppose they will be. This game puts the early season in perspective. The season will be 1.3 over this Saturday, and we will have had one big game. It will tell us a lot about our team. How good we are; how well we focus; how good our D really is; how well our O starters can play into the 4th quarter with a game in doubt. Lot's of questions to be answered by around 4PM Saturday.
 
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