what was the best bowl O'leary took GT to?....

I want them to stop giving up game winning drives in the fourth quarter. You can say what you want about the pitiful O, but how many turnovers did the defense cause in the last two games? There is certainly room for improvement on D, and if you want to excuse away a 6th place finish in the ACC as exceptional while the best record and 'runner-up' in wins and losses is mediocre well I can't argue with that logic. You have clearly different standards. Chan is held accountable for W-L and that is how HCs are rated first and foremost. 7-1(2) is better than 6th out of 12 any way you cut it.

And did you take D/ST scoring out of all of the other D performances or does only Tenuta's 2006 D get that adjustment?
 
I agree with Crew on this one. Tenuta is a marvelous coach, but our defense was not good at all when the pressure did not force sacks or offensive errors.

Our secondary cannot cover receivers, period. JT should have known he could never stop playing aggressively. This year at least.
Maybe they were just worn out, I don't know, but it was horribly deflating to see both georgia and wfu cruise down the field at crunch time. Don't forget that umd did the same thing before M Johnson saved our rear ends.
 
ncjacket,

If go back and read my posts, I credit Gailey for being an excellent evaluator of talent. I was critical of how long it took us to offer some obvious prospects and how we inexplicably failed to recruit a number of prospects that had the talent, grades, and interest in GT (see Tashard Choice for an example). If you don't believe me, read Scott Kennedy's article on FoxSports explaining the change in our recruiting philosophy this year from previous years. I am glad we have reverted back to a more traditional recruiting philosophy, but wish we had been doing it all along. If Gailey wasn't such a good evaluator of talent, we could have dug a huge hole for ourselves the past 4 years.

I also was not real happy with the number or type of OL players we were recruiting. Up until this year, Gailey wanted to run a smash mouth offense between the tackles and the types of OL he was bringing did not seem to be consistent with that philosophy. This is not as problematic now because we have gone to a spread option style offense, but still shows up in short yardage situations. I know that the total number OL recruited is in line, but I think we would be better off bringing in 2 or 3 OL per year instead of none one year and 5 the next like we have been. I also don't think it is unreasonable for us to land a Nick Claytor caliber OL recruit every 2-3 years which we haven't until this year.

I want us to win. I know that we will never consistently have players of the same caliber as some of our football factory opponents because of our academics, but when we play tough and smart we can compete with anyone. Right now, I see a defense that is playing tough and smart, but on other side I see a streaky undisciplined group that has made some huge mental blunders over the years. I can't help, but think that this perception is a reflection of the each side's leadership.
 
JTS said:
Our defense ranked 6th in the ACC. I can only assume by your question that you are implying that our defense is middle of the pack because it ranked sixth in conference, but that completely ignores the fact that our defense was ranked in the top 20 nationally. How much better did you expect the defense to be exactly?
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The ACC was down this year with several teams having major QB problems. Defensive ranking may not have meant that much in that regard. What would have made a difference was a D that also forced T/O's. I think we had exactly one in the last two games. Even you would have to admit that doesn't compare favorably with giving up three 4th quarter drives that resulted in points in those same two games ..... to Freshman QB's.
 
JTS said:
I want us to win. I know that we will never consistently have players of the same caliber as some of our football factory opponents...
Click to expand...

I used to agree 100% with that. Groh didn't believe different when he took the UVA job. We know that OBrien believed it strongly too.

One class is not a trend and doesn't prove anything. But it may be possible that the conventional wisdom is/was wrong. If we can get another class like this one is shaping up to be, then I have no doubt that we will be competing for MNCs.

Just like this week, GT fans tend to fixate on the negatives. For instance we focus on the GT M/F ratio ignoring completely the overabundace of gorgeous women in Atlanta. Does all of Tuscaloosa have more hotties than Lenox Mall on a Saturday afternoon? In the Big 10, the Pac 10, the Big 12, and the Big East the best team is from a big city. Are they leveraging that for recruiting?

Somehow, some way, Gailey has found lightning in a bottle this year when it comes to recruiting. Considering that what he is doing was thought impossible by even the most optimistic fan, perhaps we should be very careful with changes. If Norm Chow calls us up, fine, but changing from Nix to an unknown is risky and changing from Chan to the unknown makes zero sense to me.
 
You guys are just insane.

We are ranked 22nd nationally in sacks.

We are ranked 9th in pass efficiency defense.

We were in the top third in take aways.

Maryland scored on a kickoff return for TD and after a fumble on our own 8 yard line. The drive at the end of the game you refer to was mainly the result of one blown tackle and they still didn't score.

UGA and WF cruised down the field???? They scored 8 and 9 points respectively against the D. Is the defense supposed to hold teams with freshman QBs to 0 points? Because that is the point of obsurdity that this conversation has reached.

When the baseball team loses 1-0, you guys probably complain about the pitching.
 
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I agree that our defense is better than pure statistics suggest. But if you're going to argue about points the offense or STs led to you really have to do the math for everyone else as well. We assume our defense was put in worse situations than the norm. I don't know that that is a rational argument without doing the research. For example, I know for a fact that the Duke defense was torched by their offensive problems. Would that make their defense better than ours? Bottom line is the defense has to keep the other team from scoring no matter what.

That said I think our D is very good and among the best around.
 
I'm just talking fourth quarter letdowns in the two biggest games of the year. A great three quarters is worthless when you can't make a play when the game is on the line.

Don't get me wrong, The Offense's inability to answer, or to build a lead when the D is playing perfect, is a big issue.

But if we promote Tenuta, do we just have to get used to watching gamewinning drives by the opponents in the fourth?
 
The entire team played poorly against Clemson. Other than Clemson, we lost 3 games and only surrendered 14, 8, and 9 points in those games. In these 3 games, the defense held the opposition to point total at least 10 points under their season average. The offense on the other hand scored at least 5 fewer points than the opposition was allowing on average.

In the past 5 years, we have only lost 1 game when the offense scores over 20 (They scored 21 in that game). We have only lost 3 games when the offense has scored more than 17.

Please point to a game where you can say "if only the D had played as well as the O we would have won".
 
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