Why CPJ left the Diamond Formation in 2013

GTFLETCH

GTFLETCH

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In 2013, after having spent the spring and preseason working on it (Diamond formation), the Yellow Jackets occasionally ran plays out of the shotgun with quarterback Vad lee.

Johnson said it was an attempt to help Lee make reads and also play to his talents. In the spring of 2013, Tech began using the “diamond” formation, with the quarterback five yards behind center flanked by both A-backs and the B-back two yards behind him.

Tech debuted it to great effect against Duke in the second game of the 2013 season, a 38-14 win, but used it sparingly the rest of the season.


 
Without me having to listen to a video, why did we abandon it? Didn't we use it against UNC?
 
JJacket said:
Without me having to listen to a video, why did we abandon it? Didn't we use it against UNC?
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I haven’t watched the video, but I think I recall PJ just flatly saying it didn’t work
 
VT @ GT with the new Diamond Formation/GUN - Not working against the Hokies
 
CPJ Interview Dec 12, 2017

For Tech, the shotgun was a one-year experiment. Lee transferred after the 2013 season to James Madison, setting the stage for Justin Thomas to take the starting job. The Jackets returned strictly under center in the spring of 2014.

“It was a mistake,” Johnson said in an interview with the AJC last December. “It gives you a little better (blocking) angles sometimes, especially if you’re trying to get linebackers,” Johnson said at the time. “You’ve got a little better run and go at them coming downhill. It also doesn’t hit as fast, so there’s tradeoffs both ways.”

“I don’t think you can do hodgepodge,” he said last year. “It’s just my opinion. You try to find something that you can do and get good at it and be better at it than (your opponent is at defending it).”

“I’ve had several coaches remark – defensive coaches – that this (under center) hits so much faster than the gun stuff that you almost have to play it differently,” Johnson said last December.

“I think in a league like the ACC, it’s more beneficial to go under center because you’re more likely to come up against an end who’s athletic enough to take the give and the keep from the shotgun,” said former Tech offensive lineman Trey Braun, who started eight games in the 2013 season and 26 in the two seasons after it.

The season with the diamond “taught me if you do a lot of things, you ain’t worth an (expletive) at any of them,” Johnson said. “Which I’ve always known.”

www.ajc.com

Why Georgia Tech likely will never adopt the shotgun again

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson tried the shotgun once. He doesn't seem likely to try it again.
www.ajc.com www.ajc.com
 
It worked against Duke because of how they played the triple. They stacked the line and dared us to throw. The diamond is a much better passing formation.
 
smokey_wasp said:
I think the real lesson of 2014 is that JT was just a better QB than Vad.
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Pretty sure it was John Bond who we hired away from Cal Berkely that introduced CPJ to the diamond. There was a lot of buzz in the preseason about it but ultimately, I just don't think CPJ thought it added anything so he gave up on it.
 
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