A look at Georgia Tech’s offensive line
I felt bad leaving you without a blog for two weeks, so I cobbled this together, using colleague Tim Tucker’s capsule on the Georgia blog. A few more will be coming.
THE OFFENSIVE LINE
- Returning starters: T Phil Smith, C Sean Bedford, T Austin Barrick.
- Others to watch: Guard Omoregie Uzzi and the versatile Nick Claytor saw lots of snaps last season. Guard Nick McRae looked very good in the spring and there are many redshirted players, including Will Jackson and Ray Beno, waiting in the wings.
- Key losses: All-ACC guard Cord Howard graduated and is now with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. The other starter, Joe Gilbert, will graduate this summer and has transferred to Georgia State. Starting tackle Brad Sellers graduated.
- Key fact: The Jackets led the ACC by averaging 295.4 rushing yards a game last season. They were 87.2 yards ahead of the next-best team, Virginia Tech.
- Key fact II: The Jackets were second in that category in the NCAA, behind Nevada (344.92 ypg).
- Key question: Will the two new guards be able to step in and play as well as last season’s did? Coach Paul Johnson has said the line played well, but there is lots of room to improve.
- Recent developments: Other than the transfers of Gilbert and backup Clyde Yandell, not much.
- Outlook: Should be fine, but we will see. It’s tough to lose that many starters on the line.
- Your turn: What say you about the offensive line?
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249 comments Add your comment
One tech fan not drinking the kool Aid
June 15th, 2010
7:07 pm
Man up look at the depth chart, hopefully this kid will be good but he from Tenn. with no offer
from UT. With this system we will never get a high profile QB , Calvin Johnson would’ve signed with UGA. There is a reason only other offers from navy were SMU and Duke. As long as the ACC stays below par will be ok but if/when Miami and Fla. state hit their stride again , big trouble for CPJ.
Reality Stinks
June 15th, 2010
7:23 pm
Here is the truth
Find you a QB like Tim Tebomb and a better defense and Tech will dominate the ACC and beat UGA occasionally
But as long as you have a QB that throws lame ducks forget it
Now thats Kool Aid you can count on
Keep 'em coming
June 15th, 2010
7:31 pm
http://blogs.ajc.com/recruiting/2010/06/15/usc-transfer-jarvis-jones-chooses-georgia-bulldogs/
DC
June 15th, 2010
7:40 pm
tdb123
June 15th, 2010
7:36 am
Thanks Doug – can our offensive line ever really be measured by rushing yards, at least in comparison to other schools. Even with a subpar offensive line we will/should outrush all ACC teams. Are there other metrics to evaluate the O-line? Or, should we just compare year-to-year and with Navy?
Absolutely. Every time you play a team like Iowa you get one hell of a metric.
ATLXMEN
June 15th, 2010
7:41 pm
Guya gailys recruits are getting drafted..PJ’s linemen will get crushed by these big fast guys in div 1a football. pj rercruits should be playing div 1aa teams. tech is in big time trouble.
One tech fan not drinking the kool Aid
June 15th, 2010
7:44 pm
We have a good team , that will occasionally sneak up a beat a better team , this systems will beat the tobacco road teams with consistency, but really in 2 years we have 1 win over a UGA team was short 18 players and Va.Tech, we get thrashed every bowl game and were soundly beaten by UGA in a down year , with Willie Martinez as a def. coordinator. Al Groh may be a great coach , but he need s players to work with.
DC
June 15th, 2010
7:46 pm
10 offensive points in 2 bowl games. Says it all.
Frank
June 15th, 2010
7:51 pm
It is funny to me how the gtu fans have replaced scu fans as the most delusional in college football. I must admit that scu has had more success against UGA during the last 19years (with out cheating as per the NCAA) than has gtu. I really don’t hate tech, it goes much deeper than that.
THWGT!!!
broken Stinger
June 15th, 2010
8:01 pm
Have you factored in those players out for punching their girlfriend?
Coach Small Johnson
June 15th, 2010
8:08 pm
Glad to know theres only one tech fan not drinking my Kool aid
Only 40 more to worry about
Stay thirsty my friends
ATLXMEN
June 15th, 2010
8:15 pm
No really good linemen with hopes of going to the NFL will go to tech. they dont teach them how them to pass block or even block for that matter. they just teach them to throw themselves at the feet of the defensive linemen they are supposed to block.
Coach Small Johnson
June 15th, 2010
8:19 pm
Kool Aid will be served at our next fish fry
All Tech fans are encouraged to bring their favorite flavor of Tech kool aid
My favorite kool aid flavor is we will win a national title and punch a UGA fan in the mouth
Stay thirsty my friends
gtfanfrom1951
June 15th, 2010
8:42 pm
Georgia fans drank the kool aid a long time back….it replaced their brains with dawg poop…they still think they are going to win the SEC and NC.HA HAAHAHA
Coach Small Johnson
June 15th, 2010
8:52 pm
Was Kool Aid around in your day my delusional Tech friend from 1951
Me personally don’t think it was until the 1960’s when Tech went on a down hill slide in Athletics
I guess thats when a they were introduced to it from a West Virginia fan
Stay thirsty my friend
GTPak
June 15th, 2010
9:02 pm
Go to UGA and end up in prison. That is a great selling point for new recruits!
St. Clarrkston
June 15th, 2010
9:29 pm
Who needs a line when you run a gimmick offense.
Coach Small Johnson
June 15th, 2010
9:29 pm
Go to Tech and be surrounded by a high crime neighborhood. Duck and cover while you go to class and stay away from the barred windows lest you risk being hit by a stray bullett from the North Ave civilians. That is a great selling point for new recruits!
Stay Thirsty my friend
GT Fan...
June 15th, 2010
9:46 pm
GT’s O-line will be fine. I am of the belief that it will be better than the previous 2 seasons under PJ. Claytor (lots of playing time in 2008 & 2009) and Uzzi (lots of playing time in 2009, RS in 2008) are bascially starters anyway.
Now let me see if I’ve got this prediction correct …
–GT will finish 2010 with a better record than GA
–The Jackets will lose a game similar to UNC & LSU in 2008, and Iowa in 2009
–And many a dog fan will say … “5-6 wins AT MOST for the Techies in 2011 – everybody will have figured out the offense like UNC, LSU, Iowa, and XYZ team from 2010 did” “we ran this state, 30-24″, “8 out 10″, “our stadium is bigger”, “better looking chicks at GA”, “can’t fill your 25,000 seat high school stadium”, and on & on & on ……..
GT Fan...
June 15th, 2010
9:47 pm
Oh, and how could I have forgotten about “Coach Small Johnson’s” clever posts.
Coach Small Johnson
June 15th, 2010
9:54 pm
GT Fan
I left you some Kool Aid on top of the rusted flat tire, grey and blue, 1970’s model pontiac
If you sprint and drop for cover you can get it
Drink it and your dreams will come true tonight, but tommorrow is another day
Stay thristy my friend
How is it going now
June 15th, 2010
10:36 pm
With the young lady that got busted up pretty well by Tech’s DE Hall, how is she doing?
I know that tech men of my generation ( 60s) are disgusted with that coward. He must still feel cowardly after the UGA beating that he took last November, so he took it out on that lil lady.
We lost another one to Bill Curry?
June 15th, 2010
10:42 pm
ARRGH,ARRRRRRGGGH, another tech man LEFT US. Curry is going to relegate us to third place behind U of W Ga, GA Southern and Ga State in lil boy football. ARRRRGGGHH,ARRRRRRRRGGGH.
Maybe the ACC can expand with Elon College, College of Charleston, Furman and Millsaps Collge to even it out for Tech.
Man up...
June 15th, 2010
10:43 pm
Wow, you can tell about what time the Sylvan Learning Center’s summer GED prep classes let out today! Ah well, keep the idiotic comments coming, Dawgs. Your fear causes you to obsess. Your hear to read about our O-line’s improvement, becuase you desperately need to be sure you’ll beat us again. Losing would be unacceptable, right? Yeah you remember what that felt like. It could start happening more often now. “Oh no a real rival again!”…classic. To us, it’s kinda flattering.
GT Fan...
June 16th, 2010
12:05 am
And, like a broken record, “Coach Small Johnson” hits us with yet another clever post.
Geez dude, seriously, is that the best you can do? Are you supposed to be The Most Interesting Man in the World now with your closing line???
jrad
June 16th, 2010
1:06 am
o line will be fine! guys will step up.
macrotech
June 16th, 2010
2:13 am
‘Reality Stinks’, I’ve been reading your comments and am horrified to think that you might be an adult….PLEASE, tell me that you’re a kid ‘enjoying’ summer break!!! Please?!
‘Coach Paul Small Johnson’, “Go to Tech and be surrounded by a high crime neighborhood. Duck and cover while you go to class and stay away from the barred windows lest you risk being hit by a stray bullett from the North Ave civilians”?….as opposed to moving out to the sticks and making sheep nervous? Have you guys picked up the North campus?
CPJ has given us plenty of reason to trust him….he wins where ever he coaches….I’m feeling confident that he is on top of everything. Our offensive line will be JUST fine!!!
Best of Atlanta
June 16th, 2010
3:12 am
————————————-
……Nesbitt for Heisman……
————————————-
history nor the facts lie
June 16th, 2010
6:18 am
You tech fans always seem to amuse me. So what, you have one descent year in that subpar conference you call the ACC, and you think yall are Bama or something now? The comments you make about how yall are so much better than uga cause you won the ACC last year and beat us 1 time in the last nine years is absolutely hilarious. You can try and talk smack about uga with your overused academic superior comebacks, but when looking at the stats from this past decade in football, you come nowhere close to being as good as georgia.
To prove my point, under Richt, uga has been 8-1 against tech, 2 SEC championships (which is a different story than an ACC title amigos, but go ahead, talk how tough the ACC is..), six seasons of 10+ wins, six seasons of top 10 finishes, and 7 bowl game wins (two of which were BCS bowl wins).
As for GT goes, since 2000, y’all have an impressive 2-8 record against uga, a 3-7 bowl record with the only wins coming from syracuse, tulane, and stanford (back when stanford was not even good), one ACC title and no BCS bowl wins. Maybe you should get Paul Johnson to start recruiting some of those beast of women I see lurking around your campus. There, O-line problem solved.
Now, I know Im an unintelligent UGA fan as I’ve heard from all of you after we put a whooping on yall year in and year out, but to me, it looks like georgia’s got your number when it comes to football.
Reality stinks stinks
June 16th, 2010
8:42 am
Alot of dumb stuff being said in these comments. First of all, fellow Tech fans, the rivalry is called Clean Old Fashioned Hate for a reason. We can’t just “get along”. We hate them, they hate us, that’s why it is such a classic rivalry. You really should understand that before you take the holier-than-thou approach with a UGA fan. Second of all, UGA has DOMINATED us at football for the last decade. Trying to make excuses for that or point out stuff to make it seem like they have an inferior football program is stupid because it is wrong. UGA is a school that values it’s football program as much as it’s academic programs. Maybe more. Okay, they’d be an NFL team if it wasn’t so legally challenging. But the point remains, we aren’t better than them at football historically speaking.
What you CAN say to a UGA fan is that our present football team will become a much more significant challenge than they are used to. Get caught off guard and we’ll put 45 points up, we do it to everyone and anyone. UGA’s ONLY national championship was 30 years ago, our MOST RECENT one was only 20 years ago. Our coach is a great offensive mind, and he’s going to call all of the trick gimmick high school plays in the book if they score points, because scoring points is what the game is about. It is a put up or shut up game and you have to adapt to that, there is no time for crying about it. As far as the last two games, we beat you with your worst DC ever, you beat us with ours, we’re on equal ground there, don’t b*tch about that either. Your worst team in decades beat the ACC champs, our team that couldn’t get to the ACCG beat your preaseason No.2 ranked “national contender”. Sh*t happens. This should just go to show you that you aren’t the only dog in the fight anymore.
That said, our O-line does not need to be exceptionally large, or larger than our opponent’s D-line at all. We use cut blocking to clear lanes, which mitigates much of the size advantage, and our constant ground game to keep pass rushers dedicated to stopping the run. It is true that a D-line that is too large will just blow us up, but we are not the only the only football program with that problem (UGA fans, that’s a universal problem). Our O-line should show improvement under CPJ year to year because most of it is skill based, and anybody can pack on a few extra pounds with some hard work.
GO JACKETS.
the facts dont lie
June 16th, 2010
10:14 am
your most recent national championship was a fluke!
Man up...
June 16th, 2010
10:32 am
RSS, well said!
Lucky we play in ACC
June 16th, 2010
10:38 am
Realty Stinks Stinks only one correction UGA has dominated us for 5 decades.
POAD
June 16th, 2010
10:40 am
dawginlex are you still crying?
The ghost of ugh-uh "vee-eye-eye"
June 16th, 2010
10:58 am
I hate my school. All I do is sit on the sideline and watch in-state talent go to waste. My little heart just couldn’t take it.
THWG!
POAD
June 16th, 2010
11:02 am
Will the season get here soon enough?
Jimmy
June 16th, 2010
12:56 pm
Enter your comments here
Reality Stinks
June 16th, 2010
1:18 pm
Why do I have the most posts on the Tech blog and I’m not a Tech fan? Because I have no education, no job, no life, no “partner,” and quite frankly, nobody likes me. Anyway, I’m just here to try unsucessfully (story of my life) to bring you guys down to my level. Toodles.
CrackDaddy
June 16th, 2010
2:13 pm
You’re gonna luv Chapel Hill; you’re gonna luv Kennan Stadium; you gonna gain some respect for the Heels!
Reality Stinks
June 16th, 2010
4:25 pm
Cute Post Reality wanna beeeee 1:18pm
Thats amusing, a Tech fan has to post crap like that, a 3rd grade post to get back at me and UGA
Reality Stinks doesn’t it my Techies
Reality Stinks
June 16th, 2010
4:46 pm
I wish I had something better to do than post here and then respond to myself about how cute my previous post was. Will somebody else here please read my post so I will have somebody to talk to. My mom is out of town and I feel lonely.
Reality Stinks
June 16th, 2010
5:04 pm
Im sorry Reality 4:46 pm you dont bother me using my famous name I knew one of you idiots couldnt come up with anything else to say so you play the 3rd grade response post.
Im also sorry that your mom is out of town and she cant read you a bedtime story. I will glad to read you one.
Here we go this one is called
The Little Bee That Never Could. Starring Buzz and Coach Paul Johnny Apple Seed Johnson
Its about a coach who brings in the middle school option veer to Tech and believed he would beat the big boys only to find out it wasnt meant to beeee.
Reality Stinks for our little bee and Coach Pauly
Virtual Reality is Awesome!
June 16th, 2010
5:11 pm
So Reality, based on your cute story in response to your previous cute posts, you admit uga is not a “big boy” as “Coach Pauly” has beaten uga. That’s just third grade logic I’m using there. We all knew that they weren’t as 1980 keeps getting further and further away, but it’s good to see you agree.
Delbert D.
June 16th, 2010
5:16 pm
DawginLex – If you’re back:
“I tried to make a reasonable comment.”
“Guess it is a waste of time.”
The DL should be OK. DE was a strength last year, and should be this year, even without Morgan. The key is that the DTs must be suitable for nose tackle. Barnes fits the profile at 6′7 and 340+, but he was a RS freshman last year; he did get quite a bit of playing time. Walls and Anderson are undersized, 6′3 and 6′2″ and under 290. They are both RS sophs..
Reality Stinks
June 16th, 2010
5:18 pm
The 1950’s and Bobby Dudd have been a distant memory for Tech too
And the athletic department as a whole basically has been non-existent since its inception
Virtual Reality is Awesome!
June 16th, 2010
5:21 pm
yeah is non-existent includes beating uga in more sports than losing. check the facts loser.
Virtual Reality is Awesome!
June 16th, 2010
5:27 pm
Also reality, GT still has more “SEC” football championships than your beloved leg humpers when you include the championships for the conferences that led up to the name “SEC” in which GT and uga competed and GT has been out of the SEC for a long long time. HAHAHA!!!
superDawg
June 16th, 2010
5:31 pm
Your O line will have more chop blocking flags tossed on them than all teams combined.
superDawg
June 16th, 2010
5:35 pm
and your D will be scored on often.
Man up...
June 16th, 2010
5:35 pm
VRiA, lookout, every time you bring those old SIAA days up some dude from Sewanee chimes in about the purple tigers being the best team in football history.
Reality Stinks
June 16th, 2010
5:37 pm
check the facts loser are you on crack
your athletic department has a losing record to UGA in all sports
Football 60 Georgia wins, 39 Georgia Tech wins,
Baseball Georgia Tech has 148 wins, Georgia has 195 wins
Softball Georgia holds 15 wins in the series over Georgia Tech’s 7.
Vollyball Georgia leading the overall series with 21 wins over Georgia Tech’s 10
Womans Basketball Georgia holds 27 wins over Georgia Tech’s 3
The only sport you have more wins is mens basketball 101-85
Your athletic program has 5 total national championships 18 conference championships
to UGA’s 37 National championships and 130 conference championships
Like I said athletic program sucks compared to big brother UGA
Guess you got Punked again
Reality Stinks doesnt it