Georgia Tech drilled, problems start with Al Groh’s defense
Common scene: UGA (Chris Conley) scoring, Tech (Rod Sweeting) watching. (Brant Sanderlin)
When a team looks flat, lost and beat up and loses 31-17 to its chief rival — and it really wasn’t even that close — generally no player or area is immune to criticism.
Physically, Georgia Tech got hammered Saturday by Georgia. There were mental lapses. Emotionally, the Jackets seemed to lack a pulse on their home field against the only opponent that usually defines their season — which probably is the greatest indictment of all, considering the 364 days of buildup on a campus where the rallying cry is, “To hell with Georgia.”
“You have to play with everything you have. We didn’t,” linebacker Steven Sylvester said.
How does that happen? Were they saving it for the Sun Bowl?
But Tech’s biggest problem Saturday against Georgia was no different than what its biggest problem has been for four years under coach Paul Johnson. Their defense stinks. They can’t stop anybody or intimidate anybody. Two many games come down to pinball games.
Bad defense got Dave Wommack fired after two seasons. Bad defense under Al Groh should leave his future uncertain at the end of a two-year contract. Groh hasn’t said definitively that he wants to come back, but the question Johnson needs to ask himself is: Do I want him back?
This is no minor issue. Johnson has won 34 games in four seasons. The Jackets’ 8-4 record this season going into their bowl finale certainly is not worse than most projected at the outset of this season, and it’s probably better. But when you have a defense that ranks 43rd in yardage, 56th in points allowed and 89th in third-down conversion, you’re not going anywhere.
Georgia is good, very good. The Dogs have better players and are as hot as any team in the country, save LSU (next week’s opponent in the SEC championship). But when the Bulldogs accumulated 254 yards on their first four possessions, this game was over. Georgia didn’t even punt until its sixth possession. By then, it was 24-10.
Johnson’s view of his defense’s inability to stop the Dogs: “It’s deflating. I think it deflates the whole team.”
The option offense isn’t built to play from behind. Neither is quarterback Tevin Washington. When the Jackets tried to open it up, Washington was intercepted twice on Tech’s first three possessions in the second half.
But remember where the problems started.
Georgia’s superiority on the field shouldn’t discount that Groh’s 3-4 defense got worse late in the season and has failed in the big picture. Tech is no better off on defense today than it was when they fired the last guy. Nationally, under Wommack the Jackets finished 28th (2008) and 54th (2009) in total defense. They were 64th in Groh’s first season and went into this week 43rd. Scoring defense in the past four seasons: 20th and 38th, respectively, under Wommack; 37th and 56th (entering the week) under Groh.
Progress?
Johnson is an offensive-oriented coach. When he goes consecutive series without a touchdown, he goes postal, but even he recognizes the importance of having some semblance of a defense, or he wouldn’t have made a change two years ago.
Groh wasn’t made available for comment Saturday. Just as well. He might need some time to figure out how to spin this one. There was an expected transition period with the switch to the 3-4 defense last year, but it’s not any better now. The Jackets still don’t have the players to play it, particularly up front.
Young teams should get better as the year goes on. But Tech has back-slid since a 31-17 upset of Clemson, with mediocre defensive performances against Virginia Tech, Duke and Georgia.
Sylvester on the difference since the Clemson game: “I think it’s just playing with emotion. If you turn on the film of the Clemson game you can see how emotional we were. I feel like we came out flat the last couple of games. We didn’t have as much energy as we should have, and our attention to detail wasn’t [good enough].”
Players should be able to get up for its rival, but that’s also on coaches for not having them prepared. Johnson and Groh share that responsibility.
But the head coach isn’t going anywhere. Groh, we’re not so sure. And when Tech fails, it’s usually not because of the offense.
By Jeff Schultz
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632 comments Add your comment
Steve
November 27th, 2011
12:14 pm
Have you seen the women on your campus? I haven’t either. I guess that’s why Tech fans are so angry? Virgins for life?
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:15 pm
Burdell
Think of recruits as in financial terms (tough to do for you Techies but, I digress),” It’s not how much money you make as it is what you do with what you make”. Thats coaching. Yes UGA has and has had deficiencies in coaching although, continue to recruit well. GT has worse coaching deficiencies and the inabilty to recruit well. UGA has been in a downward spiral for a number of years despite “good” recruiting. However, the future is finally, looking bright. Not so much for Tech probably, more of the same
01HAWK
November 27th, 2011
12:15 pm
UGA…………………………………….Maybe you will play UNIV. of HOUSTON this year.
Now that was funny.
Gorilla Biscuit
November 27th, 2011
12:18 pm
“…GA should be mentioned with ALA, LSU, and the other perennial powers. They are not and haven’t been for a while.”
They will be next Saturday as they play for the SEC Championship against LSU. Meanwhile you can hone your rusty World of Warcraft skills. And your football team can begin preparations for a mid-December loser’s bowl, which none of you will attend.
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:18 pm
Bama doesn’t play for the BCSNC. Bama who sits at home next week because they can’t even win it’s conference. That argument is as valid or more than it was in 06. Bama gets the Sugar bowl against Houston unless UGA beats LSU. Su<ks to be Bama doesn't it?
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:20 pm
ABama doesn’t play for the BCS. Bama who sits at home next week because they can’t even win it’s conference. That argument is as valid or more than it was in 06. Bama gets the Sugar bowl against Houston unless UGA beats LSU. Su<ks to be Bama doesn't it?
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:21 pm
Steve now you are just stupid and don’t know how to do research about the women on Tech campus. You were not at the game either then.
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:21 pm
Bama sits at home next week because they do not get to play for a conference championship. No chance in the NC unless Georgia beats LSU. Pitiful for Bama huh?….LOL
01HAWK
November 27th, 2011
12:23 pm
ARdawg ………………………………………BAMA will paly LSU. Come on the boards next week……………………………………..I will be looking for you little puppy.
DawgByte
November 27th, 2011
12:24 pm
Burdell -
That stat about Richt recruiting Top 5 classes year after year is incorrect. We recruit well, but if you compare our classes to Florida, LSU and more recently Alabama, you’ll find that we are behind each one. It’s tough to be national champions in a conference where you’re being out recruited. As good as our classes are they’re not even the third best in the conference. If I’m not mistaken Richt has taken Georgia to more SEC Championship appearances than any coach in the league, so I’d say he’s doing a fine job with the talent we’re recruiting. Richt has also put more players in the NFL during his tenure at UGA than any coach in the SEC.
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:25 pm
Bama’s best case scenario will be for UGA to beat LSU. Here is a “supposed” Bama fan wish/hoping predicting a Georgia loss.
Go back under your bridge troll 01HAWK. You are a p!ssed off Carolina fan praying you can watch your team on New years day. Can you say Chik’fila?
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:25 pm
The TECH kicker is Hitting this and his roommate is Hitting her roommate.
http://www.georgiadogs.com/trads/cheer/2011-12/sidni-v.html
Steve
November 27th, 2011
12:26 pm
Section 221, Row 9, Seat 14. Pretty sure I was there.
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:27 pm
No MATTER What UGA does next week they WILL NOT BE IN THE MNC game.
You might get to play Houston(aka this years Hawaii) and you can be Preseason #1 to start 2012.
Steve
November 27th, 2011
12:28 pm
5150, now “that was classy.” Don’t be jealous. Obviously he has to go for UGA women since there are none at Tech.
Steve
November 27th, 2011
12:28 pm
5150 what bowl game will Tech go to and who will they play?
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:29 pm
Steve and you didn’t see Tech women? I get it you were checking out the Boys!
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:30 pm
We don’t mind the Tech kicker banging one of the more uglier girls at UGA
DawgByte
November 27th, 2011
12:30 pm
01 Hawk -
There’s a reason why all the trees in Georgia lean to the West. It’s because the state of Alabama sucks so hard. You friggin toothless morons only have one thing to root for in your miserable Wal-Mart shopping lives. Before Saban got to Bama you guys sucked, you seem to forget those years of mediocrity.
Here’s a clue for you. There’s no way the voters are going to put two SEC teams in the National Championship game, particularly a school that…
1.) Didn’t win its division
2.) Didn’t play for the SEC title
In short, your dreams of a National Title this year are delusional… but keep taking a toke on the pipe.
Andre "Pulpwood"Smith
November 27th, 2011
12:30 pm
Beating a mediocre out of conference opponent shouldn’t be so much fun, but it is. Beating Tech is the gift that keeps on giving. It is like a college football annuity.
Give us your lunch money, Techies, and enjoy another nuclear winter.
Gorilla Biscuit
November 27th, 2011
12:30 pm
Where else could a Techie go to find a decent woman? Down in the ‘hood? They’d beat the snot out of you and take your lunch money.
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:31 pm
The Smurf Bowl is looking like a step up for Tech. If they’re lucky, the Belk bowl might take them
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:31 pm
Steve…………..he got a UGA girl before she becomes another UGA MARTA bus. Good for him. Maybe they will be Mr. & Mrs. Dr. Scully.
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:32 pm
Ugly girls need lovin too
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:34 pm
ARDawg……………you wish your wife/girlfriend/sister was as good looking as a pimple on Sidni’s butt. She is cute.
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:35 pm
ARDawg please post a link to a photo of you and your wife. Now you are calling UGA girls UGLY? If that don’t beat all.
Steve
November 27th, 2011
12:37 pm
5150 Why is it that you did not answer my several questions?
Burdell
November 27th, 2011
12:40 pm
GA rarely plays LSU or Alabama so it really doesn’t matter unless you are playing them for the SEC championship. FL kicks your rear regularly because they have recruited better and have always out coached you. My point is your talent level is on par with that of the big boys, but your coaching isn’t. Seems I remember after the second game of the season these blogs were filled with get rid of Richt entries. He’s horrible, he’s got to go, etc…. My opinion is Richt can recruit with the best of them, the question is, can he coach with them? We’ll see Saturday. The record so far isn’t pretty, but that can change in a day.
ARdawg
November 27th, 2011
12:41 pm
“ARDawg please post a link to a photo of you and your wife. Now you are calling UGA girls UGLY? If that don’t beat all.”
Yeah right, troll.
By UGA standards the kicker’s GF is maybe average, more mediocre. Too bad that’s a doll to you Techie’s
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:42 pm
why STEVE you have all the answers you know exactly what the Bowl committees will do and what match ups they will make. you are the ALL knowing DAWG right?
Steve
November 27th, 2011
12:43 pm
Yup. I just go by facts. Tech always losing to UGA, Tech losing 5 bowl games in a row, etc.
5150 UOAD
November 27th, 2011
12:44 pm
ARdawg……………you are funny. You calling a UGA girl UGLY but you will not SHOW how Beautiful of a woman you were able to bag.
techismybee-otch
November 27th, 2011
12:47 pm
Here is the difference in our program and why we dominate the series…our coach knows that if you lose 3 in a row to the in-state rival that we HATE, then you get shown the door…just ask Johnny Griffin and Jim Donnan….but at Tech, it is acceptable and understood that the annual butt whipping comes as surely as thanksgiving. Thats why your program will always get dominated by UGA…how’s the rings coming Coach PJ? Or the billboard? Is the perception just that or reality to you now? The SEC kicked your butts head to head yesterday..it must s*ck to be a Tech fan.
Jim
November 27th, 2011
12:53 pm
Didn’t Paul know that Al Groh was an absolute at UVA???
Top Recruit
November 27th, 2011
12:53 pm
Hard for any team to win if they average 10 yards rushing in 3 quarters of play. Let’s give Coach Grantham, the Georgia defensive staff, and the Dawgs credit for shutting down Tech’s one dimensional offense.
The best comment came from Tech’s QB Washington. The look he had on his face when he came off his last series said it all.
But Tech, here is your issue re your defense. Nothing wrong with your DC. The problem lies with your HC. Frankly, I’m surprised any DC worth his salt would want to coach on a team with a one dimensional offense. And Jeff, that is your answer to the Tech riddle.
But let’s give Georgia’s defense for playing solid all year. And Tech, you have a good team, players, and university. Just win your damn bowl game and look good doing it. Go Dawgs.
Freddy Blassie
November 27th, 2011
12:54 pm
Congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs. You outplayed us on offense, defense and special teams and you outcoached us too. When Tech had the opportunity to make something happen, the players could not run, pass or catch the football, nor could Tech defenders get any pressure on the Georgia quarterback or cover their receivers effectively.
It was obvious very early that the Tech quarterback was not able to throw the ball effectively but I will defer to Johnson who sees all Tech QBs in practice every day for not putting in Days earlier.
Our guys will have to live with this for a year and the players and coaches will have to decide whether they want to get better or not. Tough losing to Georgia but it is easier to take when it is a sound defeat than when you lose a close one that should’ve been a Tech win.
Jim
November 27th, 2011
12:54 pm
that was absolute failure at UVA!!
01HAWK
November 27th, 2011
1:06 pm
ARdawg ………………………………………..LSU vs. BAMA………………………………….A GIVEN
ATL XMAN
November 27th, 2011
1:09 pm
Hey to my fellow tech blogger friends….i told you that tech just doesnt have the players uga does and that will cause them to lose. its that simple. get used to it too as long as pj is there( which im glad to see he got an extension) calling the shots. your team plays in the acc where soft was invented and when they got smacked too hard the tech players quit. i have been saying this to you guys for 2 years now and i think finally it might be sinking in. enjoy all your 7-5 or 8-5 seasons..
01HAWK
November 27th, 2011
1:23 pm
JUST IN………………………………….PUPPIES RATED # 12. And I wonder who is #1 and # 2
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — For the second consecutive week, it’s unanimous: LSU is ranked No. 1 and Alabama is ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press college football poll.
01HAWK
November 27th, 2011
1:28 pm
Blame some of the commisioners out there for the rules of the BCS.
But that is not how the leaders of the sport have chosen to crown a champion. Instead, powerful people such as the Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, whose league has been rendered nationally irrelevant by the BCS, continue to block a playoff at every turn. If you don’t like watching two SEC teams play for the national title, you can thank those people.
Until they see the light, we’re stuck with this system. Not that everyone minds, of course.
BillS
November 27th, 2011
1:28 pm
I’m a UGA fan, but I have serious question for Techies: Is CPJ’s offense the right one or one of necessity? Is it effective most of the time because it’s so quirky or because it best suits the kind of athletes Tech can recruit? Is is an admission that Tech cannot recruit the kind of players that seem to fill the rosters of the better SEC teams? Just curious what others think.
BreakingNews
November 27th, 2011
1:29 pm
Where are all of the Techies hiding? Just wanted to say “thank you” for starting Reggie Ball, Jr. vs. the Dawgs yesterday! 10 out of 11….you guys have nothing to say, so stay off the UGA blogs for the next 363 days!
Kevin
November 27th, 2011
1:31 pm
Spin it ANY way you want it but ULTIMATELY, the responsibility of ANY part of the football team lies COMPLETELY on the head coach. I would’ve sworn that Chins Johnson himself wrote this article as someone else (Groh this time) is being thrown under the bus.
01HAWK
November 27th, 2011
1:35 pm
TAMPA FLORIDA is a a good place for UGA. Have fun:
Outback Bowl
January 2, 2012 Tampa, FL, 1:00 pm ABC
Payout: $7 million
Big Ten No. 3 vs. SEC No. 3, 4 or 5
Projection: Nebraska vs. Georgia
Gorilla Biscuit
November 27th, 2011
1:41 pm
On a brighter note, did anybody watch that terribly sloppy display of “football” that was FSU/UF last night? Charlie Weiss…now there’s another offensive “genius” for ya.
No competion in rivarly
November 27th, 2011
1:42 pm
UGA whips GT= Johnson/Shultz humbled
roswell dickie
November 27th, 2011
1:46 pm
so paul johnson doesnt really think the sec is a better league than the acc except for bama and lsu. ok pauly walnuts- lets get the tale of the tape from yesterday. vandy waxed wake. south carolina waxed clemson. uga waxed your boys. fsu beat florida but not in a great sort of way. that 3-1 for the day. thats a lotta waxin. and heck- the acc didnt even have to play bama or lsu. oh my.
Sam
November 27th, 2011
1:48 pm
Amazing video of a high school senior from Columbia TN who kicks the ball dead straight 75-80 yards in the air. He was successful on 54 of 54 attempts this season….100%. Now he needs a college team. Wants to go to Georgia Tech!
Watch for yourself…it is unreal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_JKwgwFY3g
GT Man
November 27th, 2011
1:48 pm
Please let Groh go!!!!!!! We will never beat Georgia as long as he is here. Ga passes alot, why dont he have a defense for it and why did we not call the same plays we ran against Kansas and North Carolina? Why does Washington always play his sorriest game against Ga? Are the coaches and players intimadated by Georgia? I know Gailey was.