What’s wrong with Tech? Bay-Bay went away (boo hoo)
This Yellow Jacket pass was dropped Saturday in Pickens County, S.C. (AP photo)
I’ve actually had requests to write more about Georgia Tech. This is noteworthy because I usually only get asked to stop writing about something. But enough about me.
Georgia Tech, I’m afraid to say, is what I thought it was when last I mentioned the Jackets. It’s bad on defense and limited on offense. To say the Tech D has gotten worse under Al Groh would be statistically incorrect: The Jackets were 54th nationally among FBS teams in total defense last season; they’re 53rd now. What’s hurting Tech, believe it or not, is that Paul Johnson’s stylized offense isn’t holding up its end.
The Jackets are second in the nation in rushing offense, same as a year ago. The difference is that Tech ranks 48th nationally in total offense, down from 26th last season. What has gone wrong? There’s no Bay-Bay.
Demaryius Thomas, known as Bay-Bay, averaged 82.43 receiving yards per game last season — pretty darn good for a wideout on a team that ranked only 116th in passing yardage. With Thomas now gainfully employed in the NFL, Tech averages only 84.75 yards passing as a team.
A year ago, Bay-Bay made Joshua Nesbitt look like a competent passer: Tech actually finished 12th nationally in passing efficiency. (Didn’t know that, did you?) This year Tech ranks 106th in passing efficiency, and Nesbitt’s personal rating has dropped from 148.69 to 110.51. His completion percentage was 46.3 last season; it’s 38.2 now. His yards-per-attempt average was 1o.5 last season; it’s 6.61 now.
Put another way, whenever Nesbitt threw the ball last season there was (almost) half a chance he’d complete it for a first down. This year there’s roughly one-third of a chance the ball will be caught for substantially less yardage. Yes, that’s some difference.
Part of Nesbitt’s problem is that he’s rarely asked to make an easy throw. He can’t just dump the ball over the middle to a tight end because Tech has no tight ends on the roster. And Stephen Hill, billed as the Next Bay-Bay? He has 12 catches for 165 yards and two touchdowns in eight games. Thomas had 46 catches for 1,154 yards and eight touchdowns in 13 games last season.
This shows us, not for the first time, that Johnson’s stylized offense has its limitations: It cannot win at the highest level with a passing game this poor. And we can’t say that Tech has been set back by having to break in a new quarterback: This is Nesbitt’s third year as a starter in this system.
Bay-Bay made PJ’s offense look good because he made astonishing catches on demand. Bay-Bay was also signed by PJ’s predecessor, Chan Gailey, who ran a pro-style offense. Georgia Tech isn’t apt to sign a receiver so talented again anytime soon.
We went back and forth over the summer in trying to decide which of the four junior Jackets who left early for the pros was most indispensable, with defensive end Derrick Morgan being the early favorite. But now it’s clear: Thomas was the man Tech couldn’t lose. With him to bail out Nesbitt, the 2009 Jackets didn’t sustain their second loss until two days after Thanksgiving. With Bay-Bay as a Denver Bronco, the 2010 Jackets lost their third game eight days before Halloween.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
524 comments Add your comment
dawgfan
October 26th, 2010
9:04 am
No worries. Tech has bigger fish to fry. Beating Clemson wasn’t the goal. Why should Tech be measured by Clemson? What have they done in the past 30 years? Don’t like what a Clemson fan is saying? Do they make you want to run home to mommy? Well, punch ‘em in the face!!!
LMAO @ Tech football and its big mouthed coach. What an effin’ disgrace.
juice sourcer
October 26th, 2010
9:04 am
Dead on…and as Mark said..Bay Bay was a Gailey recruit for a pro set offense and Tech will not be able to recruit that type player again so it sounds like this offense has limits and Tech is scewed for the future.
WTF
October 26th, 2010
9:06 am
I’m as pissed as everyone else shortterm. But GT4life is right in a way. Tech isn’t a ‘factory’ for any kind of sports. It is, has been and always will be, a school that graduates men and women who will contribute to our society in ways that go way beyond any pro sports status symbols.
CPJ was hired – and here D-Rad was just very realistic – for just such a school with just such a purpose (see NAVY). Yes, we’ll get average to good ‘talent’ and coachable young men because they can LEARN.
Please don’t expect too much. Expect more engineers who’ll build things, scientists who will make discoveries advancing mankind and future professors who will keep the wheels of technology spinning.
We need them more than several 10-1 football seasons in a row.
That’s reality. And it doesn’t suck.
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:09 am
TomB good point also combined with my point about the total o-line starts, and you have a LOT of blocking issues. Last time I heard, blocking, the trenches, these things matter
Good point.
Crow H
October 26th, 2010
9:11 am
Thanks Mark – You lay off the Jacket when they win 3 in a row, and only come around to stir the pot after a loss. I swear…the day you write something positive about the Jackets is the day Satan gets his Ferrari cake at his Super Sweet 16 Halloween Party.
Isn't It Ironic?
October 26th, 2010
9:12 am
The irony of it all is that Johnson’s offense is supposed to have so many variations that the defense will never know what to expect or what’s coming next. Well unfortunately for GT, the exact opposite is true. The defense knows EXACTLY what is coming, and it’s not that difficult to defend. Especially when a huge facet of any offense, the pass, is basically nonexistent for GT. Here comes the spread option, or wing-veer, or counter-trey, or reverse or whatever. GT isn’t hard to stop when you take the passing game out of the equation. Combine Tech’s average players on offense with the speed, size and strength of the D1 defenses they face every Saturday, and that spells “loss” for Tech. The offense isn’t surprising anybody anymore. Johnson better bring in some players or overhaul his offense by adding a passing attack. I dont think either is going to happen. Who wants to go play for that style of offense? Certainly not pass-catchers and linemen. Good luck recruiting this year!!
dawgfan
October 26th, 2010
9:12 am
Oh my how predictable. The Techies have done a complete 180 and are now claiming an inevitable “rebuilding year.” Of course, the were singing a much different tune when they were ranked #16 in the preseason and pimping “the most interesting man alive” for Heisman. But they saw this coming all along. If you believe that I’ve got some primo property by Tech’s ghetto campus that you might be interested in.
Whenever a team fails to live up to its preseason billing, especially an SEC team or UGA, the Techies are usually some of the first to pop off at the mouth about it. How does that foot taste Techies?
Tech football=OVERRATED.
Here comes the parade of excuses…
Always a Jacket
October 26th, 2010
9:14 am
Mark, losing one player is gross oversimplification. Special teams, poor tackling and blocking, etc are at the core, not losing one player. Since Coach Johnson arrived, he has had to convert players not ideal for his system and lately battled youth as most of his upper class left for the NFL or graduated early. Its a combination of many things. Coach Johnson is building a program and your superficial evaluations are worthless.
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:15 am
WTF – Well said! If we expect to compete with football factories, then we would have to be one. We don’t allow the academic exceptions to even consider being a football factory. GT clearly decided long ago to not be a football school, but to be instead an institute of higher learning. We all like to forget that, when we let our lives ebb and flow with the success of the football team. We aren’t a football factory and aren’t likely to ever be. CPJ is perfect for a school like ours.
black bee
October 26th, 2010
9:15 am
Mark you are so right! But also Tech loss 3 very important Coaches, their best Recruiting Coor. and DL Coach in Giff Smith, a budding good LB Coach and good Recruiter in St. Jean-Mary and a offensive mind who had been with CPJ for the longest to HC Ga. Southern, plus Wommack. They replaced them with a Grad. Assist. who right now may be in over his head. A young Navy guy who has not Coached the position he coaches now. I understand the hiring of Al Groh and Coach McCollum. On paper it looked good! But upon closer inspection Al Groh might have made out better in the Pro’s. In hindsight maybe CPJ should have grabbed Manny Diaz from MTSU who went to Miss. State. McCollum is going to kill them in recruiting. He hasn’t been able to close on the big stars in-state who are able to get into Tech. He has made North Carolina his recruiting hotbed but truth be told NC best players usually sigh with the Tar Heels and Tenn. and H.S. football in Georgia is way better as a whole. He has not taken advantage of sitting right next to all that talent in Florida, or use Tech reputation to recruit nationally from Texas, Ohio and Penn.-N.J. A bigger problem is some Tech fans look through gold colored glasses and think everything is alright and CPJ can walk on water. He is a great Coach but the South is full of them and you still have to have talent and a passing, punting and great defense. I don’t know if CPJ is flexible or humble enough to put those things into place!
Ramblinwreck83
October 26th, 2010
9:16 am
Bradley, so far this year all you’ve written about Tech is how bad they are and how you told everyone that they weren’t going to do anything this year. On the other hand, you have been writing article after article about how great UGA is before the season and now. I just checked. UGA is 4-4 and Tech is 5-3. About the same by most people’s standards. What i think is that you write all these UGA articles to appease the Georgia fans and make them feel like they have hope to win the SEC East. I guarantee you that UGA doesn’t win out and doesn’t win the East. It if does then you better admit that the SEC as a whole is not the best conference in football this year if it’s boasting a SEC East champ at 4-4. That’s kind of pathetic.
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:18 am
dawgfan – GT fans don’t have excuses, we have reasons. We’re too boring and logical to come up with flowery ‘excuses’. We simply evaluate things in clear honest straight terms. You want someone to say UGA has a better team and GT isn’t as good in football? No problem dude, you win that one! You guys out recruit us year in and year out and honestly, you should NEVER lose to us on paper. You are the man! Now, go away and bark or something.
robodawg
October 26th, 2010
9:18 am
“This year there’s roughly one-third of a chance the ball will be caught for substantially less yardage.” Mark, that “for substantially less yardage” would be better substantiated if you cited average yards-per-completion rather than just average yards-per-attempt. The latter doesn’t tell us that Tech is throwing shorter passes.
But I think you’re dead right in pinpointing the diminished passing game. That huge drop in passing efficiency is the most telling. And I’ve never been one to question that PJ’s offense can work at this level. I actually like it. It’s a good offense with the right personnel and it’s fun to watch. (Though Tech losing is also fun to watch.)
If Tech is still second in the nation in rushing offense, it’s hard to blame the offensive line.
GT GRAD
October 26th, 2010
9:19 am
Offensive line issues and lack of effort (maybe focus) for essentially the entire team are also significant problems.
Mark Bradley
October 26th, 2010
9:21 am
Just for the record, I predicted Tech would go 8-4. I believe it is 5-3.
Isn't It Ironic?
October 26th, 2010
9:22 am
GT 92 and WTF, you guys are pitiful. As soon as you start losing, you start in with the “institute of higher learning” crap and “you can’t compete with football factories”. What a couple of whining maggots..
Honey Bees
October 26th, 2010
9:25 am
“GT decided long ago not to be a football school.”
Who decided that? Was it Bobby Dodd or John Heisman??
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:25 am
Isn’t It Ironic – Do you kiss your mom with that mouth? Just because your too stupid to debate the reality of the situation, doesn’t mean you’re right. Look up the number of academic exceptions each school has and I think you’ll see a very clear point…oh…but you don’t actually want points…you want to just throw around colorful insults which aren’t based in reality. Have fun with that.
layinlow
October 26th, 2010
9:27 am
I have a lot of family members who are Tech fans and I have tried too be respectful. But the last few years I have had to hear a little too much about the great Paul Johnson. PJ is a genuis and the best playcaller in the country, the best at halftime adjustments, yada, yada, yada. Wait until PJ gets his recruits and his type of offensive lineman, yada, yada, yada. I have even heard wait until year 3 and we will compete for National Championships, lol- on that one. What the hell happened? Where has all the great PJ love gone?
All of you Tech fans who are bitching about Nesbitt this year will be crying next when he is gone. This team in my opinion will miss Nesbitt’s toughnes next year as they slide even further down the ACC totem pole. I predict they will have a very tough time finishing above .500 next season. PJ is not a very good recruiter and this team will really be in trouble next season as the teams they play continue to figure out the TO and PJ’s tendencies. I think even PJ’s ego is starting to bruise as he realizes that he is not as great as he thought he was. PJ is an average coach and a poor recruiter and that is going too lead to disaster for Tech.
dawgfan
October 26th, 2010
9:27 am
Techies, you were ranked #16 in the preseason and were pimping a guy for Heisman by ripping off a beer commercial. You ARE football factory. You just aren’t a very good one.
If the goal of your instition is to educate and not win football games it begs the question. Why do you have a freaking football team? Why do something if you’re only going to half azz it? Why not just scrap the football program so you can spend your Saturdays in the library with your calculators and calculus books? I’m not mocking education. I think its very important too. I’m just curious why Tech even bothers with football if its so meaningless as you say. Please help.
For what its worth, hardly anyone would miss Tech football. It would scroll across the ESPN ticker at the bottom of the screen and we’d never hear about it again. Johnson could go coach at Wake. Forest or Duke where he’d have the same excuses at his disposal. You’d have your calculus. And the rest of usa would never have to hear your sniveling panty waste holier than thou whining again. Its a win win!!!
Ramblinwreck83
October 26th, 2010
9:28 am
dawgfan
Don’t call the kettle black since UGA fan are always the one’s to pop off at the mouth. They are some of the most obnoxious fans in college football. Even your own fans will admit it. And by the way, let’s not start talking about a team being overated. UGA doesn’t normally live up to any of the hype that is given to them. How many NC has MR got for the powerful UGA football team? Most Tech fans new that this year was going to be tougher. I personally thought a 8-4 season what expected with the schedule. They have a much harder road schedule and they did lose alot of talent. It may not be rebuilding but it’s definately a work in progress just like UGA. Very young players on the offense and defense. Did UGA think they would be 4-4 right now and wishing for USC to lose so they could squeeze into the SEC title game. Please. I think UGA and Tech are having about the same results from their respective teams. We can only hope that both teams won’t be 6-5 or 5-7 going into the final game in Athens.
Isn't It Ironic
October 26th, 2010
9:29 am
HA HA HA, “the reality of the situation” and “based in reality”?? Whose reality, yours? Leave now, I think your Halo game is starting..
brokeback jacket
October 26th, 2010
9:31 am
If you thought that ugly stadium was empty before, just wait until the next home game. The 50 tech virgins that normally attend won’t even roll out of bed to see the honey bees roll over in their own tiny little house. All the free hotdogs, Cokes, and anime porn can’t right the honey bees’ ship, and butt-ugly tech cheerleaders only make it worse. By 2014, most of tech’s campus will jump on the Kennesaw State bandwagon, if they aren’t already cheering for Georgia State … or even Georgia.
JB
October 26th, 2010
9:31 am
All Great coach’s change, modify, whatever over time…..I do agree with what I hear Tech fans beg for on here. A short to intermediate passing game to loosen up the defense. A passing game doesn’t have to be 30-40 yards. Hitting a guy in full stride 7 or 8 yards across the line in open space would back up that 9 in the box defense Tech is seeing. Johnson needs to adapt.
Ramblinwreck83
October 26th, 2010
9:33 am
dawgfan
Why can’t you be a little mature about this article and stop saying that we should scrap our football program. That’s rediculous to even say. And hasn’t Tech won a NC in football more recent that UGA has. 30 years is a long time to remember. I bet you weren’t even born when they won it. It’s funny how all the UGA fans wanted MR head 3 weeks ago and now their gonna win the east. What a joke. I think alot of people probably don’t give a hoot about UGA’s football program recently because they haven’t competed for anything lately. UGA get some of the best talent and can’t do squat with it. That’s the real joke about all this.
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:34 am
Honey Bees – I don’t know who decided it, but the point is either you allow 80% of your team to play on academic exceptions like most SEC schools…or you allow 7% or so to play like GT does. Do you think it MIGHT make a difference on the football team if you didn’t actually have to qualify to get into GT? That’s what an academic exception is. If UGA had 7% academic exceptions on their football team, they wouldn’t have all 4-5 star guys year in and year out. I’m not sure if you realize this or not, but 300 pound, lightening quick, super strong, rocket scientists don’t often grow on trees. Look up the truth. The truth is, if you only have 10% or less guys on your team who are academic exceptions and you play against teams who have 80% of their team as academic exceptions, then history will tell you that GENERALLY SPEAKING the 80% team will be called a ‘football factory’ or ‘football school’. GT plays a HELL of a game of football, while keeping academic exception integrity at the same time. We can’t have it both ways. Either we open the gates and let every stud jock in, regardless of grades like the SEC schools, or we keep being what we are. We can’t have it both ways. And to pretend it doesn’t make a difference, is to be beyond illogical. That we win as much as we do is honestly amazing. We have twice the national championships as UGA in football, have won one more recently, and have an amazing history…all while doing it much more ‘the right way’, though we aren’t perfect, we are much closer to what college sports are ’supposed to be’ than the schools who allow the majority of their team to play, even if they only were in school as an academic exception.
Better wording would have been “we aren’t a football factory”, instead of “we aren’t a football school”.
Do you think the SEC schools are so dominating in football due to some magic trick…or do you think just maybe…it has to do with the players and dollars involved?
The difference between reasons and excuses is in the eye of the reader. I’m presenting facts and reasons, but anyone on here who is a dawg fan cannot think logically, thus they will try to mitigate the subject by dismissing as ‘excuses’. It’s OK either way. The facts are still the facts.
Peahead Walker
October 26th, 2010
9:35 am
And the Jackets would likely have one more loss had they faced Wake’s 2nd or 3rd string QB instead of its 4th string.
mwh6767
October 26th, 2010
9:36 am
Its no doubt that tech misses Thomas. The guy was an absolute beast last year. However, no one knew that he was going to be that going into last year. Look at his stats from his jr. to sr. year. Also to those who say that tech can’t get a “big time” wr like thomas to sign. Go back and look at the recruiting of both hill and thomas. Guess which was rated higher? Thats right it wasn’t thomas, it was indeed hill. Thomas was actually thought of as possible a tight end bc he was slow coming off the line. Not making excuses for hill (because he has dropped some truely easy catches this year) but you are asking him to replace the production of a rs-jr as only a true soph. I think tech’s biggest issues are its o-line and d-line. If you can’t block or tackle it doesn’t matter how good your skill players are you aren’t going to win.
dawgfan
October 26th, 2010
9:37 am
ga_tech_92, OF COURSE we out-recruit you you effin’ moron. Its part of the game. Does anybody in the NFL cry like little girls when the Super Bowl champ has the best players? Of course not. Obtaining the best players is part of the game. Why do you think Tech is entitled to special treatment. You Techies kill me with this whining about supposed recruiting handicaps. What do you want us to do? We’re just playing the game. If recruiting is so tough for you at this level why don’t you drop down to D-II or something? I don’t know what else to tell you Techie. Otherwise, shut the hell up, play ball, and quit feeling sorry for yourself like a panty waste putz.
Again though, I didn’t hear much of this “football factory” academic talk when you were #16 in the preseason and had the most interesting man in the world at QB. But you’re not making excuses? Mmmkay Techie. Whatever you say.
saban
October 26th, 2010
9:37 am
Tech will be fine and we are lucky to have CPJ and Groh.
On the other hand the dawgs routinely get the best talent and still lose far more games than they should.
Have the dawgs won a game yet with a team who has a winning record?
Groh didn`t come to Tech for the money. He came because as a football man he saw Tech could become something special. Our friends in Athens will always be a cesspool with St. Rich throwing the dawg fans a bone to keep his paycheck rolling.
delusion
October 26th, 2010
9:37 am
Give me a break with the academic crap. Tech has a management degree for athletes. I am good friends with a couple of guys from Tech’s 1990 national championship team and they were all in the management program. And none of them were great academic students coming out of high school. Bobby ross recruited exceptionally well so don’t start with the academic b.s now that your losing. And how in the hell do you explain guys like stephon marbury, kenny anderson, etc, if Tech is such a hard school to get into. Please explain?
mwh6767
October 26th, 2010
9:39 am
excuse me it was going from thomas’ rs-soph year to his rs-jr year.
Honey Bees
October 26th, 2010
9:40 am
So all of Tech’s football players become rocket scientists? Check the graduation rates of your athletes over the last several years. They are very comparable to the SEC’s graduation rates, if I remember correctly. You act like all of Tech’s football players graduate to become engineers, architects and scientists. Come on, Man…
delusion
October 26th, 2010
9:40 am
Just too follw up on my point about tech recruiting and academics. How does hewitt recruit such top caliber atheletes to play basketball? what is the difference in getting top notch basketball players and top notch football players?
Josey Wales
October 26th, 2010
9:41 am
Ramblin’ Wreck
October 26th, 2010
8:42 am
http://pricezack.wordpress.com/ this site has some great college football articles, pretty interesting reads
******************************************************************
How many different screen names do you use to pimp this site?
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:41 am
dawgfan – Duke plays football too. They have less academic exceptions than GT. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s ‘fun’. Maybe it’s ’school spirit’? Maybe they don’t think they have to run their school the way Dawg fans say they should? Odd, I know!
If a school should make football more important than learning, then you’re right, we should abandon football. We clearly do not make it the biggest priority at GT. I have many times thought the conversation would be simpler if only ‘football factories’ played as the semi-pro league that it is.
We need more parking space anyway.
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:43 am
delusion – The difference is – if you have 4-5 guys on your football team who are academic exceptions, then it’s almost pointless. If you have 4-5 guys on your basketball team who are academic exceptions, then it’s almost half the team and DOES make a difference. Combine that with the reality that the ACC views it’s self as more of a bball league than football and I think we have our answer. Fair question though for sure! Better yet, how does Hewitt get all those studs and still manage to have only one winning record in the ACC in ten years!?!?? Crazy.
Josey Wales
October 26th, 2010
9:43 am
The Grinch
October 26th, 2010
8:32 am
Josey Wales
October 26th, 2010
8:16 am
“That joke is older than Richt’s haircut.”
Speaking of old jokes
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That haircut is no joke….it’s real.
Dawglasville
October 26th, 2010
9:46 am
WTF, ga tech 92 – Your blogs are refreshing and healthy. Please remember, like other schools, Tech has plenty of fans like Super size my order mutt, St. Simmons, P.O.A.D, who just come onto blogs just to be ugly. There are plenty out there fueling the fire of bad blood.
WTF – we of course need engineers but I hope you are not belittling the careers of others who have graduated from other institutions in the state. We need the contributions of everyone from Emory to the smaller four year schools.
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:46 am
Honey Bees – I didn’t say they all go on to be rocket scientists. I said that we don’t accept people on the football team who aren’t qualified to get into Georgia Tech as students, sans about 7% exception rate. If I were barely qualified to get into school, I probably would have a very hard time graduating also. What your now discussing is ‘what happens after they get into school’. My points were about ‘getting into school in the first place’.
Heisman????
October 26th, 2010
9:48 am
Josh Nesbitt for Heisman…it just does not get old.
Go Dawgs!!!
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:48 am
BTW – Most of my friends are Dawg fans, so I’m far from a hater. If you talk to a real person, in real life, (not on a blog), generally they will look you in the eye and admit the obvious….UGA has WAY more resources WAY more academic exceptions and it’s amazing GT hangs with them as well as we do. Reality is nothing to be ashamed of. The schools have different priorities and that’s OK. No one is ‘wrong’ here. It’s all about the love baby! LoL
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:50 am
Heisman???? – Definately a good joke there
I hated to see all that crap pre-season. It was as much of a joke as ranking you guys pre-season number one a couple years back.
jarvis
October 26th, 2010
9:51 am
For the record MB, the predictions you’ve missed on could fill a bus.
How about that one that Jason Heyward might not make teh Braves Big League Club? Or that the Braves were a lock to win the East?
Don’t toot your own horn as a prognosticator.
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
9:53 am
dawgfan – BTW “crying like a little girl” isn’t what “stating facts” is. I believe I’ve also said “it’s OK”. I don’t mind what we are. I was just contributing to the answer of ‘why’. Either you want the truth or you don’t. It doesn’t bother me one way or the other. It scares me a little that you think someone would cry about football though. There’s no crying in football bro…not at all. lol You guys are going to probably destroy us this year. I’ll still root for my guys. I’m not sure what part of that is ‘crying’, but you are entitled to your opinion fo shizzle.
GT
October 26th, 2010
9:54 am
No man alive could catch most of those passes thrown this year, Bay Bay or Hey Hey or Jerry Rice. Whatever LSU did to us 2 years ago, with Thomas part of the team, every good team we play has picked up on. We are being manhandled on both lines. People are in Josh’s face or hanging on him as he releases. Even when he is not being bothered he is so mentally mess up from worrying where it is coming from he misses wide open receivers. In the Georgia game last year it was a perfect pass dropped by Bay Bay that lost that game.
Tech is not getting blown out. Every game with the exception of that LSU game were winnable in the 4th quarter. Some should have never been that close to have to win them in the 4th like Kansas, but in reality every team has moments or even years like that. Controlling the line of scrimmage is the problem I see. As for people asking Mark to write more on Tech, have at it pal. I truly believe the problem with many teams, Georgia being one of them is right or wrong there is not enough of this kind of reality writing. I read how they are going to run the table, writers sound like they are on drugs. Tech has always been a target or basically ignored would be more accurate, the “who cares” category . We are the minority, we don’t sell newspapers, and we have more alumni fans percentage wise, so our concerns are for the whole institution not just the sports department’s entertainment value . You may see some poor Tech teams but you will never see a cocky Tech team. Our local press has kept us grounded, along with a few good coaches and some players that came to school to get an education along with football. Our coach could care less what is written so you won’t find the team dressing up like a bunch of clowns or him artificially throwing his clipboard to show some member of the press he has learn to show emotion. Nope the defensive line will get bigger, the offensive line will carry out their assignments better and special teams will stop losing games for us. The great thing about Paul Johnson is he would have made those changes with or without Mark or anyone’s help, wonder if that is how other places operate.
jarvis
October 26th, 2010
9:54 am
And Tech fans….lighten up. You’ll be fine. It may take a couple of years to replace what you’ve lost in talent, but you’ll get another diamond in the rough at receiver.
That said, LB is an immediate need. Your defensive talent doesn’t match the 3-4 scheme very well. You need some bigger men at outside LB. I’m not much of a recruitnik, so I don’t know if you guys have any big LB talent coming in, but I think that is your most glaring weakness.
calvin
October 26th, 2010
9:59 am
The great “Bay Bay” dropped the big one, the perfectly
thrown ball that would have given Tech a first down deep
in Georgia territory, when they needed one score to win
and would have had plenty of time.
Then the great “Bay Bay”, instead of staying another
year and making up for that disaster, preferred to leave
early for the big bucks.
Good riddance of that traitor.
Who says Tech can’t recruit another receiver with his
level of talent? How does Bradley know that?
ga_tech_92
October 26th, 2010
10:00 am
Jarvis – I tend to agree that we’ll be fine given time.
I think CPJ will recruit less 4-5 star studs than people want, but we have never gotten those guys enough to compete in a traditional scheme. I think we’ll be a mainly 2-3-4 star team, with tough nosed guys who are willing to red shirt, who want to be at Tech, who will stay 5 years (red-shirt) and who will be that scrappy underdog guy who will run through brick walls for coach. It won’t win every game, but we never have anyway. I can live with it. It’s respectable to be a scrappy underdog who never quits. Frankly, I like over-achieving with weaker talent better than our bball team who is loaded with talent each year, but under achieves in spite of it. I like being under dogs, generally keeping our noses clean, and upsetting schools who take us for granted. It’s a livin’
Diablo69
October 26th, 2010
10:00 am
Enough with this Chan Gailey recruiting garbage. The majority of the starters on this years team were recruited by Chan Gailey. Paul Johnson’s has had 2 full recruiting classes making his players true Sophmores or RS Freshman. As mentioned already Hill was a more highly regarded recruit than Thomas at WR. Hill just hasn’t lived up to the billing, but his career is far from over.
The problem with fans and pundits is that they are too reactionary. The vast majority of the analysis, both casual and professional, centers around the most recent results. Earlier in the year UGA was doomed, now they are going to win the SEC East. Which is it? Do wins over Vandy, UT, and Kentucky mean they are good enough to go down to Auburn and beat the #1 team in the nation? What about those losses to Miss St. and Colorado? What if they *gasp* lose to UF?
What I’m trying to say here is that just because GT lost to Clemson doesn’t mean they are going to lose 3 of the next 4. In fact an argument could be made that they have all the talent they need to win out. That talent just needs to show up. Catching the ball (be it thrown, pitched, or punted)would be a good first start.