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.
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524 comments Add your comment
Ramblinwreck83
October 26th, 2010
2:11 pm
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.
What did you predict UGA to go Bradley? If you predicted Tech to go 8-4, which is what i also thought they would go and will still finish with, then why is every article about how bad this team is and how good UGA is with a worse record. It’s exactly what you though they would be. I know they shoudn’t of lost to Kansas, but NC State played a great game and Clemson was well overdue for a win over tech. Tech can still win out if they play an entire game without the fixable mistakes they keep making. VT and UGA are both winnable games because neither is that great. Can you at least admit that BRADLEY?
WOW haha you really need to do your homework sir
October 26th, 2010
2:12 pm
Stephen Hill was a higher ranked WR than Bay Bay..We will get WR’s that are ranked higher than Bay Bay…Nice try though
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
2:12 pm
GoJackets – i take it you haven’t watched Aaron Murray this year. If you have, and your opinion still stand, well…you have completed outed yourself as a football-moron.
I’ll give credit where credit is due: Nesbitt is as tough as a $2 steak. And a dang good college option quarterback. But for you to take a shot at a kid that’s playing as well as Murray has this year, well, that’s just sort of…puzzling.
ManUp...
October 26th, 2010
2:13 pm
RambleOn84, good history lesson, but let the number speak for themselves without the cut at the end. Who cares who thinks they’re better historically than us? If we’re so great, should we be owning the head-to-head series? I’ve always left it at that. We are 20 games back in that race, so no matter what we say they’ll always say they’re better. Fandom of Tech really should be based on just loving Tech and not trying to prove anything. I, just like other Tech fans, would LOVE for us to beat the Dawgs in everything, and I think there’s no excuse. Of course we’ve been better than them through history and had maybe more time in the spotlight over the years…so why haven’t we beaten them historically? I say it’s a mental block. We make the mistake of BELIEVING they’re better and play them that way. That’s why we love CPJ. He sees no reason we shouldn’t win. I also see no reason we can’t put in the necessary work and reap the benefit of being #1 in the state again. It will take exactly 21 straight wins over UGA to get us back to that place. Let’s get busy, I say!
GOJACKETS77
October 26th, 2010
2:17 pm
Aaron Murray has played well in the past three games against three VERY shakey D’s. The games prior to that he looked like a fish out of water and to be honest still does.
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:17 pm
i think if we gt execute our offense we can reasonably win at lest 3of the next 4 games,, but the problem is we havent executed it all years,, well the next game would be a place to start
Mark Bradley
October 26th, 2010
2:18 pm
I predicted UGA would go 9-3.
dawgy
October 26th, 2010
2:20 pm
here’s an interesting site…
http://michigan-football.com/ncaa/ncaa_1a.htm
and i’m not trying to be a smart-ass, but i’m surprised tech is only #23. if you omit the newer programs from the list (Boise, S. Florida, etc.), i’d have to admit it’s pretty accurate.
Thoughts?
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:20 pm
the funny thing is our offensive #s are identical to last years but this year it like we lack the bigplayability, and are not executing well
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:21 pm
mark bradley ,
why do you only post bad post about tech, but ga beats 3 averages teams at best and you say they will win the sec east????????? what a joke??????????
Dawg-gone Moron
October 26th, 2010
2:23 pm
you sir are a moron. Tech’s 90 schedule weak? Hardly son. VT, South Carolina, Clemson, Virginia(#1), Nebraska, and UGA. A lot better than Miss. And UGA does not have 5 National Titles. They have two:1942, 1980. Get over yourselves mutts. You guys suck, always have, always will.
Einstein
October 26th, 2010
2:23 pm
Any chance before Nov. 27th AJ Green will sell another jersey to an agent, Washaun Ealey will be arrested again for hit-and-run of a parked vehicle & driving with a suspended license, or Caleb King will get arrested for missing another court date? ….. just wonderin’ ….
dawgy
October 26th, 2010
2:23 pm
sorry, tech is ranked 28th on that list. and let me amend my previous post by saying the top 20 is pretty accurate, with a few glaring omissions (at least in my opinion).
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
2:25 pm
Einstein – right, because those offenses should all be punishable by the Chinese Water Torture, right?
I mean, driving with a suspended license! Selling a football jersey to a willing third party! Fender bender in a garage! Those THUGS!!!
The HORROR!!!
GOJACKETS77
October 26th, 2010
2:26 pm
Exactly Einstein….Ealey carried them to a victory last Saturday but if he would’ve been at Tech CPJ would have never let him back on the field. AJ shouldn’t be playing either and King will be in prison before too much longer!
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
2:27 pm
Dawg-gone moron – well, let’s see…
VT wasn’t on the national radar, or even slightly relevant for that matter, until the late 90s. Georgia had its worst team of the past 50 years that year. S. Carolina was their ususal pre-Spurrier terrible selves. But…Clemson and UVA were both decent that year. SO…great job, tech?
GTBob
October 26th, 2010
2:28 pm
dawgy, that list is a table of winning percentages. Of course it is accurate. How could it not be unless they just made up the data?
Reuben Houston
October 26th, 2010
2:28 pm
dem jawga boys be arrested for dem silly crimes. I know how make it RAIN, baby!!!
Ramblinwreck83
October 26th, 2010
2:30 pm
Bradley,
Will UGA finish 9-3 at the end of the season? You’ve also predicted Tech to lose to UGA every year including this one. Well you were right last year, wrong in ‘08 and it’s yet to be determined this year. I think we should let the games play out as PJ always says. I know it’s easier to go ahead and write off a team before the seasons over but maybe we should see how it pans out.
dawgy
October 26th, 2010
2:30 pm
right, but my point was that it’s skewed a little bit. Unless, of course, you hold Boise in a higher esteem historically than Michigan, Bama, ND, Nebraska, etc…
get where i’m coming from?
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
2:32 pm
GoJackets – ok, seriously – do you honestly believe AJ shouldn’t play ever again for what he did? Take off your gold-colored glasses and answer the question honestly.
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:33 pm
#1gt will be fine ! all the bandwagon tech fans you can leave now we dont need yall!!1 coach pj will get it fixed this year i fully expect us to win 3of the next 4 if….. we execute our offense right, we have yet to execute our offense even half to what its capable of due to very poor blocking and dropping passes. coach pj earned our loyalty to him for what he has done the past 2 years, i can tell you one thing gt will be a constant 8-10 wins every year, something gailey could never do… go gt if we execute against vt we win in a shootout 38-35.
ManUp...
October 26th, 2010
2:34 pm
Interesting link. Tech as the #28th best (25th taking out the 3 upstarts ahead of us) would seem to go against what most people say about us. I think peoples’ idea of Tech is that before 1960 we would’e been in the Top 10 on that list and after 1960 would have dropped down to the lower half of the entire list. I think Tech has built back from the brink of extinction since the ’80’s. Remember that at one point dropping to D-II or III was considered. Then came the “Black Watch” defense and the build-up to 1990. After that it was a wild ride until 1998. Since then we’ve seen relative stability again. This CPJ/Groh era represents the build up to the consistent 8-10 win level and being in the annual ACC race (which is where most fans think we should be every year no matter what.)
I think Tech’s win percentage in the regular season has been trending upward. I have to believe that eventually helps us in recruiting and then in the postseason. We’re going to climb that historic all-time list. The gap with UGA will get a little closer in time. And they don’t have to get worse for that to happen.
dawgy
October 26th, 2010
2:36 pm
ManUP – agree on all accounts. Unquestionably, Dodd set tech back a few decades when he pulled them out of the SEC.
GOJACKETS77
October 26th, 2010
2:38 pm
He is a thug Dawg-gone plain and simple. So is Ealey and King.
Ramblinwreck83
October 26th, 2010
2:39 pm
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
2:27 pm
Dawg-gone moron – well, let’s see…
VT wasn’t on the national radar, or even slightly relevant for that matter, until the late 90s. Georgia had its worst team of the past 50 years that year. S. Carolina was their ususal pre-Spurrier terrible selves. But…Clemson and UVA were both decent that year. SO…great job, tech?
You should quit making excuses for that year. Colorado played quite a few top 25 teams in the beginning of the year. Most of the teams (Tenn, illinois, texas and others) didn’t finish with good records. Regardless, Tech earned it more than Colorado. Tech didn’t need phantom calls to win games.
dawghater
October 26th, 2010
2:42 pm
Posters come one. For Dawg gone – you should refuse to enter into a battle of wits with an uarmed person.
Now Dawg Gone – please go get all the car keys from your players. 11 arrests and counting! At least you lead the SEC in something!
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
2:42 pm
damn right he’s a thug – how dare he sell a game jersey to a collector. Shoot, i think he got off easy. he only had to miss 1/3 of his last season? I think he should have been drawn and quartered.
but just out of curiosity, why is he a thug? we have plenty of thugs on our team (so does every d-1 team), but from every indication, AJ is a good kid. I know it kills you to realize that.
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:43 pm
1
Eric Bienemy
October 26th, 2010
2:44 pm
we won the national title in ‘90. i never even heard of gatech.
Citrus Bowl Committee
October 26th, 2010
2:46 pm
we invited tech in 1990 because they were the ACC champs, and that’s where the ACC champs had their automatic bowl tie-in.
what? Why is everyone laughing? The pre-FSU ACC champs were a big deal!!! You can claim a national title even though you played in our crappy bowl!!!! YOU CAN!!!!!!!
GTBob
October 26th, 2010
2:47 pm
Meh, Dodd had his reasons for leaving the SEC, although people disagree on what they actually were. We are better off today then we were then even if football took a hit. I think looking at all time winning percentages is a bit of a tricky measure anyways. There have been so many changes to every team, and conference that it would be nearly impossible to compute a strength of schedule, and without that then wins don’t really mean anything.
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:47 pm
who cares about what happen 20 years ago what matters is now
Mark the Third Richt
October 26th, 2010
2:51 pm
Come play here at UGA and you can do whatever, whenever you want. We even had an athletic director that loved his girls young and utterly enjoyed driving frunk!
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:51 pm
12
dawgy
October 26th, 2010
2:51 pm
Dodd left the SEC because he didn’t want to travel to the Mississippi schools (can’t say i blame him, although as a spectator i enjoy the scenery in Oxford) and he was trying to make tech the Notre Dame of the South (results notwithstanding).
The whole academic argument doesn’t make a lot of sense. Tech didn’t start to gain academic notoriety on a national level until recently, and i think everyone would agree that Vandy, florida, and georgia are recognized as more academically favorable than clemson, vatech, maryland, fsu, miami, nc state, etc.
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:51 pm
ok..gt will be fine ! all the bandwagon tech fans you can leave now we dont need yall!!1 coach pj will get it fixed this year i fully expect us to win 3of the next 4 if….. we execute our offense right, we have yet to execute our offense even half to what its capable of due to very poor blocking and dropping passes. coach pj earned our loyalty to him for what he has done the past 2 years, i can tell you one thing gt will be a constant 8-10 wins every year, something gailey could never do… go gt if we execute against vt we win in a shootout 38-35.
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
2:54 pm
who has a better shot to win out ga or ga tech???????
dawgy
October 26th, 2010
2:57 pm
if the game was tomorrow it would probably be a 1 pt spread either way.
dawgfan
October 26th, 2010
2:58 pm
dawghater, I’m pretty sure we lead the SEC in handing Tech its azz on a football field. Granted, its only because we have the fortune of playing you every year, but we love the sure W’s.
RAMBLINWRECK
October 26th, 2010
3:00 pm
Any GT fan claiming that nesbitt has thrown the ball well is a complete idiot and should be banned from watching football ever again for making such a goofy comment! Nesbitt is slow, does not make the correct reads in this offense and i will say it’s not all his fault however. The receivers are not good either. Nesbitt has thrown passes that should have been caught and for every one of those type of passes, he has thrown garbage not within 10 yards of anybody! The offensive line is a joke and couldn’t block a band of blind & deaf nuns! Every damn game there is defensive lineman crashing through and disrupting our running game. Nesbitt doesn’t even have 2 seconds to plant and throw when he does pass sometimes. This defense is pathetic to watch. The linebackers couldn’t tackle the swedish bikini team if a date was on the line for them. Our defensive line is just as bad really. Our corners on defense do not attack and let the receivers and backs make plays on them. Do i need to talk about special teams at all? This could be the worst special teams unit in america. Kansas is horrible and we lost the them. An average clemson team dominated us. We suck and the sooner some people come out of the bubble and get exposed to reality the better. UGA has no room to boast either. They likely will end up with 5 or 6 losses this season as well. I can’t believe 1 uga clown would run their mouth after watching what they have accomplished which is nothing really! Both of these teams are garbage and i just really can’t imagine how low it will get for the loser of uga and gt this season. I think it will be close but like watching two turtles race. They both stink
GTBob
October 26th, 2010
3:05 pm
I wasn’t really speaking in terms of only an academic argument, Tech just overall wouldn’t really fit in the SEC these days. All of the conferences have gained their own identity for what their members are strong at and where their priorities lie. Not that every conference doesn’t have its odd balls. The ACC has Florida St and the SEC has Vanderbilt.
Ramblinwreck83
October 26th, 2010
3:05 pm
dawgfan
I hope you come on here after the game in november. Let’s see if you are a real man.
MARK BRADLEY..ANSER ME THIS
October 26th, 2010
3:07 pm
How can you say that tech wont get a WR like Bay Bay anytime soon?? I understand that Bay Bay was the first WR taken in the draft and that he was great. But that doesn’t mean we wont get another WR in the same ball park anytime soon with PJ here… D. Thomas was not a stud in highschool and was not ranked that high.
Bay Bay: recruiting rankings
Scout: 3 star #34 WR ESPN: 3 star #100 WR Rivals: 3 star # 58
Stephen Hill:
Scout: 4 star #23 WR ESPN: 3 star #90 WR Rivals: 3 star #99
We will continue to recruit WR’s that are better ranked than Bay Bay was..Will they become as good as Bay Bay?? Not a great chance. But what team WR has the chance at becoming the first WR taken in the draft?? The odds are not that good.
But basically your point about tech not being able to recruit WR’s is a load of BS…
MARK BRADLEY..ANSWER ME THIS
October 26th, 2010
3:08 pm
Enter your comments here
MARK BRADLEY..ANSWER ME THIS
October 26th, 2010
3:09 pm
Joey tech does just because our schedule is easier..besides them playing us and I. State
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
3:10 pm
dawgfan,
your an idiot and if you think its a surewin against tech this year you better stay humble , bc cleary we were better than ga last year and i thought the same think,
guess what we lost to the ugly pups
MC
October 26th, 2010
3:11 pm
Thank you MB. It’s about time somebody put the onus where it belongs. Squarely on that TO. By the end of next year the love affair with PJ and that offense will be over.
RAMBLINWRECK
October 26th, 2010
3:13 pm
Dawgfan, you guys blow a** this year. Just STFU you moron. This is a GT blog and normal GT fans know we stink already. I don’t know if we can beat duke this year, but you guys suck almost as bad and have not beaten anybody worth a damn all year! What is sad is that your schedule was considered very weak and you still have 4 losses. Talk about getting owned and being a “W” for someone, take a look in the mirror pal with florida this weekend. Good luck in not losing for 19th time in the last 22 games! Not only that, you guys have been pasted in about 11 of those games.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:15 pm
ramblinwreck – right, and you didn’t go to florida. none of you did. stop using florida as your surrogate. georgia owns tech. it’s pathetic of tech fans to use another team to try and even the playing field.