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
MC
October 26th, 2010
3:15 pm
Ramblinwreck83, we’ll be lucky if our D can hold UGA under 50 points.
rj
October 26th, 2010
3:17 pm
i think you have it a little turned around ..its the quartback ..can’t pass
joey gt
October 26th, 2010
3:19 pm
i think our schedule is harder v tech miami duke
ga plays florida -ok team this year, auburn idaho state
i think our scedule is harder
Dawg-gone = A Racist
October 26th, 2010
3:24 pm
3-17 since 1990
MARK BRADLEY..ANSWER ME THIS
October 26th, 2010
3:28 pm
Joey but they are playing the Number one team in the county. We are playing Duke- terrible, Miami-pretty good, Va Tech-pretty good..FLA would have won if they had their kicker for the LSU and Miss St game..You cant leave points like that out on the field. FLA is good..Better than Miami and Va Tech IMO
MC
October 26th, 2010
3:29 pm
Our D will be lucky to hold UGA under 50 points.
BuzzMan
October 26th, 2010
3:30 pm
It’s loyalty time, guys. Be like everyone else if you like, and say we should tar ‘n feather the coaches. but that’s REAL premature in my opinion. Do you know Beamer’s history at VT? Look it up. Those people were patient for FIVE YEARS…..and I think they’re glad they were. Al Groh didn’t suddenly get stupid at defense. CPJ, although he seems a bit hard-headed about passing, didn’t suddenly forget all the things that won big in his previous jobs. It’s called ADAPTATION. I have to believe these men will figure it out. If you don’t agree, I guess you’ll start calling for a new coach. And just who would you consider? Don’t be as stupid as the UGag trailer-fans…..
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:30 pm
tech’s record versus georgia? It’s actually 1-15 since 1991 (excluding the games from 98-00 when tech cheated with ineligible players).
but yeah, florida has been really good for the past two decades. what’s your point? georgia still owns tech.
MARK BRADLEY..ANSWER ME THIS
October 26th, 2010
3:37 pm
wow dawg-gone…you really are going to try to take away wins…pathetic..
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:39 pm
wow, i guess the techies that want AJ to get the gaschamber for selling a bowl jersey are pretty dismissive about program-wide academic fraud.
Shocking, but not really.
Jiblet Neck
October 26th, 2010
3:40 pm
Paul Johnson is QUICKLY turning Georgia Tech into Navy. In the future GT can expect to lose to the physically superior teams (Clemson, UGA, Miami) and outscore the also-rans (WF, Duke, Virginia). 2011: Georgia Tech 45, Duke 42
Dawg-gone = A Racist
October 26th, 2010
3:41 pm
5-15 > 3-17
BW
October 26th, 2010
3:43 pm
I keep looking at Navy’s offense and wonder when if ever we will be that fluid. By all accounts our athletes are better so I’m not sure I understand the disconnect. We don’t need a John Dwyer to break big runs if you noticed the B-back Navy employed against ND on Saturday. I say insert Preston Lyons…he seems to run hard every down he’s in. Also the receivers are definitely doing us no favors. For all the passes that have been “off the mark” how many can be attributed to drops or piss poor pass blocking? I will say though Nesbitt seems more tentative this year when pitching on those triple option plays. The O-line weaknesses cannot be understated. As far as defense….there are no real playmakers but all in all this is about the same defense that we had last year with Morgan and Burnett. I think that there are definitely some coaching issues at play on that side of the ball…the defensive players’ basic form sucks…can’t tackle and can’t find themselves in position of any passing plays.
GT4ever
October 26th, 2010
3:44 pm
I don’t think our D can hold UGA under 50 pts.
MARK BRADLEY..ANSWER ME THIS
October 26th, 2010
3:46 pm
I never said anything like that about AJ..I thought he should have only had a two game suspension. I think your program and any other that has that many arrest should get in some type of trouble as a whole though..
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
3:48 pm
If we remove wins when guys may have been academically ineligible, should we also take away UGA’s ONLY national title?
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:49 pm
what is tech’s record against FSU the past twenty years?
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
3:51 pm
UGA officials intervened to make sure nine UGA players were allowed to play in the 1981 Sugar Bowl despite the fact that they had failed remedial English.
REMEDIAL ENGLISH…I wonder if Herschel was among them.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:51 pm
haha, or better yet, what is tech’s record against georgia the past 20 years? who’s your daddy, bees?
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
3:52 pm
The difference between the two academic issues at UGA and Tech is that in 2000, Tech self-reported what they found were violations.
UGA, on the other hand, fired Jan Kemp for speaking out against the academic misdeeds involving UGA football players.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:53 pm
RambleOn: herschel probably wasn’t among them. He was actually valedictorian of his high school class. yes, Johnson County, but he couldn’t help where he went to high school.
and you still haven’t addressed gatech’s widespread culture of academic fraud under O’liar.
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
3:54 pm
Hey, give up the National Championship y’all cheated to win and then we’ll talk about Tech’s problems under O’Leary.
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
3:55 pm
I’ve heard Herschel talk. He couldn’t spell “valedictorian” if you spotted him the first 12 letters.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:55 pm
hey idiot – they “self” reported when they realized it was about to blow up. Schools self-report things they know are about to be uncovered in order to try for leniency.
Kemp was a bad deal, and it was Dooley’s fault. But that’s the difference – i’ll recognize transgressions. tech tries to act like they never happened.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:56 pm
Herschel is definitely country, reflected in his accent. If you want to talk about a guy that sounds like a full-fledged retard, look no further than Joe “5 counts” Hamilton.
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
3:57 pm
Better to come clean at the last moment than to never do so…so is UGA going to hand back that trophy or continue to demonize Jan Kemp?
Bill McCartney
October 26th, 2010
3:57 pm
colorado is the legit national title winner from 1990 – everyone knows that.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
3:58 pm
Ramble – you are truly a sociopath. i’ll bet you could justify anything, couldn’t you?
Dawg-gone = A Racist
October 26th, 2010
3:58 pm
you play UF on Sat but you are trolling a GT blog
you’re such an idiot
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
3:59 pm
I’m a sociopath because…maybe you should take a remedial English course and find out what that word means.
dawgfan
October 26th, 2010
4:00 pm
We’ve won 8 of the past nine, 15 of the past 20, and 23 of the past 30. But Techies get their panties all bunched if I call their joke program a sure W. Just run the numbers clowns. I thought you dipwads were good at math?
But hey, at least Florida beats us. Whatever helps you sleep at night Techies…
John Pershing
October 26th, 2010
4:00 pm
i would have loved to have had the gatech men fighting for me over in Europe in 1917, when they supposedly won a national championship. Then again, maybe that’s why the US won the war – no wimpy techies were present to drag everyone down.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
4:01 pm
you’re justifying tech’s program-wide academic scandal by saying they turned themselves in just before they were caught. You’re justifying the indefensible. That makes you a sociopath.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
4:03 pm
Racist – you’re right, i’m on a tech blog the week of the florida game. You must know why, giving your citation of our RECENT record with them. Oh, you don’t? You mean you talk $hit to teams that have owned you the past twenty years? You do? But…that doesn’t make any sense…
I don’t talk trash to teams that have owned georgia recently. Only techies talk trash to teams that have owned them.
Smart like a Fox
October 26th, 2010
4:06 pm
Mark, you have so much poo caked on your nose you can’t see. Looks like you have wondered out of your spot and found yourself lost and on a Tech page. stay where you are needed”appliance reviews”….tell us mark about the new Magic Chef flat top range…then you can go snuggle up against Bruce’s taint for a little nap.
Dawg-gone = A Racist
October 26th, 2010
4:06 pm
UGA fans are so scared of the beat down there are going to receive on Sat that they don’t have the testicular fortitude to find a UGA v UF blog to troll on….
you’re a pathetic, racist idiot
but hey atleast you’ve got your well respect degree(sic) from uga to hang your hat on
historian
October 26th, 2010
4:07 pm
gatech has never won a non-wartime consensus national championship.
Dawg-gone
October 26th, 2010
4:08 pm
Racist – so you measure your manhood by what blogs you contribute to?
Tell me you’re kidding.
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
4:10 pm
John,
How did UGA field that team in 1942 that all the fans “claim” won a national championship? Wasn’t there a war going on in 1942? Aren’t all UGA football players also war heroes? Why weren’t they fighting?
Dawg-gone,
Please provide evidence that the violations were actually a “program-wide scandal.” You still don’t know what a sociopath is. Ready to send back that National Championship trophy yet?
Eric
October 26th, 2010
4:11 pm
haha so now ga tech has the harder schedule? uga played/plays south carolina, arkansas, florida, and the number 1 team in the country, auburn. ga tech has the pleasure of playing va tech (watch out for james madison), miami, and nc state (real acc juggernaut). oohhhh nooo!!!!!! i don’t think either team will be satisfied with 4 or 5 losses, and I don’t care what conference you play in. we both suck, but don’t be stupid. georgia has won 15 of the last 20. i think we can talk about who’s better in november. and if it’s like any other year, i’ll love my position as a georgia fan.
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
4:12 pm
Did you guys know there is a war going on right now? Are there any UGA players left to play? No, I’m not talking about the ones in jail, I’m talking about the ones who are fighting in the armed forces. Because everyone knows UGA is filled with patriotic war heroes who would NEVER fight during a war.
John Pershing
October 26th, 2010
4:13 pm
history is lacking at gatech. True we were attacked in 1941 by Japan, but D-Day wasn’t until 1944. The boys from Athens won a national title in 1942, and then Trippi, Sinkwich, et al joined the service and whipped the Krauts. Then they went back to school and won another one in 1946.
that’s how it’s done.
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
4:15 pm
*”fight” should be replaced with “play football”
Only Tech cowards play football during wartime, unlike those brave 1942 UGA men who single-handedly defeated the Germans to win the National Championship that only UGA fans recognize.
Dawg-gone = A Racist
October 26th, 2010
4:15 pm
Ohio State won the ap in 1942
John Pershing
October 26th, 2010
4:17 pm
Rambel – exactly. glad i could clear that up for you. i’m glad you have finally recognized that techies are gutless cowards.
historian
October 26th, 2010
4:17 pm
gatech has never won a non-wartime national title. well, they did win a women’s tennis title in 2007. so there is that.
RambleOn84
October 26th, 2010
4:18 pm
Sorry John, but the first US troops landed in Europe in January 1942.
Bay Bay
October 26th, 2010
4:19 pm
Dropped the ball ball
when it mattered
30-24
John Pershing
October 26th, 2010
4:21 pm
ah, brave souls, indeed they did, but D-Day, 2 year later, is clearly recognized as the start of the offensive in the European Theatre.
Now, in 1944 if Georgia would have tried what tech pulled in 1917, you might have a point. But you sir, are comparing apples and oranges.
Black and White TV
October 26th, 2010
4:21 pm
The last time Tech was relevant