A sobering truth revealed: Georgia Tech just isn’t very good
Oh, no! Zach Laskey after fumbling away a punt. (AP photo)
Miami — Georgia Tech has messed up its season, and not in the way you’d think. The losses these past two weeks haven’t been examples of a gifted team losing to its inferiors; they’ve been cases of a team that, on talent, shouldn’t have been 6-0.
Yet 6-0 Tech was, ranked No. 12 the land as late as eight days ago. Now it’s 6-2 and perhaps bound for 7-5 and another holiday in Shreveport. Which is another way of saying: Water seeks its own level.
We see now that Tech isn’t very good, and the schedule, which seemed to have done it a favor, might not have been so favorable after all. Had Tech lost a couple of games early, it might have had cause to deploy Vad Lee, the freshman quarterback who might be the most talented player on this roster, as opposed to letting him sit out as a redshirt.
Who makes major changes when a team’s 6-0 and climbing in the polls? Nobody. But now, his team climbing no more, Paul Johnson was asked Saturday if there was a chance Lee would play this season. “Probably not,” Johnson said.
What happened here Saturday wasn’t a failure of effort, as had been partially the case at Virginia the week before. The inspired Cavaliers hit Tech hard at the start and held on. Miami didn’t seem long on either inspiration or execution, managing just 262 yards and two offensive touchdowns, both of those on mini-drives of 46 yards. But Tech, which gained 768 yards against Kansas in Week 3, was held to 211 in Week 8 — by a team that entered with the nation’s 81st-ranked defense.
“I think our kids played hard,” Johnson said. “It’s just frustrating we couldn’t find anything to do on offense.”
What worked earlier this season against lesser opposition — the pitchouts to the A-backs, the downfield throws off play-action — works no longer. The plays are the same; it’s the size and speed of the opponent that has changed. Where’d the wide stuff go? Said Johnson: “We can’t get to the perimeter.”
Does that mean quarterback Tevin Washington, whose efficiency has diminished in recent weeks, is making the wrong reads and keeping or handing to the B-back when he should pitch? Johnson: “He’s making the right reads. We’ve got five blocking four, and the four are winning.”
That’s not scheme. That’s talent, or the lack thereof. And it’s a huge deal. In 2008 B-back Jonathan Dwyer had nine 100-yard games; in 2009 he had seven; last season Anthony Allen, Dwyer’s successor, had six. Know how many 100-yard games David Sims, the new B-back, has had this season? None.
The much-lampooned defense hasn’t been so laughable. It yielded no second-half points last week, three this time. But a Johnson-designed team can’t win if it doesn’t score, and over the past two second halves the Jackets, in comeback mode both times, have managed one touchdown.
“We can’t overcome bad plays,” Johnson said, “because we’re not hitting big plays.”
Yet again, gaffes in the kicking game undid Tech. Freshman Zach Laskey waved teammates away from a bouncing punt, then tried to field it himself and saw Miami wind up with the ball in the end zone. And then, with a minute left before halftime and Tech having just gone 92 yards in 20 plays to halve Miami’s lead, a squib kick spawned a crushing Hurricanes touchdown. And get this: “It was supposed to be a deep kickoff,” Johnson said.
Not for the first time, we need ask: Why does a man as clever as Johnson not hire a special-teams coordinator? Instead, the kicking game is left to various Tech coaches to oversee piecemeal, and the result has been an ongoing farce. “We couldn’t overcome the special teams today,” Johnson said, “and that’s a reflection on me. Something we’re doing ain’t right.”
And now you wonder: Is there time — with a schedule that includes Clemson, Virginia Tech and Georgia — for Tech not to finish with five losses in the final six games? Is there any way to salvage a season that got so far ahead of itself?
Said Johnson, speaking of Washington: “We just have to find something he can do.”
At this late date, all the stuff Tech can’t do outnumbers the things it can. This is a team of limited means. Limited means, and not much time.
By Mark Bradley
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498 comments Add your comment
Dacusville Bill
October 22nd, 2011
9:24 pm
Well 6-6 will still get a bowl game–As least DUKE has a chance now
Steve
October 22nd, 2011
9:27 pm
The sad part about all of this is that the MEDIA and COACHES have proven themselves unworthy of voting in polls. Not a single person should have had them ranked at #12, even though they hadn’t lost. A few dozen teams could have gone 6-0 against that schedule.
It’s sad how overrated they were. Then again, so are Texas, FSU, Arkansas, Michigan, KSU and a host of other teams.
Nos Gloodpjseat
October 22nd, 2011
9:28 pm
The team isn’t good, but the Coach is Chantastic.
Denns
October 22nd, 2011
9:28 pm
Duh to the title. Been trying to tell yall that Tech ain’t played anybody yet. Heck, Miami not very good either! You all should have kept your trap shut until you played someone and you wouldn’t feel like puking your guts out right about now. LOL! Go Dawgs!!!!
.
October 22nd, 2011
9:30 pm
CPJ needs to spend less time having Fish Fry parties at Bradley’s house and more time figuring out how to move the chains and getting the ball in the end zone. Meanwhile, he is happy for the focus to be on the crap special teams as it serves to distract from the horrific offense he is producing.
kerryb
October 22nd, 2011
9:33 pm
I think other UGA fans have already forgotten that we know exactly how Tech fans feel right now.
Randall "Pink" Floyd
October 22nd, 2011
9:36 pm
So what else is new?
G
October 22nd, 2011
9:37 pm
When are we going to see articles questioning Johnson as a coach? Bradley’s proclaimed “genius coach” is heading down the same road as last year. I guess if you beat weak teams, like you should, you are labeled a genius. Interesting criteria.
The DAWG
October 22nd, 2011
9:38 pm
It took losses to 2 average at best teams before you could figure out the jackets aren’t very good. What did you do MB sleep thru the first 6 games
93 Dawg
October 22nd, 2011
9:38 pm
Sober or not, does it make a difference? Truth is the truth. I cannot deny, I love a fish fry.
value shopper
October 22nd, 2011
9:40 pm
a sobering truth revealed…bark madley isn’t any good…go back to kentucky
Tossed Salad
October 22nd, 2011
9:41 pm
Well at least we know it ain’t Paul Johnson’s fault. If you don’t believe me, just ask him.
Da'Rick is 0-2, HA!
October 22nd, 2011
9:41 pm
Mark Bradley is quite possibly the fastest bandwagon jumper, EVER!
Which fell fastest? Tech in the AP 25 or Bradley constant gloating on CPJ’s greatness?
Seriously, pick a side and stick bro, otherwise you start to look fake.
Coach Faust
October 22nd, 2011
9:42 pm
Thanks Georgia Tech. Now I’m not the only coach in Division 1 history to prove you can’t win with a High School offense.
LoRenzo
October 22nd, 2011
9:43 pm
Talent discrepancy? It will only get worse with PJs crappy recruiting due to his 1970s offense. But Bradley thinks its Coach Genius’ PLAN to win with “middling recruits” to prove to the world how smart he is, and it is all about him.
CarolinaJacket
October 22nd, 2011
9:43 pm
You still have to get the jocks in. Quite frankly, we have not brought in many “blue chippers” in the last few years and it is showing. People ridicule the point system, but statistics will show that teams that consisently get four and five star recruits will, most of the time, beat teams that get two and three star recruits — my apologies to UGA and their game with Boise State.
GT Kings of the All CLown Conference
October 22nd, 2011
9:43 pm
I think Tech needs to join the Sunbelt conference. They are the true clowns of the conference.
Birmingham Jacket
October 22nd, 2011
9:46 pm
Bradley=My favorite journalist.
You don’t sugar coat it.
Agree completely. None of my comments needed.
You said it all, 100%.
Still…. Don’t give up on Paul Johnson. Give us an article of hope, Mark. And there is hope in the next 1-2 years.
Dawg48
October 22nd, 2011
9:46 pm
Bradley is a fake! The ajc never pulls for the home team! Dawgs or jackets! My grand father told me once ” son don’t put your out house over your well” that’s what the ajc is doing they talk down the home teams the ones that they wright about to make their living!
Tennessee Dawg 4 Life
October 22nd, 2011
9:49 pm
Ramblin man you are a grade a dumb arse did not have the dream team last year idiot and tech had better enjoy today cause it is nothing to be compared to the awful evening coming in a few weeks in atlanta lol
CarolinaJacket
October 22nd, 2011
9:51 pm
The Jackets are not the clowns of the conference, they are somewhere in the middle. But we need to somehow claw our way back up to the top. this will be difficult with Clemson’s great freshman class and Miami’s bright future (they had some great obsticles to overcome this year).
Birmingham Jacket
October 22nd, 2011
9:51 pm
Bradley:
Perhaps the more appropriate, and obvious article would be RECRUITING.
And lack there of, on Paul Johnson, et. al.(s) parts.
CarolinaJacket
October 22nd, 2011
9:52 pm
I agree with Birmingham 100%.
DrDawg
October 22nd, 2011
9:53 pm
Tech is Tech. Anything left to be said?
collegeballfan
October 22nd, 2011
9:59 pm
Mark, pretty solid assessment of the Tech team.
This team is a rebuilding team despite the 6-0 start. The OL is young. There is not a quality QB except the one who is being redshirted. There is no quality B Back; Perkins was to be the answer but has not developed.
Same for the defense. Young. See the LB and the DB roster, all young.
The DL is a real problem. Tech just does not, as a rule, bring in quality DL.
And that is a problem that must be resolved.
Maybe a win against Duke, but keep your money in your pocket.
Another dumb dawg
October 22nd, 2011
10:00 pm
Dawg trolls you aint that good either… we’ll see who is going to have the last laugh… Your program is a laughing stock and an embarrassment for the state of Georgia. St. Richt cant control your program and your DC behaves like a thug which seems to have a lot of influence on your thug players… We will see how many thugs on your team will end up behind the bars.
the Truth
October 22nd, 2011
10:00 pm
Two things should happen IMO. Start Vad Lee next week, and move O. Smith to B back. Smith is the best player on the team and needs to get the ball more. He is faster, and stronger then Sims and has the ability to break the long one. We have tons of capable A backs on this team to fill his spot there.
dc74
October 22nd, 2011
10:00 pm
How can this be ?? Your coach is a genius as you have so often told us
Whopper Dawg
October 22nd, 2011
10:02 pm
Wait a flipping minute. Paul Johnson is a genesis. All the talking heads say so, you say so Mark, he says so.
Consummate offensive and head coach genesis. Knows the offense so well, he doesn’t need a play sheet. Genesis. All he needs is players to fit his system.
Well, this is year four. This is his program, his players. Chan Gailey is long gone and doing quite well in Buffalo, thank you. And whatya got?????
And you are right Mark, tech could very well end up at 7 – 5, of the three projected losses UGA may in fact be the one most in doubt.
The genesis’s claim to fame for 2011 might well be beating the middling basketball schools of the ACC, the Carolinas, Maryland and Duke and throw in a bad Kansas team.
Genesis indeed.
Swhite
October 22nd, 2011
10:02 pm
Have never been a huge Tech fan, but do pull for them (until they play UGA). At the end of last year it was my feeling that Johnson was the one who would end up on the hot seat before Richt. Putting up big numbers is all well and good, but if you look at the trend of games against better teams you’ll see that anytime anyone has a chance to look at the tape and break down the Tech offense they get stopped, and stopped cold. Johnson is not a genius, he’s a coach with a gimmick and in the long run it will not bring a BCS championship to Tech or any other school he coaches. He’ll finish, as others say, 7-5 or 6-6 this year, have another season like it next year, and then get an offer from some other school and move on. And Tech will once again be in rebuilding mode.
Wes Durham's Front Butt
October 22nd, 2011
10:03 pm
Wes has been absolutely giddy on his call-in show on 790 over the last 2 months. Laughing and making snide remarks about UGA. Wes is nothing but a beach ball with arms. Hey Wes, who’s laughing now? Lose some weight, Big Boy. You look about 20 years older than you are. LMAO!!!!
KeepDreaming
October 22nd, 2011
10:03 pm
DUH !!!!!!!
QB/DB
October 22nd, 2011
10:03 pm
CPJ is a GREAT COACH but he is not flexiable which makes him an average Coach. Widen the recruiting net. Ditch CPJ crippling recruiting rules about visits.after commiting. Get a hype guy to go with CPJ laid back style. Recruit AA Kickers, stop making excuses, give some others a chance like Days, Godhigh etc. Play some 4-3, get a qb that can throw as well as run.Stop gambling so much on 4th down.
Taco
October 22nd, 2011
10:05 pm
Johnson lasts longer than Richt. I’m just saying. I am no hater but we both suck pretty bad and at least Tech had no grand dillusions of championships going in. UGA fans feel they should win every game every year. Now that you mention it, for the money you spend and the thugs you recruit, you should be doing a lot better.
Swhite
October 22nd, 2011
10:05 pm
And while we’re at it, all you guys coming up with the “Dawg Troller” stuff: Is that the best you’ve got? “You’re not that good either.” “We’ll see how many of your thugs end up in jail.” That’s your comeback?!?!? Try again.
Orange11
October 22nd, 2011
10:05 pm
Come on, They have won six and only lost two. I’d say that qualifies as pretty good.
KeepDreaming
October 22nd, 2011
10:05 pm
Hey Ramblin Man,
You keep ‘hoping’ bro.
LMFAO !!!!
mikeb
October 22nd, 2011
10:06 pm
Seems to me that the offensive woes start with poor QB play. Might as well let Synjyn play, Tevin has shown that he can’t move the team or throw a decent pass. Defense can’t get off the field or make any key 3rd down stops. Today the middle was left wide open for easy 3rd down conversions and our corners were playing 10 yds off the ball on 3rd & short situations. Poor coaching or clueless players? Both? And special teams were a mess again. Coach PJ needs to get off his high horse and change some schemes to try to salvage the season, maybe change some personnel too….what could it hurt at this point?
wild'n
October 22nd, 2011
10:10 pm
I hear what youre saying mark and think tech is indeed low on talent.
but I firmly believe that this team, for the first 4 games of the year, was outstanding. yes, I think it was a top 15 team for that time. I don’t care who they were playing: the execution was there. plays were being made when they needed to be. tevin was hitting open guys, open guys were catching the balls, tevin was making the right reads almost all of the time. when a team runs for 600 yards and gains a total of 768, I don’t care who you’re playing, those are incredible numbers against air. even when competition ratcheted up against unc, probably one of the acc’s top 5 teams, tech EXECUTED well. something has gone horribly wrong, though, and I’m not sure what it is. literally it seems like everything our guys were doing right at the beginning of the year, theyre doing wrong now. CPJ says tevin wasnt making the wrong reads, but my eyes beg to differ all too often. This team was once, and not too long ago, a pretty darn good football club. now, they’re probably not a top 60 team. I don’t know what has happened. Talent isnt abound, but it never was. But at one point, we had a good team.
Rusty
October 22nd, 2011
10:13 pm
Bradley, don’t you write this article about this time every year?
TrueCrimson
October 22nd, 2011
10:14 pm
Hate it for ya Jackets. Nothing to do but suck it up and get ready for next week.
RTR!!!
CarolinaJacket
October 22nd, 2011
10:15 pm
I seriously doubt that Mark is still at his computer. Maybe at the closest bar.
GT -AD Rad
October 22nd, 2011
10:16 pm
A major problem if we boot CPJ to the curb in the next year or two…He has his players for his system. This could set program back 2+ years for whoever takes over. I think it is easier to go pro-sytyle to Option than Option to Pro or Spread.
no pulitzers
October 22nd, 2011
10:18 pm
OK folks- i can see i have lots of people here that will be getting a punch in the mouth from me.
please line up single file at our practice field monday at 9.30 am .
Fish Fry to follow
Signed- Coach PJ
Ga Tech Old Timer
October 22nd, 2011
10:18 pm
Just a few comments – 1) How long do do we want to use “the team was fatigued” excuse for poor performance? 2) With under sized players playing both sides of the line – a defense that can’t cover the middle of the field and special teams play that looks like Pop Warner – what makes us think there’s any hope against legitament FBS teams playing Division 1 ACC or any confrence? Does the hope and future of Ga Tech Football rest solely on Vad Lee’s shoulders? 3) Which is worse – playing Washington who lacks confidence against quality opponents or Days who has confidence but can’t play QB worth a damn (or any other position that requires holding on to the ball). This is Caoch Johnson’s 4th season on the flats. He’s a great guy but apparently can’t get the finer points of this offense across to student athletes who – for God’s sake – are attending one of the toughest academic institutions in D-1. What’s wrong with this picture? Four years is plenty enough time to intall any offense known to football – so what is it that makes it worse now than it was the very first year he came to town?
One final thought – Clemson, Va. Tech and Georgia must really be looking forward to coming into our house to bust our ass. From looking at last week and now today – there’s not much we’re going to be able to do about it either. The team has now shown what it really is all about – and it’s not good. No discipline – poor decisions on players and coachs parts alike – and more excuses. Sounds like an old record – one that’s been playing for year after year since the days of Bobby Dodd then Bobby Ross and George O’Leary – until he left for ND with a make believe degree.
CarolinaJacket
October 22nd, 2011
10:20 pm
You raise a truly nasty point to consider. But its still the quality of the players. If they are not that good they will not win that much, so it will take a new coach several years to get it started again.
MarkL
October 22nd, 2011
10:21 pm
I’ve been saying all year that I was afraid that Tech’s defense was not big enough, fast enough, or experienced enough, and that when we began to play better teams, our offense will have trouble playing against faster defenders who can close the corners. I still believe in CPJ and the Triple Option, but we have to recruit size AND speed on both sides of the ball. It’ll come. We are a young team.
Thank God I’m a Yellow Jacket!
tgreenery79
October 22nd, 2011
10:25 pm
You see Tech-er Heads, The Dawgs lost to teams that were ranked significantly higher. We have since geled and are playing good football. The defense is 8th in the country in overall defense and 2nd in the SEC in rushing defense. The offense is making great strides. Yes the East is significantly less competitive than the West BUT the SEC is a far superior and harder week to week conference. The Dawgs are in the race for the SEC championship even though we may get beat in the Dome again. At least we want go to the Toilet Bowl.
teewest
October 22nd, 2011
10:26 pm
Looks like someone pulled the stingers off and stuck them up the yellow jackets buzzes. Ya har har now that’s funny!!! stinger up the buzz!
SC Jacket
October 22nd, 2011
10:26 pm
Wonder who we could hire?