Posts Tagged ‘georgia tech’

After wrapping up the SEC East crown on Saturday, Georgia will take a challenging two-game detour outside of conference play before playing for the league championship on December 1. 

The Bulldogs will play back-to-back home games against triple option mavens Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech beginning this Saturday. At a hair over 400 yards per game (and 6.68 yards per carry), Georgia Southern runs for more yards per game than any team in college football across all levels. No other college football team averages more than 385 yards.

Paul Johnson's isn't too far behind their in-state counterparts, ranking fourth in FBS at 324.4 yards per game and 5.86 yards per carry.  

While Mark Richt's team will be heavily favored to win both games, Todd Grantham's defense has it work cut out for it, so Georgia decided to cut out its normal practice week routine. The Bulldogs practiced in full pads on Monday and allowed the scout team offense to use cut blocks against the starting defense.

“It’s very, very, very difficult to simulate in practice,” Richt told the Athens Banner-Herald. “You can’t do it. … As you’re trying to adjust to not only what they’re doing schematically, you’re also adjusting to how well they do it. Their execution, their speed, their quick decision-making and all that type of thing that can become very, very frustrating.”

Georgia Southern has the ability to frustrate even the best defenses in college football. Recall the Eagles' trip last season to Tuscaloosa, when the eventual national champions (who led FBS by allowing just 72.1 rushing yards and 8.1 points per game) allowed a season-worst 301 rushing yards and 21 points.

Grantham was non-committal when asked of the benefits to playing two triple offenses in a row.

“I guess in some ways,” Grantham said. “I mean, I don’t know. Whatever. I didn't set the schedule, so I’ll do whatever they say.”

Grantham has faced Georgia Tech's triple option twice in his tenure at Georgia. The 2010 meeting saw the Yellow Jackets compile 512 yards of offense in a 42-34 Bulldogs win. Last season, Georgia limited Georgia Tech to 355 yards in a 31-17 victory. 

Georgia Tech isn't sitting where Paul Johnson and his staff had hoped to be at this point in the season. Instead of being in the drivers seat for the ACC title, they're battling their way back to .500 and are currently sitting at 3-5 (2-3 in ACC play) heading into this weekends match up with Maryland (4-4, 2-2).

Earlier this week, Johnson got on 790 The Zone and took calls from listeners who didn't dice their words when it came to the program's recent struggles.

Johnson reminded callers and listeners of how close they are to having a record that looks much different.

"We’ve lost two games in overtime. It isn’t making excuses, it’s just facts. We’ve lost two games in overtime. We lost the one at Clemson after being ahead in the fourth quarter. But all in all we played with them to toe to toe until we fumbled the snap on 4th and 1 from the 7 yard line. If we don’t fumble the snap, maybe we go up two scores in the fourth quarter and it’s different."

Johnson was also asked about recruiting and if they're bringing in the caliber of players that can compete in the ACC, and responded by noting that they've entered the fourth quarter five different times with a lead.

"If the talent level is that bad, then we must be doing a hell of a job coaching to stay in there and I don’t think that’s the case. We’ve got to finish the games. Now, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. We need to win games"

Two areas that casual fans always seem to critique the most when a team is struggling is the play of the quarterback, and the playcalling. Georgia Tech is no different. Johnson responded to one caller on the radio show Wednesday by saying that he's not ready to throw the season away and start over with a back up quarterback, and added that calling plays on Saturdays is much different than calling one with a controller in your hand in the living room.

"You try to call the plays that people can run," Johnson explained. "I don’t mean this in a  bad way or whatever, but it’s not like PlayStation, where you just pick a play. You have guys out there who can do certain things. And if guys struggle pulling, you don’t run the pulling plays. If guys aren’t as good at throwing one way, you try to throw the other way. That’s all the things that you know from being with those guys every day in practice and going into the game plan.”

He explained that if he does decide to get the backup quarterback some snaps, it won't be because someone told him to do it.

"It’s going to be because I think he gives our football team the best chance.  Because my job is to try to give us the best chance to win the game. I see those guys every day we practice. I know there’s a lot of people out there that can do my job better than I can. I gotcha. I understand that. But pardon me if I’m not going to listen to everybody who tells me who I should be playing, what I should be doing."

"I’ve managed to survive for 34 years doing what I’m doing without getting fired and we’ve won a lot of games. If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down doing what I do and knowing what I know."

The last four games on their schedule will test the Yellow Jackets. After traveling to Maryland this weekend, they'll wrap things up at North Carolina (6-3, 3-2), before taking on Duke (6-3, 3-2) at home, and ending the regular season against rival Georgia (7-1, 5-1). We'll see how things shake out, but that's a heck of a stretch when your looking to get things back on track. 

As Paul Johnson pointed earlier this month after letting defensive coordinator Al Groh go, part of the reason for the move was due to players having a hard time implementing Groh's schemes, which seemed complex at times.

And as coaches, we all know how hesitation can be a recipe for disaster on the defensive side of the ball.

Coming off of their bye week, Johnson wants to see less emphasis on the play call and more focus put on the effort with secondary coach Charles Kelly in charge of the defense on Saturday.

“We don’t need 80 calls. You don’t need a buzzword on everything. We need guys to learn how to play and play hard.” Johnson explained during his press conference yesterday.

Another area that Johnson said that they need to improve in is their scheme when the offense shifts or goes in motion, stating that their communication needs to get better, and that they need to think less and just react more.

“There’s got to be some communication, but when one guy goes in motion, it doesn’t have to change seven people. I’m not saying that the other way was that complicated, but the way it was, it wasn’t working. I got tired of hearing, ‘Well, I didn’t get a call.’ ‘Well, yeah, you did.’ ‘Well, no, I didn’t.’”

“I think you’ve got to learn how to play defense and you put your eyes on a guy and they’ll tell you where the ball’s going, as opposed to trying to recognize 82 different plays. That’s just me.” Johnson explained.

This weekend Georgia Tech (2-4, 1-3) will take on Boston College (1-5, 0-3) at 3pm ET.