beej67

Sorry for the bump. Stumbled on this via another board.

Lots of talk about the Transitive Property in this thread, which is usually a pretty shiet way of predicting games, but in the GT/UT case, we actually have a whole pile of shared opponents last year we can look at.

We both beat VT, and the games were pretty similar, in that VT wet the bed on turnovers against both of us.

We both beat UGA on the final play. I would argue our final play took a little less luck, but I'd call those outcomes similar.

We both beat Kentucky, in about the same fashion.

The shared opponent with different results was Vandy. GT 38-7, UT 34-45. There was a UT injury issue in this game that accounts for some of it, but as badly as we beat Vandy I think we could have still probably easily beaten them with a lot of 2nd stringers in.

Both teams were 9-4. GT actually did a lot better against the SEC East last year (3-0) than we did in our own ACC division (3-3), so chances are good that if GT was in the SEC East we would have placed ahead of Tennessee in 2016. Maybe not by much though, it would be tight.

We both return a majority of our starters, and we both lost a dynamic QB that our offense revolved around. GT's replacement has some quality experience, including one start, but he's going to have to make some big improvements in his game to be as good as Justin Thomas was.

On paper, this thing looks dead even to me. It's probably going to come down to how much time UT spent in the spring prepping against the option. That and turnovers.

Take the over.

Yeah.

I think with a normal schedule I'd say Tech was underrated in that list, but with our schedule this year we'll be lucky to end up where they have us, purely due to competition. We play every team but one in the #8-12 spots in that poll. At #17 we're underdog in four games on our schedule, and if we lose four games, we won't be ranked 17, just because that's how it goes.

Plus, you know, Miami and VT are pretty dang good.

In terms of who's over-rated, we can always go back to historical data. History seems to think Oklahoma, USCw, Notre Dame, and FSU.
(mumble mumble Georgia mumble Clemson mumble Tennessee)

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I believe the red dawgs also lost to the jackets, and did so in their own house. Where would they have stacked up in the ACC?

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Whooped Louisville, snuck by Clemson, lost to Tech, so third seems pretty obvious, based on the context clues.

I question this:

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We can bump (state) under FSU, Clemson and Louisville for sure

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I suspect State could probably beat Louisville last year, and Clemson would be a tight game. They might be as high as 4th, right behind Georgia.

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Aside from those 2 against auburn, what other regular season SEC teams have you played?

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Including bowls...
Lost to LSU once
Lost to Ole Miss (ranked) once
Beat Vandy x2
Beat MSU x3 (ranked top ten for one)
Beat Auburn x2 (ranked top five for one, top 20 for another)

7-2 this century, half vs ranked opponents, but then...

...there's UGA. :banghead:

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I hope PJ is at tech for a long, long time.

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Me too, actually. GT doesn't have the, err, "athlete friendly scholastic infrastructure" to survive in the south without a gimmick, honestly. Plus, five of our seven games with UGA have been very close, and mostly broke one way or another due to luck. We got lucky in 08 and 14, yall got lucky in 09, 10, and 13. Five coin flips and two blowouts in 7 games ain't all bad for Tech vs UGA.

To bring it back on topic, I would be willing to bet he's in the state longer than Richt. Mostly because of the differential in overall expectations of the fanbases. Richt's got 3 years to get to the playoff or he's gone, I figure. Less if he loses to Tech more than once in that stretch.

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Georgia Tech would just fill one of their spots for the time being...interim and all.

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Yeah, unfortunately the only SEC team GT doesn't have an undefeated record against this century is Georgia. :banghead:

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The two on this list I take umbrage with are also the two oldest: Clemson and Tech.

Clemson won theirs the year after ours (1981) and haven't sniffed one since (whereas we at least played for the title in 1982 and have at least come close to making it in the past decade or so). Same goes for Tech whose last title was in 1990 and wasn't even undisputed; they share the title with Colorado after beating #19 Nebraska in the Citrus Bowl.

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And Georgia hasn't even done that.

/shrug

In 1990 Colorado drew to Tennessee, lost to Illinois and Missouri, and only beat ND on a phantom clip call during Rocket's kick return. I have no idea what sort of mammoth media conspiracy it took to give them a share of the title, but it doesn't really matter for this discussion. It actually supports my point, which is this:

If you stumble around blindly in the southern football for 35 years, you're bound to win a national championship sooner or later just by recruiting and luck alone. The fact that even Tech could do it supports this position. So what's Georgia's problem? Facilities really?

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Minor changes in that offensive scheme if not accounted for amazingly can turn into crazy ground yards. They threw it twice against us and won the f'ing game with 400 + yards on the ground, in Athens none the less, because of a simple blocking adjustment at half time by their offense in which we just stuck with the same thing on D to stop it.

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I'd say that's an accurate assessment. We started blocking the FS, and UGA's defense went to crap.

Same sorts of things happened in games vs other "speed and athleticism" defenses this year. We played until we found out which adjustment to make, made it, and ran for a zillion. vs FSU, we simply motioned the playside A back out into the slot away from the play, his man followed him, and it was like a free block. FSU had spent all week on "assignment football" so we used that against them.

LSU, with your new ringer at Defensive Coordinator, may be able to get enough adjustments on the books and practiced before the game starts to where you can hang. You may not. I'm not real sure. But generally what you need to defend this thing reliably, is intelligent players.

All recruiters nowadays are looking for "team speed" instead of "team brains."

Duke and UNC probably stopped this thing better than anyone else did this year. The trick is to take away the pitch, suck it up, give us 8 yards a carry, let us drive the ball, and hope your offense can outscore us. Eventually we might fumble.

Tech is undefeated in games with 2 TOs or less, and winless in games with 3 TOs or more, this season.

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My dad went to Georgia Tech. He hated it so much that he transferred to LSU, where he met my mom. So, if GT didn’t suck so much, I wouldn’t have been born. Thanks Georgia Tech!

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Haha, nice.


"The combined sewer overflow system in Atlanta smells slightly better than a swamp."


;)

Tech's strength is our front 4 on defense. Our linebackers are our weakest link. Anything you guys do to force us into nickel is a bonus, from our perspective. Less crappy linebackers on the field.