Great thread guys. I pop in here every so often after meeting some really nice UT fans at a GT game in 2009, couple of old guys who wanted to see option football again for nostalgia purposes. I've been excited about playing you folks for a long time. Y'all had a great year last year. Loved that UGA ending.
Lot of talk about cut blocking. Don't worry about it. A cut block is just a no-armed tackle. It's not "shameful" and every team does it, just not as much as we do. Zone blocking schemes do it, all RBs do it in pass pro, and every team does it on screens and slants to create passing lanes.
The dangerous thing is high-lowing on a chop block, and while we do get called for one about every other game, we spend a lot of time training to avoid it. In terms of illegality, it's only illegal during crackback blocks against the run of play. Other than that, it's legal. Looking at the Kentucky game last year, all the UK injuries were from getting pancaked the old fashioned way, or by getting rolled up on after the play. There weren't any cut block injuries.
In my experience watching this thing very closely over the years, the only time players get really injured is when the defensive line tries to hold a GT OL who's shooting to the next level. When they do that (which is illegal but not often called) then they get spun around and clipped. Some coaches (Bud Foster) try this sometimes to try and "draw" the chop block call while keeping their LBs clean to make the tackle, but it's a really crappy thing to tell your players to do because it puts them in a dangerous situation, and per the rules it's a defensive foul not an offensive one.
I'm happy to answer more questions on this if yall have any.
Since Paul Johnson was hired (2008), GT has played in 4 ACC Championship Games, and won 1. GT appears in the ACCCG 33% of the time. GT is 1 and 1 in BCS bowl appearances over this time, with their win coming against a highly ranked SEC opponent with a future NFL QB.
GT went 3-0 last year against the SEC East, with very comparable results to Tennessee against Georgia and Kentucky, and a significantly better result against Vandy. The VT matchup also played similarly for both teams.
The scheduling problems for GT and UT are also very similar. You guys play Bama every year cross-division, and we're stuck playing Clemson cross-division. So there's a lot of interesting parallels between our teams.
Also 5-1 over the last three years, with the only loss being a close one to Georgia capping GT's worst year this century.
There's a lot to this in my opinion, having watched GT for a very long time, and it's not just about 3O prep. The 3O is very timing oriented, and GT tends to fall out of rhythm after long stretches without a game. Our opening games sometimes turn into a turnover s***show. This is your biggest advantage IMO - without the rhythm down we'll pitch the ball onto the dirt or goof an exchange or a mesh read. Turnover battle will win the game IMO.
This is basically true, but it's not because we're a bad team. It's because of how we're covered in the press. We get no respect, and the respect we do get is because of our coach/system, so every game in the media becomes this kind of referendum on coaching instead of on the players. We don't land a lot of five star recruits due to academics, but our receivers and linemen in particular do very well in the NFL.
I would argue that 2014 GT was noticeably better than 2014 Oklahoma, but you might be right about the other three.
This is not true. Our WRs do cut corners and safeties sometimes, but rules prevent them from cutting on crackbacks against the LBs if the LBs start in the tackle box. A lot of times our WRs don't cut corners because there's no advantage to it. Cuts put the offensive player on the ground too, and if the play is slow to get to the edge then the D player can stand back up. Also, our WRs tend to be big, so they often have an advantage against smaller bodies.
Actually, we did run 3O in 1990 as a smaller piece of our playbook. Sean Jones was a beast carrying the ball, and Ralph Freidgen was the play caller. We ran it a little bit from 98-2000 as well. Fridge's offense wasn't completely built around it like Johnson's is though.
In terms of players lost and players returning, the roster is similar to UT's. GT and UT both lost impressive, dynamic QBs, and both return a lot of important pieces.
On paper this looks to be a very good game. I'm excited about it. Especially since it will be the very first football game ever played in the new Falcons stadium. That thing looks cool.
