Monday Morning: Facing the Reality

by Winfield Featherston on Nov 30, 2009 8:00 AM EST

At least the car looked good. And Joe Cox is still an ugly ginger.

So here it goes. An attempt at postgame thoughts. The sky is not falling and the world is not ending. However.....

Saturday night straight up sucked. Right now it seems like it was just a bad dream and I'm wondering if the game was even played. Then I see the newspaper, the latest bowl ranking and that ugly crooked number 2 and uggh, it happened alright.

It was my last home game as a student, my final rideout at BDS@HGF. The day could not have been better on Saturday; it will easily be one of my favorite and proudest days to be part of the Georgia Tech community. I had the Reck out and about earlier than ever (12 miles around campus and 1/2 a tank of gas), hit more tailgates and socialized more than I had ever done. The pregame feeling is something I don't want to forget. However, the game leaves a sour taste in my mouth as we come quickly to the end of what should be regarded as a successful season of football. Without a doubt, I know the question to "Would you rather beat georgie or win the ACC?". The answer is simple: Beat georgie. Because ~~if we~~ when we win the ACC, we can look and say "ACC Champs (but couldn't put away the 4th best team in the SEC). I am quickly hating these conference rivalries.

I continue to struggle listening to fans who lose and think they can still talk crap to fans just yelling out. We lost. Can't do anything about it. No "Well, I'm still smarter than you" is going to fix it.

The play-calling is a subject of confusion for me all-around. Defensively, from their first drive it was obvious that they weren't going to let Joe Cox ruin the game for them. We saw that as they promptly ran down the field putting together an impressive play for a 7-0 lead. They forced us to prove to them that we could stop the run and we couldn't. Our defensive line continued to get manhandled as the running backs ran all over us and amassed 339 yards of RUSHING YARDS. The injury to Ben Anderson completely changed up the flow for our defense and the mess continued throughout the game.

For the first time this year, the offensive play-calling gives me a big, blank, question-mark. Did it seem relatively conservative to you all? From my point-of-view, it seemed their D-Line was keying in on Dwyer and we either we didn't adjust the option or continued to misread but I don't see why we took it to the outside more. Was it conservative play-calling because we couldn't risk injuries and the potential of losing in Tampa? More than one person thinks that as a possibility.

Lastly, the final 4 downs, the biggest "WTFs" of them all. First, if we complete those passes, CPJ is a genius and is lauded like no other. Unfortunately, the passes were dropped, overthrown, or caught out of bounds. I don't know if I'll ever understand why we made those calls and refused to "dance [more] with the one who brought us."

I'll end in a positive, though a frustrating one. No matter how bad we played, we were in the position to win last night. We were in the process of that mythical "game-winning drive" and then it was snatched away. But nevertheless, we had that chance to take the game back. To Hell with Georgia!

This will be my last post on one of the biggest games I want to erase from my memory. Tomorrow I look towards Tampa and Clemson, the only other team in the country who could relate to us right now.

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My opinions

Just like I posted on Sunday morning, I think we have to give them credit.

They knew their weakness (Cox) and ours (horrid defense) and exploited our weakness while not letting us exploit theirs. Had we been able to stop the run, we would have forced them to use Cox and probably lose the game, but we couldnt stop the run. The worst thing is that if you paid even half attention on the first drive through your drunken stupor, it was obvious that they were going to try and beat us at our own game: ball control and run, run, run. Any decent DC should have figured this out and made adjustments to stop the run, but we stuck with two LB in the middle that were grossly overpursuing the play action.

As far as our play calling, it was obvious pretty early that the dive wasn’t going to work—I would have liked to have seen us go with the pitch more. Neither of those two plays are successful unless you can run the other one with success…its like a double-edged sword.

As far as the play calling on the last drive—what else can you say? WF said it best—-we abandoned our date when we got to the dance…and it cost us. I can see one shot at it on first down, but then you gotta pull back and just drive it down.

One thing that I’ve not seen anyone post yet—I was supremely pissed by UGA’s attempts at knocking out Nesbitt (the play that he got hurt on was brutal) and the obviously-late hit on Bebe out of bounds. I know that we shouldnt expect anything other than that from UGA with their penalties this season, but those two were very glaring. Not cool.

Overall, I’ll stick with putting the blame on our defense and Wommack, specifically. Our defense was horribly inept in this game. If we had a stop…EVEN ONE PUNT…the outcome would have been different.

Maker's Mark--nectar of the gods...

by chrisinindy on Nov 30, 2009 8:22 AM EST reply actions

Nesbitt

I’m a Dawg, and I won’t claim to be objective, but I didn’t see anything malicious in the play that hurt Nesbitt. To the LB who was pulling him back, the fact that Nesbitt’s ankle is trapped under another player is not readily apparent. To him, all he knows is that Nesbitt is not all the way on the ground because he’s lying (apparently) on top of another player and the LB wants to make sure that Nesbitt does not get another inch of field position by rolling downfield instead of upfield. Seems like normal (and legal) scrum ball to me. No one cheers for the injury, but it happens.

And I think you might misunderstand the nature of the penalties called on UGA. Most of our penalties come one stupid plays, not dirty plays. (There are exceptions, but there are exceptions for every team). They come from poor coaching or lack of awareness, not intent to injure.

For example, Bryan Evans (#3, a safety) always makes his best hits out of bounds. He will sprint over from centerfield and hit the runner just after the runner steps out of bounds. Stupid, but not dirty. Also, when our LB pulled down one of your guys out of bounds, it was stupid – not dirty. It was kind of a wussy hit, slowly pulling the guy down over 5 yards – not the kind of thing that gets anyone hurt. But the fact that it was grossly beyond the boundary warrants a 15-yarder all day.

Ironically, Bryan Evans suffered a concussion in Saturday night’s game after being blocked sqarely in the back away from the play. I thought that play was dirty (I won’t try to convince you), but it was at least illegal. However, while I hate to see any player injured, the fact that Tech managed to injure our absolute worst safety probably helped UGA’s defense. So thanks, and see you next year.

by first and thom on Nov 30, 2009 11:40 AM EST up reply actions

The only play that I thought was dirty

was when Nesbitt got hurt. I was on the field and saw a hand grab his leg and twist it back and forth.

The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.

by Winfield Featherston on Nov 30, 2009 12:07 PM EST up reply actions

That may be...

…but the TV didn’t catch it and the players around didn’t seem to see it either. There was no lack of chip out there, and I have to think that anyone who saw what you saw would have made his displeasure known (as he should have).

by first and thom on Nov 30, 2009 12:09 PM EST up reply actions

Kinda agree with Chris here. This is all on the DC. Even with Josh hurt, we were one score away from winning, despite the defense. Maybe we should look to bring in Al Groh or wait a couple of weeks for Tenuta to get canned from ND.

by Yakub2 on Nov 30, 2009 9:41 AM EST via mobile reply actions

Groh over Tenuta

I think Groh is a good choice but may be too expensive. Maybe a 1 year thing for us to get back at UVA/VT. Tenuta just doesn’t seem like the guy who would take that step back into his past. I don’t know.

This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

by BirdGT on Nov 30, 2009 11:04 AM EST up reply actions

No to Groh, No to Tenuta

I do not want a coach associated with failure to come on board. While Tenuta would be acceptable, I think it’s clear that you cannot blitz on every down, given what he has done at Notre Dame. I liked Tenuta when he was here, and he did great things for us, but we have both moved on, hopefully for the better. I wouldn’t be too upset if he came back, but I am really hoping that we can do better.

Surely this is a topic warranting more discussion, with more names evaluated. Aside from Tenuta, the only other person I can throw out right now is Iowa’s DC, Norm Parker:
http://www.hawkeyesports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/parker_norm00.html

Basically, we need someone just like CPJ: Someone who has proven himself at another school, yet has reached a plateau that is beyond his control due to the school he is at. Even Iowa’s coach might be a stretch, since they were so successful (lucky?) this year. Apparently he’s been there for 11 years, so I have no idea what his salary is.

by Portmanteur on Nov 30, 2009 2:14 PM EST up reply actions

TCU's DC?

Dick Bumpas
http://gofrogs.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/bumpas_dick00.html

Just dreaming

The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.

by Winfield Featherston on Nov 30, 2009 2:19 PM EST up reply actions

Al Groh was a terrible head coach, but he put a lot of guys in the NFL, particularly defensive linemen. Don’t be so quick to dismiss. A lot of coaches get fired and resume positions as solid coordinators. As for Tenuta, his blitzing scheme worked about 80% of the time because your run of the mill college QB isn’t very good. He would always lay an egg once in awhile to elite QB’s (Matt Ryan 07). That was also because of the ineptitude of our offense. Pair a ballzy opportunistic defense with Paul Johnson’s offense and you would have to roll Bobby Dodd over in the grave to hide his boner.

by Yakub2 on Nov 30, 2009 3:01 PM EST up reply actions

Charlie Strong

I hear he is available, but I’m betting he is only looking for a head coaching gig and not another DC spot.

Corey Zickefoose: I think they should still be able to play football, regardless. Tennessee is my place. You know, it's my football team.

Reporter: Even after they put a gun in your face, you say let them play football?

Corey Zickefoose: Yeah. It's Tennessee. That's the way it is sometimes.

Welcome to the SEC!

by Jesse28 on Nov 30, 2009 3:19 PM EST up reply actions

Listen to PJ

I agree the loss sucked. The better team didn’t win because we got out-coached and flat out outplayed on defense. But it happened.

To me the biggest point is – this loss does not define our season, nor our program. Who cares about beating the 4th place team in the SEC (east). If and when we go to the BCS bowl, we will likely be playing the number 4 or 5 team in the country. Again, the loss sucked, but we are playing for so much more now. Who gives a $#@&* what the mutts say, they played a great game but its just that – one game. We are having a great season. Lets not throw that out just because we lost to uog.

Paul Johnson put it best – " I told somebody earlier that this is not the end all do all for our football program to beat Georgia. We want to win our share of games against them and it’s an in-state rivalry game and all. I understand that, but it’s not going to define our year if we beat Georgia."

“Well, last year we didn’t win the [Coastal] division and we didn’t have a chance to play for the ACC Championship. I don’t know if it defined our season last year. I know it did to some of our fans. I think you’re putting [Georgia] on a pretty high pedestal. Do you think beating Georgia Tech defines Georgia’s season? I bet if you ask them, they’d probably tell you no. It’s an important game and you don’t want to diminish that, but let’s not get carried away.”

“You’re going to have fans that treat any game as a big game. Certainly, anytime you work with people everyday and you’re around them in the state, it certainly makes your life easier if your team wins. You can be the guy cracking all the jokes and doing that kind of thing. Each fan has to have their individual idea of the game. I understand it’s a big game. I’m not backing away from that, but what I’m trying to say is, it’s not going to end our season if we win or lose the game. I’m not going to let one game define my football season when I have to play 13 games. Now, if I was 0-12, I might let that one game define me, but we have other things to play for. Does that lessen the fact that we want to win the game, no. We want to win the game as much as Georgia does.”.

“I don’t want to leave the wrong impression because I do realize that the game is important and I know for a lot of our fans that this is the game they want to win. We want to get to the point where our program is bigger than one game. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to dismiss that game and say `oh, we don’t care if we win.’ We want to win the game, but we want to do some other things that just beating Georgia won’t do for you. You have to have some consistency.”

Me again. Our program is bigger than one game. We are playing for something much more on Saturday. We’ll have to put up with a year of smack talking re the SEC east, but we’ll be able to answer “who cares” if/when we be Cincy in the Orange Bowl.

by Howell on Nov 30, 2009 10:54 AM EST reply actions

Howell

I understand your point, I really do. But at the same time….the loss may not define the season (it doesn’t) but it still hurts like hell man.

The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.

by Winfield Featherston on Nov 30, 2009 11:24 AM EST up reply actions

Word

Definitely stings. Hopefully a win on saturday and sporting some new acc championship t-shirts will change all that.

by Howell on Nov 30, 2009 2:26 PM EST up reply actions

This is not the same song

Tech fans were singing last year. When Tech won, it was an amazing win for your program and the tide had turned in the Peach State. When Tech lost, it was just another game against a crappy opponnent.

If you had won, we would continue to hear of your dominance.

Tech fans can’t have it both ways.

by bdawg on Nov 30, 2009 11:36 AM EST reply actions

Sure they can.

None of us plays or coaches. We fans accept the hands we are dealt. For us, it was a mediocre and disappointing season with a win over Tech (to get us some peace from their crowing, finally). For them, it’s a great season, a chance for a BCS bowl berth, and a loss to the team they hate the most. In our recent SEC championship seasons, it wasn’t that hard not to dwell on the losses to UF. There’s nothing wrong with either group’s accentuating the positive. If some rule says you have to wallow in the negative, then it’s probably time to find a new pastime. Let them enjoy what they can (which is a lot). They don’t need our help remembering what happened Saturday. Of course, a casual reminder here and there would not be out of bounds and a much lesser quid for the over-the-top quo we’ve endured for a year.

by NCT on Nov 30, 2009 11:54 AM EST up reply actions

This

Anyone born and raised, or even just raised, in the state of Georgia whether they are a fan of either team or not, knows that this one game has a lasting effect for the next 364 days. But, in the overall view of things, this game is under vastly different circumstances than last year’s game. This year, we still have work to do.

Corey Zickefoose: I think they should still be able to play football, regardless. Tennessee is my place. You know, it's my football team.

Reporter: Even after they put a gun in your face, you say let them play football?

Corey Zickefoose: Yeah. It's Tennessee. That's the way it is sometimes.

Welcome to the SEC!

by Jesse28 on Nov 30, 2009 12:05 PM EST up reply actions

Maybe true

But there is a clear division between the players and the fans. It may matter more for water cooler bragging rights that we beat uga. But in the grand scheme of things I’d much rather be 10-2 with a loss to uga than 7-5 with a win over tech. I think uga feels the same way, particularly years where they went to the sec championship.

The game won’t have a lasting effect on the players for the next 364 days because we have to play somebody else in 5 days. Hell, it won’t have a lasting effect on me, either. I’ll pat the mutts on the back for a good game, then ask them how they did against UNC in the music shity bowl.

by Howell on Nov 30, 2009 2:25 PM EST up reply actions

Music City Bowl

still beats the ACC championship game.

You’ve had a great year and Tech is a fine team with a master coach. I really do mean that.

But it won’t work to tell a UGA fan that Tech is playing for an ACC title. Rightly or (probably) wrongly, winning an ACC title is viewed in Athens like winning the title of second prettiest girl in the room. The reason is this: in the years that UGA went to the SEC championship game, we beat Tech. A UGA team good enough to win the SEC East is good enough to beat Tech. Now, we think (based on a single sample) that we’re better than you and – based on another sample – better than Clemson (the whole USCe thing). I don’t begrudge the Sun Belt conference a champion, but I don’t expect a Sun Belt team that we beat to come back and tell us that at least they won their conference.

We’ll take the shame of going to a crappy bowl. It’s all we’ve earned. But the ACC championship game is like shiny plastic rims on your car, or a sweet Darth Vader replica costume: it appeals to a certain demographic, and garners nothing but mockery from everyone else.

Nevertheless, good luck with that. Yours is a classy program – second best in the state, as a matter of fact.

by first and thom on Nov 30, 2009 2:51 PM EST up reply actions

Didn't know

that winning a shiny plastic rims on your car or a sweet Darth Vader replica costume got you to a BCS bowl.

Comparing the ACC to the Sun Belt is comparing Oranges to ~~Apples~~ New Orleans. I don’t care what doggies think of the ACC, either. Getting to the Chik-Fil-A bowl against VT (a team Tech beat) or Clemson (assuming they lose in the ACC championship, a team Tech beat twice) pits you against the #2 ACC team. Even worse, the Music Shitty bowl matches you up with the No. 5 ACC team (prolly UNC, who Tech has also beaten).

Either way, Georgia will (i) play in a worse, i.e. non new years day bowl; and (ii) play a team GT already beat. Winning an ACC title maybe winning the second prettiest girl in the room – but at least we’re second prettiest.

Re second best program in the state – we’ll see when its all said and done. GT is 4-2 in the SEC the last two seasons and 3-0 on the road in the SEC. Also CPJ has 19 wins in his first two seasons only two less than Richt’s state record of 21. Richt did a great job, but CPJ had to implement a radically different scheme. Saturday excluded, we’ve been building some pretty serious momentum in Atlanta. I think that was pretty well demonstrated by how few bulldogs there were outside of the visitor sections.

by Howell on Nov 30, 2009 8:22 PM EST up reply actions

Not really apples and oranges

To compare the ACCCG to the Music City bowl. One is a conference champ game and one is a bowl. You have to remember that we have a bowl after the CG…hopefully the Orange. And that is definately better than the Music City…just sayin’.

Maker's Mark--nectar of the gods...

by chrisinindy on Nov 30, 2009 8:23 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

Not comparing

the ACCCG to the Music City Bowl. I’m equating comparing the ACC and the Sun Belt to comparing the Orange Bowl and the New Orleands Bowl.

by Howell on Nov 30, 2009 8:48 PM EST up reply actions

Don't Take Me Too Seriously

I really do think that Tech is on the rise, and I do congratulate you on playing for the ACC Championship. I didn’t mean to call the ACC the Sunbelt (though I understand why you think I would). I think Johnson is a truly excellent coach, and I don’t mock the triple option. I think Richt is classier, but that’s hard to debate. I think Tech has put together a more consistent and better season, considering the body of work as a whole.

But there’s still a ways for Tech to go. It is a given at any SEC school that the visitors section will house visitors. That is never an issue in Athens – even in a crappy year like this.

BCS Bowls are great. But if you get to go just because you won your conference, that’s not as great. And nobody outside the ACC cares who wins the ACC championship. Heck, if attendance or ratings is an indicator, the vast majority of the ACC fans don’t care who wins. That’s what I mean about the shiny rims – nobody not in the ACC cares about the ACC championship.

I don’t mean to imply that UGA would win the ACC going away or that winning the ACC is not a meaningful goal. You can only aspire to win the conference you’re in, after all. But “we will still play for the ACC championship” just doesn’t sting a UGA fan at all.

It feels good as a UGA fan that, even in a down year, we got to take Tech out of the running for a top 5 finish. Georgia’s not very good, but we gave you our best – and we won.

And that’s why your program is second best in the state this year. The same reason that mine was last year.

by first and thom on Nov 30, 2009 10:51 PM EST up reply actions

I can accept your classification of Richt as ‘classier’, but I think that CPJ’s attitude of an honest, scrappy fighter, which includes not being the most tactful or polite coach, fits perfectly for Tech.

Also, it’s true that no one cares about the ACC championship outside of the ACC, but only because it has A.) no national championship ramification and B.) no big name prestige schools. The only reason why anyone outside of the SEC and the Big 12 care about those championship games is because it’ll decide who goes to the MNC. If the game next week in the Georgia dome was between, say, #18 Mississippi State and #24 South Carolina, no one outside of the SEC would care about that. OTOH, if the ACCCG was between #2 Miami and #5 FSU, it’d be a much bigger game. (it seems ridiculous to even conceive of a #5 FSU this year, doesn’t it?)

That said, you’re perfect right to be happy about beating us. It’s a huge win for any program to beat a top 10 team on the road, especially after a relatively mediocre season. As begrudgingly as we’ll all say it, you do have the bragging rights and the Governor’s Cup for the next year.

by evanseeds on Nov 30, 2009 11:32 PM EST up reply actions

What kind of crack are you smoking?

First of all—“Nobody not in the ACC…”—-yeah, you can tell you went to an AG school—you win my UGAy Arby’s Mgr of the Day award.

Secondly, last time I checked, anytime you go to a big time bowl game where you are the only team playing in prime time, that’s a good thing. If nothing else, going to the Orange bowl generates a lot more money for the conference than the music city or papajohns.com bowl:

Music City Payout: $1.6 mil.
Papajohns.com: $300,000
Orange Bowl: $17 million

Source: USA Today

So keep telling yourself that you’d rather play in some other bowl game or use whatever reasoning / logic you choose…but playing in the music city & papajohns.com bowl = being the 16th and 23rd prettiest girl in the room respectively.

by gte071u on Nov 30, 2009 11:38 PM EST up reply actions

Stay Classy gte071u

I apologize for my syntactic error. I should pay more attention to formality when visiting a rival’s blog. Despite my poor showing, I can assure that your assessment of the school I attended is wrong (hint, I didn’t go to school in Athens).

It’s certainly true that Tech will make more money on a bowl, and that the bowl Tech attends will be a “better” bowl. Don’t get me wrong here – UGA will go to a crappy bowl because we are (1) a crappy team (2) having a crappy season. But Tech is limping into its championship game and will get a BCS bowl because every qualifying conference champion gets a BCS bowl. It is likely that there will be teams ranked more highly than Tech that do not get a BCS bid. Heck, Nebraska could get a BCS bid this year.

All I’m trying to say is that we beat Tech, and it means nothing to me that Tech is going to the ACC championship game and will win a spot in a lucrative BCS bowl if it wins. In other words, we ain’t pretty, but we were pretty enough to beat you. Calling UGA a bad team is an accurate statement, but we’re plenty good enough to beat Tech. So mock my logic – I have the actual, on-field result as evidence, just like you did last year. To resort to my (apparently) offensive grammar, winning head-to-head ain’t everything, but it ain’t nothing, either.

And @ evanseeds, the reason people care about the SEC championship is precisely the reason you point out – the best team in the SEC is usually the best team in the country. More often than not, the SEC champion plays for a national title AND the loser of the game (or the first team that didn’t make the trip to Atlanta) gets a BCS game as well. Can you call a #11 v. #25 match-up in Atlanta? I of course agree that a highly-ranked pairing in the ACC championship would be as good a game as a highly ranked pairing in Atlanta – but the issue is that there hasn’t been a faceoff between top ten teams in the ACC game.

And I agree with your characterization of your coach. He is a fighter and a fine man as well. As your opponent, I would be much happier if Chan Gailey still worked downtown. Best of luck this weekend.

by first and thom on Dec 1, 2009 9:21 AM EST up reply actions