Predicting Georgia Tech's October Schedule
by Winfield Featherston on Aug 24, 2011 7:59 AM EDT
in Georgia Tech Football
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PrintMany of us agree that September should be a good warm up and easy progression into the meat of the season. More of us want to see blood against Kansas. But what about October? The schedule beefs up quickly.
N.C. State
Bird: I don't think Sean Glennon's little brother will have the mustard to knock us out like Russell Wilson did. Plus, I plan on attending this game and we have got to win if I am going to survive a walk amongst the Wolfpack. Seriously, they have the worst fans outside of Athens. Have you ever had a full beer thrown in your face walking into a road stadium? I have @ NC State. They take pride in poor student behavior and vacating their stadium while their team is still playing. /rant. Seriously, I think Tech will win this game. NC State fans probably think they'll win but I know we'll win.
Winfield: Two games absolutely neutralized our defense, and one of them was N.C. State and Russell Wilson. With Wilson heading to WIsconsin and B1G territory, I think the Wolfpack fall back to their usual ways. Tech wins.
Maryland
Bird: I think Danny O'Brien is the X-Factor in this game. He struggled in Death Valley and at the new Orange Bowl yet blew up NC Stat. If Tech wants to be above 0.500 this season, we've got to beat the Marylands, NC States, and UNC-type middle tier schools on our schedule. I still don't think Tech will have the offensive consistency to beat everyone we should beat and we'll drop this one to MD.
Winfield: Maryland has weird uniforms. Do we really want to lose to a team that looks awkward and clown-ish? The Terps are one of the few teams that have just fallen off my radar and best info I have is Randy Edsall is a spiritual leader for the team.I literally have no idea. But with this game being in Atlanta, Tech will put together something that pulls out a win.
Virginia
Bird: UVA has a couple years of building to go and then they've got to fire their head coach and start all over again. Tech should win easily in Charlottesville. 5 years ago me would've punched present me in the face if I went back 5 years in time and told my 5-year younger self that last sentence. Tech big in Hoo-ville.
Winfield: Paul Johnson broke the curse. Virginia is a big fat ole ?. Tech confiscates all the Zima to make the 'Hoos even sadder but then we dumb it down the cellar!
Miami
Bird The past two Miami games have been nightmares. Miami should be playing with a skeleton crew this season. We need this W and I think Tech'll take it home. Expect an ugly, turnover heavy game in the muddy rain of Miami.
Winfield: Wow, talk about a tough game to talk about with so much going on right now! I'm pretty sure by the time we hit up Miami, more things will have shaken out and nobody in Coral Gables will care. Tech wins
Clemson
Bird: Unfortunately, I fear the Tigers will be better than Tech in 2011. Even though they lost KP, they return a fairly ferocious D and a modest Dabo. His uncharacteristic silence in the South Carolina sports media has me worried about the Tigers and a shot at an ACC Atlantic title. Tech loses.
Winfield: Ugh, this game has me nervous because of the way we got absolutely mauled on the lines last year. Usually what happens with CU is CU wins big and Tech wins close ones. However, I'm gonna say Clemson wins this year's version of the rivalry.
In typical fashion, Bird goes conservative and I play the optimism card. BUT WHAT ELSE DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?! The Kool-Aid is pumping through my veins! What say you?
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I'm going with 3-2
Think we drop the Clemson game and one of the first two. There are worse places to be than rolling into November at 6-3…
Too many unknowns, but
If we are 4-0, as I predict,
NCSU- State has already lost four starters to injuries. How well they play in the meantime, and how quickly they can return will be key for State. I think they are a lot like us in that their offense will be very much dependent on how well QB Glennon plays. I do not see how he can come close to being as effective as Wilson, who made plays out of nothing last year and killed us. We beat the Wolfpack in a close game and move into the Top 25.
MD- Maryland will be playing its first road game when they come to Atlanta. We will score some points early and maintain a slim lead. 6-0.
UVA- They will struggle in every game this year and lose to us by 20 points. I think this game will show our offense moving the ball with efficiency, but the D still showing weaknesses we thought were fixed.
U- This game has a huge "if" next to it. If Miami has their players or if they hold them out. I am thinking they will not play until the cloud is lifted. When will their presence make a difference, if they return? After playing VPI and UNC on the road, they return home to play a D that is struggling. I think this is our first loss.
Clemson- If the Tigers are not beat up after playing Auburn, FSU, and VPI in a row, they have to play BC, MD, and UNC (none of whom will be easy) before going on the road to Atlanta. I think they will score enough points to win, but their depleted D will get pushed down the field on every possession. We will win a high scoring game by less than 7 points.
We will be 8-1 and drinking sweet koolaid, but the weaknesses in our D continues to haunt us. November will not be as sweet.
Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
The Road Trip to the...
“U” has just become a very winnable game now that they have a real mess with their current NCAA investigation. I now view this game as a win for Tech. Clemson at home is probably our toughest foe this stretch, however, a rocking and rowdy BDS helps the Jackets prevail over all of the “named talent” on the Tiger’s roster. The NC State game scares me more than any other one this month, however, I’m looking to the defense to make amends for last season’s flat performance. If we do drop a game here, it is possible with Maryland who has a very good passer coming into this season. Worst case after October is the Jackets are 8 and 1 heading into November.
tough call
I went with 2-3. :(
I’m concerned that GT has OL depth issues and that those issues could be hurting GT at this point. Also, I think these teams will be better able to test GT defense than the first four, especially the GT corners and safeties.
Clemson and Miami are hard to teams to figure. We don’t know how many Miami players will be eligible for the game. They may all be allowed to play all of them, they may still have several of them ineligible. Clemson is moving to a new offense so they may have still have some bugs to work out. The new offense is supposed to be a up-tempo spread offense that will supposedly keep a lot of pressure on opposing defenses. Regardless, I expect that these two teams will be competitive.
by Dive Keep and Pitch on Aug 24, 2011 10:23 AM EDT reply actions
Yeah, me too
I went with 2-3 for similar reasons. I think Clemson is a loss. Period. I think we will beat Virginia. The wild card is Miami.
Otherwise I think it is too difficult of a stretch not to lose to at least one team that we did not expect to lose to.
So I have it like this: We beat Virginia. We lose to Clemson.
We lose some combination of two games against N.C. State, Maryland and Miami.
by Atlanta's original team on Aug 24, 2011 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions
NCST, Maryland and UVA should be wins for us.
Miami: We’ve stumbled against them the last two years, but this year we’ll head into coral gables with the memory of our most recent matches as fuel. Miami will play with little heart due to the whole NCAA, you’re whole program is going down in flames thing. We should win and win big.
Clemson: We get this one at home, and Bobby Dodd will be rocking. Now remember, Clemson has always struggled in Atlanta. Since 1869 they have played Tech in Atlanta 56 times. They have only won 12 of those. That is a .214 winning percentage. Since 1990 we’ve played in Atlanta 10 times and Tech has walked away with 7 of them. This game will be a close one (as usual) and I see Tech winning this one with the rocking home crowd (especially if we come in undefeated), the Atlanta curse that Clemson is dealing with and, as with Miami, if we remember the abysmal effort we had last year and use that as fuel.
We could trip up somewhere along here, and being undefeated in college football is very hard. So I think it’s a toss up between 9-0 and 8-1.
This kool-aid really is delicious, I’ll share the recipe with y’all if you want.
Go Jackets, go America.
THWG.
I always find myself drinking it.
But I think I can just see us beating so many teams. Like, we’re definitely capable of beating anyone on our schedule…it’s just that I have too much confidence that we WILL execute in all of them. But that’s also the struggle, is picking out the ones where we won’t execute compared to where we will.
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
by LilBroey700 on Aug 24, 2011 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions
You're right.
If we execute we will go 9-0, and we all saw last year what happens when we don’t execute. I just like to think that this team has learned their lesson and will go hard on every play, circa ’09.
And Dive Keep and Pitch raised a valuable point about the OL. The OL will make or break a season for any team and doubly so for a run based team such as ours. I’ve read your link about the Goon Squad and I’m cautiously optimistic.
I can say this with certainty though; if our OL isn’t up to snuff, we will be looking a losing season dead in the eyes.
Where’d that kool-aid go? I’m thirsty.
Go Jackets, go America.
THWG.
O.K., set me up.
It goes down easy this time of the year.
by Atlanta's original team on Aug 24, 2011 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Bartender Make My Koo-Aid a Double
This is a tough year to predict. I can see Tech winning all of these game but also losing a good amount of them too. I side on the positive side and say 8-1 after october the only loss being at Miami. Somebody take my keys…….
First we have to find somebody who can find our keys. We’re all three sheets to the wind.
by Atlanta's original team on Aug 24, 2011 10:14 PM EDT up reply actions
So....
Clemson is a White Out game again this season. Just thought alumni should know that (I found out on Fan Day.) We all remember the last time we whited out Clemson, right? 21-0 before they ever scored. (Last season’s white out mid-day game against NCSU sucked for sure, but this year could be much better so I think we should participate.)
It is my understanding
That the white out game is VT this season.
Go Jackets, go America.
THWG.
by JohnHeisman on Aug 24, 2011 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions
You can't ever really be wrong doing that.
The Church of Paul Johnson - There's not much to it outside of whooping ass and giving haters the finger. To HELL With georgie!
8-1
NCSU is on my worry list. One, the game is in Raleigh. Second, they are still pretty good. Ditto with Clemson (except we have them on The Flats). Not VPI good, but still good. NCSU and Clemson will be the closest, most even matchups we face all season. Beat them both, and we could back into the ACCCG with some VPI misfortune, even if we lose to the Hokies. Beat them both with some oomph to spare, and it’s bring on the Gobblers. On the other hand, if we have O-line problems, we lose ‘em both. Realistically, I think we split the pair. Can’t pick which one we win and which one we lose. Clemson is better but we will have home field.
If it weren’t for FSU, the Textile Bowl would probably decide the ACCA this year. It will be appointment TV, in any case.
Side note: NCSU ought to get on their knees every day and thank God for Cumberland College. Otherwise, Tech’s biggest butt-whooping of all time would have been blanking the Pack 128-0. I also remember that game in the rain where the Wolfpack long snapper snapped the ball over the punter’s head and out the back of NCSU’s end zone, whacking the Wardlaw Building, for a Tech safety. One of the more comical moments I remember in Tech football.
Maryland: Edsall is a good coach, but there’s still work to be done in College Park. We beat Maryland, possibly in a scary close one. Watch out for next year, though, when we make the trip to College Park. Maryland will get good, and quick. Then, thankfully, we will be rid of the Terps for 4 years.
UVA: The Charlottesville curse is broken. So will be the Wahoos. UVA will be better, but not that much better. Something tells me there is still some mess to clean up in Charlottesville (which is why I think Duke will beat them too). We win this one and add UVA back to the list of schools with whom Tech has a winning record (if we do, this will leave VT, FSU, and georgie as the only schools we play regularly with whom we don’t have winning records; we used to have the same issue with Carolina).
Side note: UVA has to be the Tennessee of the ACC. Always think they are better than they actually are, and can beat you just often enough to give you fits and give themselves delusions. And their fans are absolutely full of themselves (Formula 41-38 will give you fast temporary relief, though). And they wear orange.
Miami: I had Da U in the L column during the summer, but since so many of their starters will be riding the pine (at best! assuming they are even still on the team!) this is now in the W column. Fear the I. Unless all of Miami’s starters start.
Side note: I actually feel sorry for Da U, since most Miami fans I have met or encountered have been class acts. Loud and proud, perhaps, but classy. I remember when we got beat by Miami in the 2000 Gator Bowl, their fans were nothing but classy.
We play Miami 8 games into the season,
I think their individual penalties could be resolved by that time. Expect them to get about 5 games each, at a maximum. It looks like they will declare the 12 players ineligible this week, then immediately ask the NCAA to declare them eligible. Expect some suspensions to follow, but I will be surprised if it’s more than five games. It looks like we will be playing the U with them at full strength, or close to it. That is why I am calling that game as a loss for us.
Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
I went with 4-1
But it could be 3-2 easily. The obvious choice for the two losses would be Miami and Clemson, but I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if we somehow dropped one to NC State instead. I’m pretty sure that last year didn’t make CPJ happy and he’ll be all over the players to stay focused for each game. That gives me hope that we should be looking at a 8-1 to 6-3 record after these first two months.
"You could spend the next fifteen seconds of your life watching a man and a tiger scream together, or you could be an idiot."
Fact.
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