Quotes, Georgia Tech defeats Western Carolina, 63-21

by BirdGT on Sep 2, 2011 7:25 AM EDT in Georgia Tech Football

Let's see what all of the talking heads said about last night's romp in Bobby Dodd. A prediction came in late last night from the Asheville paper's Keith Jarrett:

The Catamounts’ best hopes are to collect a nice paycheck, avoid too many guys getting hurt and stay as competitive as possible against a Paul Johnson offense that can embarrass and bulldoze defenses that struggle to stop his complicated running game. Georgia Tech by 35.

The local guys would probably have been considered the most critical, if not for CPJ himself. Ken Sugiura, the AJC beat writer, covered the game last night and got some nifty quotes from CPJ. When asked about the special teams play:

"I'm probably as disappointed with that area as I am with anything because we have spent a lot of time" working on it, Johnson said. "Just bonehead. We've got to do a better job of coaching special teams. We've just got to, because we do some dumb stuff out there at times."

Johnson followed up his criticism with another reminder of the youth of Tech:

"I think anytime you've got a young team, they're going to make mistakes," Johnson said. "We made more than I thought we would."

The Macon Telegraph was also at the post game party. CPJ gave Stan Awtry this line about Tech's maturation:

"I told the team that the biggest improvement comes between the first game and the second game," Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson said. "And that better be the case, because we did 10 or 12 things that would have gotten us beat against a superior opponent."

No one should argue with Daniel Drummond. The defense was very aggressive and pretty effective all night considering they only really gave up 7 points on offensive drives:

"Our defense wants to have the brand that we’ll get to the ball like mad dogs," inside linebacker Daniel Drummond said. "The defense has really made progress. (Defensive coordinator Al) Groh said we’re 12 weeks ahead of where we were last summer."

All in all, I think the offense and defense did their jobs. We have got to lock up our special teams considering we lost two fairly critical games last year (VT and Air Force) on special team blunders. Any thoughts early this morning about the game last night?

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I'm excited

to see the receivers catching the ball, a little surprised we didn’t put over 300 yds rushing on them (haven’t we usually lost when we do that? hurray passing!), and feeling about the same way as CPJ about the fumbles and special teams, “just bonehead.” Definitely enjoyed being at the game last night.

by mcaruso753 on Sep 2, 2011 7:53 AM EDT reply actions

Also I think we scored 63, not 69.

by mcaruso753 on Sep 2, 2011 7:55 AM EDT up reply actions

Added "style points"

by Atlanta's original team on Sep 2, 2011 8:03 AM EDT up reply actions

(1) I was pleased with Tevin Washington
(2) I am pleased to recall that CPJ doesn’t show everything he’s got in the first few games
(3) Kick off coverage concerns me
(4) I hope the players keep their head out of the clouds and continue to work

by Atlanta's original team on Sep 2, 2011 8:05 AM EDT up reply actions

There's plenty of stuff for Johnson to yell at them about

I don’t think they’ll just sit back and be satisfied.

The schedule is good for working on things. MTSU is better, but not great, and Kansas is probably better than that.

by CraigT on Sep 2, 2011 8:10 AM EDT up reply actions

I am REALLY hung over right now....

Meaning it was a good night. Tech looked pretty good on offense….a couple bad plays here and there but far less than what we saw last year. Lots of big runs/catches and runs that likely can just be chalked up to superior talent, but are good to see nonetheless. It was good seeing guys catching the ball.

Rush defense was OK, pass defense was incredibly awful. If we play a team that can pass well (and we will) and play like that, we’re boned.

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 Sep 2, 2011 8:30 AM EDT reply actions

I agree

I made the same comment last night. It could have been that CAG didn’t dial up too many blitzes on passing downs as I only recall a few of them. I am fine with that because it would have sucked to see them get burned all night if they couldn’t get to the qb.

However, they absolutely should have been able to get better pressure last night against a team like that. If we can’t get more pressure from our base pass rush we are going to get picked apart by the better passing teams on our schedule.

The passing game looked solid, with the caveat that Washington was rarely under pressure. I doubt he will have it that easy again.

All that said though, it was a good win and an exciting game to watch. Take the extra days to clean up the special teams and get it done again next week. THWG!

"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.

by Jesse28 on Sep 2, 2011 11:02 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions

No

by RamblinWreck7 on Sep 2, 2011 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions

Tevin puts a lot of air under the ball. The problem is that teams with faster DB’s would have picked those balls. That aspect worries me a litte bit. I think all the passing was to give the receiving team some confidence, which they needed.

by Yakub2 on Sep 2, 2011 11:27 AM EDT reply actions

I do not agree

I think he put much less air under than Josh, and is much more accurate to boot this season (supposedly)

Paul Johnson: not giving a crap about what you have to say since 1987.

by GTNate on Sep 2, 2011 10:37 PM EDT up reply actions

The only thing I noticed was that there was a lot of air under the pitch to Orwin Smith

Watch the replay of that TD run. Orwin almost has to wait for the ball to come down. If any defenders had been close he never would have been able to get momentum going downhill for that run.

by Atlanta's original team on Sep 3, 2011 8:35 AM EDT up reply actions

2 things that I was not happy with.

The pass rush, during the middle of the game, was horrible. Don’t you dare blame it on the pass coverage if the quarterback has 4+ seconds to throw. I don’t know if they blitzed that often, but Groh better start getting more creative to put more pressure on the quarterback. Also, 5 fumbles :( enough said… We need to hold onto the ball.

I forgot, there were 2 dropped passes, but overall the passing game looked great! Lots of short to intermediate passes. Only one long ball that I could remember.

Great game though guys, keep it up!

by RamblinWreck7 on Sep 2, 2011 11:39 AM EDT reply actions

This also could be because be just played base defense for most of the game, but I can’t be certain. Good chance they didn’t want to put any game film out there just yet.

by Yakub2 on Sep 2, 2011 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions

We passed 8 straight times at one point

last night. The only time we’ve ever done that was in dire situations at the end of games not during a regular drive.

I write stuff From the Rumble Seat.

by BirdGT on Sep 2, 2011 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes

That was impressive. CPJ seems to be working on taking the option to the next level. Recently he commented that the first year was pretty basic and each year his vision is to make the offense more complex. Last night may have given us a glimpse of things to come. He is building confidence among the players as he layers-in more and more variations off of the basic scheme.

by Atlanta's original team on Sep 2, 2011 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions

The next level

I don’t know about taking the offense to the next level. Given the youth in the team – recall CPJ’s comment about 20 of 64 players dressed for the game being freshmen – I would think that we really aren’t all that far away from the basics.

by Dive Keep and Pitch on Sep 2, 2011 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions

That doesn't mean they are all starters though.

by RamblinWreck7 on Sep 2, 2011 7:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Exactly

The system is complicated and takes a while to learn but it doesn’t mean you have to start all over again every time a new freshman class comes in. You build continuity over time in the program. Newer players can catch on more easily when there are others who have been around the system a couple of years.

by Atlanta's original team on Sep 3, 2011 8:33 AM EDT up reply actions

Improvement

Offense looking better, defense looking better, special teams still needs work.

by jabbajacket on Sep 2, 2011 1:27 PM EDT reply actions

Why haven't I heard anything about

how David Simis didn’t do SQUAT up the middle?? We can’t get that goin, we can’t run our offense. Period.

Paul Johnson: not giving a crap about what you have to say since 1987.

by GTNate on Sep 2, 2011 9:09 PM EDT reply actions

WCU made a decision to stop that play

When I played hoops, we sometimes said the other team might beat us anyway, but their All-Conference guard is NOT going to beat us driving the lane. Or the big guy inside is not going to get the ball on the low post. What WCU did Thursday night cost them about 63 points, but they stopped the B-Back dive play. Whooopee! Maybe that would have worked last year, but Tevin is just good enough, and Hill and Melton are just good enough, for that to be disaster for a defense this season. I hope.

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?

by orientalnc on Sep 3, 2011 9:01 AM EDT up reply actions