Keeping Georgia Tech under 50: Say what you want about Georgia Tech’s schedule, but the Yellow Jackets beat a North Carolina defense dotted with a few future NFL players. Paul Johnson’s team averages 50 points a game. That’s not a misprint. Maybe Oregon East can be found in Atlanta. They have a ridiculous eight one-play touchdown drives. They scored 45 points Saturday against North Carolina State — with the help of a defensive touchdown — even though quarterback Tevin Washington had a subpar game. It is difficult enough for any team to prepare for the triple-option in one week. Maryland must do it with a reduced practice schedule of 17.5 hours this week and an injury-depleted defense.
I think the quote about "Oregon East" is very relevant to what I am about to break down and show you. I wanted to compare Georgia Tech's offensive numbers for this season to that of 2008, 2009, and 2010. What we will see is that the Georgia Tech offense is good, it's going to move the ball, and it's going to score regardless of how successful the season is going.
As we have discussed during the offseason, the 2011 Georgia Tech football season would finally be the season where Paul Johnson has 100% of the credit. We are running his entire system with his players, save for a bare minimum. We have passed the 1/3 mark of the season and are quickly bearing down upon the halfway mark itself. How does the 2011 football team compare to that of its three predecessors?
As you recall the schedules went like this:
2008: Jacksonville State, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Mississippi St.
2009: Jacksonville State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, Mississsippi St.
2010: South Carolina St., Kansas, North Carolina, NCSU, Wake Forest
2011: Western Carolina, MTSU, Kansas, North Carolina, NCSU
I'd love to dive into some FootballStudyHall EqvP and Success Rate statistics but we'll take that for another day. This morning we'll just take it from a high level view.
Observations:
1. 2010 was a sucky year against the ACC
2. Offensive yardage bunches up in the 4th and 5th game regardless (6 of 8 ACC, 2 Miss State games)
3. Even with 2010 reminding us why it was so bad, we still put up offensive yardage numbers that some teams would drool over. This means that even when we are bad, we're going to move the ball and teams are going to struggle to contain us.
4. Five games per season is a pretty small sample size
Here is a graph that shows offensive points per game through the first give games of the season.
Observations:
1. We are scoring at a good clip
2. 2010 yet again was obviously bad
3. Big difference between 2011 and 2009, our ACC Championship year
The differences between 2011 and the other Paul Johnson seasons are illustrated very well in accumulation graphs.
Now that's a good trend.
2008: 2,060 yards offense
2009: 2,028 yards offense
2010:1, 941 yards offense
2011: 2, 935 yards offense
2008: 142 points scored
2009: 150 points scored
2010: 148 points scored
2011: 258 points scored
With Georgia Tech moving at this good clip, an emphasis should be placed on continuing defensive improvement. In Paul Johnson's words, "I'm happy as long as we score more than the other team."
What else do these graphs tell you?