Opinion Week: Sometimes People Are Wrong On the Internet

In continuing with the theme of Opinion Week, we’re going to change it up today for the final installment. Rather than me giving you a hot take on something I believe will happen this fall, we’re going to shift the focus to bad opinions that we’ve seen on our opponent’s blogs, our Facebook comments, and yes, even the comments here at FTRS.

We’re always watching, and we’re always judging you.

“Georgia Tech Should Switch to a Pro-Style Offense”

This is a bad argument for several reasons. The first is that a “pro-style” offense isn’t even an actual thing. If you watched this last year’s NFL playoff semifinals, the 4 teams in it all ran elements of spread offenses and didn’t much look like what’s traditionally thought of as pro-style with 2 RBs and a TE. So before we even delve into this, pro-style isn’t a thing. Stop trying to make it a thing. It’s never going to happen.

Secondly, when has Georgia Tech ever had success with the style of offense that term is even making reference to? If you want to go back to the 7-win Chan Gailey years because you sometimes can’t follow who has the ball when watching a Paul Johnson offense, then we don’t have much sympathy for you here. The flexbone allows Georgia Tech to even the playing field when playing more talented teams. It’s a perfect fit for the school and has given the Ramblin’ Wreck a national identity in athletics it was previously missing.

The closest to a traditionally thought-of pro-style offense in recent memory was UGA under OC Brian Schottenheimer. Believe me, you don’t want that product anywhere near Bobby Dodd Stadium. It was ugly. It got Richt fired after a 10-win season.

In short, we’re not going to run the Pittsburg Steelers’ offense. Our current offense is too sexy for that.

“CPJ Needs to Develop a Short Passing Game”

What’s a short pass considered? Like 4-8 yards? Let me hit you with some stats real quick on why a short passing game is not remotely necessary in this offense. Dedrick Mills, our B-Back, averaged 5.1 ypc last season between the tackles. Clinton Lynch averaged 11.2 ypc from his A-Back position while Qua Searcy averaged 5.9 ypc opposite him. If any 3 of those players just make their average carry distance, they’re probably converting that 3^rd down you’re worried about while keeping the ball on the ground.

Also, three things can happen when you throw the ball. Two of them are bad.

“It’s the Flexbone That Limits Recruiting, Not Academics”

Please regale me with tales of the times when Georgia Tech was drowning in 5* recruits before Paul Johnson and his goofy offense came in and ruined the Yellow Jackets’ string of Top-10 recruiting classes.

I’ll wait.

"Stanford can do this, so we can too"

This has been discussed ad-nauseum on this blog and in our comments section. It’s comparing apples to oranges when it comes to academics, curriculum variety, budgets, marketing, etc… Let Georgia Tech be okay with being Georgia Tech. That’s not to say there’s no areas that the GTAA could improve in, but we’re not going to cover this again.

"Are Academics Really That Much More Important than Football?"

Would you like to diminish the quality of your degree by lowering admission standards and adding easier classes in order to maybe land a couple more recruits that may or may not translate to on-field results? Who do you think we are, UNC?

“Georgia Tech Should Hire a Saban Assistant Next”

Please, anything but that. We don’t need another school in the state trying to be Alabama Lite. That title has already been claimed.

Hiring a Saban assistant is also not a sure thing. It’s worked out well with Mark Dantonio at Michigan State and Jimbo Fisher at FSU, but you could also end up with Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, or Kirby Smart.

Why is everyone in the SEC East trying to be Alabama? Just stop.

“Georgia Tech Should Try to Get Back in the SEC”

The ACC was a better conference last year in every major sport.

However, this is the only bad opinion I would be in support of because it would give Georgia Tech football and basketball an easier road to the national title game. You can read about basketball here.

So, let’s say Georgia Tech joined the SEC East last football season. You may remember the Yellow Jackets went 3-0 against that division while not actually playing in it. Three wins ties them with Vandy and South Carolina in the 2016 standings, while putting them ahead of Mizzou. You may remember Georgia Tech beating the tar out of Vandy last season, so let’s go ahead and start them in this argument ahead of them.

Georgia Tech also beat Kentucky and georgia last season who were both tied for second place with 4 wins. Tennessee also had 4 wins, but hilariously lost to Vanderbilt who, you may remember, Tech whooped. So we’ll say Tech adds a win over Tennessee via the transitive property, and takes wins away from both Georgia and Kentucky… these are conference games now, remember.

So now, our Yellow Jackets are sitting at 4 wins in the East. We’ll go ahead and add wins against South Carolina and Mizzou via the transitive property, and also because those teams are / were trash. This brings our SEC East total wins to 6, which is tied with Florida, who finished in first place of the division. This doesn’t include whatever cross-division games Tech would draw, but let’s call us 1-1 in those. Say we beat the crap out of Mississippi State again for old time’s sake, but we drop one to LSU.

I know adding a team to the East messes up the win-total math, but without playing Florida, Georgia Tech would be sitting at 7-1 in conference. This easily puts them in the SEC championship game against Alabama, with a much clearer shot to the playoffs. Sure the Tide would be a large obstacle standing in the way of the Wreck, but Saban is known to struggle against option teams

See? If Georgia Tech football wants to make the playoffs, they would only need to join the SEC East, rack up some easy wins, and of course, a quality loss.

So tell us, commentariat, what’s the worst opinion you have about Georgia Tech football?

Days to Kickoff: 94