Mailbag 9/30

Where can I get the best mac and cheese in town?

Ben: I’m quite partial to doing homemade mac and cheese, but to each their own.

Carter: Mac and cheese is a large amount of calories I generally try to keep out of my diet. That said, Cypress Street has some pretty good mac.

Jeff: This might sound like a weird place for this question but Longhorn has a steakhouse Mac N Cheese that is pretty good.

Robert: It used to be Carver’s, RIP; try Thelma’s right off of Auburn Avenue.

Jake: At the risk of doxxing myself, the best mac and cheese in town can be found at SQ5 in my apartment. What it lacks in fanciness, it makes up for in sheer value.

But, other than that, I really enjoy what Moe’s BBQ has thanks to their great student discount, and I’m also a fan of Mary Mac’s, may they reopen soon.

How excited are you/we that it is almost OCTOBER, the bestest month of the year?

Ben: I’m a big fan of the fall, period, so I’m ready for October.

Chris: Thank you for having a good opinion about months. November might get a slight edge for me, but October is definitely awesome.

Carter: I’m on record as saying fall is the best feeling season, so the excitement level is pretty high, as long as I can ignore the oncoming seasonal depression.

Jeff: It truly is the best. Now if only my sports teams didn't generally suck the life out of the Fall that would be great.

Jake: I see your Atlanta October and I raise you midwestern October. The corn mazes and country farm stands aren’t contrived like they are here, the sweater weather is actually sweater weather, and there’s real chili. Plus, a nice afternoon football game in the sun, awesome.

How long is Sims’s leash at QB?

Ben: At this point, I think it’s Sims’ job to lose. If we were going to see another QB this season, I think we already would have.

Chris: Agreed with Ben, at this point I think it’d be detrimental to see him benched.

Jeff: Well we saw Yates for a brief moment but I Sims is pretty much the guy for this season.

Robert: If we go winless in October, you might see someone else get meaningful snaps in the final few games. But as the others have said, I think they’re committed to developing Sims and playing for the next 2-3 years.

Carter: Extremely long, and not without good reason. Sims does seem like the guy, but if we’re still looking for win #2 by November, I imagine the coaches will give some experience to the other QBs.

Jake: From Wardlaw to McCamish.

Were y’all satisfied with what you heard postgame from CGC?

Ben: I stopped listening to CGC’s postgame reports a long time ago. He speaks almost entirely in coachspeak which just gets tiring to listen to.

Chris: I mean, he said what he was supposed to say. Not that I don’t believe him or anything, but the way I look at these things is you either say something horribly wrong or you say the thing everyone expects you to say.

Jeff: I don't put much stock in what coaches say during pressers because as Ben and Chris said it's just rehearsed coach speak.

Robert: It was fine. He recognized and owned the things that were particularly costly in this game. I care a lot more about what happens in those areas the next 8 games than what he said in the presser.

Carter: I don’t really listen to coaches’ postgames as a matter of course. Didn’t do it when Paul Johnson was coach, don’t do it now. The most important/interesting things will trickle out anyway. But I went back and read Ken’s transcripts of what he had to say, and you know, it sounds like says the right things. At some point, though, results and actions need to match the words, and right now, it’s all talk.

Jake: He took all the blame for the loss. Again! Like, I get it. But at some point, it gets a little repetitive.

Assuming that we can’t have/keep nice things what is the likelihood that any of best players transfer after this year if year 2 of the rebuild looks like year 1? I’m not trying to be debbie downer but if we have a 3-9 year, could you see someone like Gibbs (assuming he stays the beast he looks like now) transferring to a traditional Powerhouse school? Or are the players that are on the team buying into the culture and the rebuild to stay for the long haul?

Ben: First of all, I would recommend you to relax just a little bit. I’m not saying you need to be blind with optimism, but I highly doubt there is going to be any kind of mass exodus like you’re alluding to. Gibbs had offers from both Ohio State and Florida. If he didn’t want to come to Tech, quite plainly, he wouldn’t have come here.

Chris: I think the players are bought into the culture.

Jeff: For now I think the players are pretty on board with the coaching staff. I credit a lot of that to the positional coaches.

Robert: I doubt it. I’m sure there’s frustration with the last two weeks of losses, but the young guys appear to have really good relationships with their primary recruiters and position coaches. They know that we’re building, and they are confident about being being part of the growth.

Jake: I think they knew enough about what they were getting into (see: 2018 fall early signing class) and are #404theCulture enough that they’re here for a while.

How much of the performance on offense can be linked to facing the 3-3-5. Looking at o-line and QB. Anyone else on our schedule run 3-3-5?

Ben: I doubt it. There are pros and cons to any kind of style of defense, but I think it’s a stretch to say that because X team runs a 3-3-5, that team automatically has some kind of advantage.

Chris: waits for scheme guys to respond

Jeff: I was asked this on a podcast earlier this week and I think it may have had a small effect since Sims is such a young QB and they could throw different blitzes at him.

Robert: Sims has faced pressure and struggled the last two weeks. GT gave up pressures on 45% of dropbacks against Syracuse, including all four of the dropbacks that led to Sims’s interceptions. That’s a GT issue, not a 3-3-5 issue.

Why is everyone so negative?

Ben: Because this team is not very good. People want immediate success, and quite frankly, Tech hasn’t gotten that.

Chris: Things aren’t great. From my interactions I don’t think that most people are strictly negative, I think a lot of people (myself included) are just disappointed. I certainly didn’t expect winning seasons right off the bat last year, but I expected more than this. Part of the frustration is seeing the talent and seeing the potential but living with the actual results. I still think there’s a bright future ahead, but its tough to think about that when the present is a relentless onslaught of losing winnable games in agonizing fashion.

Jeff: I've started to sour a little because we may see some improvement one week but regress the next few. UCF was a stronger opponent than Syracuse and the OL did pretty well but looked like last year against Syracuse. It's hard to measure where the progress is week to week.

Robert: I was pretty upset when the game ended on Saturday. I expected to win, and we lost by 17. But looking deeper into the numbers and at what has happened in these three games, I see a few areas of improvement, as well as a few areas of stagnation. We have been more efficient on offense, but we haven’t made a lot of big plays and have brutal turnovers. We haven’t improved in creating havoc plays or preventing big plays on defense. We we last in the country in FG percentage last year, and we’re worse this year. Observing these things doesn’t make us negative; it makes us realistically concerned at how many areas of non-improvement there are so far this year.

Jake: I want to be positive. So so so so so badly. I usually am! I just keep getting the “empty excuse” BS meter triggered by the head man and they did the unfortunate thing of actually giving us expectations after the win against Florida State.. I truly believe this team has a lot of growing to do. I wouldn’t call it negativity — and certainly wouldn’t call it hating on any players (because someone accused us of that this week, which was uncalled for and wrong) — but a healthy dose of realism makes the lumps easier to swallow for me. And I’ll be the first one to be raving about everything we’re doing successful on the Flats (see: COVID testing/management, volleyball, cross country) in the meantime, and take my liberty as a free-thinking fan to say, yes, it is reasonable to expect less false starts, et cetera.

Carter: Ya know, the clapback I get for saying “Georgia Tech is bad and looks like a poorly coached team” tends to fall along the lines of “um, excuse me, did you expect to win ten games? it’s called ***rebuilding***”. First of all, no, I wrote on this very website that at best case — best case — I was expecting eight wins. Second of all, “rebuilding” does not excuse the seeming lack of discipline and preparedness the team has demonstrated the last two games. That’s directly on the coaches, and isn’t something you can blame on any previous regimes. My expectations are low, and this staff falls short of them time after time. All the “juice”, hashtags, and slogans in the world can’t excuse it. Good lord, y’all. Got me this worked up on a Tuesday.

Hey guys, so that weekend sucked... This is why I never bet on GT for anything. Literally, I bet against us and won some money. Well, I would have had I not then gone double or nothing on SC beating the spread against Tennessee. I was so close on that one too. Anyway, my question is who is your favorite fictional character and why?

Ben: You always have some of my favorite questions, because it helps me not think about Georgia Tech sports for a minute, it’s always great! Anyway, one of my favorite fictional characters is Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not just a great show, Zuko’s arc, from beginning to end, is one of the greatest redemption arcs in existence.

Chris: I think I’ve said in a previous mailbag that Jamie Lannister is my favorite book character, and my brain is exhausted right now so I can’t think of anyone else so I’m gonna go with him here as well. Again please ignore the way the show handles him at the end, but book Jamie is such an interesting character with a genuinely enthralling emotional arc.

Jeff: Dandelion, which is the correct name for the bard from the Witcher series, is probably my favorite. He constantly disarms Geralt with his wit but fails to ever take his own advice when it comes to his vices of women and drinking.

Robert: Adam Trask in East of Eden. He deals with sorrow upon sorrow; he wrestles with choices about forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. He represents so much about the struggles that face every human.

Jake: This is where I jam in a plug for Jon Bois’ new project, 20020, a speculative fiction based on the premise “what does football look like in the far future,” specifically the college edition, as a follow-up to his previous 17776. Both are well worth your time, particularly the new sequel for its immediate Tech ties. Are three space probes my favorite characters? No. My cliche answer has always been Atticus Finch, because he’s A Good Man. Always been a role model of mine, I guess.

Georgia Tech has a pretty tough schedule. Really means losing to Syracuse is that much worse. Do you see us winning another game this year? I’d say maybe NC State. Possible BC. We usually play pitt close so maybe them too? What do you think?

Ben: Yeah, I think Georgia Tech still has a couple of wins left on the schedule. I couldn’t tell you what they are, but I think they’ll pull a couple wins out.

Chris: A fair number of us were fairly confident we could pull a win against Louisville, and they just lost their starting QB. NC State is definitely bad. Duke and BC I think are possibilities if we play our best. Miami and Pitt feel a little out of reach at this point, but I feel better about keeping it a close game against Pitt than I do against Miami’s offense.

Jeff: I don't think we get close to Pitt this year because of their defense. Duke has some serious issues to work out and NC State seems pretty weak but so did Syracuse...Miami is always due for a stupid blunder like last year.

Robert: I’d put the over/under at 1.5 more wins. Duke, NC State and BC look the most possible.

Jake: We’ll get another. Duke and NC State are at the top of my list.

Carter: I think I’m gonna have another beer. And if you’re ever in the southwest corner of Michigan, Transient makes some excellent brews.