Tuesday Thoughts 9/14: Hygge

Hello again! I’m writing to y’all quite worn out after a weekend of traveling but a good Jackets win is giving me all the energy I need.

Game Recap in Three Sentences

In his first career start Jordan Yates was dominant, going 17-23 for 254 yards and 4 TDs.

Jordan Domineck earned the play of the game with a 70 yard fumble recovery TD.

Jahmyr Gibbs only had 9 carries but he still made a huge impact with 56 rushing yards, 44 receiving yards, and 42 kick return yards.

#404 Swag Champion of the Game

This one is a tie between Yates and Domineck. Yates was fantastic in this game and was everything you want to see from your backup making his first start. Domineck also gets huge props for his scoop-and-score that earned a quote tweet from Lamar Jackson:

ATLeast We Ain’t Them of the Week

Apologies to Paul Johnson, but this week’s big loser was Western Carolina. The Catamounts were absolutely routed by Oklahoma to the tune of 76-0. The Sooners dropped 624 total yards and 32 first downs, Spencer Rattler threw 5 TDs, and five OU RBs averaged over 7 yards/rush.

Above The Line of the Week

• Dontae Smith. Give the man more touches please.
• Daniil Medvedev. This is a tennis blog, get over it.
• Winning the turnover margin.

5 Star (7 Star, 5 Star) Developmental Program Haiku of the Week

Win the games you should
The recipe for success
Get better each week

Hygge

It’s been a while since I’ve been comfortable as a Georgia Tech fan. Over the past two years we’ve endured a lot, but one of the more subtle negatives has been the near constant stress and tension around every single game. 2018 Bowling Green was probably the last time that I woke up on a fall Saturday and felt truly and completely comfortable. As a program we’ve been fighting tooth and nail for everything and honestly that gets a bit exhausting. I think a lot of fans have been burnt out lately and it’s not just the losses; it’s the lack of comfortable wins that really eats away at your mental bandwidth.

While I didn’t wake up on Saturday feeling a particularly large amount of comfort, I soon found it as the game progressed. I was able to watch the first quarter before boarding an Amtrak to NYC, keep up with the second quarter on my phone on the train, and then almost completely ignore the second half and focus on finishing Dune. Let me tell you: being able to confidently ignore a football game is true fan bliss and it’s been missing in my life. This is what Clemson, Bama, UGA, and Ohio State fans must feel almost every week. Tight, stressful games can be fun too (if you win), but you need a healthy balance of comfortable wins to go along with them. I may be projecting a bit here because I’m writing this while laying on my couch after a hectic non-stop weekend of travel, but as a fan you need those easy games to recharge and repair your passion.

I guess beating Kennesaw isn’t exactly something to write home about but who cares, comfortable beating an FCS team is college football hygge. It just feels so cozy to be able to put complete trust in the team and know you’ll be satisfied with the end result. A three-score halftime lead feels like being under a weighted blanket with snacks and drinks close at hand. Go get some food; we’ll still be up big when you get back.

I know we can’t get this feeling every week, but I think the goal should be 3-4 hygge games every season. We should be getting one or two gimme out-of-conference games and then absolutely owning teams like Duke and UVA. I don’t want to worry about teams like Clemson and UGA right now; I want to focus on getting to a point where we can consistently and comfortably beat most of the teams in our (pretty weak) division. I’m gonna keep saying it because it all ties back: win the games you’re supposed to. Make me feel cozy.

Look Ahead

Up next is the biggest Big Bad, Clemson. It’s nice that we had fun this week because next week is gonna be tough y’all. No they didn’t look great against UGA but I assure you that has no bearing here. They’re pissed off and on an absolute war-path to beat every remaining opponent by 50 to get back into the Playoff. Oh and also Dabo has it out for Geoff Collins, so there’s that. The spread is somewhere around 28 points and I think that’s pretty reasonable but we’re certainly capable of beating that if we play at our best. So while we can’t expect a win here, what can we expect? Personally I’d really like to see us score two touchdowns and hold them to under 450 yards; that would show that we’re continuing to improve and that’s enough against the Tigers for me. Something in the 21-42 range would be perfectly fine. Let’s go out there and play our best.