Mailbag 7/27

Pkaltman1: The college football genie appears in front of you and offers you a deal - for the rest of your life, Georgia Tech football will only ever win one game a year, but that game will always be COFH. Do you accept?

Ben: No, and I don’t believe anyone who says otherwise. There is not a situation imaginable where I would be content with Georgia Tech winning only one game a season. I don’t care what the game is. Sure you’ll beat the state school and can brag to your neighbor. The program would become an absolute laughingstock, though, and it would never see or smell success ever again. Yeah, I’ll pass.

Logan: Part of the thrill of college football is the unexpectedness. watching a surprising upset or a shocking loss by a top team is a big part of what makes the sport enjoyable for me. So not only would I say no to this, I would say no to any scenario where we are guaranteed to win or lose against a given opponent every year.

Chris: Nope, not even a little tempted.

Jake: Part of me wants to say yes, but I think I would side the same way as above. Only winning one game - no matter what it is - would probably be a pretty embarrassing and tiring existence.

Carter: So you know Tech will win COFH every year, and you know Tech will lose every other game? Where’s the fun in that? The team is perpetually garbage and never goes to bowls, but at least they beat “that team in Athens”? We really need to end this series, man. Hard no from me.

Jack: That genuinely sounds like a massive ripoff and incredibly boring. I don’t hate any team anywhere enough to wish for something like that, and I’d ask my friends to get me help if I did.

gtbadcarma: With CGC taking the mic during the acc media day, did you hear anything that CGC said that gave you hope for this year, or are you like me and are already hearing the continuation of the same old tired lines from the last 3 years which show no real path or specificity of what he is trying to do or needs to focus on?

Ben: I stopped listening to anything Geoff Collins says a couple years ago.

Logan: No, not particularly. He didn’t say anything I didn’t expect him to say.

Chris: Not really, he mostly just reiterated the coach-speak talking points. Not really intending that to be a big knock either - coaches rarely say anything new and interesting at these kinds of things.

Jake: Sounds like the same old stuff to me, too.

Carter: I still just hear a cacophony of shrieking bats whenever I try to listen to Geoff Collins speak. I eventually read some of his responses in text form and they were entirely in line with what I would expect from him, which is a lot of words ultimately saying nothing.

Submitted via email: Hey guys,

Hope you are doing well this week. Things are looking up as we get closer to football season, although the heat has not let up yet. I hope y’all are still staying cold and looking forward to the upcoming sports season.

My question this week is about the rushing game in football. With rush heavy conferences like the SEC now turning to air raid type systems it seems like most of the teams in college football have started to turn against the run game. I don’t have the stats but it seems like teams (outside of programs running the flexbone) have had less attempts and average rushing yards over the past few years than what we are used to seeing.

My questions this week are a bit of a challenge, but what conference do you expect to have the highest amount of rushes and rush yards among their teams? Which team (outside of the flexbone teams) do you expect to have the most rushing yards at the end of the year? Finally, what is the average yards per game you expect to see out of the top non-flexbone team at the end of the year?

Later Y’all

Barry Sanders

Ben: This is an interesting question. Looking at per game rushing numbers from last season, Kent State was surprisingly highly ranked, rushing for nearly 250 yards per game. They had three players rush for 700 yards or more last season, and two of them are coming back. The one that isn’t returning is the quarterback, so I think you could see the Golden Flashes put up some fun running numbers this season.

Chris: I’m gonna still go with the SEC as the conference with the most rush yards and then I’ll say Coastal Carolina as the team and let’s give them 245 yards per game.

Jake: Northern Illinois runs an extremely run-heavy offense, and I think they’ll be even better than last year. I think that would definitely be a team to watch headed into next season.

Logan: Better question than last week dude. if you’re allowed to look at any conference then the choice should be the MAC. My comrades have pointed out teams like Kent State and NIU, but teams like Buffalo and Ohio are also good examples of MAC teams with strong run games. If you want a power 5 conference maybe look at the Big 12. Seems weird to say, but lack of defense in that conference can often lead to explosive run opportunities. I would expect flex one teams to end the season averaging somewhere between 280 and 350 rush yds per game, but the highest non flex one team will likely be between 190 to 205 rush yds per game.