Georgia Tech Football: What Should We Learn This Week - Notre Dame

Well last week ended up being even less fun than I thought it would be! Before we start talking about this week though, let’s revisit Boston College one last time and see what we learned.

Can Geoff Collins eclipse his highest win total at Georgia Tech?

Doesn’t look like it!

Can Georgia Tech do anything about Phil Jurkovec?

Georgia Tech made Jurkovec look like a Heisman candidate, does that count?

Can the offense move the ball without relying on explosive plays?

So after talking with Akshay, he actually added EPA without explosive plays to GameOnPaper.com, so you can now go check that out!

Against Boston College, the Yellow Jackets had just three explosive plays, so removing those did not alter the EPA/play too much. The Yellow Jackets finished at -0.10 EPA/Play, -0.45 EPA/Pass, and 0.20 EPA/Run, which from what I can tell are pretty standard numbers, with the run total clearly being the best.

Using this stat, this was actually Georgia Tech’s best rushing performance of the season on a per play basis.

Now as Georgia Tech goes onto face Notre Dame in South Bend this weekend, let’s see what we can learn this week!

Can Georgia Tech avoid getting embarrassed?

Oh man, I sure hope so, but I’m not holding out much hope. The Irish stand at 9-1, with their most recent victory being a 28-3 throttling of Virginia in Charlottesville. Tech, on the other hand, did very poorly against Virginia in Charlottesville.

Georgia Tech’s best bet in this game is its strongest unit: the running game. Tech running backs are averaging 0.17 EPA/run while ND is allowing -0.01 EPA/run. In general, the defense is strong, so if Tech wants to stay in this game, they will need to establish the running game early on and build from that.

Will we see some younger guys this week?

Georgia Tech was mathematically eliminated from bowl season with the loss to Boston College last week. With just two games left in the season, I think there’s a decent chance we see some younger guys who are redshirting get a chance to get some real playing time. Look at Jamious Griffin for example. He seems to be redshirting, but he also helped on kick returns last week. I think we’ll get to see him a little more this week.

I would also really like to see more of the younger guys in the secondary. It has been one of the weakest position groups all season, so honestly, at this point, why not just throw some new guys out there and see what they can do?

Will Tech’s defense have any kind of answer for covering Notre Dame TE Michael Mayer?

Last week, we saw defensive end Jordan Domineck end up covering a tight end, so let’s hope that Andrew Thacker has a better gameplan than that.

But yes, Michael Mayer is currently Notre Dame’s leading receiver, with 577 yards on 52 catches with four touchdowns. He stands at 6-4, 251 and seems to fit into the mold of a typical Notre Dame tight end, so that should be fun.

Tech’s pass defense has been particularly bad this season, so I’m not optimistic here, but if nothing else, if we can somewhat contain Mayer, I’ll be happy with that.

What are you hoping to learn this week?