The More You Know...About Georgia Tech

The More You Know...About Georgia Tech

Dan E. Dangerously
Dan E. Dangerously
The #14 ranked Hurricanes (4-0) are having their best start since their inaugural ACC season in 2004. Time to get ready and dive into ACC play against The Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech.

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We've been OK against the run this year (34th in the nation), but this offense is completely different from anything we've seen so far this season. Throw our defensive stats out the window for this game. They gave us all we could handle last year and then some. The good part about that is our defense is a lot better. The bad part is so is theirs. I have no idea what to expect from this game.

1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:

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There's a familiar face at the top of the division right now. Pay no mind to them, it's all about Georgia Tech this week. We're the last team in our half of the division to play a conference game, and it's nothing but ACC opponents for us the rest of the way. With Georgia Tech losing to the Hokies last Thursday they can't afford to lose another conference game this early in the year. Especially another one to a team in their division. Losing to us would all but eliminate them from the division crown just 5 games into the season with a road trip to Clemson still awaiting them in November.

Here's what Virginia Tech fans are saying about Georgia Tech:

From: Gobbler Country

chicagomaroon said:
The Hokies out-gained the Jackets 276-273 and were competitive in the time of possession category, controlling the ball for 28:38. Thomas started 9-of-9 passing and finished a very strong 19-25 for 221 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions, his first such game this season without a turnover. He also rushed for 58 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. All of this after not taking a single snap in practice all week with what Thomas called, an abdominal strain.

The defense held the Yellow Jackets to just over half their average yards per game (273 yards compared to their normal 484.7) and just over a third of their typical rushing total (129 compared to their average coming in at 345.3).

If Logan Thomas of all people can be efficient against them, then one would think Morris should be able to light them up like he did last year.

2. What happened the last time Miami played Georgia Tech?

[video=youtube;t0TDdaA8mqg]www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0TDdaA8mqg[/video]

From the Associated Press:

ATLANTA --Mike James scored untouched on a 25-yard run, moments after Miami stopped Georgia Tech quarterback Tevin Washington on fourth-and-inches on the first possession of overtime, giving the Hurricanes a wild 42-36 win Saturday.

Junior quarterback Stephen Morris passed for 436 yards and rallied the Hurricanes (3-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) from a 36-19 deficit...

If anyone ever asks you when was the last time a Hurricane player picked up his entire team and carried them on his back, just point them to this game where the 'ol boy Mike James ran harder than a Russian and scored 4 touchdowns.

The 1st score was a short carry on the goal line at the end of the 1st quarter. It happened right after Malcolm Lewis' injury and gave us a 19-0 lead. The 2nd one was a 15 yard run early in the 4th quarter to bring us within 7. We were desperately trying to come back after giving up 36 straight points. He ran over like 3 guys on the way to paydirt. The 3rd one completed a 91 yard drive, the first 50 yards of which came by way of 5 straight passes to Davon Johnson. The last 2 of which went for 20 yards over the middle and into Georgia Tech territory. The scoring play came on a dump-off screen where James followed Ben Jones into the endzone to tie the game at 36 with under 30 seconds left. After the defense stoned Georgia Tech on 4th and inches inside the 5 yard line, Mike James quickly put the game to bed:

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Here's him after the game:

[video=youtube;I6lgdQjgOP0]www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6lgdQjgOP0[/video]

What a human. So humble. Such a great leader. If the teams he played on weren't so awful, Mike James would be looked upon even more fondly than he already is. I'm still ****ed he didn't redshirt in '09, he should still be playing for us this year dammit.

3. Who to be scared of:

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David Sims

Sims is the B-Back in Georgia Tech's scheme, who lines up pretty much like a fullback. If you want to stop or even slow down Paul Johnson's option offense you have to stuff the inside runs to the B-Back first. Otherwise they'll just keep doing it over and over until you do stop it. He's got just shy of 250 yards on 50 carries through 4 games this year with 4 touchdowns. He's not Jonathan Dwyer, but he's efficient enough in his role.

This play (the zone dive) is what we should be seeing a healthy dose of from him:

[video=youtube;0DeNORFGtY0]www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DeNORFGtY0[/video]

If we don't hear the announcers call his name (or his backup's Zach Laskey) that often during the game, it means our defense is doing well.

4. Player that will score against us:

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Vad Lee

Points come from the QB in this offense. He's a better passer than Tevin Washington was, but that doesn't exactly make him good either. He's got a sub 50% completion percentage, going 29-63 for 562 yards and 7 touchdowns. He's the team's second leading rusher as well with 215 yards on 70 carries and 3 more touchdowns. He can be really dangerous when he keeps the ball after faking a handoff to his B-Back. He can either follow him into the hole on a designed QB dive, stretch it out wide with a pitch man like a traditional veer play, or he can step back and throw it over the top of linebackers who get sucked in on the play action. This clip is from when Nesbitt was still there, but the point remains how easily Georgia Tech can get chunks of yards in this offense.

[video=youtube;SXWj80hqRVw]www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWj80hqRVw[/video]

Here's a cheezy highlight video of Lee:

[video=youtube;YpXMELdv25w]www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpXMELdv25w[/video]

Fall Out Boy is the worst. The nickname Bad Vad is the 2nd worst.

5. Person that will **** you off:

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Paul Johnson's face

It's extremely punchable. Even more so when his OL gets flagged for a chop block ever other play. He yells and screams at the refs like they're making stuff up on the fly. Something like this:

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Learn the rules dummy. I really can't believe he's still there to be honest. His biggest accomplishment since 2009 was their win over USC in the Sun Bowl last year. Lane Kiffin getting fired the other day makes that even more meaningless than it already was.

6. Some other guy:

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DeAndre Smelter


Smelter is a junior who came to Georgia Tech to play baseball. He's basically their own Jimmy Graham type of story. Because of a numbers issue at WR, the coaches invited him to walk on. He now leads the team in receptions (9), yards (176), and touchdowns (2) despite not having played football since 2010 when he was in high school. He's playing the same role for them that Demaryius Thomas and Stephen Hill played in the past. He's not as good as them, but if their running game gets on a roll expect him to beat one of our DB's over the top if they get caught looking into the backfield.

7. Official internet meme for this game:

Not The Bees!

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[video=youtube;pele5vptVgc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc[/video]
 

Comments (86)

Good stuff, thanks man. i still can't believe the lost to VT. But VT is better than I thought they were. Will be some good wins throughout the conference for us.
 
I feel confident about this game. Improved D and we know our O will give us at least 35 pts

35-10 with us winning the first conference game of the season
 
Assignment football on D.

Score early and often.

Control tempo on O.

Assignment football on D.
 
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42-13 Canes.

GT is slower, smaller and weaker. And we're rolling.
 
I think we roll, Coach D and Golden have seen enough of GT's offense to figure it out. We are better, **** their D made VT's crappy QB look good
 
We're gonna find out just how real this defense is on Saturday. Can't wait.
 
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Good stuff as always Dan...

Here is GT in a nut shell.

- They are 3-1 (2-1), the record of their opponents is 9-10.
- GT has played one game this year on the road against Duke
- We know about the option but here is their passing statistics:

Vlad Lee 29-64 (49%) for 562 Yards 7 TDs 3 INTs

The crazy thing is the majority of those stats came against teams with poor defense, against VT

7 for 24 (29%) 144 Yards 2 INTs.

The sad part is GT was never out of the game, they were able to stick to their option attack yet they couldn't do much.

- GT's advantage is that they had an extra long week to prepare for us but they still have to travel.
 
this game is likely to be played in the rain based on forecast this morning... I hope it changes. I still want morris to be slinging it against them
 
Good stuff as always Dan...

Here is GT in a nut shell.

- They are 3-1 (2-1), the record of their opponents is 9-10.
- GT has played one game this year on the road against Duke
- We know about the option but here is their passing statistics:

Vlad Lee 29-64 (49%) for 562 Yards 7 TDs 3 INTs

The crazy thing is the majority of those stats came against teams with poor defense, against VT

7 for 24 (29%) 144 Yards 2 INTs.

The sad part is GT was never out of the game, they were able to stick to their option attack yet they couldn't do much.

- GT's advantage is that they had an extra long week to prepare for us but they still have to travel.

That's because VT's offense is awful
 
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Ive seen our team stop them when we play disciplined assignment football, I feel our D is much smarter than in years past and as long as we stick to our assignments and maintain gap control then we should win this game without a doubt
 
Good stuff as always Dan...

Here is GT in a nut shell.

- They are 3-1 (2-1), the record of their opponents is 9-10.
- GT has played one game this year on the road against Duke
- We know about the option but here is their passing statistics:

Vlad Lee 29-64 (49%) for 562 Yards 7 TDs 3 INTs

The crazy thing is the majority of those stats came against teams with poor defense, against VT

7 for 24 (29%) 144 Yards 2 INTs.

The sad part is GT was never out of the game, they were able to stick to their option attack yet they couldn't do much.

- GT's advantage is that they had an extra long week to prepare for us but they still have to travel.

That's because VT's offense is awful

We know, I have seen flag football games with better play calling.
 
Great stuff as always Dan.

But....Russians don't run hard. North Koreans do.
 
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We are much bigger at linebacker Curtis Porter didnt play last year and the secondary is much better.Frankly I dont think its even going to be close.
 
W/ the way our defense has played this year in terms of strength at the point of attack and discipline, we should do very well against GT's option.

The key is to avoid giving them a short field with turnovers and special teams' gaffes.

And if the offense continues to play as it has, we should be fine, though I still have major concerns about our ineffective short yardage game.
 
Ignoring their offense, here is their defense...

8th in Scoring Defense at 12.8 PPG
9th in Total Defense at 275.5 YPG

5 games against teams with a combined 9-10 record:

Elon: Not Ranked but 21.6 PPG, 380 Yards Per Game,
Duke: Scoring Offense 40th at 36.0 PPG, Total Offense 46th at 451.6 YPG
UNC: Scoring Offense 86th at 25.3 PPG, Total Offense 75th at 397 YPG
VT: Scoring Offense 92nd at 23.2 PPG, Total Offense 108th at 328.6 YPG

Average PPG: 26.53 PPG and 389.30 YPG which would equal the 80th Best Scoring Offense and 82nd Best Total Offensive Team.

IMO, this team has not been really tested.
 
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