...and our immediate future.

I attended a coaching clinic last weekend up in Atlanta.  New D-line coach Mike Pelton was among the speakers, but I didn't get a chance to see him.

I did see a coach who has been coaching defense for 30+ years giving a presentation on how to stop the spread option.

In his talk, he dissected what it was that the offense intended to do, etc.

The whole presentation was interesting to me for a number of different reasons, but the part that resonated most with me as a Tech football fan was when he made the comment that the offense became nearly unstoppable when a great QB was under center (or 3 yards back, for you shotgun-lovers!).

He said specifically that Tracy Ham caused him to have the worst day of his life coaching.

Now it isn't exactly an earth-shattering revelation to say that a great QB makes our offense much better, but it was interesting to hear the perspective of a guy on the other side of the field. 

I am very optimistic about our future because I see a guy in Vad Lee who has the talent to be a superstar in our offense.  No offense to Tevin Washington or Josh Nesbitt, but I think Vad has the complete package for what we want to do out there.  Obviously a great QB in any system is a difference-maker, but for our offense, which is predicated on exploiting match-ups, it is even more important.

This, plus an expected improvement in our D, has me giddy.

Is optimism even allow on the hive? I generally wait until I am having an exceptional day to log on and become miserable!!

gvillenatsfan wrote: Is optimism even allow on the hive? I generally wait until I am having an exceptional day to log on and become miserable!!

Sad, but true.

I am optimistic, but I tend to be that way most of the time.  Once again as I've said many times...

...if Ga Tech develops a kick ice defense... WATCH OUT!

We will be scary good.  We haven't had the combination of a strong D to go with this offense since CPJ has been here IMO.  2008 D was OK, but not strong IMO.  When I say strong, I'm talking most all of Tenuta's defenses, O'Leary's defense under Ross in '90 or of course the best ever in the Black Watch in '85.  Hopefully one of the charter members of that Black Watch (CTR) will get us at least closer to where Tenuta left us off when he departed.  We likely will never see another defense as good as '90 and certainly '85 ever again at Tech.  But, one can hope.

GTJT622 wrote:

gvillenatsfan wrote: Is optimism even allow on the hive? I generally wait until I am having an exceptional day to log on and become miserable!!

Sad, but true.

I am optimistic, but I tend to be that way most of the time.  Once again as I've said many times...

...if Ga Tech develops a kick ice defense... WATCH OUT!

We will be scary good.  We haven't had the combination of a strong D to go with this offense since CPJ has been here IMO.  2008 D was OK, but not strong IMO.  When I say strong, I'm talking most all of Tenuta's defenses, O'Leary's defense under Ross in '90 or of course the best ever in the Black Watch in '85.  Hopefully one of the charter members of that Black Watch (CTR) will get us at least closer to where Tenuta left us off when he departed.  We likely will never see another defense as good as '90 and certainly '85 ever again at Tech.  But, one can hope.

Kick ice defense? Heck, with merely an average defense this is a 10 win team. And I would be ecstatic with that this season.

I'm not expecting a CTR defense to be spectacular, but I think it will be adequate with 4 stops per game with no points and a CPJ offense that can win a lot of games with those 4 stops. I think the offense success potential lays directly on CBB shoulders in his ability to get VL and JT ready early, a big job IMO.

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--- GTKirk99 wrote:

GTJT622 wrote:

gvillenatsfan wrote: Is optimism even allow on the hive? I generally wait until I am having an exceptional day to log on and become miserable!!

Sad, but true.

I am optimistic, but I tend to be that way most of the time.  Once again as I've said many times...

...if Ga Tech develops a kick ice defense... WATCH OUT!

We will be scary good.  We haven't had the combination of a strong D to go with this offense since CPJ has been here IMO.  2008 D was OK, but not strong IMO.  When I say strong, I'm talking most all of Tenuta's defenses, O'Leary's defense under Ross in '90 or of course the best ever in the Black Watch in '85.  Hopefully one of the charter members of that Black Watch (CTR) will get us at least closer to where Tenuta left us off when he departed.  We likely will never see another defense as good as '90 and certainly '85 ever again at Tech.  But, one can hope.

Kick ice defense? Heck, with merely an average defense this is a 10 win team. And I would be ecstatic with that this season.

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This all reminds me of an old joke that goes like this: I was told "smile, things could be worse", so I smiled and sure enough things got worse.

Now, like most everyone else I sure HOPE our defense gets better and gets to the "good" level next year, so would someone, anyone, please tell me why our defense WILL be better/good next season.

BSBuzz

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RambleOn84 wrote: 
The whole presentation was interesting to me for a number of different reasons, but the part that resonated most with me as a Tech football fan was when he made the comment that the offense became nearly unstoppable when a great QB was under center (or 3 yards back, for you shotgun-lovers!).

He said specifically that Tracy Ham caused him to have the worst day of his life coaching.

He didn't say he could put 8 or 9 in the box and shut that thing down? Shocking! 

If that coach would read the Hive, he'd know the truth!

This is why I am optimistic....even lightly shaded gold colored glasses reads a level of overall depth as good as I can remember....

Keys - Kallon, Gamble, Gotsis, Green, and the FR DL need to AT LEAST meet expectations.  OL, BB, AB, LB and DB's look very solid with solid depth IMO.

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/geo...ster-breakdown/

(And one of the PK's can eliminate the fear of trying a FG)

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--- Buzzwax wrote:

This is why I am optimistic....even lightly shaded gold colored glasses reads a level of overall depth as good as I can remember....

Keys - Kallon, Gamble, Gotsis, Green, and the FR DL need to AT LEAST meet expectations.  OL, BB, AB, LB and DB's look very solid with solid depth IMO.

www.ajc.com/weblogs/geo...ster-breakdown/

(And one of the PK's can eliminate the fear of trying a FG)

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Thanks for the link.

BSBuzz

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Buzzwax wrote: This is why I am optimistic....even lightly shaded gold colored glasses reads a level of overall depth as good as I can remember....

Keys - Kallon, Gamble, Gotsis, Green, and the FR DL need to AT LEAST meet expectations.  OL, BB, AB, LB and DB's look very solid with solid depth IMO.

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/geo...ster-breakdown/

(And one of the PK's can eliminate the fear of trying a FG)

What I got from this and why I also feel more optimistic about the coming year is in the first set of figures:

19 Seniors

21 Juniors

For the first time in living memory (almost) we will have a full bench and most of our starters will be experienced players. When this happens and you have talent - we do, you know - you usually win. A lot. 

I've been disappointed along these lines before (2010), but the probabilities seems to be on our side as we approach 2013. Hope so, anyway.

Vad Lee,.....it's time.

I can understand your general premise, but Tracy Ham is the best quarterback to ever play collegiate football at any level since football was invented (ok, I am being a little bit facetious, but only a little bit).  So that is kinda like saying if Superman is on your track team you are going to win the 100m sprint.

I was optimistic last year and the other 49 years.  Sometimes it works, but around here.....wellllll!  I just want to beat the pups one more time.

Optimism is what makes it hurt so much every season in every sport.

I am ALWAYS optimistic at the beginning of a new year. You never know what will happen. If we can get the breaks to go our way this year (compared to how they've gone the last 3), we can win 9 or 10 games.

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--- LibertyJacket wrote:

I can understand your general premise, but Tracy Ham is the best quarterback to ever play collegiate football at any level since football was invented (ok, I am being a little bit facetious, but only a little bit).  So that is kinda like saying if Superman is on your track team you are going to win the 100m sprint.

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Superman is wearing #2 for us next season. ;-)

I agree with this post, and it re-affirms my belief that the future of this offense and CPJ's career rest on the shoulders of Mr. Lee.

GTKirk99 wrote:

GTJT622 wrote:

gvillenatsfan wrote: Is optimism even allow on the hive? I generally wait until I am having an exceptional day to log on and become miserable!!

Sad, but true.

I am optimistic, but I tend to be that way most of the time.  Once again as I've said many times...

...if Ga Tech develops a kick ice defense... WATCH OUT!

We will be scary good.  We haven't had the combination of a strong D to go with this offense since CPJ has been here IMO.  2008 D was OK, but not strong IMO.  When I say strong, I'm talking most all of Tenuta's defenses, O'Leary's defense under Ross in '90 or of course the best ever in the Black Watch in '85.  Hopefully one of the charter members of that Black Watch (CTR) will get us at least closer to where Tenuta left us off when he departed.  We likely will never see another defense as good as '90 and certainly '85 ever again at Tech.  But, one can hope.

Kick ice defense? Heck, with merely an average defense this is a 10 win team. And I would be ecstatic with that this season.

Well, there you have it then!  Why worry about having an excellent defense when all it takes to please you is an average defense?  Why should anyone exert themselves?  We can just keep on winning 52-49 and let folks have 400+ yards against us every Saturday.  Maybe our opponents will get exhausted from running up and down the field and we won't have to chase them down.  Some of us would like to see us play defense like we own the field and the other team is trespassing.  Let's get our 50 points and hold them under 14- for a change.

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--- ctmoore8 wrote:

GTKirk99 wrote:

GTJT622 wrote:

gvillenatsfan wrote: Is optimism even allow on the hive? I generally wait until I am having an exceptional day to log on and become miserable!!

Sad, but true.

I am optimistic, but I tend to be that way most of the time.  Once again as I've said many times...

...if Ga Tech develops a kick ice defense... WATCH OUT!

We will be scary good.  We haven't had the combination of a strong D to go with this offense since CPJ has been here IMO.  2008 D was OK, but not strong IMO.  When I say strong, I'm talking most all of Tenuta's defenses, O'Leary's defense under Ross in '90 or of course the best ever in the Black Watch in '85.  Hopefully one of the charter members of that Black Watch (CTR) will get us at least closer to where Tenuta left us off when he departed.  We likely will never see another defense as good as '90 and certainly '85 ever again at Tech.  But, one can hope.

Kick ice defense? Heck, with merely an average defense this is a 10 win team. And I would be ecstatic with that this season.

Well, there you have it then!  Why worry about having an excellent defense when all it takes to please you is an average defense?  Why should anyone exert themselves?  We can just keep on winning 52-49 and let folks have 400+ yards against us every Saturday.  Maybe our opponents will get exhausted from running up and down the field and we won't have to chase them down.  Some of us would like to see us play defense like we own the field and the other team is trespassing.  Let's get our 50 points and hold them under 14- for a change.

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No, no, that's not good enough. 77-0 every game (or better) and a team gpa of 4.0. THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!

BSBuzz

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Since 1990 every season we have had where we won 9 or more games we have had great overall QB play, or better overall QB play than in the 8 win or less seasons. To state it differently great QB play defined as a highly effective combination of running/passing performance or success at the running the offense, combined with the ability to make a play when we needed it to win a game.

Too early to tell about Vad Lee or Justin Thomas. Am very excited over their potential. Lee had one great game, played only a little in the rest of them. Thomas is probably the speediest QB we've ever had. Shawn Jones was an exciting player but in his 1st season as a starter he only won 7 games

RE:ABOVE COMMENT ABOUT US WINNING EVERY GAME 52-49

Most likely in this offense, if with better QB play we can average 40 or more points per game the defense would automatically be better due to opponents having reduced # of possessions/time of possesssion/being forced into more obvious passing situations for other teams.