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Georgia Tech  The Lowdown This is Paul Johnson's team now, for better or for worse. Its strengths are his strengths, its weaknesses are his weaknesses. On the positive side, if you have a defensive coordinator who isn't very good at in-game adjustments, Paul Johnson is probably going to break your defense down. It's What He Does. If you do have a defensive coordinator who is good at the chess match, his offense is going to range from mediocre to disaster. The big problem is recruiting. Not on the offensive side of the ball, because he's pretty good at finding the correct pieces for his system, but on defense. There's a reason our defense is poo poo, and it's because Johnson can't recruit good talent and doesn't have a correspondingly good scheme on the other side of the ball to compensate. Over the last few Gaileyesque years, the offense has actually been on the border between good and pretty good. It's the defense that's been the reason for 7 wins instead of 9. It might improve. It might collapse again. The offense will do what it do, but the defense is going to determine whether we're in the best, worst, or median case. The Schedule (with worst case / expected / best case scenario results) 08/30/14 vs. Wofford W/W/W. If we lose this, it's time to drink bleach. 09/06/14 at Tulane W/W/W. Ditto. 09/13/14 vs. Georgia Southern W/W/W. Ditto. 09/20/14 at Virginia Tech L/L/W. Probably we'll lose, but GT-VT is one of those games both fanbases are at least a little nervous about no matter the talent differential. 10/04/14 vs. Miami L/W/W. At home, and with Miami I think a bit overrated, this is a winnable game and it needs to be. 10/11/14 vs. Duke L/W/W. With all respect to the incredible job Duke's pulled, I think at home GT can pull this off again. 10/18/14 at North Carolina L/L/L. UNC has our number and it's away. Not confident. 10/25/14 at Pittsburgh L/L/W. I also think Pitt's on the upswing, and... ugh. I don't like calling this game either way. 11/01/14 vs. Virginia - Homecoming W/W/W. At home, for homecoming, I'll be stunned with a loss here. 11/08/14 at North Carolina State L/W/W. NC State isn't and isn't gonna be very good. 11/15/14 vs. Clemson L/L/L. WE GONN' GET IT 11/29/14 at Georgia L/L/W. For the record, the only thing that keeps me putting a W in here in the best case is "Weird poo poo Happens In A Rivalry Game". Worst Case Scenario The defense undergoes another meltdown like a few years ago, the new QB doesn't work out, and everything falls apart for a 4-8 worst season since the 90s. Paul Johnson is fired, but with the talent cupboard utterly bare, the program goes into a death spiral and I don't get to see the Jackets *play* in another bowl much less win one until I'm in my forties. Best Case Scenario Everything clicks. The defense finally comes together; all the returning talent on the secondary finally prevents teams from airing it out, and Attaochu's loss ends up not hurting the defensive line as much as feared. Johnson finally finds his spirit animal at QB and the offense looks like 2009 all over again. GT goes 10-2 with only one loss in the ACC, wins the division ahead of VT on the tiebreaker, and scares the life out of FSU before losing a tough game, going on to win the Peach Bowl (it's still the Peach Bowl dammit) for the best season in years. Most Likely Scenario You cannot defeat the Chan Gailey Equilibrium. We have returned to it. In our minds, we never left it. We are 7-5. We will remain 7-5. That is the law, and the whole of the law.
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Aug 2, 2014 15:32
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:41 |
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