Okay, so with Auburn not playing this weekend, I decided to watch some other CFB games, more than usual for me. Among those, I watched a good bit of the GaTech-Miami game. Miami plays in the ACC and probably is a little overrated, but is a good team. Miami is better than multiple teams that have beaten us. Tech is a decent team, but no great shakes and almost certainly not as talented as Miami. The Tech OL was of particular interest to me. Their RT is a RS senior from the 2020 recruiting class. Their center is a senior from their 2021 class. Their LG is a former walkon from their 2021 class. The LT is a 4th year transfer from Kanas and the RG is a 3rd year transfer from MTSU.
Why does this matter? Well, that GaTech OL doesn't look like a bunch of world beaters from a talent perspective. It may not be a ragtag group of misfits, but it's at best a bunch of guys who were marginal SEC type talents coming out of HS. It doesn't look any more talented than our OL and not too much more experienced, yet I saw from it something I have not seen from our OL. Basically, all season, when our O is in a passing down, we cannot protect the passer. I mean we can't protect him at all, not even when the D just gives a plain old 4-man rush. And I'm not talking elite defense. We can't protect the passer vs Vandy or Cal. Never mind when the opponent blitzes. However, GaTech was able to protect the passer on such downs. Again, Miami may be overrated, but their D is better than Vandy or Cal and probably a couple of other opponents we have faced. Yes, Tech runs a different kind of O. They ran the ball a lot vs Miami, but when they got in passing downs like 3rd and 8, they still were able to protect the passer and complete key passes first downs in critical situations. We consistently have failed in this.
In fact, it seems like very team out there, even pretty bad ones, is better at this than we are. I'm not trying to give the QB a free pass here. QB is a huge part of our offensive problems. I'm not even necessarily criticizing the OL coach. There are a lot of moving parts on offense. I'm just saying that there is no excuse - neither QB nor OL experience/talent, although both of those matter - to excuse what we've seen on our offense. I'm starting to think my dad is right when he says Hugh "needs to get somebody to take care of his sh*t for him on offense." We have somebody with the title of offensive coordinator, but I don't think our offense is being run properly if at all. I suspect Freeze either needs to do like Steve Spurrier used to and actually *be* his own OC, and by that I mean go to all meetings, formulate the gameplan, give input on all the position groups, call all the plays, etc., or he needs to get somebody else to do that and get out of it. In short, what we have right now probably falls into the category of half-assed. If teams like GaTech can scheme around their talent deficiencies and compete with or beat teams that are more talented, then we should be able to do that, at least a couple of times and especially against opponents who ar not even as talented. Instead, we have consistently failed on offense. I'm not saying we should give up on Freeze, but he needs to get it together. There is no excuse for this, even with the mess he inherited.
tl;dr - @penya87 and @FIG-JAM and the HEW HATERS have a point.
Why does this matter? Well, that GaTech OL doesn't look like a bunch of world beaters from a talent perspective. It may not be a ragtag group of misfits, but it's at best a bunch of guys who were marginal SEC type talents coming out of HS. It doesn't look any more talented than our OL and not too much more experienced, yet I saw from it something I have not seen from our OL. Basically, all season, when our O is in a passing down, we cannot protect the passer. I mean we can't protect him at all, not even when the D just gives a plain old 4-man rush. And I'm not talking elite defense. We can't protect the passer vs Vandy or Cal. Never mind when the opponent blitzes. However, GaTech was able to protect the passer on such downs. Again, Miami may be overrated, but their D is better than Vandy or Cal and probably a couple of other opponents we have faced. Yes, Tech runs a different kind of O. They ran the ball a lot vs Miami, but when they got in passing downs like 3rd and 8, they still were able to protect the passer and complete key passes first downs in critical situations. We consistently have failed in this.
In fact, it seems like very team out there, even pretty bad ones, is better at this than we are. I'm not trying to give the QB a free pass here. QB is a huge part of our offensive problems. I'm not even necessarily criticizing the OL coach. There are a lot of moving parts on offense. I'm just saying that there is no excuse - neither QB nor OL experience/talent, although both of those matter - to excuse what we've seen on our offense. I'm starting to think my dad is right when he says Hugh "needs to get somebody to take care of his sh*t for him on offense." We have somebody with the title of offensive coordinator, but I don't think our offense is being run properly if at all. I suspect Freeze either needs to do like Steve Spurrier used to and actually *be* his own OC, and by that I mean go to all meetings, formulate the gameplan, give input on all the position groups, call all the plays, etc., or he needs to get somebody else to do that and get out of it. In short, what we have right now probably falls into the category of half-assed. If teams like GaTech can scheme around their talent deficiencies and compete with or beat teams that are more talented, then we should be able to do that, at least a couple of times and especially against opponents who ar not even as talented. Instead, we have consistently failed on offense. I'm not saying we should give up on Freeze, but he needs to get it together. There is no excuse for this, even with the mess he inherited.
tl;dr - @penya87 and @FIG-JAM and the HEW HATERS have a point.
