AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 02
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Navy vs. Duke vs. Georgia Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sorry this is late. I just got back from breakfast at Waffle House. Before I get to the stuff I wanted to write about, here’s some extra stuff from talking to Jaybo yesterday. It’s not earth-shattering - he didn’t guarantee a win or anything, which I, as a reporter, would have appreciated - but hopefully interesting.
I asked if Paul Johnson and Brian Bohannon (the qb and B-backs coach) had put some extra pressure on him this week. He said no, but they did prep him. “Little stuff, check-wise, making sure I know that kind of stuff. I missed some stuff [Wednesday], so I’m glad I got [Thursday] to go ahead and polish up on everything. I guess you could say they turned it up on me a little bit, just making sure I know the little things, check-wise.”
On if he’d been told he’d be expected to start: “That’s just what I’ve been preparing myself for. I really haven’t heard anything, but I’m preparing myself for that. Josh hasn’t practiced and I had to be ready. I was just preparing myself that I was going to be the guy. So, I guess so. If it is on Saturday, then it is.”
I think he’ll be fine; having Johnson and Bohannon on his side will be fairly important, I think, as Duke will likely throw things at Tech that they didn’t against Navy.
Which gets me to my point. A big question this week is how much Duke’s having played Navy earlier this season will help Duke against Tech. One thing to consider is something David Cutcliffe said earlier this week, that one strength of option teams is they can often time get an early lead. That’s because opposing defenses need time to get adjusted to the speed of the option offense they’re facing because the scout team they’ve prepared against can’t run it like Tech or Navy can.
It bears out, as Tech has outscored its opposition 38-3 in the first quarter. The first quarter is Tech’s higher scoring quarter thus far, by a touchdown over the fourth. Navy scored on four of its first six possessions against Duke earlier this season but could only score once in its last seven. Duke won 41-31 - it was the most points Duke has given up this season. In fact, of those six that it didn’t score, it went three-and-out or four-and-out on five of those possessions (not counting the last drive of the game when the clock ran out on them).
So you have to think that Duke might require less “adjustment time” in the game than against Navy because the Devils saw the same offense less than a month ago, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they worked on it some during their off week before they played Virginia. However, Cutcliffe also acknowledged that while Navy and Tech run the same offense, Tech is, not surprisingly, more talented. Further, he said of Paul Johnson that “I don’t think there’s anybody that knows that offense as well as he does.”
What do you think?
