Where it went wrong for Georgia Tech
1. Underestimated the difficulty in replacing last year’s experienced core of running backs.
2. Overestimated the abilities of its offensive line.
3. Lost the ability to throw downfield when necessary with the departure of receivers DeAndre Smelter and Darren Waller.
4. Lost a significant interior defensive presence with the injury to defensive lineman Adam Gotsis. Fellow lineman Jabari Hunt failed to make anticipated impact and eventually left team. Overall, the defense, with eight returning starters, didn’t make the expected great leap forward.
5. Injuries did a particularly nasty job of the whole team this season.
Where it went wrong for Georgia
1. Nick Chubb didn’t leave Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium in one piece.
2. New offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer dazzled no one with his inventiveness.
3. The decision making seemed occasionally fuzzy at best — see Faton Bauta starting his first game ever in the pivotal Florida matchup. In the end, Georgia was caught with a quarterback shortage.
4. Scoring was down nearly 14 points a game from a year ago.
5. A team that was plus-16 in takeaways-to-turnovers last season currently stands at dead even.
Where it went wrong for Georgia
1. Nick Chubb didn’t leave Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium in one piece.
2. New offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer dazzled no one with his inventiveness.
3. The decision making seemed occasionally fuzzy at best — see Faton Bauta starting his first game ever in the pivotal Florida matchup. In the end, Georgia was caught with a quarterback shortage.
4. Scoring was down nearly 14 points a game from a year ago.
5. A team that was plus-16 in takeaways-to-turnovers last season currently stands at dead even.
A mere year ago at this time — while a nation pondered the eternal question: What does one do with a giblet? — Georgia and Georgia Tech prepared to play a football game of semi-sweeping importance.
Both teams ranked. Both trending upward — Tech winner of four in a row including a rout of No. 19 Clemson; the Bulldogs 6-1 since the start of that October with a rout of their own, over No. 9 Auburn.
But now? Oy. They turned down the heat on this rivalry game about as low as it can go. And then fell on the thermostat and broke it.
The late Wes Craven himself couldn’t have directed for Georgia a more ghastly October, a 1-3 month. And frankly the majority of the games since have had all the sizzle of a salad bar. Overtime to beat Georgia Southern? No offense, dear Eagles, but that victory caused only more concern than comfort.
The Yellow Jackets meanwhile are an apartment fire. They have fumbled away their cherished bowl streak while losing eight of their 11 games. Their sole ACC victory, over Florida State off a blocked field goal return, has been re-catalogued as a hideous perversion of nature. They went from ranked No. 14 entering Notre Dame Stadium to just plain rank.
Leaving both teams no more relevant to the national picture than the dust on a Da Vinci.
Their meeting will kick off at noon, televised on ESPN2, where the warm-up acts live.
What we have here is a study in the cosmic difference between perception and production. How did a game that back in August look so potentially glorious turn so very mundane in three months?
For one answer, look to the New England Patriots, the masters of deflation. Working side by side on that unbeaten offensive line have been rookies from Georgia (David Andrews) and Georgia Tech (Shaq Mason). While they have served that franchise surprisingly well, they also are symbolic of a lost punch up front at both their former college teams.
For other answers, look to the principals in Atlanta and Athens.
At Tech: Mistakes compounding daily
This is all a new experience to Justin Thomas. Welcome to your first losing season, Tech triggerman.
“Ever since I was little, (the sub-.500 season) has never happened,” the junior quarterback said last week, before he was knocked out of Saturday’s loss to Miami. “But those things happen. They’ll help you get better as a person and as a competitor and give you something to work for.”
At 3-8, with one game left before a merciful end, the Yellow Jackets have had more than enough character-building experience this season, thank you.
Thomas is beat up, and there has been little relief available — his backup, Tim Byerly, has been out with a knee injury since Week two.
All things offense have gone slightly awry for Tech, and when dealing with a Paul Johnson team, isn’t that where you always look first?
“We were hitting on all cylinders a year ago,” Tech’s coach said. They averaged nearly 38 points a game last season, 31 thus far this season. Down too is total yardage (from 476.5 a game to 387.7), most of that due to a drop-off in the option rushing attack (342.1-261.8).
It turned out that Johnson could not plug anyone off the street into the backfield of his pet offense and it would operate like a well-tuned harpsichord. And yes, even an option offense can miss wide receivers, when they had the occasional big-play potential of the recently departed DeAndre Smelter and Darren Waller.
When trying to summarize this wayward season, the coach looks at five losses by eight points or less and points to all-too human foibles. “It seems like whatever we have to do to derail something we manage to do, whether it’s a penalty or fumbling the ball. Last year we weren’t doing those things,” he said. And that was before Tech had four turnovers at Miami Saturday.
“A lot of these games we beat ourselves,” senior tackle Errin Joe confirmed.
And so the Yellow Jackets arrive at the Georgia game already in build-for-next year mode.
“Now you see what you have to do in the offseason if you want to continue to win and continue to work and get those numbers like they were last year,” Thomas said last week. “You got to come in this offseason and put in more time and you got to work harder.”
At Georgia: Injury and inconsistency equal insignificance
The big news is that 10 games into the season, the Bulldogs were sort of set with their starting quarterback.
“I think we’re settling in pretty good with Greyson (Lambert),” Mark Richt said in advance of the Georgia Southern game. “He’s our starter; he has played the most consistent of the group. There is more stability today than a month ago.”
The fact that here it is late November and the head coach is finally getting around to committing to the most important position points to something of a problem.
And Lambert, the Virginia transfer, has been the subject of much fan disgruntlement as the coach played his shell game with him, Faton Bauta and Brice Ramsey.
Of course, all their lives would have been easier had Heisman-quality running back Nick Chubb not wrecked his knee at Tennessee.
There’s the big what-if hanging over a Georgia season that has as much as any in 15 years eroded the ground beneath Richt’s feet.
“We’re human, we always think about (the possibilities had Nick not gotten hurt),” fullback Quayvon Hicks said. “You can’t allow one person to take the life out of a team. Nick is a great kid but we also had to make sure our identity wasn’t just him.”
That identity too often was one of a stranger to the end zone, the Bulldogs going without a touchdown in back-to-back weeks against Missouri (a win) and Florida (don’t ask).
Under new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, scoring is down nearly two touchdowns a game from a season ago.
Having lost showdown games to Alabama and Florida by a combined 52 points this season, Georgia had to drastically recalibrate its goals.
Linebacker Jake Ganus has had a radically different experience than Tech’s Thomas (although, like Thomas, he arrives at season’s end with an assortment of injuries). Ganus has known plenty of losing. A transfer from Alabama-Birmingham, he was 10-25 in three seasons there.
For a little different perspective, then, let’s look to him. “Football’s a lotta coulda, woulda, shoulda for a lot of teams,” Ganus said. “You can’t live like that. You got to accept what happened, try to correct it and do the best you can.
“I remember being 2-10 (at UAB); I still wanted to win. Obviously we can’t win a championship but we can finish a season strong. We can beat one of our biggest rivals and go to a really good bowl game.”
This time, As Georgia and Georgia Tech renew their long-standing animus, both will be seeking the last refuge of all disappointing teams: Playing for pride.
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