What do we know heading back home this weekend?
Well… that was tough to sit through. Personally, I find games at the JMA (Carrier) Dome particularly frustrating – not just because of the awkward camera angles or my belief that college football shouldn’t be played in a dome that doubles as a basketball arena, but also because every time we head to upstate New York, we forget how to play football. For those that don’t remember, sorry to remind you, but last time we played at Syracuse in 2020 we lost 37-20 with four Jeff Sims interceptions. The more interesting stat from that game is that we out-gained Syracuse 453-357 in total yards and still lost by 17 points. Thank you, Geoff Collins era. Jump ahead to now, and we only lost by three to a much better Syracuse team, but it didn’t make it any less frustrating. We even walked away from this game with some manufactured drama involving Syracuse head coach Fran Brown – whatever that’s all about. Anywho, last weekend was not fun, so let’s put that in the past and move on to what I think I know heading into the VMI game.
We are…not quite as good as we thought
The Florida State win had us riding high, thinking we had finally cracked the code to success. The Georgia State win made us think we could finally win a game we were supposed to win by a decent margin. Well, September 7th against Syracuse was a reality check to remind us that we are in fact, not perfect. Let’s start with the defense. I am unsure if Kyle McCord is a Heisman-caliber quarterback, or if our secondary got exposed for what it actually is against a good offense. No offense to DJ Uiagalelei, but our secondary didn’t have to work as hard against him as they will against most opposing QBs. I mean, the secondary did not play well at all. McCord racked up a career day, going 32/46 with 381 yards and 4 touchdowns. Believe it or not, Syracuse had almost 300 yards about halfway through the second quarter. We were flat-out getting embarrassed. Tyler Santucci and the defense need to regroup settle down and put their focus on the week ahead. We have a lot of good quarterbacks left on the schedule to face, so some adjustments need to be made heading forward. Thankfully this upcoming week should be lighter, as VMI’s starting QB Collin Shannon will miss the game with a shoulder injury. The Keydets will probably have to rely on senior running back Hunter Rice to make some plays in Shannon’s absence. Rice has 247 yards on the year with an average of 7.1 yards per carry and three touchdowns. He will most likely be the guy to look out for, and ideally, we can keep VMI under double digits.
Next up, is the offense. Not sure what happened here. I think we can all confidently say we trusted our rushing offense and were expecting to have a good day against the Orange, instead, we had 112 yards on 24 attempts and Jamal Haynes only had 35 yards on the day. Something wasn’t clicking with the offense, which was very apparent. Despite this, Haynes King had a solid day and went 29/39 with 266 yards and three touchdowns, two rushing and one throwing. I expect this group to return to what they are good at and have fun against VMI this week. Fingers crossed, this will be a good opportunity for the offense to gel again and the running game to regain some confidence.
Finally, the good. Special teams overall did not look bad, blocking a field goal and a punt. Sadly, Aidan Birr missed a 44-yard field goal which would have hypothetically made this a tied ball game if he made it. Having two blocks in a game is something to be excited about, so overall, not too bad of a day for Ricky Brumfield’s squad.
Maybe we’re not as good as we originally thought, or maybe this was just a bad game. Who knows. This team needs to reflect on this and make some major adjustments, but not let it drag down their confidence.
This week can allow us to recover and get some younger guys on the field
I would like to make a disclaimer that in no way do I want to jinx us in winning this game by such a margin that we have second strings in most of the game (I am too much of an experienced Tech fan to do that), but this game should allow for some key players to get the rest and recovery they need while others can step up and get some exposure. I would love to see some of the freshmen get a chance to get their feet wet and give the fans a chance to see who has potential in the coming years.
Hopefully, this game can be a confidence-boosting win that shows we are still capable of getting things together. While there were not a ton of positives from the week before, we are still within good positioning in the ACC and have a lot of games ahead of us. The players and coaches must keep a positive attitude, and so do the fans. Coach Key has preached a lot on consistency, and that is something we lacked this weekend. In the postgame presser Key even said “Consistency is something that we’re chasing, we’re working for it, but we’re not there yet. That was obvious in the game today.” VMI is the perfect opportunity to hone back in and keep working.
Do not be totally discouraged… there has been overall offensive growth since that 2020 Syracuse game
While this weekend felt like we were seeing a blast from the past, as fans we cannot get disheartened. This team has come a long way, especially the offense. In the year 2020, Tech was 96th in total offense, averaging 23.9 points per game, 389 yards per game, and only 1.4 touchdowns per game. Flash forward to the 2023 season, the Jackets were 43rd in total offense, with 31.1 points per game, 424.6 yards per game, and 2.1 touchdowns per game. That alone shows major improvement, and one off game does not signify a downfall.
Speaking of dark offensive days in 2020… I would like to point out that Geoff Collins had both Jahmyr Gibbs and Jordan Mason in the same backfield for two years and only won 6 games. It was good to see Mason have an awesome day on a national stage, so shout out to him. He had the most rushing yards by a Georgia Tech alum in the NFL since Dorsey Levens in 1997.
Go Jackets!