In some corners this summer Georgia Tech was thought to be a surprise team in the ACC. They tried like heck to beat Clemson earlier this year and blew out North Carolina the week after. Hey, alright now! However, most of those good vibes had been extinguished prior to this weekend’s visit to Notre Dame where the Fighting Irish subsequently destroyed any chance for a positive end to Georgia Tech’s season.
They now face Georgia in their finale next weekend and I’m officially feeling bad for the Bees.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | TECH |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 0 |
| Plays | 59 | 63 |
| Total Yards | 514 | 224 |
| Yards Per Play | 8.71 | 3.55 |
| Conversions | 6/12 | 3/15 |
| Completions | 18 | 14 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 11.61 | 3.42 |
| Rushes | 33 | 35 |
| Rushing Success | 48.2% | 44.8% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 6 | 3 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 4 | 1 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 28.5% | 22.0% |
A glimmer of hope presented itself when Notre Dame was held to a field goal on the opening drive following a couple of sacks. Oh no, were the offensive line problems back for the Irish? Nope, Notre Dame would kick the field goal and dutifully dominate the 1st half on the way to a shocking 45-0 lead.
Georgia Tech looked like it wanted nothing to do with this game.
Offense
QB:Â A
RB:Â B
TE:Â A
OL:Â B
WR: B
It wasn’t a crazy efficient day but it didn’t need to be with the amount of explosive plays and the incompetence from Georgia Tech’s offense–plus a pair of defensive touchdowns from the Irish always helps the cause.
Quarterback Jack Coan was calm and smooth for the most part, hitting a 38-yard pass to Kevin Austin to start the game before taking a seat with 285 yards and 2 touchdowns on just 20 throws. Mixed in there was a wide open 52-yard touchdown to tight end Michael Mayer as well as a 51-yard strike to Austin again.
The game got out of hand so quickly (24-0 after the 1st quarter) and the passing attack nearly unchallenged so much that it masked a pretty so-so rushing effort for Notre Dame. Kyren Williams (87 total yards) had a quiet day for his standards while backups Logan Diggs and Chris Tyree weren’t featured much. Quarterback Tyler Buchner racing for over 60 yards on a single carry helped out the old team average.
It wasn’t until freshman Audric Estime came storming onto the field late with 61 yards on 6 carries that there was something to talk about from the tailbacks. And wow, what a debut!
It’s possible Notre Dame was out there looking for some style points this weekend but as per usual in these blowouts there wasn’t much of an effort in the 2nd half. Coan would only get one series to start the 3rd quarter while the offense pivoted to Buchner at quarterback for the rest of the game while a backup offensive line consisting of Michael Carmody (LT), Rocco Spindler (LG), Zeke Correll (C), John Dirksen (RG), and Quinn Carroll (RT) would have their ups and downs.
Rushing Success
Williams – 5 of 11 (45.4%)
Coan – 0 of 1 (0.0%)
Austin – 1 of 1 (100%)
Diggs – 1 of 2 (50.0%)
Lenzy – 1 of 1 (100%)
Buchner – 1 of 4 (25.0%)
Tyree – 0 of 2 (0.0%)
Estime – 5 of 6 (83.3%)
Albano – 0 of 1 (0.0%)
As such, the backups only managed a field goal together as a unit. Then again, most would say a 55-0 win over a Power 5 program is a statement no matter what. No argument there.
If the somewhat deep sideline pass had been brought in by Braden Lenzy as he was being tugged a little bit this might have been the most complete performance of the season from the wideouts. There was a lot to like, including freshman Lorenzo Styles and Deion Colzie hauling receptions of 10+ yards.
I thought the starting offensive line played okay, settling in very well in pass protection and struggling at times opening holes. A success rate below 50% is maybe the only disappointment from this game for the team.
Defense
DL: A
LB:Â B+
DB:Â B+
Same grades as last week. Another game without surrendering a touchdown as we witnessed the 5th shutout of the Brian Kelly-era, the first shutout since the USF game last year, and the 310th shutout in school history.
Georgia Tech just could not stay on schedule. Their talented running back Jahmyr Gibbs actually found success on 8 of his 12 carries but his impact was severely limited in tandem with a backup quarterback and an offensive line really struggling to protect him. Notre Dame protected against big plays and the Jackets simply were not competent enough to string together successful plays.
Said backup Jordan Yates actually completed 14 passes! I’m jogging my memory but I think only one traveled more than 10 yards down the field. It was one of those games where it felt like Yates was either quickly completing a 4-yard pass against soft coverage or being harassed for a likely sack before trying his best to get rid of the ball dangerously.
I thought the Irish tackled really well, except for a 22-yard run early in the 3rd quarter and Yates’ 54-yard run shaking off Bo Bauer in the open field. Those plays accounted for 33.9% of Georgia Tech’s offense on the day.
Stuffs vs. Georgia Tech
Pryor – 2.5
Cross – 2.5
White – 2
Bauer – 2
NaNa – 1.5
Lacey – 1
Ehrensberger – 1
Bertrand – 1
Lewis – 1
Foskey – 1
Kollie – 1
Botelho – 1
Ademilola, Justin – 0.5
Their other 61 plays went for 148 yards or 2.42 yards per play.
The Yellow Jackets did cross into Irish territory 6 times only to come away with 0 points in a very similar outcome to Virginia’s effort last weekend. Sometimes when you’re bad, bad things just keep happening to you. Half of those drives, Tech ended up punting anyway so maybe they deserved zero points.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t seem like the Geoff Collins vibes are really working at Georgia Tech, do they? They will finish his first 3 seasons without reaching 10 wins total and despite a couple nice development projects, and a boost to recruiting because you’re no longer running the triple option, he seems much more of a schtick kind of guy who has rode the coattails of Matt Rhule’s success at Temple. I’m not sure a tight vest and some cool Atlanta slogans are going to get the job done turning around this program.
It may not be so much of a secret anymore–MTA is one of the best athletes on this team! He was moving with agility and speed on his fumble return touchdown. Of course, the white socks gave him extra powers.
Speaking of athleticism, Estime calm down. I know Tech was absolutely demoralized by the time he got his carries and everything. However, since he hadn’t been featured this year it was easy to dismiss him as being really far behind Logan Diggs as freshmen classmates. Maybe not!
I saw Jack Kiser come back into the game and Kelly confirmed his ankle injury is not serious.
Saturday’s 8.7 YPP for the Irish offense was the most since the 9.39 effort against Bowling Green on 10/5/19 and the most against a Power 5 opponent since the 9.08 effort against Syracuse on 10/1/16.
Five straight seasons of at least 10 wins, that’s pretty cool.
Isaiah Foskey notched his 10th sack of the season. The Kelly-era high is Stephon Tuitt with 11 back in 2012.
I remain pretty optimistic about Tyler Buchner at quarterback for next year. He strikes me as someone who is going to be sharp in the short-passing game, inconsistent in the medium routes, and effective on deeper throws. With his wheels it could be really fun. I also keep forgetting that Michael Mayer will still be here for 2022. He’s now up to 663 receiving yards on the season and will need 141 yards over the final 2 games to pass Tyler Eifert’s 2011 mark–and that’s with Mayer missing a game and not being healthy in another.
Great review thanks. Very solid performance from the team. I agree with you that explosiveness masked some inefficiency in the run game. I’ll be very interested to read the advanced stats review.
I really hope that the line and Buchner make big strides from now to opening day in Columbus. It’s looking like they’ll have a returning Heisman winner at QB plus some Heisman candidate WRs, so our offense will really need to be clicking.
For now, I’ve decided to drink the Kool aid and root for whatever needs to happen for us toake the CFP again. Wish we didn’t get the night game slot against Stanfoed, because now I’ll have the do a lot of channel flipping between our game and Bedlam. I’ll be rooting hard for a Cincy loss on Friday as well
Those he’s built like a truck, Estime has better than good moves, vision, and speed. He is more than just a power back.We are going to have quite a stable of RBs next season.
I like Buchner too. His overall inexperience due to missing 2 HS seasons is my biggest worry. NDs running game next year, which will improve because of his running ability, should open up the pass game for him. We will need the OLine to be ready day one next season.
Coan’s seeming lack of pocket awareness and lack of any escapability scares me vs. any team post season with a pass rush.
Tommy Rees has been drawing up some great plays.
Tommy has been excellent the past 4 games. The creativity that was lacking early in the year has been there every game. I don’t think we’ve had a single unsuccessful run by a WR this season. The misdirection in the running game has been great too.
The Estime bandwagon is quickly becoming a hype train.
All aboard! Hahahahaa!
I’ve been high on Estime since the day he committed.
Yes! He’s already one of my favorites, his running reminds me of Darius Walker actually and the type of RB’s that Wisconsin or MSU usually lean on to terrorize the B10. I so hope the OL can step it up next year for him and Diggs and Tyree.
Fun fun fun.
Really does feel nice to be on the opposite end of these bludgeonings. Long gone are the 40 point USC blowouts. So much defensive depth especially, lots to be thankful for.
O line would be the one nit to pick certainly. When Concrete Coan took those 2 early sacks, i was a little angsty. Also could do with 50% less of Kyren hesitation runs. Sometimes it really does benefit him but often he’s giving the defense time to adjust when he should just get yards downfield.
Let’s finish this up and make Shaw extra pouty, 11-1 and a shiny #5 ranking.
This week’s goal is to get David Shaw fired.
I like Stanford just the way they are.
Man, this blog really likes Billy Joel.
That’s the main reason I ported over from OFD.
We didn’t start the Shaw firing, it was always churning since the Harbaugh recruits were turning
You Catholic Schools start much too late (i.e., dominating).
It’s eight o’clock on a Saturday
The irregular crowd shuffles in
There’s the one Stanford fan right next to me
Knowing certainly they will not win
He says, “Son can you play me a memory?
I’m not really sure how it goes
But it’s sad and it’s sweet and we were halfway complete
When coach wore the khaki pants clothes”
La, la-la, di-di-da
La-la di-di-da da-dumb
Throw us the ball, you’re the football man
Kick us a punt tonight
Well, we’re all in the mood for a touchdown
And you’ve got us feelin’ alright
Now John Harbaugh is not a friend of mine
He got them some points finally
Now he is Michigan’s joke, and the Tree smells like smoke
But soon we’ll set David Shaw free
He says, “Brian, I believe this is killing me”
As a smile ran away from his face
“Well, I’m sure that I could be a coordinator
If I could get out of this place”
Oh, la, la-la, di-di-da
La-la di-di-da da-dumb
Now Paul Johnson was GT’s previous coach
Who only ran option for life
And he used to run Navy, until it got wavy
And he jumped ship to save his own life
And Swarbrick is practicing politics
As the opponents slowly get stoned
Yes, he hired a coach who’s the winningest
And he’s damn good at winning at home
Throw us a ball, you’re the football man
We’ll recover a fumble tonight
Well, we’re all in the mood for a touchdown
And you’ve got us feelin’ alright
It’s a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
The concession guy gives me a smile
‘Cause he knows it’s ND they’ve been comin’ to see
To forget about life for a while
And the PA system sounds like a carnival
And the tailgater smells like a beer
And they sit at the bleachers and ask for their preachers
And say I hope we don’t play the Irish next year
Oh, la, la-la, di-di-da
La-la di-di-da da-dum
Shut it down, boys.
I literally logged in for the first time in months just to upvote this.
Well done.
I’m glad my milkshake still brings all the boys to the yard (not Billy Joel).
Love it. Only quibble is I think you mixed up the Harbaughs. John’s daughter plays lacrosse for ND, I think we’re okay with that side of the family.
My bad, I didn’t really want to spend any time thinking about that idiot or his stupidly similar name. My apologies to the slightly better Harbaugh. scUM coach Jam Harbaugh can kiss my ass.
Down voted only because now that Helton is gone from USC (pours out 40 40s), Shaw is the best fat head on a sideline to beat upon.
Glad Coan finally found the wide open man, seems like he or Buchner has missed so many of them this season where they had an easy TD if they could have seen it.
Agree with the comments above about Rees’ play calling. It would be cool to see formation breakdowns after the Davis injury. 2 RB’s is very rare these days but I think I saw it was like 12.4 yards/play last week. Even noticed Tyree running a wheel route but they didn’t throw it to him. Feels like a lot of possibilities still on the table for creative play designs, since really 2 out of the 3 of Kyren, Tyree and Diggs should probably be on the field for most of the plays given ND has like 1.5 good WR’s at the moment.
(Opposite of) Fun Thought experiment – What would get you more upset:
ND loses to Stanford
-or-
ND goes 11-1, Alabama loses close to UGA, OU/OkSt split their games and the Playoff is: UGA, OSU, Cincinnati, Alabama
the second one i can live with and the first i absolutely cannot
Seconded
agreeance,
As annoying as Bama getting in with 2 losses would be, always give me the scenario where we win over when we lose. I made my peace with not making the CFP in October, so if it happens now it’s a wonderfully pleasant surprise.
Yeah. There are 0 situations in which us losing is better than us winning. Us losing also makes the rest of option 2 that much more likely, maybe even probable.
First of all, interesting premise, these are fun to consider..
Like everyone else, I’d go option 2. If ND is 11-1 and only has one somewhat decently quality win (Wisconsin) and lost to a playoff-bound Cincy, well, that’s the bed they have to lie in for losing at home to Cincy. I couldn’t muster up much outrage at not making it, because it’s very clear where they went wrong, and honestly, kinda deservedly so.
And, let’s be honest, if Alabama loses close to UGA, that’s probably better than what Notre Dame would do against UGA this season. So, just logically and removing emotion, I would have no real issue saying this Bama team is better than ND this season, even though they would have one more loss. I think everyone would likely agree ND would be 11-2 this year as well if they played in the SECCG against Georgia..
ND doesn’t really have a good playoff case, they’re only going to sneak in if there’s a ton of chaos and everyone else blows it. Which…might happen with the way it’s going. But I’ve also made peace as Andy put it that Notre Dame pretty much blew it and is an imperfect team in a reload year anyways. Would have gladly taken 11-1+no playoff back in August, and I’ll take it now.
Clearly losing to Stanford would be much more upsetting.
To copy off DrIck, here’s perhaps a more fun experiment.
Rank the following scenarios from what you would want to happen from most to least in terms of enjoyment, prestige, general feeling, risk/reward, or whatever criteria you want:
1) Notre Dame makes playoffs, draws Georgia and has a 5% chance of winning the game
2) Notre Dame goes to Fiesta Bowl, draws Michigan and has a 50% chance of winning it
3) ND goes to Fiesta Bowl, draws Michigan St. and has a 55% chance of winning
4) Notre Dame goes to Peach Bowl, draws Wake/Pitt and has a 65% chance of winning
5) ND goes to Peach Bowl, draws Clemson and has a 60% chance of winning
4,5,3,2,1 – Just win a damn “major” bowl already (and don’t lose to Michigan)
For prestige, I think you basically have them in order other than Clem over Wake/Pitt. I think Clemson still means more nationally than anyone outside of the playoffs. I also think there is a big jump between #1 and #2 in terms of prestige.
For my personal enjoyment, I just want to watch us win a game, so sort by chance of winning. I don’t really care where, all bowls outside of the playoff are equally meaningless. That said, I never want to play Michigan. I hate losing to them more than I enjoy beating them.
I agree with this almost every year. But if Harbaugh finishes this season with just 2 losses, it’s his best year at Michigan. If we then were to beat them, boy that would be fun as hell. The chance of having the terrible taste of losing to them would be worth the huge upside of ruining the end of a successful season for Michigan.
Playoff is playoff, no matter what happens, so I’d rank 1 first. Beyond that everything else is a crapshoot.
If for the sake of argument we ignore the percentage chance of winning that you assigned, I’d rank 5 last because I think Clemson is really rounding into form and they check the worst box for a bowl opponent – a really talented team on the upswing that you will nevertheless get very little credit for beating and will probably be ridiculed if you lose. I don’t know that I’d give us as high a chance to win that game as you do.
I’d probably go MSU Fiesta as my #2 option because it would be a fun matchup and likely a good game that I think we’d have a good chance of winning, then Wake/Pitt Peach at #3 because it would be great to just get the monkey off our backs, then Michigan at 4 because I don’t want to legitimize their program by playing them. Honestly I should probably rank them behind even facing Clemson, but the extra sweetness if we did win gives it enough juice to be my #4.
FWIW, though, we’re almost certainly not going to be facing Michigan. UM is headed to the Rose (or, perish the thought, the CFP) unless the committee does something really weird with the final rankings. MSU has to beat PSU to get to the Fiesta and honestly I’m not sure they’ll even do that.
Fair enough, and I pretty much agree with your logic. The %’s are debatable and subject to be perhaps different in reality, it was just my way to combat the idea of “would you rather lose to Georgia in the playoff or beat Michigan in a NY6 game” type of question. Since it is kinda presumptive to just award a NY6 win against a top-10ish team, and I think it would be more useful and a better exercise to weigh the risk of not making the playoff and losing a NY6 game as well.
I’ve seen a few articles where people argue that a 2 loss Bama and potentially a 2 loss Big 12 champ gets in ahead of ND. What do you guys think? Our schedule is just so weak this year that it’s hard to argue. And as people are saying, if the alternative is a beat down by Georgia, I’m happy about missing the playoffs at 11-1.
There’s no world in which a 2 loss Big 12 champ should be in over us, in my opinion. Our strength of schedule is right there with both OU and Okie State. Our offense is scoring just 1 point per game less than Oklahoma’s this season, and over the last 3 games, we’re scoring 8 ppg more than Oklahoma. Our defense is allowing 4 more points per game than Oklahoma State, but again, over our last 3 games, we’re 4 points per game better than them. We’re peaking at the right time, and the SOS is similar enough that I don’t think they should be able to overcome an extra loss. If we were trending downward rather than upward, sure.
I would be much less upset about a 2 loss Alabama getting in ahead of us, maybe slightly annoyed.
In terms of our SOS, I just want to point out that it’s weak compared to our normal SOS. In terms of national ranking, ESPN currently has it as about #40. The only CFP contenders they have with tougher schedules (so far) are Alabama (35) and Michigan (39). Those will certainly improve as they wrap their seasons against tough opponents, but still, it’s not like these other schools are playing some insane schedules. In this scenario, Oklahoma likely ends the year with only 1 win over a ranked team too.
I think when people point to a weak schedule they really mean it’s weak at the top with 1 top 25 win. This is where we see if good wins mean more than having a strong schedule from top to bottom. In other words, other teams perhaps have one more top 25 win (not sure it’d be interesting to check) but they also have more cupcakes than we have with an FCS team or the like.
Agree, but unless I’m missing something, Oklahoma would only have 1 top 25 win in this scenario. Oklahoma State at least would have 2, but they would also have a loss to a team that ends the year at 6-6 or 7-5.
Not to change the subject or ruin Thanksgiving dinners but, one of the main topics on the II podcast yesterday is that we’re going to lose CJ Williams to USC. That was a shocker to hear. What has SC done in the last two months that could have swayed him ? If we do lose him as well as Walker (ugh), this WR class is taking an enormous hit.
Well that really sucks.
That would be a huge blow – esp. since we are likely going to need freshmen to be playing. Our WR #’s have to be among the lowest in the country for next year.
We’ll see, IMO they made it sound more dire than other places. Definitely a big reason Kelly is staying on the west coast after the Stanford game to keep the west coast guys locked down.
And I mean, it’s the same reason Amon-Ra St. Brown went to USC even though he liked Notre Dame and knew they were overall steadier than USC — the passing game and WR play just isn’t emphasized enough and scares the elite WR’s to some degree. Even this week against GT, 55-0 win but just 7 WR receptions, that doesn’t go unnoticed.
Could be Williams is just taking in some VIP treatment from the local program, getting to go to some games and Kelly/Rees will close on him and all will be well. For all his (reasonably) pointed out recruiting faults an in-home visit to keep an already committed player in the fold is probably a BK strength, so maybe it’s just me but I’m not terribly worried at this point, just a reminder that a verbal commitment isn’t always the end of recruiting in all cases.
Considering recruiting rankings ND WRs have done pretty well NFL draft wise.(Fuller, Boykin, Claypool) You would think ND could use that as a selling point.
Looking at the year SC just had, you’d think flipping anyone would be tough for them. They don’t even have a head coach. As the II guys said, if Williams is wavering under these circumstances, he’s very flippable if SC makes a decent hire in time.
Not sure how much equity Will Fuller has from 6 drafts ago at this point, but that could be true to an extent. I still think it’s perhaps not a big deal, Lorenzo Styles flirted with Michigan after giving his verbal to ND.
For some kids, they’re just going to stay in the recruiting process and enjoy the benefits that they can. Not really sure I’m making the jump to Williams “wavering” on anything, it’s not like he’s done anything as of yet to indicate he’s still not going to sign with ND when the time comes. Kelly is just going to have to close on this, like he’s had to for several others.
I hope you’re correct but, the II guys sure seemed down on ND’s chances.
I just heard that pod, and it is unsettling when a committed prospect is taking official visits elsewhere…And I think I saw Williams is taking trips to UCLA and USC. But he also said ND is still in good standing and all, just seems like a kid taking over all his options and seeing it out, which I mean, all is fair.
Def means the verbal commitment isn’t set in stone, but that’s sometimes how it goes. I believe one of the Ademilola ‘s flirted with tOSU a bunch too after giving a commitment. It’s better when a recruit commits and shuts it down, no doubt there. Kelly has more work to do to keep him in the fold, it’s not over on Williams, but I guess I’m inclined to believe that is still more likely than anything else.
Wouldn’t be shocked if Williams cuts out for USC or saying it won’t happen, but I’m not terribly down on ND’s chances. Nothing’s sealed until pen meets paper though for anyone, so we’ll see.
Not super locked in to recruiting but that was the first I had heard of it. Seems like it had a lot more to do with ND than with USC or any other programs. would definitely suck though, given williams age (already 19) and ND need, seems like he would get some pretty immediate PT