The #14 ranked Hurricanes (4-0) are having their best start since their inaugural ACC season in 2004. Time to get ready and dive into ACC play against The Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech.
We've been OK against the run this year (34th in the nation), but this offense is completely different from anything we've seen so far this season. Throw our defensive stats out the window for this game. They gave us all we could handle last year and then some. The good part about that is our defense is a lot better. The bad part is so is theirs. I have no idea what to expect from this game.
1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:
There's a familiar face at the top of the division right now. Pay no mind to them, it's all about Georgia Tech this week. We're the last team in our half of the division to play a conference game, and it's nothing but ACC opponents for us the rest of the way. With Georgia Tech losing to the Hokies last Thursday they can't afford to lose another conference game this early in the year. Especially another one to a team in their division. Losing to us would all but eliminate them from the division crown just 5 games into the season with a road trip to Clemson still awaiting them in November.
Here's what Virginia Tech fans are saying about Georgia Tech:
From: Gobbler Country
If Logan Thomas of all people can be efficient against them, then one would think Morris should be able to light them up like he did last year.
2. What happened the last time Miami played Georgia Tech?
[video=youtube;t0TDdaA8mqg]www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0TDdaA8mqg[/video]
From the Associated Press:
If anyone ever asks you when was the last time a Hurricane player picked up his entire team and carried them on his back, just point them to this game where the 'ol boy Mike James ran harder than a Russian and scored 4 touchdowns.
The 1st score was a short carry on the goal line at the end of the 1st quarter. It happened right after Malcolm Lewis' injury and gave us a 19-0 lead. The 2nd one was a 15 yard run early in the 4th quarter to bring us within 7. We were desperately trying to come back after giving up 36 straight points. He ran over like 3 guys on the way to paydirt. The 3rd one completed a 91 yard drive, the first 50 yards of which came by way of 5 straight passes to Davon Johnson. The last 2 of which went for 20 yards over the middle and into Georgia Tech territory. The scoring play came on a dump-off screen where James followed Ben Jones into the endzone to tie the game at 36 with under 30 seconds left. After the defense stoned Georgia Tech on 4th and inches inside the 5 yard line, Mike James quickly put the game to bed:
Here's him after the game:
[video=youtube;I6lgdQjgOP0]www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6lgdQjgOP0[/video]
What a human. So humble. Such a great leader. If the teams he played on weren't so awful, Mike James would be looked upon even more fondly than he already is. I'm still ****ed he didn't redshirt in '09, he should still be playing for us this year dammit.
3. Who to be scared of:
David Sims
Sims is the B-Back in Georgia Tech's scheme, who lines up pretty much like a fullback. If you want to stop or even slow down Paul Johnson's option offense you have to stuff the inside runs to the B-Back first. Otherwise they'll just keep doing it over and over until you do stop it. He's got just shy of 250 yards on 50 carries through 4 games this year with 4 touchdowns. He's not Jonathan Dwyer, but he's efficient enough in his role.
This play (the zone dive) is what we should be seeing a healthy dose of from him:
[video=youtube;0DeNORFGtY0]www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DeNORFGtY0[/video]
If we don't hear the announcers call his name (or his backup's Zach Laskey) that often during the game, it means our defense is doing well.
4. Player that will score against us:
Vad Lee
Points come from the QB in this offense. He's a better passer than Tevin Washington was, but that doesn't exactly make him good either. He's got a sub 50% completion percentage, going 29-63 for 562 yards and 7 touchdowns. He's the team's second leading rusher as well with 215 yards on 70 carries and 3 more touchdowns. He can be really dangerous when he keeps the ball after faking a handoff to his B-Back. He can either follow him into the hole on a designed QB dive, stretch it out wide with a pitch man like a traditional veer play, or he can step back and throw it over the top of linebackers who get sucked in on the play action. This clip is from when Nesbitt was still there, but the point remains how easily Georgia Tech can get chunks of yards in this offense.
[video=youtube;SXWj80hqRVw]www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWj80hqRVw[/video]
Here's a cheezy highlight video of Lee:
[video=youtube;YpXMELdv25w]www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpXMELdv25w[/video]
Fall Out Boy is the worst. The nickname Bad Vad is the 2nd worst.
5. Person that will **** you off:
Paul Johnson's face
It's extremely punchable. Even more so when his OL gets flagged for a chop block ever other play. He yells and screams at the refs like they're making stuff up on the fly. Something like this:
Learn the rules dummy. I really can't believe he's still there to be honest. His biggest accomplishment since 2009 was their win over USC in the Sun Bowl last year. Lane Kiffin getting fired the other day makes that even more meaningless than it already was.
6. Some other guy:
DeAndre Smelter
Smelter is a junior who came to Georgia Tech to play baseball. He's basically their own Jimmy Graham type of story. Because of a numbers issue at WR, the coaches invited him to walk on. He now leads the team in receptions (9), yards (176), and touchdowns (2) despite not having played football since 2010 when he was in high school. He's playing the same role for them that Demaryius Thomas and Stephen Hill played in the past. He's not as good as them, but if their running game gets on a roll expect him to beat one of our DB's over the top if they get caught looking into the backfield.
7. Official internet meme for this game:
Not The Bees!
[video=youtube;pele5vptVgc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc[/video]
We've been OK against the run this year (34th in the nation), but this offense is completely different from anything we've seen so far this season. Throw our defensive stats out the window for this game. They gave us all we could handle last year and then some. The good part about that is our defense is a lot better. The bad part is so is theirs. I have no idea what to expect from this game.
1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:
There's a familiar face at the top of the division right now. Pay no mind to them, it's all about Georgia Tech this week. We're the last team in our half of the division to play a conference game, and it's nothing but ACC opponents for us the rest of the way. With Georgia Tech losing to the Hokies last Thursday they can't afford to lose another conference game this early in the year. Especially another one to a team in their division. Losing to us would all but eliminate them from the division crown just 5 games into the season with a road trip to Clemson still awaiting them in November.
Here's what Virginia Tech fans are saying about Georgia Tech:
From: Gobbler Country
chicagomaroon said:
If Logan Thomas of all people can be efficient against them, then one would think Morris should be able to light them up like he did last year.
2. What happened the last time Miami played Georgia Tech?
[video=youtube;t0TDdaA8mqg]www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0TDdaA8mqg[/video]
From the Associated Press:
If anyone ever asks you when was the last time a Hurricane player picked up his entire team and carried them on his back, just point them to this game where the 'ol boy Mike James ran harder than a Russian and scored 4 touchdowns.
The 1st score was a short carry on the goal line at the end of the 1st quarter. It happened right after Malcolm Lewis' injury and gave us a 19-0 lead. The 2nd one was a 15 yard run early in the 4th quarter to bring us within 7. We were desperately trying to come back after giving up 36 straight points. He ran over like 3 guys on the way to paydirt. The 3rd one completed a 91 yard drive, the first 50 yards of which came by way of 5 straight passes to Davon Johnson. The last 2 of which went for 20 yards over the middle and into Georgia Tech territory. The scoring play came on a dump-off screen where James followed Ben Jones into the endzone to tie the game at 36 with under 30 seconds left. After the defense stoned Georgia Tech on 4th and inches inside the 5 yard line, Mike James quickly put the game to bed:
Here's him after the game:
[video=youtube;I6lgdQjgOP0]www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6lgdQjgOP0[/video]
What a human. So humble. Such a great leader. If the teams he played on weren't so awful, Mike James would be looked upon even more fondly than he already is. I'm still ****ed he didn't redshirt in '09, he should still be playing for us this year dammit.
3. Who to be scared of:
David Sims
Sims is the B-Back in Georgia Tech's scheme, who lines up pretty much like a fullback. If you want to stop or even slow down Paul Johnson's option offense you have to stuff the inside runs to the B-Back first. Otherwise they'll just keep doing it over and over until you do stop it. He's got just shy of 250 yards on 50 carries through 4 games this year with 4 touchdowns. He's not Jonathan Dwyer, but he's efficient enough in his role.
This play (the zone dive) is what we should be seeing a healthy dose of from him:
[video=youtube;0DeNORFGtY0]www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DeNORFGtY0[/video]
If we don't hear the announcers call his name (or his backup's Zach Laskey) that often during the game, it means our defense is doing well.
4. Player that will score against us:
Vad Lee
Points come from the QB in this offense. He's a better passer than Tevin Washington was, but that doesn't exactly make him good either. He's got a sub 50% completion percentage, going 29-63 for 562 yards and 7 touchdowns. He's the team's second leading rusher as well with 215 yards on 70 carries and 3 more touchdowns. He can be really dangerous when he keeps the ball after faking a handoff to his B-Back. He can either follow him into the hole on a designed QB dive, stretch it out wide with a pitch man like a traditional veer play, or he can step back and throw it over the top of linebackers who get sucked in on the play action. This clip is from when Nesbitt was still there, but the point remains how easily Georgia Tech can get chunks of yards in this offense.
[video=youtube;SXWj80hqRVw]www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWj80hqRVw[/video]
Here's a cheezy highlight video of Lee:
[video=youtube;YpXMELdv25w]www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpXMELdv25w[/video]
Fall Out Boy is the worst. The nickname Bad Vad is the 2nd worst.
5. Person that will **** you off:
Paul Johnson's face
It's extremely punchable. Even more so when his OL gets flagged for a chop block ever other play. He yells and screams at the refs like they're making stuff up on the fly. Something like this:
Learn the rules dummy. I really can't believe he's still there to be honest. His biggest accomplishment since 2009 was their win over USC in the Sun Bowl last year. Lane Kiffin getting fired the other day makes that even more meaningless than it already was.
6. Some other guy:
DeAndre Smelter
Smelter is a junior who came to Georgia Tech to play baseball. He's basically their own Jimmy Graham type of story. Because of a numbers issue at WR, the coaches invited him to walk on. He now leads the team in receptions (9), yards (176), and touchdowns (2) despite not having played football since 2010 when he was in high school. He's playing the same role for them that Demaryius Thomas and Stephen Hill played in the past. He's not as good as them, but if their running game gets on a roll expect him to beat one of our DB's over the top if they get caught looking into the backfield.
7. Official internet meme for this game:
Not The Bees!
[video=youtube;pele5vptVgc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc[/video]
