For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge football fan, 99% of that being the collegiate variety. Naturally, my team is the Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech. So from time to time, I'll have posts about our team. This is one of those posts. Now to the good stuff...
The Jackets welcome the 3-1 Dukies to the flats at 12 PM this Saturday (TV: ESPNU Radio:790 the Zone). Talk about a confident opponent. Duke is fresh off a 31-3 shelacking of UVA this past Saturday, which broke a 25-game conference losing streak.
Previous Exposure to the Option
Duke has already faced an option team this season in the form of the Naval Academy. Duke won 41-31, hardly a blowout, but was able to do enough on offense to pull out the W. The Midshipmen were able to grind out 207 rushing yards on the Duke D however, and with the better athletes, the Jackets should be able to grind out more. Tech is currently 5th in the nation in rushing yards per game (306.8)
Airing it out
Those of you who watched our last game (a 38-7 win against Mississippi State) might have noticed the success of the MSU passing game on our defense. We may never really know for sure if this was a showing of MSU's efficient passing game or a lax on our part after building a 21-0 halftime lead. Duke comes in 2nd in the ACC with 232.8 passing ypg. A large part of this is the combo of QB Thaddeus Lewis and WR Eron Riley, who have connected for 6 TDs this season. Look for the Blue Devils to throw it 40+ times this Saturday against a talented, but largely inexperienced Yellow Jacket secondary.
"A little bit of cat and mouse going on"
IMO, coaching plays a bigger role in College Football than in any other sport. This game will be a showdown between two coaches trying to make their teams great in year 1 with their respective teams. On one hand, Dave Cutcliffe, the current Blue Devils coach, spent time at Tennessee and Ole Miss developing two QBs you may have heard of, Peyton and Eli Manning. On the other, you have Paul Johnson, who has won a measely 109 games in 12 years as a head coach, using an offense some would call "historic", "old-fashioned", "primitive", and "incompetent" (for all one of you wondering, CPJ calls it the "under center option-based spread"; I like to call it UCOBS for short). It would appear that CPJ has the upper hand, but don't underestimate the guy who has won as many games in 4 games this season (3) as the last two years combined in Durham.
Speaking of under center...
Who will be the starter at QB this week? Should it be the now-tested true freshman Jaybo Shaw? The same Jaybo Shaw who absolutely lit up a strong MSU defense two Saturdays ago? Or should it be the day-to-day sophmore Josh Nesbitt, who won the game at BC with his shifty moves and powerful running? This one's a toughy. If Nesbitt is able to go, it appears he has the better physical skill set than Shaw. Still, Shaw looked really sharp against MSU and has played very well all season. My call - rest Nesbitt's hamstring one more week so he can have a tune-up game next week against Gardner-Webb in preparation for Clemson in three weeks.
Intangibles
Duke comes in riding high, and with a lot more talent than they've had in about 40 years. You can't quantify things like confidence. That's why they don't play the game on paper. The worst thing that Tech could do (though I doubt CPJ would allow this to happen) is to come in thinking that this is the "Duke game". Tech has just come off a big win, and could already be looking ahead to Clemson with the lowly GW Bulldogs coming into town next week.
Prediction
Don't be surprised if Duke scores a quick TD through the air early on. I think Duke will have a slim lead going into the half, but CPJ will make the necessary adjustments in the second half for Tech to come away with a solid win. Yellow Jackets take this one 34-21.
