Notre Dame 55, Georgia Tech Zero
Yellow Jackets Have No Answers For The Thrashing By The Irish
For the record, Georgia Tech lost to Notre Dame on Saturday in South Bend. It was Tech’s 5th straight loss, bringing them to a 3-8 record for Year 3 under Coach Geoff Collins. The outcome itself was not a shock. The Irish were a 17-point favorite at kickoff. But the thoroughness of this beating– the outright decimation of Collins’ crew– was a bit surprising. It felt savage. Tech was powerless to stop the beating. If it had been a prizefight, it would have been stopped way early, and the referee and promoters apprehended. It was that bad.
All that was made worse by the nature of the broadcast. Namely, it was national, on the NBC– NOTRE DAME network. So in addition to the 70,000 attending in person, millions more saw the “contest” on television. There they saw the full menu of reasons why Tech has had an abysmal Year 3 under Collins regime. There were missed blocks, missed tackles, turnovers, penalties, a blocked kick, wasted timeouts, misguided ” hurry-up” offense, blown coverages etc, etc. The sampling was so varied that that analyst Drew Brees was moved to remark, somewhat casually, that if you were looking for a recipe to lose a football game, this display would be a good example.
That kind of commentary stings (!) for a couple of reasons. The first is, Tech fans don’t want to support a team that provides a living example of how to fail. Who does? Second, on a deeper level, many fans have been likely thinking the same thing over the past few months, seeing all these repetitive miscues play out in loss after loss, all the while being told of ongoing progress. Yes, it doesn’t always show up in the win column, they are told, but the progress is there..and if you don’t see it, maybe you just don’t want to see it. Huh?
On this day in South Bend some clarity set in. At least at the fan level. Yes, the fans don’t know all the jargon. They don’t know precisely why it’s a problem if you expected a “12 personnel” but they played an 11. They don’t know about the intricacies of trust issues in the Tech secondary. But they do know what a pre-snap penalty right after a timeout looks like. And what a delay-of-game penalty right after the motion penalty looks like. And what a mis-timed snap looks like right after that. It looks like sloppy. Inattentive. Unfocused.
And they understand that all those things are fixable. They are not about size, speed, catapult scores and the like. And most of all, they understand that the failure to fix those things after weeks of preparation does not represent progress. At least not forward progress. Which is what our therapist, Drew, said on national TV. He launched an intervention.
For the numbers review, Tech was down 45-0 at the half. The Irish outgained Tech 514 yards to 224. Tech’s only scoring threat ended with a blocked field goal attempt by back-up kicker Jude Kelley. Regular PK Brent Cimaglia was out with an injury.
In the oft-urged hunt for positives, we can say that no Tech player was hospitalized. That we know of.
Tech hosts UGA this weekend on Senior Day. The #1 Dogs are a 35 point favorite. Tech fans are looking for forward progress in their football program. Hopefully, during the game. If not, then shortly thereafter.
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports
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