Things haven’t been smooth in Geoff Collins’ first year at Georgia Tech

The Duke Football team will host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday afternoon and things haven’t been that smooth in the first season of new head coach Geoff Collins.

The Duke Blue Devils will host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday in an ACC showdown and Ball Durham was able to catch up with the Georgia Tech FanSided site, Yellow Jacked Up, to talk about the matchup.

Yellow Jackets expert Dylan Callaghan-Croley was able to shed some light on the first season under Geoff Collins.

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Q: This is the first season in what feels like forever that Georgia Tech is not running the triple option. What has been the biggest strength and weakness of the Yellow Jacket’s new offense? 

A: Now, that’s a great question and to be honest, I’m not really sure you can say that the Georgia Tech offense in 2019 so far has a strength really. That being said, the Jackets so far this season have been most successful in their rushing attack, unsurprisingly. That been said, the rushing attack hasn’t necessarily been deadly either and opposing teams have been able to shut down them down at times. They’re not going to run all over opposing defenses for 250+ yards every week but they can get the job done at times. They have the talent in the backfield but with an inconsistent offensive line, it’s hard to do much. 

In terms of weaknesses, it’s definitely been the offensive line and the Jackets passing attack. The Jackets are averaging less than 200-yards through the air per game this season but may have found a quarterback in redshirt freshman James Graham. That being said, Graham hasn’t showed the ability to be consistently accurate yet either. It is worth noting that the quarterbacks have often not had the time to make the correct reads and best throws they can because of an offensive line that has massively struggled in pass protection this season. 

Q: To put it lightly, things have been a struggle for Georgia Tech this season, what has been the biggest problem? 

A: We just talked about it above, it’s all coming back to the offensive line and passing attack. The offensive line has struggled as expected and as a result the quarterbacks are not having much time to do much at all. The Jackets defense has been strong for most of the season but are coming off a tough performance against North Carolina. The secondary for the most part has been solid and was ranked in the top five entering last weekend when it came to passing yards allowed per game. The offense simply just hasn’t done enough to keep the Jackets in the game. 

Q: Who is one player on Georgia Tech that should really scare the Duke Blue Devils? 

A: It’s hard to say that Duke should be scared of any one player in my opinion just because Georgia Tech probably isn’t good enough to keep this game close enough where one player can make a difference. That being said, I would have to choose running back Jordan Mason or linebacker Charlie Thomas. Mason is an NFL-caliber running back and has been the Jackets best offensive player this season. He’s not blowing up the stat sheet by any means but he if he gets loose, it’s hard to bring him down and he has the ability to rack up 100+ yards any given weekend. Thomas, on the other hand, is a dangerous player on the defensive side of the ball and is definitely the man that can cause the most chaos. He can do it all, sacks, tackles for a loss, forced fumbles, interceptions, and even causing safeties. He’s helluva player and is another player that could probably find himself in the NFL one day.

Q: Despite the team’s record, how has Geoff Collins done in his first season? Was he the right hire for this team? 

A: Absolutely. A lot of Georgia Tech fans who were Paul Johnson diehards are not happy with the performance of the team but there’s a good portion of the fan base that understands this is what was expected. Collins has brought energy to the program both on the field and off, especially on the recruiting trail. The Yellow Jackets may be struggling on the field this season but they’ll sign their highest rated recruiting class in a long time at the end of this cycle and they’re still in it for some notable four-star and high three-star prospects. We’ll see if he can put it all together and make the Jackets a competitive team in year two and three but right now, I would say that Collins is the right man for the job. It was going to be a rebuilding process and it may have taken time to sink in for some fans but at the end of the day, this program will need time to get it to where Collins wants the program to be. 

Additionally, I think some Tech fans may be hesitant on Collins right now as I think some fans are reminded a lot of how Josh Pastner entered Georgia Tech for his tenure with the basketball program and it’s safe to say that entering year four of that rebuild, nothing has really gone to plan for the Yellow Jackets.

Q: At 1-4 on the season, what’s there to look forward to for Georgia Tech and what would the Yellow Jackets have to do to pull off this upset?

A: I think a lot of Georgia Tech fans are slowly coming around that this team in 2019 is probably a 2 or 3 win team. Heck, they may not win another game this year. That being said, with that, the one thing fans around the program have to look forward to is just the overall development of the program overall and certain players that are expected to be big parts of the program going forward. If the Yellow Jackets are going to pull off this upset, they’ll need to play not only their best game of the season, but they’ll need to play a near perfect game. Duke is by no means a world beater team in 2019 but they’re good enough to blow the Yellow Jackets out on Saturday night. The offense will need to turn the corner real fast for Georgia Tech to have a chance. Defensively, the secondary will need to perform how it did in games against South Florida, The Citadel, and Temple while the rush defense which has struggled immensely this season will need to take a major step forward this week. 

We thank Dylan Callaghan-Croley for his time and fan can see the Blue Devils and the Yellow Jackets on Saturday, October 12 at 12:30pm EST on the ACC Network Extra and your local Regional Sports Network.