Long story, but I went to the tech/ Pitt game at grant field yesterday at 12:30p, then drove over to Athens for our game. I've done plenty of baseball doubleheaders (which I really enjoy - there is something really fun about spending all day at the ballpark), but never a college football double header.
Yesterday also marked the first time that I've seen a game at grant field not involving the Dawgs (I'm a perfect 6-0 over there having seen all of our games since 2003... The '13 game still makes me smile). It was a very different experience. For one, the stadium was probably 60% full at best. The north upper deck (which is typically solid red when we play there) was perhaps 15% filled. Pitt brought more fans than I figured they would. All in all, it was very relaxed, quiet atmosphere. Much different than we are used to in the SEC. Not that it was a bad thing over there, just different. It made me think too that the majority of college football is probably a lot closer to that experience than what we get in Sanford Stadium or around our league.
It was funny too, listening to the people behind and around me, how similar their commentary on the game was to what I would normally hear at one of our games.
-"We are so much more talented than this team..." (a tech fan actually said that)
-"What the f&*k is Johnson doing?"
-"Our passing game sucks"
-"Got way too cute on that series"
Made me laugh. It's not just us. My favorite comment of the day, though, was "Brad Stewart isn't out there any more." I thought "you'll regret that."
To the game itself, I was impressed with Pitt. They came down with a good game plan, namely to keep the football away from tech. They "out teched" tech, if you want to think about it that way. Nathan Peterman, the former Tennessee QB, is the starter for Pittsburgh. I saw a guy in our section decked out in Tennessee Vol gear, and I guess it was for that reason. Peterman is nothing special, but he kept Pitt out of anything catastrophic and throws a catchable ball. Pitt ran very well in between the tackles and seemed to wear down the tech front 7 in the 2nd half. Pittsburgh could chalk up 6-8 yards up in the middle from the mid point of the 3rd quarter on. I made the comment afterward that we'll roll tech as they seem to be vulnerable to between the tackles runs and average QB play.
tech obviously lost some wideouts last year and they were without Broderick Snoddy at running back yesterday. Still, the commentary of Justin Thomas being a good passer may have been over-stated. He has a decent enough arm, but can be wildly inaccurate.
Marcus Marshall, Keith's brother, had a very good game. He's their "B back" (the guy that lines up behind the QB.... I think that's called "B back" in their O... that's where he lines up anyway). He's more of a one cut runner, but has some very good acceleration, and if he gets a crease, he's tough to catch. I tell you, watching him though, I can't help but think how good Brendan Douglas would have been playing that position for them. I bet they beat us in 2013 if he's playing for them. Marshall is solid though. Very "north-south" type of a guy.
tech's OL is hit and miss. Will Bryan, a true freshman, started at RT for them. Will's older brother Justin played on our baseball team in 2012-13 and Will's dad Mac was an OL here in 1983 and 84. I think Will may have come here if we'd shown more interest in him early. He'd redshirt for us given his size (he's about 285 right now, I think), but he would have played for us. I thought he had a terrific game yesterday. Most of tech's big runs, including Marshall's first long TD run, came off his side. He played every offensive snap for them and though I didn't watch him every play, I never saw him get beaten on the ones I did. You'll have recruiting misses, and while it's too early to declare Will Bryan one, my guess is that we're going to see him for four years, playing well for our arch rival. Beyond that, tech struggles in pass protection. I'm sure that contributed to Justin Thomas' rough day, but tech seems to have a very hard time holding those pass blocks.
Defensively, #6 in tech's secondary had a really tough day. You can tell that their DBs just don't see a lot of passing in practice and they have a tendency to look lost in coverage.
Harrison Butker attempted a 50 yard FG at the end of the first half, which was blocked easily up the middle. He also had a PAT partially blocked, though it somehow found its way through the upright. It's inexplicable that that kid hit a 53 yarder against us to send that game into OT and frankly, it's even more inexplicable that didn't get a better rush up the middle. Butker kicks a low ball. It seems very blockable. (Incidentally, a guy named "Harrison Butker" would play for tech... that's the most tech sounding name I've ever heard in my life).
Pitt took the football in a game tied at 28 with around 8:30 left on the clock. They managed to drive down, converting 3 or 4 third downs and 1 fourth down, to the tech 39. With around 1:15 left, Pitt's kicker, who is unfortunately named "Blewitt" kicked a 56 yarder that maybe cleared the cross bar by 5 inches. I was surprised Pitt even tried it, I figured they'd punt deep, play for overtime, and I'd miss kickoff our of game.
Pitt managed to hold the football for about 34 minutes. With all the running plays and third down conversions, it was a very fast game. In the second half, several fairly obvious looking calls were reviewed and I wondered if that was happening to allow extra TV timeouts.
tech really lost the game in the 3rd quarter. They were leading 28-21 and got the ball back on their own 10 or so after a punt. They called two pass plays, both of which were incomplete, and I think there was a holding mixed in too. On 3rd and long, they ran it to try to get something back, then punted. Pitt took advantage of teh good field position and scored on, I think, the very next series to tie it. To that point, tech was running the ball well and their defense was starting to come to life also. I think tech probably wins if they stick with their run game and are able to get some field position back on that drive. That 3 and out seemed to flip the whole game and tech didn't score again after that.
That said, Pitt did a really nice job of containing tech's run game in the 2nd half. That was nice win for the Panthers. I was really impressed with the gameplan Pat Narduzzi and company put together and I thought that PItt handled the end game really well. It is a game of inches though, truly. If Pitt misses that kick, tech gets the ball on their own 39 with 2 time outs left and they only have to drive about 30-35 yards to get into FG range themselves.
Enjoyable day all in all. It's definitely a transition year for tech. That's a game we certainly should win, though we should win it every year. We should move the football much easier than we did last year and I think that Chris Mayes and John Adkins and Trent Thompson will play a huge role for us upfront.
Thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad on 85/316 and I made it over to Athens around 6:15p after changing clothes. Different, but really fun way to spend a Saturday.
Yesterday also marked the first time that I've seen a game at grant field not involving the Dawgs (I'm a perfect 6-0 over there having seen all of our games since 2003... The '13 game still makes me smile). It was a very different experience. For one, the stadium was probably 60% full at best. The north upper deck (which is typically solid red when we play there) was perhaps 15% filled. Pitt brought more fans than I figured they would. All in all, it was very relaxed, quiet atmosphere. Much different than we are used to in the SEC. Not that it was a bad thing over there, just different. It made me think too that the majority of college football is probably a lot closer to that experience than what we get in Sanford Stadium or around our league.
It was funny too, listening to the people behind and around me, how similar their commentary on the game was to what I would normally hear at one of our games.
-"We are so much more talented than this team..." (a tech fan actually said that)
-"What the f&*k is Johnson doing?"
-"Our passing game sucks"
-"Got way too cute on that series"
Made me laugh. It's not just us. My favorite comment of the day, though, was "Brad Stewart isn't out there any more." I thought "you'll regret that."
To the game itself, I was impressed with Pitt. They came down with a good game plan, namely to keep the football away from tech. They "out teched" tech, if you want to think about it that way. Nathan Peterman, the former Tennessee QB, is the starter for Pittsburgh. I saw a guy in our section decked out in Tennessee Vol gear, and I guess it was for that reason. Peterman is nothing special, but he kept Pitt out of anything catastrophic and throws a catchable ball. Pitt ran very well in between the tackles and seemed to wear down the tech front 7 in the 2nd half. Pittsburgh could chalk up 6-8 yards up in the middle from the mid point of the 3rd quarter on. I made the comment afterward that we'll roll tech as they seem to be vulnerable to between the tackles runs and average QB play.
tech obviously lost some wideouts last year and they were without Broderick Snoddy at running back yesterday. Still, the commentary of Justin Thomas being a good passer may have been over-stated. He has a decent enough arm, but can be wildly inaccurate.
Marcus Marshall, Keith's brother, had a very good game. He's their "B back" (the guy that lines up behind the QB.... I think that's called "B back" in their O... that's where he lines up anyway). He's more of a one cut runner, but has some very good acceleration, and if he gets a crease, he's tough to catch. I tell you, watching him though, I can't help but think how good Brendan Douglas would have been playing that position for them. I bet they beat us in 2013 if he's playing for them. Marshall is solid though. Very "north-south" type of a guy.
tech's OL is hit and miss. Will Bryan, a true freshman, started at RT for them. Will's older brother Justin played on our baseball team in 2012-13 and Will's dad Mac was an OL here in 1983 and 84. I think Will may have come here if we'd shown more interest in him early. He'd redshirt for us given his size (he's about 285 right now, I think), but he would have played for us. I thought he had a terrific game yesterday. Most of tech's big runs, including Marshall's first long TD run, came off his side. He played every offensive snap for them and though I didn't watch him every play, I never saw him get beaten on the ones I did. You'll have recruiting misses, and while it's too early to declare Will Bryan one, my guess is that we're going to see him for four years, playing well for our arch rival. Beyond that, tech struggles in pass protection. I'm sure that contributed to Justin Thomas' rough day, but tech seems to have a very hard time holding those pass blocks.
Defensively, #6 in tech's secondary had a really tough day. You can tell that their DBs just don't see a lot of passing in practice and they have a tendency to look lost in coverage.
Harrison Butker attempted a 50 yard FG at the end of the first half, which was blocked easily up the middle. He also had a PAT partially blocked, though it somehow found its way through the upright. It's inexplicable that that kid hit a 53 yarder against us to send that game into OT and frankly, it's even more inexplicable that didn't get a better rush up the middle. Butker kicks a low ball. It seems very blockable. (Incidentally, a guy named "Harrison Butker" would play for tech... that's the most tech sounding name I've ever heard in my life).
Pitt took the football in a game tied at 28 with around 8:30 left on the clock. They managed to drive down, converting 3 or 4 third downs and 1 fourth down, to the tech 39. With around 1:15 left, Pitt's kicker, who is unfortunately named "Blewitt" kicked a 56 yarder that maybe cleared the cross bar by 5 inches. I was surprised Pitt even tried it, I figured they'd punt deep, play for overtime, and I'd miss kickoff our of game.
Pitt managed to hold the football for about 34 minutes. With all the running plays and third down conversions, it was a very fast game. In the second half, several fairly obvious looking calls were reviewed and I wondered if that was happening to allow extra TV timeouts.
tech really lost the game in the 3rd quarter. They were leading 28-21 and got the ball back on their own 10 or so after a punt. They called two pass plays, both of which were incomplete, and I think there was a holding mixed in too. On 3rd and long, they ran it to try to get something back, then punted. Pitt took advantage of teh good field position and scored on, I think, the very next series to tie it. To that point, tech was running the ball well and their defense was starting to come to life also. I think tech probably wins if they stick with their run game and are able to get some field position back on that drive. That 3 and out seemed to flip the whole game and tech didn't score again after that.
That said, Pitt did a really nice job of containing tech's run game in the 2nd half. That was nice win for the Panthers. I was really impressed with the gameplan Pat Narduzzi and company put together and I thought that PItt handled the end game really well. It is a game of inches though, truly. If Pitt misses that kick, tech gets the ball on their own 39 with 2 time outs left and they only have to drive about 30-35 yards to get into FG range themselves.
Enjoyable day all in all. It's definitely a transition year for tech. That's a game we certainly should win, though we should win it every year. We should move the football much easier than we did last year and I think that Chris Mayes and John Adkins and Trent Thompson will play a huge role for us upfront.
Thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad on 85/316 and I made it over to Athens around 6:15p after changing clothes. Different, but really fun way to spend a Saturday.
