Breaking Down Florida State's LOSS to Georgia Tech | Cover 3 College Football

I I'm very curious what did you see like what when when you were watching that game what did you see and you know let's then let's start let's start talking about the next part how do you diagnose this and now you know what do you do moving forward have expectations changed and in what way that kind of I thought you saw a team that came in possibly a little bit overrated and a team that came in possibly a little bit underrated and you saw two potentially good teams going toe-to-toe I do want to make this first and foremost about Brent key and the job that he's done at Georgia Tech like a hire that we all liked um that probably had things worked out a little bit differently even Georgia Tech might have gone a different direction if a certain coach wouldn't have left um would have left at the time when they were trying to get him I'm talking about Willie Fritz because that was all the speculation was out there yeah but I think Brent key is the perfect man for this job I thought he had his team more prepared to play I thought they were out you know out hustled out coached out physical any way you look at it I thought Georgia Tech just looked like the better team now if we go back and we look at you know the four and five star ratings Florida state is the more talented team but so to me I don't think DJ because I know a lot of Florida State fans are in my mentions and they're complaining about DJ I didn't think he was the even close to the biggest problem of what we saw on the field I I mean I thought if you would have told me after the game here's his stat line he's whatever 18 for 29 for a buck 80 and you know didn't have the big interception just kind of controlled if they were five of 12 from third down like I would have said oh okay I like their chances the bigger concern far bigger concern for me is an offensive line which was highly talent in an experienced offensive line and a defensive line which was talked about as potentially one of the best in the ACC if not the country getting pushed around out there um repeatedly I mean those backto back drives to close out the game when it was 1414 Georgia Tech marched down the field methodically and then when it was 21 all and they're able I mean there was six and a half minutes left when Georgia Tech gets the ball and you're thinking all right worst case they either score or they get a field goal but we're going to get another possession you know or we'll get a stop and like this is when the defense finally can step up and they couldn't get off the field uh those to me are way more concerning than DJ like I thought we got what we kind of expected from DJ to start the season you know conservative playing a little bit more close to the vest let's try to run the football but while the offense is figuring things out the defense can dominate they're that good they can shut this opponent down and it may be that's why a lot of people like the under let's just you know lower scoring game let's just keep controlling the line of scrimmage and you get out of Dodge but as we saw that didn't unfold I did the rewatch um my my thoughts are really kind of what I had on on Saturday I thought the defensive line uh was really far from the biggest problem to be honest I I thought if you're gonna play two high looks then your backers have got to trigger and get downhill fast like like when that double shows you got to go and I thought David Hal had a really good stat on this Florida State I think missed eight tackles on the 20 runs that went outside of the tackles allowing like 6.2 per carry and a bunch of first downs um I look I I first guessed fsu's linebacker coach hire Randy Shannon Florida and Miami fans laughed at FSU and Norvell for making that higher I thought it was a bad higher the guy's a poor recruiter and I just don't think he's done a great job with the linebacker room um I thought that was a a much bigger problem personally than the defensive line uh offensively I thought that they just kind of thought what they had would be enough their passing game was really hot trash through most of fall Camp it was pretty good over the final week which I thought okay maybe like you know after the bye they'll incorporate that more and to me that's clearly what they did right they I don't think they trusted what they saw from the passing game in the final days of fall Camp so they Tred to just go with what was working um they just got outnumbered in the box like a lot some of the late rotations and late blitzes from Georgia Tech DJ was not a you would hope a guy who's 24 can check out of it but to Tom's Point like when you're a team that is is transfer dominant uh like you've not played together a whole lot and I thought that they were very reliant on some of the helmet communication stuff uh if you watched they weren't playing a crazy slow tempo but they rarely snapped the ball after like before 15 seconds was up so they were clearly using all of the time with the helmet coms um I mean they were just pretty much outnumbered in the Box on a lot of these runs also to the point where I mean Tech clearly did not believe that Florida State trusted its passing game which was the correct assumption by the way but like Tech was doing this kind of stuff and and like loading the box and doing some of these late run blitzes and bringing the safeties on like second and 11 like they were correctly guessing uh that Florida state would run the football there so like Florida State trying to get back to a manageable down and distance by running the ball maybe to get back to a third and six or something like that against you know looks that maybe you would hope normally to get but they weren't getting those looks um that was tough man honestly like they're they're pretty outnumbered there they've got to be able to check out and throw the ball or uh you know we'll see you know we'll kind of see what it can be um like that's not going to work obviously I disagree with your assessment of the defensive line okay I this stat is not perfect but it does tell a story I tweeted it yesterday yards before contact per Rush not including anything with the quarterback so no scrambles no sacks although there was only one sack in the game it wasn't by Florida state Georgia Tech averaged 3.33 yards per carry before anybody touched them Florida State averaged half and yes some of that is due to Georgia Tech stacking the box but that is going to be a problem for Florida State all year because what they saw teams that are coming up like well why are we going to do anything else until they prove they can do it and we saw last year with DJ like at Oregon State they were very heavy run dominant team but they took vertical shots and DJ I think he had his highest air yards per attempt in his career last year by a lot either like you were saying norell and that staff have no faith I'm guessing since DJ was kind of doing it last year it's more a receiver question yeah than it is DJ so they don't have a whole lot of faith in their ability to do that right now until they develop the ability to do that I think you're going to see them struggle I would say if and until I mean we don't know that they're that's gonna come along and they're gonna have like a good enough passing game well that that's the thing is so they also need to run DJ instin he doesn't like to run yeah well guess what Slimmer too like that we were talking about that before the game he looks smaller than he has you paid the guy to come in and help you win football games okay like sorry you remember us on here though I remember going all the way back to Clemson when they were running him I'm like that guy does not want to run the football slow everything was like gu the way so I mean like if he doesn't want to run but I don't think it's like I don't think it's not that he doesn't want to like he's trying to protect his body I just don't think he's a runner like he is not a guy who wants to run period he'd rather throw design run stuff at at Oregon State though like I I I so the biggest glaring the biggest glaring indictment to me on where Florida State thinks because in the first half you're watching it like all right they gashed him the first drive so of course Georgia Tech would say are we gonna sit back and get gashed all all day or GNA start bringing some guys up and challenging them and then they're like wait they're not even going to take any shots the biggest indictment to me on where kind of Norvell thinks about the offense was before halftime and I think I text you guys I'm like this is an F in clock management they were going slow they weren't using their timeouts and they were basically playing for a field goal at the end of the half which thankfully they got I mean wasn't when it wasn't that impr the negative play that forced it to be like a 59 y exactly but they weren't going no huddle they weren't using their timeouts and that to me was a they're not even close to being able to execute an offense and Mike Norvell doesn't think they're ready to so I'm with you guys and it's going to it's going to be interesting because they got Thomas castalanos coming to town next week and I saw Hayes King get on the outside a lot through that game to extend plays and he's not as fast as calano it's like they better not hang their heads very too long so while we're burying Florida state which I do I'm totally okay with that like they got outplayed they got outw work they got beat what is the level of concern you know like that's where I'm trying to find out for myself because I do think that even going back to ACC media days they were kind of laughing about the Georgia Tech game it was International like I think clearly I think they took the opponent lightly but usually if you're talented you can flip that switch and at some point kind of wake up and you start imposing your will they did not have that gear all right so let's say they come back and they're mad and norvell's mad and everybody's angry are they the type of team that all of a sudden can pull it together are we looking at a season where all right DJ was brought in so the floor doesn't bot him out and the floor is about eight wins like is that what we're looking at I I talked on Saturday night about this and I will talk about it again on Saturday this Saturday when all these teams are finishing their first games I I don't want to take anything to seriously about what we see in any team's first game of the season that's no fun but like I didn't have Florida State winning the AC going bowling go ahead say it no I didn't have Florida State not winning the AC or winning the ACC this season anyway I I think Clemson's going to win the league so nothing about that has changed in my mind it's just like I don't know I I think if anything my ceiling for this team changed if I'm considering it I think the floor is probably still pretty good because I I do think that talent-wise compared to most of the teams that are on that schedule they're going to be okay and you figure out what your weaknesses are and a good coaching staff and I do think that Mike Norville is a good coach and they have a good coaching staff can fix things and you know put some duct tape on some areas to get things going as the regular season rolls along so I don't think the bottom is going to fall out on this team it's just I do think that getting to the playoff if that's a goal is probably more difficult because honestly I mean Georgia Tech fans I'm wearing a Georgia Tech shirt but I I still don't think you're a great team like I I think you're a bold team I don't think you're GNA be the kind of team that finishes nine and three and everybody's at the end of the season like oh well that loss wasn't as bad as we thought it was was it so I think that's the kind of impact that that game had on me for anything as far as sems are concerned I I agree with that um I also think it's important to remember like evaluating the quality of play on a downto down basis as opposed to just the scoreboard like what is which I think we do a pretty good job of on this show but like is the narrative different if Florida State falls on either of those you know Georgia Tech fumbles right I I don't know like is the narrative different if what doesn't slip down on that one big pass play like I again this stuff happened like you can't undo yesterday's newspaper but we are probably talking about a lot differently for example SMU played really poorly almost that entire game if Nevada's kick returner does not call for a fair catch fumble it and then recover it at his own one we are probably leading the show with SMU and not FSU because that would have been the biggest upset we've had in the sport in like three years they were 28 and a half Point favorite so there were some things I think you can take away that are like okay they can build upon that there are some things you can take away but like they can't really play it that way anymore they have to show some different things probably cut down the rotations a little bit like if you're going to play a game with 50 plays then you need to have an NFL style rotation okay the idea of keeping people fresh is not not does not need to be top of mind because you're not playing 70 or 80 plays like in the NFL you don't rotate offensive lineman and your backup linebackers are not playing very many snaps like Patrick Willis is playing every freaking play right those guys don't come off the field so I think they'll cut down the rotation some I think you need to play you like your Corners a lot the corners played really well you probably need to play more single high and just deal with the consequences which I think they thought that like we discussed on the pregame show they would eventually win in the Red Zone you know or get your detect behind the chains and they did a couple times and they got him they got him off the field a couple times with that but then King I mean on the drive that kind of changed the game King made that great throw a after they were in like third and 12 or whatever it was and and that kind of kind of changed it but they did not win in the Red Zone like Tech continued to execute them and really confused especially the backers and the safety rotations con like they're a man short you know like repeatedly it's um so we'll see what kind of changes they can make there