Geoff Collins and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Meet the Clemson Tigers in ACC Football Action
By Charles Jay
Geoff Collins is now in his fourth season as head coach for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. And while it was understandable that as he was taking over a program that had been running the Navy triple option employed by Paul Johnson, it was going to take a while to adjust.
Well, as BetOnline patrons know, the former Temple head coach – who had served at Florida and Mississippi State as an assistant – has now had three years of recruiting classes to bring in players more suited to the offensive style he wants to play. In other words, excuses are out the window. And if he doesn’t do better than the 3-9 record his team posted a year ago (he’s 9-25 overall at G-Tech), he is going to be shown the door.
Perhaps those plans should be put off until next week’s date with Western Carolina. That’s because the Clemson Tigers, coming off a 10-3 season (5-8 ATS) where they gained momentum down the stretch (winning six in a row to close things out) are waiting for them, with a stop unit that spells trouble.
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ACC Football Betting — Here are the numbers……
Monday night’s contest begins at 8 PM ET at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and judging from the ACC football betting odds, the “Ramblin’ Wreck” look like a team expected to have a shipwreck:
Clemson Tigers -23.5
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets +23.5
Over 51 Points -110
Under 51 Points -110
ACC Football Betting — Sims needs a big season
Obviously it’s a lot more difficult when you have to take over a program that has been running the triple option, which is a real outlier in college football these days. Having to make that transition doesn’t happen easily, as you can imagine. For one thing, you can’t play a pro-style passing game, or even something involving the run-pass option, with linemen who aren’t used to blocking on passing plays, or with a quarterback who hasn’t done much in the way of throwing the football.
Collins went out and signed Jeff Sims, who was actually one of the more highly-regarded QB recruits in the country coming out of high school, and a dual threat. In his second season he improved somewhat, with a 12-7 ratio of touchdowns to interceptions and 7.8 yards per pass attempt. But he has not necessarily been a transformational figure.
ACC Football Betting — Help comes with a new coordinator
Collins hopes to jump start something with the hiring of Chip Long as the new offensive coordinator. Long had spent three years at Notre Dame, where he was a finalist for the Broyles Award (top assistant coach). And Chris Weinke, the ex-Heisman Trophy winner who used to run the IMG Academy, is the new quarterback coach.
Who knows how well that will all work; G-Tech has to figure out a way to replace Jahmyr Gibbs, last year’s leading rusher, who is talented enough that Alabama snatched him up as a transfer (and had a 58-yard run vs. Utah State in the Tide’s season opener). And this season’s offensive line is less experienced than it was last year.
ACC Football Betting — Clemson’s defense: a big obstacle
And what makes this assignment doubly difficult is that Clemson has the makings of a truly elite defense. They will stop the run with All-America prospects Myles Murphy and Bryan Bresee (both sophomores) on the defensive line. And over the last five seasons they have held the opposition to 2.8, 3.1, 3.2, 2.5 and 3.1 yards per carry. So Georgia Tech is not getting far on the ground. That places more pressure on Sims.
And what’s even scarier is that the Yellow Jackets had one of the worst defenses in the nation last year, even with ten starters returning. They were 121st out of 130 FBS teams in passing defense. We can’t speculate as to what kind of start Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagaleilei is going to get off to, but Dabo Swinney likes to think he may have a pretty nice fallback plan with frosh Cade Klubnik, who was the top QB recruit in the nation. Remember that Trevor Lawrence (#1 pick in last year’s NFL Draft) found his way into the lineup as a freshman too.
ACC Football Betting — Our conclusion
Clemson barely squeaked by in last year’s meeting (14-8), which puts them on high alert for this one. And they look to be better on both sides of the ball. Keep in mind that when moving up in class last season, Georgia Tech lost its last two games to Georgia and Notre Dame by a combined 100-0. You may want to do something with the total here. But that’s because we wonder whether G-Tech will be able to put together more than one scoring drive.
So we don’t mind laying the points with the Tigers and going UNDER on the total.
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