00:00what the offense for Georgia Tech is going to look like.
00:03And George Gotze is the new coordinator.
00:07But, Garrett, it's like, what are we expecting to see?
00:10What do you think we're going to see as fans tomorrow against Colorado?
00:14Well, if you like running the football,
00:15that's going to be pretty much what they're going to be doing.
00:18You saw the most recent depth chart that just came out.
00:21You've got three running backs lined up like that.
00:23I bet you haven't since Paul Johnson was roaming the sidelines
00:25over there on the flats.
00:27A lot of tight ends.
00:28You've got four different guys who are going to be doing stuff there,
00:30and they're all going to be rotating in.
00:32So, man, with Justice Haynes and these guys,
00:34they're going to turn around and hand the ball off a big bit.
00:36And that's kind of what Brent Key loves, right?
00:38He's an offensive lineman at heart, and that's what he did.
00:41And that's what he did.
00:42He brought in Modridge.
00:43He brought in Godze.
00:44These are guys who want to turn around and run the rock,
00:47and they're going to try to establish their will on Thursday.
00:49Now with George Godze and, of course, Chris Winkie
00:51helping out with the quarterbacks,
00:52will there be play action to the vertical passing game,
00:55or is it going to be three yards in a cloud of dust?
00:58Because we're excited about Alberto Mendoza.
01:01Brent Key said the kid's a natural leader.
01:02So do you see him passing for a lot of yards this year?
01:06I mean, yeah, I can see some chunk plays.
01:08I mean, Jordan Allen's a guy.
01:09I mean, Dede's very familiar with him from his time over there at Buford.
01:12But he's a little smaller.
01:13He's a little diminutive in size,
01:14but he makes up for it with just blazing speed on the outside.
01:18And Furman, he's a transfer over from Elon, an FCS All-American,
01:21a guy who's going to come in here,
01:22I think can make a pretty big impact.
01:24They're fast, right?
01:25So there is that explosive element to it.
01:28And Mendoza, I mean, he's a very intelligent quarterback,
01:30so he's going to keep these guys in third and manageable.
01:33It's going to be more conservative at times is what I expect to see.
01:36But then those chunk plays can still come.
01:38And I think that they have the speed to really make some guys miss
01:42and make and create some explosive plays on the outside.
01:44It would not be all that surprising if they don't take a ton of shots.
01:48But, I mean, it's interesting to see how they're going to be doing that this season
01:51because it is a change in philosophy with what you saw last year with Buster
01:54and what they were trying to do with the motions and everything like that.
01:57This just seems like a lot more smash-mouth football
02:00than what we saw in the past couple of years.
02:01Garrett, what about the defense?
02:03Do you feel like it's going to be improved?
02:05They've got a new defensive coordinator.
02:06We had Coach Key on.
02:08Look, he said it can't get any worse, and he joked.
02:12But tell me what your thoughts are there.
02:14Do you feel like the personnel has improved outside of the scheme?
02:18I mean, Brinkie, you know him pretty well.
02:20I mean, he's a pretty honest guy, isn't he?
02:22He is.
02:23He is.
02:23I'm telling you that it can't get much worse.
02:25I mean, that's pretty damning.
02:27But, I mean, I wouldn't say it was quite that bad necessarily,
02:29but he would know better than me, obviously.
02:31But it was a very conservative defense last year with Blake Gideon.
02:35It was more of like a read-and-react kind of thing.
02:36And, look, I mean, you guys, of course, I mean, we cover the Falcons.
02:39We do a lot of stuff with that.
02:39It's very similar to what you saw with Jimmy Lake
02:42and then transitioning and turning it into what happened with Jeff Ulbrick, right?
02:45You talk about that attack-minded defense, the getting bigger, getting stronger,
02:48and just attack, attack, attack.
02:50That's what you're going to see this year.
02:51You see a bunch of the additions on the defensive side of the ball.
02:54That's where a lot of those guys are coming in.
02:56Like, you see Jordan Walker.
02:58You see some big dudes like that, Noah Carter, coming in from Alabama.
03:02You've got four defensive tackles.
03:04All of your defense tackles are coming in over 300 pounds, right?
03:07Like, these are a much bigger defense, especially in that front seven.
03:11You graduated talent on the back end.
03:13That's going to have to be replaced.
03:15But, look, this front seven is going to be more aggressive,
03:17and it's going to create more turnovers or at least some opportunities to take the ball away
03:22because Jordan really struggled with that last year.
03:24I mean, you saw the run defense that struggled a lot at times last year,
03:27but it was really the takeaways,
03:29and they didn't create a lot of opportunities for themselves.
03:31And I think with Seymour coming in here,
03:33I think that's going to be a major focus for them,
03:35and a lot of that comes from just creating havoc in the front seven,
03:39and I think they've got some of the guys to do that.
03:41You mentioned those transfers.
03:42We looked at the numbers, and they're just bigger.
03:44I mean, on paper, they look to be bigger physical guys from big programs coming in.
03:48So you need that size, but you've got to get pass rush.
03:51And we know that Colorado is – I don't know.
03:53We saw that video as Garrett Chapman joined us here on Dukes and Bell Conference Tech.
03:56Like, I don't know if it was a work by Colorado when they got some smaller underclassmen to come in,
04:01but the team looks really small.
04:03I mean, unless they're really speedy,
04:06you feel that Georgia should dominate the lines of scrimmage.
04:09Georgia Tech, I mean.
04:10Yeah, yeah.
04:11Yeah, no, I'm – look, I – that whole thing that happened with the Colorado media,
04:16and now they're not allowed to take enough of practices,
04:19and that was kind of weird.
04:21That was kind of weird, but maybe they're kind of revealing it themselves.
04:24I don't know.
04:25I mean, they won't last year.
04:29They were big last year, necessarily,
04:31and I think Georgia Tech was able to establish their will on the ground.
04:34I mean, Hanks King ran for, what, a buck 57 or something like that last year?
04:38Yeah, you're going to be able to establish your will that way.
04:41And, Mike, like you said, I mean, like, this game is going to be determined by the trenches,
04:44and I think Georgia Tech has a pretty clear advantage there.
04:47And the offensive line saw a little bit of a shuffle there on the offensive side.
04:50The defensive line, like we just talked about, is much, much bigger,
04:53much, much more aggressive,
04:54and I think that's where they're going to try and really establish themselves in this game.
04:57And then if you can get yourself a lead, like, if this team –
05:00I think the line's still sitting at, what, six and a half, Mike, right?
05:03Something like that.
05:03That's a big 10-4.
05:05Locked it in yesterday, Garrett, six and a half.
05:06Locked it in.
05:07Locked that in.
05:08I do not know how that number hasn't gone up.
05:11So if you still have it at six and a half, take advantage of that,
05:13because if Georgia Tech can get to a seven-point lead, ten-point lead,
05:17ooh, they're just going to lean into it.
05:18And I kind of imagine them trying to pull away there in the late in the second half.
05:22I agree.
05:23It's Garrett Chapman, guys, from 247 Sports here on Sports Radio 92.9 The Game,
05:27covering Georgia Tech, getting ready for their big kickoff game against Colorado.
05:30Here's the thing, Garrett, and I'm wondering what you think about this.
05:34Last year, Colorado was 116th in points per game.
05:39They were 114th in yards per game.
05:42Tech was 11th, by the way, respectively, in yards per game,
05:45getting back to that run game and piling them up.
05:47But what is Juju going to do?
05:49Because he makes his return to the crib.
05:51We're talking about Julian Lewis.
05:53He's the starter.
05:54Does that offense improve?
05:55And, you know, that's really the question for Colorado,
05:58because after they lost Shador, and obviously, you know, Hunter, that thing changed.
06:03Yeah.
06:03No, it definitely did.
06:04And Juju Lewis, I mean, I watched him a good bit with the high school scoreboard show.
06:08I drove out there and made that trek down to watch the Trojans play out in Carrollton.
06:12And shout out to the Trojans.
06:14I mean, he reclassifies to the 2020, excuse me, the 2025 class.
06:18And, I mean, you haven't seen it yet.
06:21He didn't fully put it all together last year.
06:23The pieces physically are there.
06:26But I don't know.
06:27I mean, this Colorado team is always in such a state of flux.
06:29I mean, you see this going on kind of with Lane Kiffin, wherever he ends up.
06:32And you have an entire team that's reset.
06:35And the volatility of that, guys, is just unbelievable.
06:38I don't know how you establish a culture and then maintain it.
06:41I don't know how you're able to do that and have a consistent thing moving from year to year.
06:45And I don't know how you build, but that's something that Deion Sanders is.
06:49That's the way he's opposed to build his team, for better or for worse.
06:53Brinkey's chosen a different way.
06:55And he's still active in the transfer portal.
06:57He's still adding guys that way.
06:59But it's 20 guys, not 50, 60 guys.
07:02And so it's like you ask the question, like, what are they going to be this year?
07:05Oh, your guess is as good as mine.
07:07I mean, there's so much volatility from a year-to-year basis.
07:10I mean, I mentioned Lane, so I'll bring him up.
07:13I mean, you see the ebbs and flows of it, right?
07:16You see him go win 10 games, and then he'll flip around and win 7, 8 games.
07:19And then he'll go back up to 10 wins.
07:21It's just the state of college football these days.
07:23It's the guys who choose to do it that way.
07:25And the highs are pretty high, and that's why they do it.
07:28One of the other things about Georgia Tech, it seems like he was there like five years.
07:32He wasn't.
07:33But Haynes King was the secret sauce.
07:35It was like give the ball to Haynes, and he's going to make something happen.
07:38He's going to run over or around somebody.
07:40Yeah, he can beat you with his arm as well.
07:41And we saw him make the Carolina Panthers.
07:43We talked about that the other day.
07:44Deion even talked about it.
07:45He's saying, whew, that guy Haynes King is gone.
07:47So it'll be interesting to see what, first off, Goose is here.
07:51And George Gossie coached in the NFL.
07:53For guys who don't know, he coached tight ends with the Patriots.
07:55He was the offensive coordinator for the Texans.
07:56So the NFL experience.
07:58And maybe the tight end gets more involved with Mendoza and some high percentage stuff early.
08:02Yeah, I would imagine so.
08:04And it's going to be by committee to replace Haynes King.
08:06I mean, that guy was incredible.
08:08I mean, you saw what happened with this game.
08:10Just starting in this game out in Colorado last year, they turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions to
08:14start the game.
08:16And they still came back and won that game.
08:18And I would still say they were definitively the better team, having watched the full game and go from start
08:23to finish.
08:24But they don't do that unless they have Haynes King.
08:27Right?
08:27And you saw him do that on several occasions.
08:29You saw him do that against Georgia in that eight-overtime thriller in Athens a couple years ago.
08:34Right?
08:34I mean, they're not in those games.
08:36Mind you, he had like a separated shoulder at this time, too.
08:38Right?
08:39So he's coming back.
08:39No one knew if he was even going to play in that game.
08:41The toughness of that guy cannot be understated.
08:45And when you lose a leader like that, there's going to be a void.
08:49And who steps into that is a great question.
08:51And you don't really know until you get onto the field on Thursday.
08:55And then onto these fields on Saturdays.
08:57We have Tennessee coming to town next weekend, too.
08:59So, I mean, the work keeps going.
09:01Right?
09:02So whoever steps into that void, it's going to be figured out pretty quickly on the field.
09:06All right.
09:07Before we let you go, Garrett Chapman joining us here on Dukes and Bell.
09:10High scoring game?
09:12Do you think?
09:1350 is over.
09:14I think so.
09:15I think so.
09:16I would imagine Brinkie's going to try and take the air out of the ball a little bit.
09:19What's the number?
09:20What's the number sitting at right now?
09:21It was 50 and a half yesterday.
09:23Uh, yeah, that sounds about right.
09:25I mean, maybe, yeah, I'd sit right on that.
09:29I mean, I'm not giving gambling advice.
09:30No, no, no.
09:31Just ask.
09:31But I keep going up a little over there.
09:32Okay.
09:33Yeah.
09:33It's kind of around there.
09:35I don't necessarily see it.
09:36It's like, there's not going to be fireworks, you know?
09:37I don't think that that's what Georgia Tech's going to try and do.
09:40I think Georgia Tech wants to run the ball.
09:42And I think they want to just pound the rock a good bit.
09:44And I think that, I mean, similar to what you see with Kirby Smart doing in Athens,
09:47just take the air out of the football.
09:48And if they can get a lead early and take care of the football, that's kind of what I expect
09:51to happen.
09:52Yeah, and real quick, I just, I, look, I agree with you, but I'm wondering if they allowed Juju to
09:57throw it around.
09:57In high school, that's what he did, right?
09:59That's why he got all the accolades.
10:01I just wonder if Colorado comes in and says, look, this is what we are.
10:05We're going and we're throwing this thing around and we're trying to get up on teams early.
10:10Or do they try to protect him?
10:12You know what I mean?
10:13That's why I'm like, I'm kind of curious to see what this is going to look like from a scoring
10:17perspective.
10:18Yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying.
10:19And look, I think that if Georgia Tech can get a lead early, that's when you start to see some
10:23of those big uglies get after the quarterback.
10:25And so it's kind of a double-edged sword with that.
10:28I mean, they're one of the worst running teams in the country.
10:31And they've consistently been really bad at running the football.
10:35And so Juju's going to have to get back and drop back and make some big passes.
10:38He's going to have to get some big completions there, right?
10:40So it's going to be really interesting to see on that regard.
10:43I think that they'll try to score a bunch of points, I mean, obviously.
10:48But I'm fascinated to see how this Georgia Tech defense responds.
10:52Right on, man.
10:53Again, they've got a lot of athletes.
10:56Colorado, a lot of folks feeling that it's kind of trending the wrong way for Deion.
10:59Again, Deion's had a lot of health issues.
11:01Things are beyond the program and his control.
11:03But, man, can't wait.
11:04It is sold out, by the way, Thursday night at Bobby Dodd.
11:07That's good.
11:07Right on.
11:08And don't get too banged up for Tennessee.
11:10I agree.
11:11That's the key, man.
11:13That's going to be interesting how he plays it.
11:14But, look, Brent's not going to be pulling guys out in the fourth quarter.
11:16Nope.
11:17That's not how he is.
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