Clemson Football: Early Opponent Analysis vs. Georgia Tech 2019
The 2019 Clemson football season is less than three months away from kickoff. Here’s a look at our early opponent analysis for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
As we inch closer to the start of the 2019 Clemson football season, we’ll be giving you a way-too-early breakdown of each opponent on the Tigers’ schedule.
We’ll take a look at their key returners, places they’ll need players to step up and overall keys to a victory here in the midst of summer.
Today, we’ll begin our series with a look at the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
Early Opponent Analysis:
Georgia Tech is replacing head coach Paul Johnson. Geoff Collins was hired by the Yellow Jackets and has since taken the liberty of adding offensive coordinator David Patenaude, who is known for his spread offense.
With the Yellow Jackets previously being a triple-option offense under Johnson, they’ll need athletes to buy into the system and learn a brand new offense rather quickly. In many cases, Johnson recruited players specifically to his system, so many have never even played in an offense other than an option.
In my opinion, it will take Georgia Tech a couple of seasons to get athletes in the program that are capable of running the spread offense. This season could be a rough one for the Yellow Jackets, but sometimes a breath of fresh air is exactly what a program needs. Only time will tell.
It will all start at the quarterback position. Georgia Tech has Tobias Oliver and Lucas Johnson already on campus, but I think there’s a good chance freshman Jordan Yates could eventually win the starting position, but it likely won’t be against Clemson.
The Yellow Jackets will also have to develop wide receivers- the leading returning at receiver is Jalen Camp, who only had 11 receptions last season.
Defensively, Georgia Tech will attempt to blitz a lot and play aggressive. They will go all out to rush the passer or get a stop in the backfield and take the high-risk for high-reward. At least, that’s what they’ll hope to do.
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Early Game Breakdown:
Clemson is clearly the more talented team, but the big issue for the Tigers will be attempting to prepare for a team that they have no film on whatsoever. Georgia Tech could throw a number of schemes out at the Tigers in that season-opening Thursday night game that Clemson hadn’t prepared for.
The coaches will be tasked with adjusting on the fly and relying on their overwhelming talent gap to pick up the victory, which in the end shouldn’t be a problem.