Georgia Tech will 'want to establish running the ball' in 2026

0:00to end Bell presented by Finley Roofing on sports radio 92 9th the game. For it's radio 92 9th the game. It is Duke's in Bell. We got a big game tomorrow. And obviously we're talking about Georgia Tech, Colorado. And what a way to kick off the season for Georgia Tech and coach key Garrett Chapman joins us from 247 sports. He covers Georgia Tech and Garrett also a long time part of 92 9th the game here. And it's good to talk to Garrett. I want to get your perspective on what you're hearing. I think the biggest secret right now is what the offense for Georgia Tech is going to look like. And George got these the man the Hey man, the new man, the new coordinator, but Garrett, it's like, what are we expecting to see? What do you think we're going to see as fans tomorrow against Colorado? Well, if you like running the football, I mean, that's going to be pretty pretty much what they're going to be doing. I mean, you saw the for Eastern depth chart that just came out.

1:01You got three running backs lined up like that. I bet you haven't since Paul Johnson was roaming the sidelines over there on the flat. A lot of tight ends. You got four different guys. You were going to be doing stuff there and they're all going to be rotating in. So man, with justice hangs and these guys, they're going to turn around and hand the ball off of the bit and then that's kind of what Brink he loves, right? He's an offensive lineman at heart. And that's what he did, you know? And that's what he did. He brought him, Mojridge, he brought in God see like these are guys who want to turn around and run the rock. And they're going to try to establish the world on Thursday. Now with George God see and of course, Chris Winky helping out with the quarterbacks. What will be the be play action to the vertical passing game? Or is it going to be, you know, three yards in a cloud of dust because we're excited about Alberto Mendoza. Brent Key said the kids are natural leaders. So how do you see him passing for a lot of yards this year? I mean, yeah, I can see some Trump plays. I mean, Jordan Allen's the guy. I mean, day day is very familiar with him from his time over there at Buford. But he's a little smaller. He's a little than many do in size. But he makes up for it with just blazing speed on the outside and firm and he's a transfer river from Elon and FCS all American. Like I was going to come in here.

2:02I think it's making a pretty big impact. They're fast, right? So there is that explosive element to it. And Mendoza is, I mean, he's a very intelligent quarterback. So he's going to keep these guys and kind of third and manageable. It's going to be more conservative at times as what I expect to see. But then those Trump plays can still come. And I think that they have the speed to really make some guys miss and make and create some explosive plays on the outside. It would not be all that surprising if they don't take a ton of shots. But I mean, it's interesting to see how they're going to be doing that this season because it is a change in philosophy with what you saw last year with Buster and what they were trying to do with the motions and everything like that. This just seems like a lot more smash mouth football than what we saw in the past couple of years. Garrett, what about the defense? So you feel like it's going to be improving. Got a new defensive coordinator. We had Coach Kion. Look, he said, he can't get any worse. And he joked. But tell me what your thoughts are there. Do you feel like the personnel is improved outside of the scheme? I mean, the breakey, you know, I'm pretty well. I mean, he's a pretty honest guy. And he is.

3:03He is. He is. Can't get much worse. I mean, that's pretty damning. But I mean, I wouldn't say it was quite that bad necessarily, but he would know better than me, obviously. But it was a very conservative defense last year with Blake Gideon. It was more of like a read and react kind of thing. And look, I mean, you guys, of course, I mean, we cover the Falcons. We do a lot of stuff with that. It's very similar to what you saw with Jimmy Lake. And then transitioning and turning it into what happened with Jeff Obrich, right? You talk about that attack-minded defense. They're getting bigger, getting stronger, and just attack, attack, attack. That's what you're going to see this year. You see a bunch of the additions on the defensive side of the ball. Let's where a lot of those guys are coming in. You see a Jordan Walker. You see some big dudes like that Noah Carter coming in from Alabama. You've got four defensive tackles. All of your defense tackles are coming in over three and a pounds. Like these are, this is a much bigger defense, especially in that front. You graduated talent on the back end. That's going to have to be replaced. But look, this front seven is going to be more aggressive. And it's going to create more turnovers. Or at least some opportunities take the ball away because Jordan's not really struggled with that last year.

4:04I mean, you saw the run defense that struggled a lot at times last year. But it was really to take aways. And they didn't create a lot of opportunities for themselves. And I think we see more coming in here. I think that's going to be a major focus for them. And a lot of that comes from just creating havoc in the front seven. And I think they've got some of the guys to do that. You mentioned those at transfers. We looked at the numbers and they're just the bigger. I mean, on paper, they looked to be bigger physical guys from big programs coming in. So you need that size, but you've got to get pass rush. And we know that Colorado, I don't know. We saw that video as Garrett Chapman joins us here on Duke's New Belk, current tech. I don't know if it was, it was a work by Colorado. And they got some smaller underclassmen to come in. But the team looks really small. I mean, unless they're really speedy, we feel that Georgia should dominate the lines of scrimmage. Georgia Tech. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm. Look, I had that whole thing that happened with the Colorado media. And then now they're not allowed to take off of practices. And that was kind of weird. That was kind of weird, but they're kind of revealing it themselves.

5:05I don't know. I mean, they, they will last year, for big last year, necessarily. And I think Georgia Tech was able to establish their will on the ground. I mean, he's king ran for what a buck 50 set. And then or something like that last year. Yeah, you're going to be able to establish your will that way. And Mike, like you said, I mean, this game is going to be determined by the trenches. And I think Georgia Tech has a pretty clear advantage there. And the offensive lines, so a little bit of a shuffle there on the offensive side, the defensive line, like we just talked about as much, much bigger, much, much more aggressive. And I think that's where they're going to try and really establish themselves in this game. And then if you can get yourself a lead, like if this team, I think the line's still sitting at what six and a half, Mike, right? Something like that. Locked it in yesterday, Garrett, six and a half. Locked it in. Locked that in. I do not know how that number hasn't gone up. So if you still have it at six and a half, take advantage of that, because if Georgia Tech can get to a seven point lead, ten point lead, whoo, they're just going to lean into it. And I kind of imagine them trying to pull away there in the late in the second half. I agree. It's Garrett Chapman, guys from 247 Sports here on Sports Radio 92 9th game.

6:06Covering Georgia Tech getting ready for their big kickoff game against Colorado. Here's the thing, Garrett. And I'm wondering what you think about this. Last year, Colorado was 116th in points per game. They were 114th in yards per game. Tech was 11th, by the way, respectively in yards per game, getting back to that run game and piling them up. But what is juju going to do because he makes his return to the crib. We're talking about Julian Lewis. He's the starter. Does that offense improve? And, you know, that's really the question for Colorado because after they lost the door and obviously, you know, Hunter, that thing changed. Yeah, no, definitely did. And juju Lewis, I mean, I watched him a good bit with the high school scoreboard show. I drove out there and made that trek down to watch the Trojans play out in Carrollton and shot out to the Trojans. I mean, he reclassifies to the 2020, excuse me, the 2025 class. And I mean, you haven't seen it yet. He didn't fully put it all together last year. The pieces physically are there. But I don't know.

7:07I mean, that this Colorado team is always in such a state of flux. I mean, you see this going on kind of with Lane Kiff and wherever he ends up. And you have an entire team that's reset in the volatility of that, guys, is just unbelievable. I don't know how you establish a culture and then maintain it. I don't know how you're able to do that and have a consistent thing moving from year to year and how I don't know how you build. But that's something that Deon Sanders is the way he's approached to build his team for better or for worse. Brinkie's chosen a different way and he's still active in the transfer portal. He's still adding guys that way. But it's 20 guys, not 50, 60 guys. And so it's like, you asked the question, like, what are they going to be this year? Carl, your guess is as good as mine. I mean, there's so much volatility from a year to your basis. I mean, I mentioned Lane, so I'll bring him up. I mean, you see the eds inflows of it, right? You see him go win 10 games and then he'll flip around and win seven eight games. And then I'll go back up to 10 wins. It's just the state of college football these days. It's the guys who choose to do it that way. And the highs are pretty high.

8:07And that's why they do it. One of the other things about Georgia Tech, it seems like he was there like five years he wasn't. But Haines King was the secret sauce. It was like give the ball to Haines. And he's going to make something happen. He's going to run over or around somebody. Yeah, he could beat you with his arm as well. And we saw him make the Carolina Panthers. We talked about that the other day. Deon even talked about it. He's saying, woo, that God Haines King has gone. So it'll be interesting to see what first off, Goose is here. And George Gossi coached in the NFL for guys who don't know. We coached tight ends with the Patriots. He was the offensive coordinator for the Texans. So the NFL experienced. And maybe the tight end gets more involved with Mendoza and some high percentage stuff early. Yeah, I would imagine so. And it's going to be by committee to replace Haines King. Like I mean, that guy was incredible. I mean, you saw what happened with this game. Just starting in this game out in Colorado last year, they turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions to start the game. And they still came back to one that game. And I would still say they were definitively the better team having watched the full game and go from start to finish it. It's just, but they don't do that unless they have Haines King, right?

9:07And you saw him do that on several occasions. You saw him do that against Georgia in that eight overtime thriller in Athens a couple of years ago, right? I mean, they're not in those games. I might have, like, separated shoulder at this time too, right? So he's coming back. No one knew if he was even going to play in that game. The toughness of that guy cannot be understated. When you lose a leader like that, there's going to be a void. And who steps into that is a great question. And you don't really know until you get on to the field on Thursday. And then onto these fields and Saturdays, like we have Tennessee coming to town next weekend, too. So in it, the work keeps going, right? So it's whoever steps into that void is it's going to be figured out pretty quickly on the field. All right. Before we let you go, Garrett Chapman joining us here on Duke Symbel. High scoring game. Do you think 50 is over? I think so. I think so. I would imagine Brinkie is going to try and take the air out of the ball a little bit. OK. What's the number? What's the number sitting down right now? Yeah, it's 50 and a half years today. Yeah, that sounds about right. I mean, maybe.

10:07Yeah, I'd fit right on that. I mean, I'm not giving gambling advice, but I know I can just ask one up a little over there. OK. Yeah. It's kind of like kind of around there. I don't necessarily see it's like this. I can be fireworks, you know? I don't think that that's what Georgia Tech is going to try and do. I think Georgia Tech wants to run the ball. And I think they want to just pound the rock a good bit. And I think that I mean, similar to what you see with Kirby smart doing in Athens, just take the air out of the football. And if they can get a lead early and take care of the football, that's kind of what I expect to happen. Yeah. And real quick, I just, I look, I agree with you, but I'm wondering if they allowed you to throw it around. In high school, that's what he did, right? That's why he got all the the accolades. I just wonder if Colorado comes in and says, look, this is what we are. We're going and we're throwing this thing around. And we're trying to get up on on teams early. Or do they try to protect him? You know what I mean? That's why I'm like, I'm kind of curious to see what this is going to look like from a scoring perspective. Yeah. Yeah. I see what you're saying. And look, I think that if Georgia Tech can get a lead early, that's when you start to see some of those big uglys get after the quarterback. Yeah. And so it's kind of a double edge sword with that.

11:08I mean, they're one of the worst running teams in the country and they've consistently been really bad at running the football. And so Georgia's going to have to get back and drop, drop back and make some big passes. He's going to have to make some big, get some big completions there, right? So it's going to be really interesting to see on that regard. I think that they'll try to score a bunch of points. I mean, obviously, but I'm fascinated to see how this Georgia Tech defense responds. Right on, man. Again, they got a lot of athletes, Colorado, a lot of folks feeling that it's kind of trending the wrong way for Dan again. Dan's had a lot of health issues. Things that beyond, you know, the program and his control, but man, can't wait. It is sold out by the way. There's a night of Bobby. That's good. Right on. And don't get too banged up for sold out and don't get too banged up for Tennessee. I agree. That's the key man. Like that's going to be interesting how he plays it. But look, Brent's not going to be pulling guys out in the fourth quarter. Nope. That's not how he is. Hey, Gary, great job, man. Continued success. Two, four, seven sports. Check him out. And we'll see what Tech does, man, in this opener. Thank you again. Thanks, gentlemen. You got it. And again, I wasn't trying to say that Butch Spockner did do a great job.

12:09He did, but it's just.