Georgia Tech Football: VT Advanced Stats Review

Georgia Tech has won all of its games in Blacksburg since 2012. The team has had a problem with starting a backup quarterback at home in the last decade. The most recent performances came against shorthanded teams.

Georgia Tech's offensive line played well last week.

Georgia Tech's offensive line has struggled in pass protection in the past two games. Tech has allowed 12 sacks and pressure rates of 50.0% (vs UVA) and 36.1% (@ FSU).

Tech allowed 3 sacks this week, but it still struggles to maintain the pocket for its quarterback. The offensive coordinator Chip Long's use of jumbo/multi-TE packages might help pass protection, although it might come at the cost of route tree diversity. The metrics available to us don't show if using jumbos has generated better-than-average performances for Tech this season.

Georgia Tech's passing game with freshman Zach Pyron under center is getting better. The difference between 7.0 and 7:7 air yards per attempt is about 0.34 seconds. It's possible that the change is due to the fact that Pyroon is playing more snaps towards the end of the season. If so, he might not play the remaining two games on his redshirt. If not, it could be because of his performance against VT. He could also be targeting shorter routes to help the offensive line. This is a good idea as it would simplify the passing for a true freshman.

Pyron's air yards per attempt is 8.1, which is below Gibson's (9.9) and Sims' ( 9.8).

Tech's offense is not sustainable. It has a success rate of 36.4% and a 55.6% explosive play rate. Tech has won some games this season, but it can't dominate the entire game. To make progress, Tech needs to be more consistent. It's hard to recommend using explosive plays as a sign of progress. Football is an inherently random sport with a small sample size. A team's success is based on reproducible and sustainable through-lines of performance. The team that does this is more likely to win. For example, it might be doing things that correlate highly with wins consistently.