Five Takeaways From Jeff Hafley's Tuesday GT Press Conference
On Tuesday, head coach Jeff Hafley met with the media to talk about the upcoming matchup with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Here are some of the most important takeaways from yesterday's presser.
1. It's too early to use statistics to gauge the Yellow Jackets. Hafley talked about how he uses statistics to analyze his opponents, but at this point in the year it might be too early for them to be completely accurate. For instance GT's numbers might have looked completely different before they played Clemson, who then hit such high numbers that they are completely warped now. Hafley said he likes to use the game tape to see if the play matches the statistics.
2. Losing Kobay White was a big deal. Hafley complimented the growth of players like Jehlani Galloway and CJ Lewis, but lamented the loss of his veteran wide receiver. He talked about how valuable White could have been in this offense, "I think this guy would be lighting it up. You picture him on some of these scrambles with his experience popping open, catching the ball and running, with the way Phil can throw a timing rhythm to him on some of these intermediate routes, I’m very fired up just thinking about it."
3. The team has bought in on "the process". On Saturday the head coach said he couldn't wait to get back to work on the practice field, on Tuesday he clarified. "The cool part about this team is, you wouldn't have known if we had won by 50, or lost the way we did. They come out and they work. That just shows me they’re buying into what we're trying to build. If you just get so overwhelmed with a result, and you change who you are, and you let circumstances change you, then you're going to have a team that comes out pouty and doesn't practice hard."
4. Tackling has been a priority this week. Hafley talked about how before the VT game he thought his team was doing well with tackling. But after allowing 350 yards on the ground, and allowing 26 missed tackles, he went back to the basics this week. "We're hard on tackling and I don't think it's for a lack of missing anything. You know clearly we didn't do it well enough in the last game so I'm not going to make an excuse for that. I think we've tackled really well this season. It's my job to figure out why we didn't on Saturday, and get a better scheme to get more people to the ball and obviously we’ve got to coach them better too."
5. Georgia Tech and BC have made a similar journey. Georgia Tech moved on from the triple option and BC the heavy ground game. But Hafley thinks the team will continue to improve. "To transition is hard. Yeah, a lot of these kids have never done it. Is it harder because we didn't have a spring ball and training camp? Yeah. That's why I think what you're going to see is progress. I think you'll see stuff start to click. I believe the run game will start to click and I believe we will get better throwing to football. But offense is about reps. It's about experience. It's about jelling."