Change We Can Believe In

I had prepared (most of) a post talking about how Phillip Sims needs  to be our starting quarterback, but if our line plays as terrible as it did yesterday, and Dominique Terrell still has clubs on his broken hands (wait...what? He's just terrible?) it's not really going to matter. Does Sims have greater physical skills than Rocco? Yes. But at this point if people are just going to run right past Morgan Moses on a safety blitz, all the talent in the world isn't going to make a difference. Mike Rocco, and more importantly his in-depth knowledge of the offense, needs to start from now on, or at least until we can figure these line issues out.

However there is one position where the depth chart needs to change IMMEDIATELY. And that of course is tight end. And in fact if this change isn't made, I might question what the coaching staff is thinking. Jake McGee was literally the ONLY guy who came to play yesterday, with a slight nod to Darius Jennings. In fact, the second best player on our team was the Penn State kicker.

Walk Home

McGee was an absolute stud in the passing game, as he was in the first game, and as he was in the spring game. He was hurt for a good chunk of summer training camp, which might be why he isn't starting, but at this point the kid absolutely needs to be TE1 on the depth chart for Georgia Tech. He's earned it with stellar play, and over the last year-plus Colter Phillips and Paul Freedman have shown us nothing even close to what McGee showed yesterday. He also is the best fit for Bill Lazor's offense. And here's why:

First off, Lazor runs a pro-style offense, but there is a ton of influence from the spread in there. He likes to take advantage of the players on his roster who have tremendous ability to make plays in space. This means you need to spread out the defense by isolating your best players, which is easier to do when you have more threats on the field. However its pro-style influences still require a tight end for when we decide to run the ball. This is obviously the weaker part of McGee's game but it is much easier to teach a player blocking schemes than it is to teach Paul Freedman to be as athletic as McGee has proven to be.

The second, and possibly more powerful piece of evidence for McGee is recruiting. If you look at the last three cycles (2011, 2012, 2013) UVA has signed exactly zero tight ends. This offense is moving away from the tight end and moving toward having bigger receivers filling that role. Players like freshman Canaan Severin and 2013 commit Keeon Johnson are big receivers who fill in that matchup threat. McGee is the perfect hybrid between a true tight end and a wide receiver, and could become the perfect prototype for what that role is in this offense.

If nothing else, McGee played so well yesterday that he has earned at least a chance to start for the next game. The kid has the potential to become an absolute stud, and he should be given that chance.

Play of the Season. Book it

As for Sims, that's for another time!