Ramblin’ Wreck

By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Geoff Collins is in his fourth season as the head coach in Atlanta.

He’s won three games each season at Georgia Tech, making his overall record 9 – 25. To call that not good is an understatement. The fan base was sick of Paul Johnson, but they regularly went to bowl games.

Collins seems too focused on social media posts and branding over actually coaching football. He shared some insight at ACC Media Days about what we can expect in 2022. He was asked what would give the fan base optimism.

“Just excited about the guys that we have been able to add to the organization, whether that means coaches or players. In the last couple of years, we have been able to develop depth on the roster and a lot of leadership, and the way the guys are working. The big focus since the end of last season is how can we play the best brand of Georgia Tech Football on college football Saturdays and that has been the focus of everything that we have done and all the changes that we have made, deep introspection on how we do things, and why we do things. We are excited to keep building and getting to that point.”

Collins was asked about NIL and where Tech stands in terms of offering it compared to the rest of the conference and the Southeast.

“I think one of the biggest pieces is our location. Being in the heart of the city of Atlanta where there are a lot of opportunities for our guys to benefit from the name, image, and likeness. We fully support it as a coaching staff, as an institution, as an administration and we’ve got the system set up with the different collectives. I think all of the opportunities are there in the city of Atlanta and the support that we give our guys is there”

He says the right things but let’s take a look at the schedule and see what games they can win.

The season kicks off Labor Day at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Clemson. Last season the game in Death Valley was close, with the Tigers winning 14-8. I think they’ll be better this season and they will win this game.

The home opener is against an FCS team, Western Carolina. Tech will win big.

Week 3 is home against Ole Miss. The Rebels lost a lot of starters from last season, including quarterback Matt Corral. They will still have more talent than the Yellow Jackets and win.

The first road game is at Central Florida. UCF was 9 – 4 last season in Gus Malzahn’s first season. The offense should be more explosive in his second season and they will score a lot of points.

They travel to Heinz Field to start October on the road. Pitt lost QB Kenny Pickett, who was drafted in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. This game could be close but I like the Panthers.

Tech returns home to face Duke and I think they’ll beat the Blue Devils.

After Duke they have a bye week. The next four games are against Virginia, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Miami. I think we can mark these all off as loses.

The final two games are in the road at North Carolina and Georgia. They did beat UNC handily last year, so they have a chance. Unfortunately, they’ll get pummeled by UGA again.

The best-case scenario is three wins, but I think they’ll win two games. This should be Collins final season before he gets terminated.