Georgia Tech Football: Jackets set to see familiar offense against The Citadel
The Georgia Tech football team will take on The Citadel out of the FCS on Saturday and the Jackets will face a familiar offense against The Bulldogs.
Georgia Tech got win No.1 of the Geoff Collins era out of the way on Saturday when they took down USF by a final score of 14-10. Now, this upcoming Saturday, the Jackets will be looking for win No.2 of the season as they take on the The Citadel Bulldogs. The Citadel comes to The Flats on Saturday, they’ll bring an offense that looks very familiar, the triple-option offense.
Entering Saturday, The Citadel will be looking to avoid an 0-3 start after going 5-6 last season. The Bulldogs have lost the first two games of their season to fellow FCS progams, Towson (28-21) and Elon (35-28). As both scores showed, the Bulldogs have played tough in each of their first two games but have come out on the wrong side of the stick. With that, it’s hard to see the Bulldogs picking up win No.1 of 2019 on Saturday against the Jackets.
Offensively this season, the Bulldogs have been adequate. Through two games, they’ve scored 49 points (24.5 ppg) and have totaled 488-yards (290.5 ypg). Not exactly numbers that will blow you away to say the least.
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Unsurprisingly, the Bulldogs run the ball heavily and through two games, they’re running the ball 91% of the time with 122 rushing attempts on 134 possible plays. On those rushing plays, the Bulldogs have gained 488 total yards, an average of four yards per carry.
Through the air, they’ve been shaky in their 12 passing attempts, completing seven passes including two for touchdowns but also throwing two interceptions. They have gained 93-yards through the air through their first two games, an average of 7.75 an attempt and 13.2 per completion. With that, don’t expect the Bulldogs to take too many down the field throws on Saturday when they pass the ball. They appear to go for the yards as needed rather than try for an explosive play down the sideline or across the middle.
In terms of individual players to watch on Saturday, quarterback Brandon Rainey will be worth keeping eyes on. The junior out of Acworth, Georgia has 210-yards rushing on the season over the course of 52 carries.
A-back Nkem Njoku hasn’t got a ton of touches in the first two games but has averaged seven yards a carry. Fellow A-back Remus Bulmer has had similar success with an average of six yards per carry. Additionally, b-back Clay Harris has been the Bulldogs primary ball-handler outside of Rainey and has 87 rushing yards on the season.
At wide receiver, junior Raleigh Webb appears to be the ealy primary receiver with three receptions for 39-yards and two touchdowns. Redshirt sophomore Ryan McCarthy is the only other wide receiver to catch a pass for the Bulldogs so far, one reception for 37-yards. A-backs Nkem Njoku and Remus Bulmer both have receptions as well.
Overall, the Bulldogs offense shouldn’t pose much of a threat to a Jackets defense that had a nice bounce-back performance this past weekend against USF. The Jackets last week allowed just 93-yards of rushing on 30 carries by the Bulls.
That being said, triple-option teams can give more talented and athletic teams run for their money at times. Such an example is Army this past weekend just coming up short of a huge upset of Notre Dame. Also noteworthy, is last season, this Citadel team once had a 10-7 lead over Alabama in the second quarter. Now, Alabama would run away with the game but it wouldn’t be too shocking if The Citadel was able to keep it a rather close game for a quarter or two on Saturday, thanks to their offense.