CHUCK OLIVER
ATLANTA, GA – Two teams, two coaches we know. And “all kinds of getting better to do.”
Georgia Tech and Arkansas were so horrid last season they each could improve as much as any team in their conferences and I can’t guarantee you’ll notice.
Georgia Tech went 3-9 last season. The three wins were by a combined 13 points.
USF 14-10
Miami 28-21 OT
NC State 28-26
“Well, what about their close losses?”
There weren’t many.
Clemson by 38
Temple by 22
UNC by 16
Duke by 18
Pitt by 10
Virginia Tech by 45
Georgia by 45
Could be a legit transformation on the Flats this season and still finish 4-8. There’s exactly one guaranteed win on this coming season’s schedule, Gardner-Webb. I gave the same total last season and told you Citadel.
Arkansas might have been better . . . nah, they weren’t. Very different details, but no better.
Ole Miss by 15
San Jose by a touchdown
Auburn by 41
Bama by 41
Mississippi State by 30
Western Kentucky by 26, and if you’re a Hogs fan you put a swear word between Western and Kentucky
LSU by 36
Missouri beat Arkansas by 10 and fired its coach the next day.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State beat you by a combined 45 points and BOTH schools fired their coach.
Programs in power 5 conferences should never fall this far and in the case of Tech they haven’t on defense, just sorta close. But the magnitude of each of these rebuilds has both Geoff Collins and Sam Pittman staring at different, but equal, mountains to climb.
Listen to Chuck Oliver weekdays on 680 The Fan’s “Chuck & Chernoff,” weekdays 4pm – 7pm.
