First, we played a better team than we were, shouldn't have been 52-10 better though. You can't give any team 35 points off T/O's and expect to be in the game and that was a fluke. As good as they were, several fumbles were just plain and simple drops by the Tulsa players. Maybe Tulsa was a little more wide eyed about playing in a bowl game than we thought. Kilian falling on his ****** when no one is within 10yds of him. Besides Ga Tech being good, Tulsa played it's worse game of the season by far without Ga Tech's help. The defense is going to get hounded for allowing a 300 yd rusher and giving up 52 points. If Ga Tech's defense played someone and their defense spent as much time on the field as ours and the other team almost always had a short field, anywhere from their own 10-40 yd line, they would have been a step slower by the end of the 3rd quarter too. Ga Tech ran the ball most of the time in the first half too and the defense was fine, but as the defense spent more time coming on after a T/O and the score got out of control, you not only get worn out you get demoralized, which sometimes go hand and hand. We had a good year and with the bigger linemen on offense and defense we have already recruited for next year and now having played in a bowl game, I expect a great year next year and a much better Bowl game!!!!

jfisher Wrote:First, we played a better team than we were, shouldn't have been 52-10 better though. You can't give any team 35 points off T/O's and expect to be in the game and that was a fluke. As good as they were, several fumbles were just plain and simple drops by the Tulsa players. Maybe Tulsa was a little more wide eyed about playing in a bowl game than we thought. Kilian falling on his ****** when no one is within 10yds of him. Besides Ga Tech being good, Tulsa played it's worse game of the season by far without Ga Tech's help. The defense is going to get hounded for allowing a 300 yd rusher and giving up 52 points. If Ga Tech's defense played someone and their defense spent as much time on the field as ours and the other team almost always had a short field, anywhere from their own 10-40 yd line, they would have been a step slower by the end of the 3rd quarter too. Ga Tech ran the ball most of the time in the first half too and the defense was fine, but as the defense spent more time coming on after a T/O and the score got out of control, you not only get worn out you get demoralized, which sometimes go hand and hand. We had a good year and with the bigger linemen on offense and defense we have already recruited for next year and now having played in a bowl game, I expect a great year next year and a much better Bowl game!!!!

Excellent points all, and I am totally primed about next season, esp. if we get to enter C-USA early.

I agree, I'm really looking forward to next year. This bowl experience could have been a much bigger deal to some of our players than we might think. We might not think about them being a little nervous or almost scared by it, but remember most of the the players played on two 1-11 teams and I'm sure started this season hoping to do better, maybe 3, 4 or maybe, just maybe 5 wins. I don't think they pictured themselves in a bowl game, maybe even when they were actually in one. There was a trememdous attitude improvement on this years team, but too expect players who had played on 2-22 teams, a bowl game is a HUGE adjustment. Now that part is over and I think the players go into next year with big expectations and a solid year behind them to lean on!!!

yeah, it's easy for things to snowball and get out of hand when the other team is more athletic and you start making unforced errors. A big part of our success this year was playing mistake-free football. Take that away, and we don't have the athletes to compete with an ACC team. Let's face it - we wouldn't have beaten SMU on Saturday with 6 fumbles inside our own 35.

No matter. If you would have told me before the season that we'd go 8-4, finish 2nd in the WAC and go to a bowl game but get blown out, I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. Still an amazing accomplishment.

Two positives to come out of the blowout:

1) Should provide all the motivation in the world to the returning players to work that much harder. Now we know how much farther we have to go to really be a good team. I hope we respond like the basketball team did after getting drilled by Duke in the NCAA tournament (went to the Elite 8 the next year).

2) Nobody is hiring Kragthorpe away any time soon. He'll get the chance to prove this season wasn't a fluke.

Tulsa would have been right there in it if they were a exposed to a defense of the calibur GT has earlier. GT has a defensive coord. that is Top 5 in the nation, and five early NFL draft picks on defense. Not exactly shameful if they take it to you. They handed #9 FSU a 13-0 shutout in Tally until a breakdown with 7 minutes left. They also knocked #20 Maryland's QB out of the game before the half from getting walloped every play. They went on to win 7-3. They kept the mighty Auburn rush attack out the endzone too in a 17-3 win.

Tech's defense is among the elite in the nation, it's just a crying shame the offense was so anemic 90% of year.... cost us from finishing #2 in the ACC and going to the Gator Bowl... which we were set to do even with just 3 games left in the regular season.

Let's not get too down???

We just got asses handed to us.....

Very bitter ending to a great season....