The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Collins: Field goal troubles, not fans, changed his mind on 4th-and-goal TD try,
After Georgia Tech’s third-andgoal pass play from the Northern Illinois 3-yard line gained a single yard Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Yellow Jackets coach Geoff Collins sent out kicker Brent Cimaglia and the field-goal unit for what likely would have been a 19-yard fieldgoal try against Northern Illinois.
Boos rained down from the stands from Tech fans, who preferred to see their team try to go for a touchdown on fourthand-goal that would tie the score at 14-14. Collins called timeout, shelving the field-goal unit and sending out the offense for what would turn out to be an unsuccessful pass play that kept the score at 14-7 and gave the ball back to the Huskies at their 2-yard line.
Tuesday at his weekly news conference, Collins explained more of the decision-making that led to the change in strategy and asserted that he was not acting in response to the crowd’s unfavorable reaction.
Collins said he reconsidered his decision to kick a field goal in part because of the difficulties Tech has had making field goals in the past two seasons (6-for-16 combined) and then Cimaglia’s two misses earlier Saturday night, including one in which his plant foot slipped as he attempted a 51-yard try that fell short.
“There’s a lot of things that, as a head coach, you’ve got to weigh in real time,” Collins said. “Sometimes, it causes you pause, and I was feeling that pause, and so I reconsidered.”
He went on to say that he continues to have confidence in Cimaglia, who was 46-for-62 at Tennessee before coming to Tech ahead of this season as a graduate transfer. Collins called him a “big-time kicker.”
Collins also said he was not swayed by the fans’ reaction to his sending out the field-goal unit.
“There are a lot of things I take into factor, and I have a healthy amount of respect for everybody that follows our program, but it’s the people in the building that are giving counsel and those kind of things that we rely on on game day,” Collins said.
A problem created by the timeout is that it left Tech with only one timeout when the Jackets tried to win the game in the final 38 seconds, down 22-21 after the Huskies’ go-ahead touchdown and two-point conversion. Only able to stop the clock once, Tech could run only four plays (including one resulting in a penalty) before having to try a 60-yard field goal by Gavin Stewart that was blocked, ending the game.
Offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude said sometimes Collins will tell him in advance that he wants the offense to go for it on fourth down if it reaches that point. Sometimes, he’ll ask whether Patenaude has a fourthdown play he feels good about calling.
On Saturday, Patenaude said, “He came to me and said, ‘Hey, do you like something?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ We went for it. I think we got it. They didn’t give it to us.”
On the play, quarterback Jordan Yates sprinted out to the right and his pass to wide receiver Kyric
Mcgowan initially was ruled a touchdown, but was overturned on video replay when it was judged that his left foot was out of bounds as he caught the pass.
Patenaude acknowledged that if a coach elects to kick a field goal he might be derided as soft. And if he goes for the touchdown and comes up short, “then it’s like you know nothing about football. But you’re never going to make everybody happy,” he said. “You have to go with what your gut was.”
Collins and defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker also provided further explanation of the communication issues that plagued the secondary on the Huskies’ game-winning touchdown drive in the final three minutes. Trailing 21-14, Northern Illinois drove 80 yards for the touchdown in nine plays, then took the lead on a two-point conversion.
At that point, not counting a kneel-down to end the first half, Tech had held the Huskies scoreless on the six previous possessions, limiting them to three plays or fewer five times. Collins suggested that the focus and mindset that had helped the defense earn those stops was not present on the final drive.
“There is a level of composure that we needed to have on that drive,” Thacker said.
Collins said that sometimes it is necessary to experience the heartbreaking consequences of a failure to execute for the lesson to sink in.
“Unfortunately, we had to experience it in real time, but those lessons are ones that (we) can build on to propel us to where we’re going,” he said.