Updates....

Some more news of the day....

• We noted DL recruit Mike Thornton bailed this morning on his official visit to the Flats this weekend.  Add Georgia commit & stud DE T.J. Stripling to that list also.  Stripling has an all-star game this Saturday & won't be visiting Tech.  Evidently St. Richt called him & told him we were "stealing" other people's commitments.  Umm, yes, you hypocritical bastard. What was with Stephen Hill last year?  Such a lame, pansy ass whiner.  It's hunting season until they sign on the line on February 3rd....
• Former Tech standout Darryl Richard received a nice raise today from $150k to $310K. Couldn't happen to a better guy.  He'll probably have doubled the money by the end of the week making investments we couldn't possibly fathom due to their complexity.  Good on ya', big fella....

something tells us Mr. Richard will use his money wisely....

• The following is a post off an Iowa message board by a poster with the handle "Gamefilm" who is an active NFL scout.  For whom we don't know.  We're sure his football acumen is vastly superior to ours so here you are:

• Jonathon Dwyer(13 Games) - 6'0 - 230lbs - 221 Attempts - 1346 Yards - 6.1 YPC - 14 TD    Iowa Defense(12 games): 122 Rushing YPG(33rd Nationally) - 69 TFL- 12 Rushing TDs Allowed(1 Per game) - 3.49 YPC Allowed   Dwyer is a very impressive running back who has an impressive set of RB tools. He has the ability to break arm tackles, run right over tacklers, and just flat run away from defenders at times. He absolutely rumbles through traffic and rarely goes down to first contact. He also flashes an excellent stiff arm to extend runs for extra yards.  Rarely has been used as a receiver but appears to have decent pass catching tools.  He hits holes hard and runs with good body lean most times and will fall forward after being wrapped up. His only real noticeable deficiency is his lateral quickness. He doesn’t show much in terms of real shiftiness and elusiveness either and it doesn’t seem to be a big part of his game at this point. He looks a lot like Jonathan Stewart from the ’08 draft class in terms of size, speed and RB tools. He’s not as shifty and elusive as Stewart was but their core tools are comparable.*   Keys For Dwyer: 1) Protect the ball and have clean exchanges in the option game. 2) Finish runs after contact & get the extra yards. --------------------- Iowa ’s defense has struggled at times trying to stop physical downhill runners. Their bend don’t break scheme makes it more difficult for them to consistently stop runners for short gains. Their undersized DT’s rely on constant high effort to be effective and are prone to getting washed out by double teams. The DT’s ability to penetrate will be absolutely critical to disrupting Dwyer. Dwyer becomes much more dangerous when he gets forward momentum into a seam and he is very tough to handle 1 on 1 in space.  Forcing Dwyer to consistently adjust his path with inside penetration will help allow the pursuit to be in better position to make a play. Fundamental low hard wrap up tackling will be very important for the front seven in this match-up as Dwyer tends to shrug off high hits. At times it will be up to the secondary to come up and make the play on Dwyer as well but the majority of the burden will be on the front 7.   With a proper scheme Iowa can put their defenders in good position to make tackles but it will be up to all 11 guys to play a sound fundamental game to hold Dwyer down.   Keys For Iowa: 1) Tackling 101 - Fundamental Tackling 2) Play low and penetrate in the trenches and force Dwyer out of the intended seam.   ------------------------   Just a quick question for GT fans: How the hell did you guys fumble 34 times and only lose 12? I realize you run the option but thats a crazy % to get back. 12/34 is only losing only every 3rd fumble basically. Also how many of those would you guess were Dwyer? I didn't find any fumble numbers for him anywhere.         * Just a side note about Dwyers NFL draft value: A concern for his NFL value expressed by some scouts  has been his role in the GT offense as the “B” back. It doesn't give me much heartburn but I've talked to some it bothers. Most of the time he lines up much closer to the line than he would in an NFL system and there aren’t any guys I’ve evaluated for NFL purposes who came from triple option systems. His tools are beyond question though so I don’t know if it’s even terribly relevant. It's likely any NFL system he plays in will re-teach who and what reads matter anyway. I grade him as a mid-late 1st round pick currently(91/100). I'd expect his combine numbers to be good so that might shift him up a bit also.