Tuesday Grab Bag.....

Tired of politics, healthcare, & stuff that really doesn't matter? Some news & notes on the important stuff to keep you entertained & away from the fray:

• Spring practice begins Monday, March 29. Practices are every Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 3:45 & every Saturday at the crack of TBD. We will of course let you know when Saturday practice times are announced. The T-Day game is April 24th at 12:30. We'll try to attend as many practices as possible & keep you up to date on all the news......
• The Spring Media Guide has been released & is chocked full of info. An interesting read. I am particularly curious to see if the height & weights listed in the guide are accurate....
• With the current economic situation times are tough all over, including the Georgia Tech Athletic Association. A tuition increase across the board for state schools will drive the cost of scholarships up significantly. We will be fine in the long run but things are tight on North Ave. just as they are for many of us at home.....

• Quarterback Synjyn Days of Hillgrove, who will arrive on the Flats this summer, has big plans for his first season. Great to see players that are ready & willing to compete from the time they step on campus. We're anxious to see Days run the Spread Option, an offense he led for four years of high school, & will be interested to see how ready he is to play on the next level.
• Regular readers of the Barrel know we have little use for ACC commissioner/Carolina homer/buffoon John Swofford. Imagine what we thought when we found out that Carolina's spring game would be televised on ESPN. Are you F#$%^ing kidding me? Carolina? The last time they won an ACC football championship was 1980!!!!! What the hell have they done to garner this attention? If you told me Florida State, VPISU, or even Miami was having their spring game on ESPN I wouldn't bat an eye. Hell, those programs deserve to be on TV; their accomplishments past & present warrant it. Even Clemson & their fan base deserve it more than UNC. Yes Carolina will be good next year. Yes their defense will be fearsome. And yes, Tyler Yates will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at least twice during the season. You can't win with a mistake prone sock puppet at quarterback, even in the ACC. At least we'll get to watch the UNC offense crap itself twice this year; once in the spring & again this Fall. I smell the nefarious work of John Swofford for UNC in this case.....
• Finally, for those in need of a grand TV viewing experience, there will be a sequel to ESPN's "The U". I'm actually giddy at the thought. For those of you who missed the original documentary, it essentially detailed, mostly by the player's own accounts, the thuggery & loutishness surrounding the Miami program of the 80's & 90's. Bounties paid by rap stars (Luther Campbell, a toast to you!), stealing car stereos, drug dealing, you name it, they did it. So essentially the documentary confirmed everything illegal you thought was happening at Miami during that period & so much more. You even get quality air-time from a bloated Bernie Kosar, who obviously spent the day of filming drinking gin in an airport bar. Classy, Bernie, stay classy.....So we wait for the sequel with baited breath & wonder how it could be any better than the first. In the meantime, nothing has changed at ThugU......To quote the poet Dr. Dre, "smoke weed everyday...."