After wallowing around in the summer desert of college football & struggling for the slightest tidbit to write about we're now gloriously close to football season. Suffice it to say that there's plenty going on:
- All hail the great Blogpoll! We've been invited to take part in Brian Cook's mad experiment gone wild! Frank & I will, with your help, be submitting a Top 25 every week this year. We'd like to think on some level this gives our little wacky experiment in writing about Tech football some legitimacy but really it just shows we can vote outrageously like the people who vote for the "real" top 25 every week. We're open to suggestions on our pre-season ballot, so, if you're inclined, give us your Top 25......or some snippets. Here's something I'm thinking about for arguments sake: no UNC until the NCAA ruling......
- Some position movement at LB over the last couple of days. Steven Sylvester has moved outside to play "Sam" LB behind AT Barnes. Albert Rocker, who was backing up Barnes, has moved inside to Mike. I like the move & it makes sense for three reasons: 1) it probably gets Julian Burnett on the field more & he's a better player than either Sylvester or Rocker, IMHO, 2) Sylvester's more natural position is OLB & he's better in space than Rocker, & 3) conversely, Rocker is a more physical player than Sylvester & is more suited to play inside. Burnett will back up Brandon Watts & provides quality depth along with solid special teams play.
- CPJ announced today after practice (which was the last two-a-day this camp) that sophomore long snapper Tyler Morgan has been placed on scholarship. Congrats to Morgan & it's great to see our preferred walk-ons being rewarded with scholarships; this can only help build our already important walk-on program (see P.J. Daniels & Sean Bedford to name just two.....)
- Our condolences to Omoregie Uzzi on the passing of his father. Football can seem awfully insignificant at times. Our thoughts to the Uzzi family during this difficult time.
Now some stuff from Al Gore's great invention:
- Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples & Stewart Mandel teamed up to...form one weird ass partnership. Must be a Yin/Yang thing as far as football acumen goes; one clearly has it (Staples) while the other...you get the point. But I digress. The two teamed up to look at 10 trends that will define this decade in college football and lo & behold, the resurgence of the option comes in at #9:
"That shift in defensive philosophy means it's time for a new-old offensive fad. And since bell-bottoms and platform shoes have already enjoyed minor renaissances, it seems only fair that coaches bring back that staple of the '70s football experience: the option. We're not talking about the occasional pitch play. We're talking about the holy trinity of the dive back, quarterback keeper or pitch.
Paul Johnson, who probably has leisure suits and tearaway jerseys in his closet, has proven at Navy and Georgia Tech that the option still works. How well? In Johnson's second season at Tech, he won the ACC title."
Yes Paul Johnson has leisure suits. He dons them nightly & then goes out and proceeds to seduce countless ladies with his option based attack. Lady's under garments are Coach Johnson's idea of a tearaway jersey. Now that we've got that straight ....
- I'm almost feeling sorry for new Kansas coach Turner Gill at this point. He's lost another linebacker, this time to the dreaded library monster. By our unofficial count that's two starting defensive linemen, two potential starters at LB, & three offensive linemen lost this offseason. Could get ugly in Lawrence the second weekend in September for the home team......
- We should most certainly devote an entire post to this but we'll go ahead & get to it here: the 2010 Jackets have made their #1 goal repeating as ACC Champions. This brings up the age old debate that occurs every year at our tailgate: is it more important to win the conference or beat Georgia? Of course "the double" is so sweet yet elusive. So if you had to pick, which is it, ACC Championship or beating the Mutts?
- Gee, our season ticket sales are lagging? Whatever do you mean with our top notch home schedule this year? We can't fathom why our ticket sales are off? Maybe adding a directional school would help?
- Want some triple option lovin'? Try this from Steebu on BBuzzoff.com. Great, great work. That's as well done as anything we've seen on the triple option. There are a couple technical glitches (while the QB is running at the pitch key's inside shoulder his real goal is to "cross his face" thereby forcing him to commit) this is tremendous stuff. We highly recommend forcing your significant other to memorize that post in it's entirety. Nothing like a little option foreplay. 100 bourbon drinks to Steebu, whoever and wherever you are.....
- Our favorite ESPN blogger Heather Dinich looks at Joshua Nesbitt, "The Runner". Evidently, he's not a "normal" quarterback. No shit.......I much prefer Joshua Nesbitt, "The Winner". And no, it NEVER gets old posting that link.......
We'll breakdown the QB's on Friday......
Ya want comments, huh? Lessee....I thought Kansas was going to get crushed by Tech before all of these injuries. Now we may be looking at one of those good old fashioned Big 8 Nebraska beatdowns. Back in the 70's and 80's when Tom Osborne was running a lot of option out of the I formation, it seemed like they won every conference game against anyone not called Oklahoma by a score of 70 - 0. OK, maybe the "zero" part is a bit optimistic.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, love the site, especially the coverage of spring practice and the position breakdowns. I think ya'll have more actual football content than any of the other Tech blogs or newspaper coverage. The Rumble Seat guys do a great job, but they tend more towards graphs and error bars. Nice to come here and read about players knocking the sh*t out of each other.
Winning conference > beating Georgia, this year and every year. 365 days of bragging rights is nice, but a nice new banner to add to the collection is far more satisfactory for years to come.
ReplyDeleteDesperately pouring through records of 54 top teams trying to come up with any way to separate units that lost on average, what 35% of their starting units?
ReplyDeleteIts easy to look at the top 25 and say its BS, its hard to start from scratch and build up a list that is also totally BS, but at least has some rhetorical and knowledge powers behind it.
We need your help with this, please feel free to drop in any suggestions or thoughts you may have.
FLW
Let me ask you this, are you predicting how they will finish the season, or is your poll purely on how good the teams are right now?
ReplyDeleteRomeo,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an interesting point. Without a preseason, and with so much roster turnover, College football teams are evolving through out the season, particularlly during the first few weeks of the season. Rosters are still being tweeked. Schemes are still being intalled. Players are learning on the job. Comparing a team at the end of the season to the team it was at the beggining of the season can be maddening for teams evolve, or devolve. At the end of the season they may have more in common with another team than the team they were at the beggining of the season.
That being said, its impossible to predict how teams will evolve, so you can only go by the tallent they return.
FLW
I think it depends as to whether beating georgia is the most important or not. If we go 1-11 and beat georgia, well, that might be a little more worth it. But if we go 13-1, with an ACC and Orange Bowl championship, well, that loss to georgia isn't such a big deal any more.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's more like the ACC Championship is more important, but once that's out of reach beating the mutts becomes about 30 times more important.
This was a great read. I think we will be okay next year but as of right now it looks as though our B-back position may not be so strong next year and years to come. Our recruiting at that position has been pretty marginal. Charles Perkins is good but I feel like he is no Jon Dwyer or Anthony Allen. What do you think about that?
ReplyDeleteI think Perkins has some upside & has the potential to be a difference maker at B-back. The guy I'm most intrigued about is David Sims. He's electric running the football & I think he could be very special.
ReplyDelete-Hash
I think David Sims is pretty good. He seems more like a full back than a B-Back to me with his weight being 220+ and his 40 being around 4.55+
ReplyDeleteKnow of any B-backs were are recruiting this year? I know we missed out on Wilder to FSU ( which is gonna suck when we play them again however at least its not U[sic]GA). I heard that Quan Bray might consider us but who knows.
The staff is not recruiting any B-backs this year- it was Wilder or no one. Quan Bray is out of the picture & looks to be headed to Bama as a slot WR or DB. We actually recruited Bray as a QB.
ReplyDelete[In respect to A-Backs] Im hoping that UNC screws up somehow and we end up with Romar Morris on signing day.
ReplyDelete