This loss in no way diminishes the great season the Yellow Jackets had in 2008.  I honestly expected Tech to go 6-6 mainly due to the introduction of the new coaching staff, new offense, and being the youngest team in the ACC.  A 9-4 season with some great wins (especially to U[sic]GA) brought Tech some high-profile coverage of its season and games.

I intend to keep up with whatever news that comes out about Tech during spring practice like I did for last year.  I am biased but I think there are some great things ahead for the GT football program in the years to come.  I can’t wait to see what our guys can do after a Spring and Summer of maturing with this past season under their belts.  It’s great to be a Tech fan.

Happy New Year!

If you are a Gardner Webb fan, I don’t mean to say that just because GW is a Division I-AA team that it has no credibility or chance to beat a I-A team (for example, Toledo beat Michigan today) but let’s not pretend that this is the first time you’ve read this game should have been an easy game for Tech.  Because, it should have been.  Even after reading somewhere that GW was a great rush-defense team, I admit that I didn’t think much of it and wouldn’t have been able to believe that they would be able to hold our rush-oriented offense to 79 yards on the ground.

Now for Tech fans, let’s not use the “but it’s our third-string QB” excuse because that doesn’t explain why we only had 79 yards rushing.  That doesn’t explain why Calvin was sacked two times and he was the leading rusher at the end of the game with 35 yards rushing on 19 carries.  I am going to be blunt here so be prepared for that: our offensive line just plain sucked.  Coach Paul Johnson said in his radio show last week that they were working a lot on their punt-return team but did he let the offensive line take a week off or something?  CPJ also said after last week after Duke’s game that the offensive line needed to play lower and launch off of the line of scrimmage… but did they instead lay down on the ground and play dead?  I wasn’t able to watch the game since it wasn’t televised but I did listen to it live on radio and I just could not believe that our blocking was so bad that our running game couldn’t even muster 80 yards; don’t forget 35 yards came from Calvin who is more of a pocket-passing QB.

What’s even worse is that after reading this column from Terence Moore at the AJC, it seems as if 80% of our offense failed to show up for this game because aside from our non-existing offensive line, our wide receivers were running wrong routes.  Seriously?  Out of any of the games that the wideouts could be running the wrong routes, they do it on a day that Calvin finally starts a game.  Calvin, who is so easy to root for because of he is so team-oriented and unselfish?  Come on!

In my mind, Coach Paul Johnson and the Georgia Tech football team lost today.  They are 4-2 in my book.  We can say a win is a win all we want but we all know Tech coaches, players, students, and fans were disappointed by our lackluster offense today and know that our offense can do better than they did today.  Tech didn’t take GW seriously today and it’s going to hurt the team’s credibility.

How about the glass half-full stuff?  Our defense played decent which is better than piss poor.  This can be used as a good learning experience for our young team so hopefully this game will make them stronger and more focused.

Ultimately, Coach Gailey wasn’t fired because he was a bad coach; I think he was fired because he rarely showed passion for his team. If he were being interviewed right after our 6th straight loss to our rival, he probably would have said something stoic like “our passes were being dropped, I did see some good things happening that we can expand on but no team is ever perfect”. Personally, if I were Dan Radakovich, 50% of me probably would have told him that he had next season to see improvement… not even significant improvement, just noticeable improvement… something more than what the fans have been enduring for so long because year after year we can’t help but have higher hopes for the next season. The other 50% wouldn’t have turned out any different than it turned out now.

Head Coaches get paid a lot for the chance of being criticized as the scapegoat when teams don’t progress and also paid for the chance to get shoved aside by interviewers chasing after an individual playmaker after winning a Championship game.  Either way, Chan is now the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs and I think it’s a good fit for him as an offensive-minded football coach.  While, I won’t be as big a fan to the Chiefs as I am to the Panthers, I know I will be tempted to check up on him just as I do with Calvin Johnson, Jarret Jack, and so many other former Tech atheletes that I have followed during and after my time in Atlanta.

With Paul Johnson coming in after turning around the football program at Navy, I am a very excited Tech fan looking forward to September to see what our new offense (and defense) will look like.  One thing that I was impressed about our new Coach was the fact that he was disappointed with the players’ performance at the Humanitarian Bowl.  Primarily because I was disappointed too and it’s great he didn’t play the disappointment off with just a hope of doing better next time.  I feel like this will put the needed fire in our players, students, and fans.

Regardless, as a fan of the NFL and acknowledging the fact that the Patriots are a great football team, I will not be able to say that the Patriots were perfect the entire season.  Whatever trophy or plaque this organization will hold at the end of this season, it will always have the infamous Spygate scandal in its back-story, shamefully tarnishing what could be turning out to be perfect.  I feel like years or decades from now if/when another NFL team is able to have a perfect season, people will refer back to say “just like the 2007 Patriots except they weren’t involved in a scandal.”  It’s a damn shame… but I guess that is what happens when you do stupid things.

With NCAA Football and NFL season coming to a close, I’m not going to have anything to watch Saturdays, Sundays, and also Monday nights.  Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to a great New Year.

I am slightly saddened by the fact that the Yellow Jackets didn't make it past UNLV.  If they had done so, I was sure of their return to the Sweet Sixteen with an easy win against Wisconsin.  Alas, that was not our intended fate this season.  I hope Thaddeus and Javaris do not enter the draft; otherwise, we are going to have a long and slow season next year.

As for Georgia Tech fans, don’t fret. We have a spectacular Class of 2007 coming in and our outlook is pretty good.

p.s. Boo, what a boring BCS ‘Championship’ game but in the end, good job Gators.

I have yet to see in my life a college or NFL football game where the referees do not blow the whistle as soon as a pile is created by players after a fumble. There was a referee already there at the pile ready to pull off the players to see who recovered the ball but no one blew the whistle. Why? There was no possible way to determine whether or not the ball was still loose or not in the pile; I have never seen officials not blow the whistle when a pile is created after a fumble. Yes, it looked like the most likely team to have recovered the ball was U(sic)GA but the fact that there was a fumble and no whistle within seconds of a player pile is, to me, ridiculous. And it’s not like the SEC officials are going to admit to this mistake.

It’s okay though. In the end, we still deserved the loss because our offense wasn’t clicking – we seem to do that every few games. It’ll just mean that our offense be good to go on December 2nd, for the ACC Championship game against Wake.

Went golfing for the first time. We were only able to play 16.5 holes. Obviously my score was ridiculously beyond par but I was mostly focused on the technique and getting a feel of how to swing. I could hit the ball well off the tee but from that point until the hole – it took a while.

I honestly doubted UNC would get to the Final (especially with their early loss to Santa Clara) but they certainly gained a lot of respect within the past few months.

Carolina vs. Illinois – A game that no NCAA Basketball fan should miss.

ACC all the way!
Go Carolina!

Final Four:
Illinois vs. Georgia Tech
UNC vs. Kentucky

Championship:
Georgia Tech over UNC (76 – 72)